>While I have
>not had any problems myself with Nikon's repair services, from
>reading the petition, it would seem that Nikon's own
>"quality control" could use some improvement as
>well.

The problem with extracted customer service complaints is that none of us knows the sources of these complaints. The way I read the vast majority of them, the complainers are whiner trying to make Nikon believe that the water damage happened by magic, that the camera wasn't dropped or sat on repeatedly by a 12 year old grandson, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Frankly, I'm fed up with customer service complaint lies that aren't balanced by the rest of the story.

I have stood next to whiners and verbal abusers at the Nikon Canada service counters listening to their outright B.S., their insulting behavior toward service staff, and been the recipient of their conspiratorial winks when staff finally, grudgingly caves part way to their nonsense. Problem is, those service customers are lying - they're trying to put one over on Nikon. After dunking a camera by accident, after their kid has mashed an LCD screen, after running the camera on balled up third-party batteries, after screwing up the lens mount by twisting the lens before it's properly seated, and after dozens of other dumb user errors, they stand in front of Nikon service rep and swear the camera screwed up all on its own. They also demand to know, in a loud voice, why Nikon makes such unadulterated ####.

Give me a break. With all the whining, mewling, grasping nonsense polluting the customer service landscape (and the public complaint forums most of all), how are you or any of us supposed to be able to separate the few legitimate product failure complaints from the vast amount of noise?

Every single company that makes and services its own products can stand some quality control improvement, some product improvement and some warranty and paid service improvement, Nikon included. But for anyone to suggest (as links on the petition site imply through content) that Nikon is some sort of service pariah is absolute nonsense. IMO, the petition is stupidly conceived and should not be successful.

As for rubber surface parts replacements, plenty of third-party amateurs manage to cheap out by using the wrong adhesive, slop the wrong adhesive where it doesn't belong, use the wrong solvents to clean up the mess (and mar your camera body in the process), fit replacement rubber grips poorly, and send you back a poorly repaired camera body. The point is that while it's possible for a good third-party repair shop to do a good job, the odds of finding such a shop are long. By contrast, the odds of a Nikon certified repair shop doing a good job are very good indeed because there's a much great likelihood that the shop staff know what they're doing.

It's your money and it's your camera gear. I'm only suggesting that you spend it as wisely as possible when a problem comes up.

My Nikonians Gallery

Howard Carson, Managing Editor
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