Straight Edge Life

You know, as much as I hate consumerism I feel this weird obligation to spew my opinion on it with great regularity. Take today for instance. I just got off the phone with Associated Camera Repair in Portland. I sent a brand new lens to them to have it repaired / replaced because of a funky wobble in the focusing system. ACR is an authorized nikon repair shop. And they rock. They’re fast, professional, and efficient. I sent them the lens with a little note saying what’s wrong with it and they took care of the rest. It’s already on it’s way back to me.

Take that and compare it to my experience with Shutterbug and their affiliated non-authorized repair program. They sucked. I brought a different lens in a few months ago to have them send it to Nikon (and they did say they were sending it to Nikon) for repair and it sat in their store for a week or so before they shipped it off to some random repair shop in Seattle. I found this out only after I waited patiently for 3 weeks and finally called Nikon for a status report. They told me they didn’t have the lens and never received the lens. I went down to Shutterbug and they tell me that it didn’t go to Nikon at all, it was up in their shop in Seattle. So I ask for a status report and it takes another week to get the estimate. Nevermind that I specified very clearly in writing that I wanted to have the lens repaired WITHOUT an estimate. I didn’t need a friggin’ estimate, I needed the lens back as soon as possible. So after I finally get them to do the repair it takes another two weeks to finally get the lens back into my hands. I didn’t get to take the lens on my trip even though I brought the lens in for repair 8 (yes EIGHT) weeks before my departure date.

So my advice for the day is to use only Nikon Authorized Repair Shops when getting your nikon gear repaired or replaced.