Sony delays pre-orders

[uhoh7]

"Thank you for your recent Sony purchase.
We would like to inform you we are experiencing a delay with your Sony order.
Due to the flood in Thailand and the direct damage to Sony’s manufacturing facilities resulting from the flood, Sony is not able to meet the original delivery schedule that we shared with you when you ordered the NEX-7 camera. It is our highest priority to launch the NEX-7 as soon as possible and we would like to update you bi-weekly beginning Monday, November 21st until we can confirm the new intended shipping date. As a reminder, pursuant to your pre-order terms, your charge will not place until the order is shipped.
We apologize for this unforeseeable situation and thank you for your continued support. You are going to love your NEX-7 camera!"

This after: sent 11/3
"Thank you for your recent Sony purchase.
We would like to inform you we are experiencing a delay with your Sony order. The following item NEX7/B has been rescheduled to ship on 11/11/2011.
Tracking information will be sent via email once your order ships. This number will also be available within the order history in your Sony Account. If you are unable to continue waiting we encourage you to visit our website or call 1-866-337-7669 to work with a Sony sales representative to find an alternative product that will meet your needs.
We appreciate your understanding and thank you for choosing Sony!"
Sincerely,

Whhaaaaaaaa! 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

Where are my marbles? I'm goin home to mama now!

 

[Adanac]

I have to apologize - the decision by Sony to delay the camera further is all my fault.

You see, yesterday, emboldened to believe by the emails you and others received that the camera would actually ship to at least some in North America, I decided to buy some NEX-7 stuff - spare batteries and the like, nothing major. My order clearly triggered Sony into action. 😉

I do sympathize with Sony - if there are indeed some cameras that could be sold, deciding whether or not to release them and when must have been a tough decision. That said it would have been nice of them to notify us before their systems started emailing pre-order customers that their order was delayed only a week!

 

[Nigel Meaby]

A Photographer friend of mine who lives on the outskirts of Bangkok has lost virtually everything. His house is under 2 metres of water and what he had to leave behind including his 30 000 negatives could also be lost or water damaged by the time he is able to get back into his house.
I know it's horrible having to deal with camera release delays but it needs to be put in context with the horrors many are having to deal with to survive day to day in Thailand right now.

 

[Adanac]

I have huge empathy for the people of Thailand; this horror will be visiting them for months if not years as the business repercussions play out. Will companies simply rebuild, or will they relocate? Hopefully the prospects for their economy going forward aren't so bleak. It'll be even harder to rebuild if they don't have economic progress acting as wind in their sails, supporting reconstruction and providing needed long term jobs.

I have empathy for Sony too, but I don't feel for them as a company in quite the same way as I feel for the real disaster victims of Thailand. Certainly Sony deserves some time and space to get its affairs in order with respect to affected production.

Even being as charitable as possible, probably they could have been a little faster on the draw to at least stop the spread of meaningless information (i.e. recent shipping updates on Sony Style confirming imminent shipment of NEX-7's to U.S. customers seems a little bizzare to have let slip through, not to mention the never-changed script their telephone agents have been reading from). A simple "we've got no clue in the world" would have sufficed and be perfectly understandable given the context!

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

you'd be amazed at how much stuff is made or assembled in Thailand... Nikon DSLRs, Honda, Toyota etc

 

[bwcolor]

A Photographer friend of mine who lives on the outskirts of Bangkok has lost virtually everything. His house is under 2 metres of water and what he had to leave behind including his 30 000 negatives could also be lost or water damaged by the time he is able to get back into his house.
I know it's horrible having to deal with camera release delays but it needs to be put in context with the horrors many are having to deal with to survive day to day in Thailand right now.

You feel empathy in another forum. We are not discussing the flood. We are discussing Sony's abuse of their customers. I also purchased adapters for a camera which may not come, but this has nothing to do with your friend, nor am I, or anyone else suggesting that our inconvenience is anything but an annoyance.

 

[segedi]

bwcolor - wow, just wow...

 

[bwcolor]

I guess that I'm the only one that is getting tired of having someone suggest that discussion Sony's treatment of their customers and any other discussion of the NEX-7 should be second to our concern for the flood victims. This is getting old after weeks. I'm also concerned for the victims of the present attempted genocide on the part of radical Muslims against the people of Nigeria.

 

[Out to Lunch]

You feel empathy in another forum. We are not discussing the flood. We are discussing Sony's abuse of their customers. I also purchased adapters for a camera which may not come, but this has nothing to do with your friend, nor am I, or anyone else suggesting that our inconvenience is anything but an annoyance.

............talk about annoyance.

 

[eleskin]

The flood sucks and the US east coast could be next

The flood sucks and the US east coast could be next

Yeh, my heart also goes ot for those suffering in Thailand from the floods. When I was in graduate school at Pratt Institute a room mate of mine was from Thailand. I wonder how he is doing.

At any rate I hate to bring potentially bad news but there are increasing levels of earthquake activity in the Canary Islands and we all know that there are islands there that could break apart and slide into the Atlantic. Those of us in the United States who always see tragedies from far away (Thailand, Japan, etc,) and are thinking about delays in camera gear coming before Christmas should take heed and be aware a fate much worse could come to America if the full fury of a landslide in the Atlantic should happen. So my point is live every day to its best, but be aware that life is temporary, and we can also suffer the same fate as others in the world!
(that snowstorm and power outage in Pennsylvania last week forced me to think about this).

 

[Paddy C]

This is not the sort of posts I was expecting to read when I clicked on the thread title. Weird. 😕

 

[splitimageview]

I have empathy for Sony too, but I don't feel for them as a company in quite the same way as I feel for the real disaster victims of Thailand.

Why? Sony and its employees are also 'real disaster victims.'

Weird thread for sure.

 

[uhoh7]

I'm dissappointed, but ordered 5n instead.

Which, I suppose, is nicer than calling em up and screaming at the rep...

Sony has never been known for great communication. It's only human to be disappointed when they tell you its about to ship and then 2 days later reverse course. I was also assured on the phone shortly after my order that flooding would not effect my shipment.

Nobody is happy about the devastation in Thailand. I'm very sorry for the photographer mentioned in this thread---and the millions of other Thais affected.

 

[Adanac]

Why? Sony and its employees are also 'real disaster victims.'

I feel for the direct victims of the disaster (residents of Thailand be they employees of Sony or not) in a way that I can't possibly feel for a corporation. A corporation is not a person.

Sure, there are others who don't live in Thailand that are impacted by the disaster - some jobs lost here, some profit making opportunities there - but for these people an intact home and dry bed and a less uncertain future awaits. The same can't be said about those living in the middle of flooding and chaos.

So... sure, I have different levels of empathy for folks whose lives are directly disrupted, depending on what they are going though. As for Sony, the corporation / non-person, I don't have empathy so much as an understanding, however sketchy, of what the company must be facing.

 

[Adanac]

I'm dissappointed, but ordered 5n instead.
Which, I suppose, is nicer than calling em up and screaming at the rep...

So far I've received no communication since placing my order except for a one week delay notice received a number of weeks ago.

I called the customer service line in Canada and was told, yet again, that they believe cameras will ship on Nov 16, a date which has been firm for about three weeks now. It was Nov 11 originally.

The fellow on the phone doesn't believe the date any more than I am willing to, but it seems we are both hopeful that it'll pan out nonetheless.

I sure wish Sony would work towards bringing absolute clarity to this. I was looking at NEX-5N's and EVFs last night, finger hovering over the order button, but have an irrational nagging fear that Sony will end up shipping me a NEX-7 the minute I order a 5N.

 

[uhoh7]

So far I've received no communication since placing my order except for a one week delay notice received a number of weeks ago.

I called the customer service line in Canada and was told, yet again, that they believe cameras will ship on Nov 16, a date which has been firm for about three weeks now. It was Nov 11 originally.

The fellow on the phone doesn't believe the date any more than I am willing to, but it seems we are both hopeful that it'll pan out nonetheless.

I sure wish Sony would work towards bringing absolute clarity to this. I was looking at NEX-5N's and EVFs last night, finger hovering over the order button, but have an irrational nagging fear that Sony will end up shipping me a NEX-7 the minute I order a 5N.

The gal in the USA admitted to me today that they are simply a contracted call center. They don't work for sony at all and cannot contact sony directly. They punch in an order and look at the website. They, in fact, know far less than you or I.

 

[Adanac]

They, in fact, know far less than you or I.

That's par for the course for most call centers to be sure but definitely not helpful in this case.

Did you cancel your order or are you leaving it open on the off chance they actually ship in a few days?

 

[Teuthida]

Ita a freaking camera. you must have a very impoverished emotional life if you're going to get thatbworked up about a delay because of an Act of God. Get real.

 

[Nigel Meaby]

You feel empathy in another forum. We are not discussing the flood. We are discussing Sony's abuse of their customers. I also purchased adapters for a camera which may not come, but this has nothing to do with your friend, nor am I, or anyone else suggesting that our inconvenience is anything but an annoyance.

I'm sorry you feel that way but everyone is entitled to their opinion, that's one of the things a forum is about, but when you say "we are discussing..." I'm sorry but at the point when I posted you weren't even part of the discussion so I find your remark quite curious.

As do I find this remark curious "....tired of having someone suggest that discussion (sic) Sony's treatment of their customers and any other discussion of the NEX-7 should be second to our concern for the flood victims."

I don't think my original post said or alluded to any of that.

Just to clarify my original post wasn't personally aimed at anyone but was a general point on how we can all get excited when anticipating the release of new gear and can sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture.

For the record my friend is a caucasian joint European/ US passport holder who moved to Thailand 5 years ago. Not that it really makes any difference I always have empathy for anyone suffering after a natural disaster.

I've also frequented this forum for many years now and don't intend shuffling off anywhere else, any time soon. 😀 I don't come here to get aggressive or tell other members "what to do" just to impart and share knowledge and thought.

 

[semordnilap]

Nigel–I thought your first post was spot on. Just thought I'd say that!

I'm waiting for an NEX-7 too, and of course I wish I wasn't, but more because of the floods that are causing the delay than the actual camera delay. I'd honestly rather have the camera delayed instead of such flooding, but that's obviously not how things work! There'll be more cameras and other days... and plenty of giant bureaucracies that can't manage a thing when something moves slightly off-plan. At least Sony isn't running disaster relief in Thailand, though I fear those who are may not be any better, possibly much worse. 🙁