D7000 and My Experience with Nikon "Support"

2WheelPhoto · Aug 26, 2011

I see several D7000 threads floating around and thought cam was one of only a "few" issue cameras. I'd like to share my customer experience with Nikon Support.

Mid July I notice what is beyond typical dust on a sensor and o contact support. They give me directions to send it in. They tell me it should be repaired within 10 business days.

The cam sat there a week and I called about it and m,entioned the 10 days. The lady said "it takes 10 days after repair gets it, it might take 3-7 days for us to process the camera into the rapair shop.

8/1/11 cam is finally processed in and Nikon sends me an email.

8/8 Online status shows "Parts ordered"

8/22 I call and ask WTF in a most polite bsuiness manner and its explained to me many D7000s are in the shop for this issue and parts are "back-ordered". They explained my cam should be returned by mid-Sep and I'm like WTF again in a most polite way. I asked them to send me a refurb D7000 or refund and they said no can do.

8/26 I'm typing this message and status as of 5 minutes ago on my camera is still showing online "Parts Ordered". I'm also glad I have a back up "old faithful" D80 I had purchased for pennies when I suspected this may be a lingering issue.

I'm still a fan of Nikon. And the D80 has been Florida heat/sensor oil tested and passed with flying colors

JG_Coleman · Aug 26, 2011

Yeah... this is pretty typical for most large companies when they do repairs, especially under warranty. My fiancee has been having a similar problem with her HP laptop, which has broken twice and ends up taking at least a month to be repaired each time. Hell, they finally enacted their own "lemon policy" to replace her laptop with a new one; victory! Well... sort of. They told her they would send her a shipping box for her old laptop and then she could send it back to them and they'd send out her new laptop. Well... three weeks later... they have proven themselves incapable of even shipping out a cardboard box. And the excuses they come up with are marvelously vague and unsatisfying.

But... enough of my own little tangent. That sort of thing tends to happen very, very often.

It's extremely annoying. But, basically, these companies make nothing on warranty repairs... in fact, they lose money... so they really have no motivation whatsoever to stream-line the process or lift a finger in any way to hasten things along. It is pretty much the lowest priority task they engage in. After all, they can just pay people to answer the phone and get yelled at or grilled... and they do a pretty effective job of telling you, in an exceptionally polite and disguised manner, that you need to," Sit down, shut up, and wait til we feel like getting around to it." In so many words, of course.

On one hand, somebody could argue that they would "gain better customer loyalty" by making their repair process more efficient... thereby "making more money". Unfortunately, this is a very naive belief. As you said yourself... you're a Nikon fan still... EVEN THOUGH they will probably take two months (or longer) to fix your camera.

And honestly... if I were in your shoes with my own Nikon... I, too, would remain loyal to Nikon. Truly, I wouldn't even consider investing in Canon, for example, on account of Nikon's poor customer service. Honestly, customer service just sucks everywhere these days. Good experiences are few and far between. The same probably happens at Canon frequently, too... and Pentax... and Olympus... and... well... you get the point.

It's just a very aggravating fact of life.

2WheelPhoto · Aug 26, 2011

Uh huh and HP is exiting the PC business as a FAIL too by the way, that sector pulled their whole business down. Hope you get squared away this time with HP too.

Let's hope Nikon didn't field as many bad D7000s as the guy on the phone told me is queued ahead of mine or this "ain't good"

edddial · Aug 26, 2011

So there are lots of issue on D7000?! Mine has been with the dealer & Nikon HQ for near a week now. But for a less than a day D7000 they should just exchange it. I'm glad I have my D90 (the intention was to upgrade from D90 to D7000), and I plan to keep my D90 as it's working fine. D7000 should have better QC! I can't believe what Nikon personnel statement that a 'spring' locate in the upper part of camera is normal to give 'clicking' sound when rotate the camera from horizontal position to vertical. How can a 'spring' make such noise?!?!

Anyway another reason for being loyal is I have invested lots of money on Nikkor lenses.

pen · Aug 28, 2011

What do I look for on my D7000 to see if I have the problem? I gather this dust is showing up in the images? Can I look at the sensor and see it directly?

This has me worried now, I hate buying expensive gear just to not end up being able to use it for two months waiting for uncaring service departments.

Sent from my iPhone using PhotoForum

2WheelPhoto · Aug 28, 2011

pen said:
What do I look for on my D7000 to see if I have the problem? I gather this dust is showing up in the images? Can I look at the sensor and see it directly?

This has me worried now, I hate buying expensive gear just to not end up being able to use it for two months waiting for uncaring service departments.

Sent from my iPhone using PhotoForum

Shoot at the bright sky with cam set to f22 and if you see the spots then you got it.

Also some folks have posted up examples if you use the forum search tool-

orb9220 · Aug 29, 2011

Yep as mentioned above most dust is not visible until using higher f-stops like f11,f16,f22. And most everyone has dust on their sensor. But is invisible usually at f8 or below like f5.6,f4,f2.8 and dust spots will not appear in the image. Using a blower like Giotto Rocket blaster and mirror lockup deals with about 90% of those annoying dust bunnies. The other 10% requires a wet clean by a camera shop or learning to clean yourself with E2 Eclipse fluid and sensor swabs.

I use to be paranoid about dust on sensor too! But realized that I don't shoot much above f8 anyways. So stopped wasting sensor swabs and fluid cleaning camera once every 4-6 weeks. And now wet clean sensor once or twice a year. And use my camera self-cleaning mode often and use the Giotto to blow out the sensor about once a month.
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2WheelPhoto · Aug 29, 2011

orb9220 said:
Yep as mentioned above most dust is not visible until using higher f-stops like f11,f16,f22. And most everyone has dust on their sensor. But is invisible usually at f8 or below like f5.6,f4,f2.8 and dust spots will not appear in the image. Using a blower like Giotto Rocket blaster and mirror lockup deals with about 90% of those annoying dust bunnies. The other 10% requires a wet clean by a camera shop or learning to clean yourself with E2 Eclipse fluid and sensor swabs.

I use to be paranoid about dust on sensor too! But realized that I don't shoot much above f8 anyways. So stopped wasting sensor swabs and fluid cleaning camera once every 4-6 weeks. And now wet clean sensor once or twice a year. And use my camera self-cleaning mode often and use the Giotto to blow out the sensor about once a month.
.

Regarding the topic of my original post, hardware is being replaced in my cam, and it appeared to be a whole oil well exploded on my lens, not dust bunnies. We all got off-topic but its all good, I'm just tired of the wait game and glad I have a D80 back-up!

IgsEMT · Aug 29, 2011

Interesting...
I've had my cameras repaired under warranty and as they say 10business days, it was 10 business days. In fact during one of the repairs, I called in the morning to get the status of it, was told that its ready and told them to hold on to it - I'm going to pick it up. Later that day, I was about 20miles from Melville, NY, I got a call and was given UPS overnight tracking number. It did bug me that they didn't 'hold the camera' as originally discussed but at the same time I got it back overnight shipped and it worked fine.
The issue now, as I've been told by number of retailers (real camera retailers, not Staples/best buy

) is that due to the earthquake in Japan and relocation to Malaysia, the whole production (from new to repairs) is acting out. IN NIKON'S defense few colleagues of mine who are Canon-shooters had similar issue when sending their camera in for maintenance (like cleaning the sensor). One of them send in his 1dm3 in June and is STILL waiting for it to come back. Canon claimed that they don't have supplies to clean the equipment and are waiting for it.
At least you got your backup.

And its the reason why I'm not selling anymore bodies. I rather then collect dust in a box THEN needing a body and be screwed.

2WheelPhoto · Sep 3, 2011

ENOUGH OF THIS NIKON, you promised it in 10 business days. Then when it went parts hold you said we'd have parts before 9/2

IT IS 9/3 STILL PART HOLD

Order Status: Parts Hold

Overread · Sep 3, 2011

Ahh have you tried talking to the "superiors"
Typically with a big company the left hand has no idea that the right hand even exists and the call centre has little to no pull on the tech people save what the computer says. I'd try asking to talk to superiors - and then keep asking for superior superiors - normally at some point you hit someone who actually has some say/sway/idea what is going on and can get somewhere. That can sometimes get things moving or can just mean you get a repeat readout from the service list on the computer again - but at least along the way you can listen to some interesting "your waiting" music

(ps don't bother with this on mondays, fridays or weekends cause - superior people don't work those days - also don't try around lunchtime

)/

EDIT - just a point but remember that events in Japan might well have stripped out a lot of stock repair parts, so indeed Nikon might well be doing all they can, but are simply not affluent with spare components at this stage

2WheelPhoto · Sep 3, 2011

The guy i spoke with said Japan wasn't the issue - I asked. There are many D7000's at the repair center for the same problem.

Overread, if you can provide me some contacts #'s you have for the right people, please let me know. I'd very much appreciate it, all I have are the numbers on their web page.

I've been very courteous with them suspecting the guy on the phone is powerless over the situation too. I even politely asked the guys at support for a refurb D7000 that works or a refund or a credit for my original cost towards a D300s, they wouldn't go for it.

Overread · Sep 3, 2011

Sadly I've no contacts (though if you ask around somewhere like the Nikonians forum you might get some luck being a dedicated place of unholy nikon worship

) just keep trying to talk to superiors of whoever you're on the phone to if they can't give you more than the PC readout - sometimes it works and sometimes it just wastes more time.

edddial · Sep 5, 2011

Same issue with Nikon Malaysia support for my case (D7000 but with strange sound they claimed coming from a 'spring'). It's near 10 business days (actually more than 2 weeks but due to long holiday last week), after the first contact they say will call me back but no news until today. Anyway, I hope they're doing something to get a replacement unit because my D7000 was not even near 24 hours in my hand. I can't believe a spring located on the upper part of camera can give some 'clicking' kind of sound when turn/tilt the camera from horizontal to vertical position (AND I'm talking about politely tilt, not harsh). :grumpy: