Serious Question for Nikonians

[table1349]

First, this is a serious question, not a trying to peve anyone off thing since I am now a Canon shooter. I was a Nikon shooter for 30 + years in film and loved every minute of it.

Yesterday I stopped by one of our two photography shops where I live. This shop has been the official Nikon dealer for 30 years. He handles both Nikon and Canon. He didn't have one body on display and only a couple of Canon lenses left. He said that he had sold every body he had on hand and most of his lenses last week. Normally he has two full display cases.

He surprised me by telling me he no longer is handling Nikon, only Canon. His explanation was that he can't get merchandise in a timely manner and their repair service has ground to a halt. I was advised that he has a couple of customers that have been waiting over 6 months for lenses to be repaired and returned. Needless to say I was shocked.

Has Nikon dealer and customer service gone down hill that far or is this some weird thing going on here, because I never had or saw problems like that in all the years of shooting Nikon film gear?

 

[Montana]

I have some close friends that shoot Nikon and they have talked poorly of Nikons customer service/service department as of late. I find it odd that Nikon would let themselves slip in this area when it is such a vital area to maintain customer loyalty.

 

[Overread]

I have heard similar stories concerning Canon supplies and repair services as well. I suspect its dependant on who and where you are (As well as a bit of luck) as to if you do or do not encounter this sort of action.
My view is that its bad for both companies- but since they are the only serious competition to each other they only have to match each others standards to remain in favour. This is the problem with big business

 

[JerryPH]

Interesting timing. Nikon has had acceptable service as far as I have been concerned, but then again, I need it so rarely. Nikon in Canada has always centralized all of it's repairs in Mississauga Ontario and the Montreal and Halifax centers (two places I have been to personally) were token repair shops at best.

Interesting to note that Canon Canada has just recently done the exact same thing.... moved/closed all it's repair centers to Mississauga Ontario. If anything, service will be the same between the two.

 

[inTempus]

In my local area and shooting with Nikon owners, I've heard similar stories. Nikon owners love their cameras but many I talk to also are dissatisfied with Nikon in terms of customer support. Several said they've considered switching to Canon because of their superior support but are leery of having to sell all of their gear. Others would rather die than give up their Nikon's.

 

[smyth]

odd. I was reading on another forum that said Canon service was going downhill, and nikon had much shorter wait times. Although this is Canada I'm talking about, so maybe it's different in the states, i don't know.

 

[TwoRails]

Don't know about service, being pretty new to DSLRs, but I know that the recent large price hike Nikon doled out, plus discontinuing things like the SB800 has soured me somewhat. Others as well. So, for example, after reading some threads here, I was going to by my first flash and decided to go with the SB800, maxing out my budget. They were on sale one week, gone the next when I was going to order. The 900 is, to me, ridiculous in price. So, if / when I do get a flash I'll most likely vote with my wallet and buy a different brand to express my displeasure.

I seen at least one other thread were someone was going Canon just for their more reasonable prices, and I know one shooter personally who dumped Nikon for Canon (the guy I picked up the used D70 from). So from that perspective, yes, Nikon is gaining in dissatisfied customers...

 

[inTempus]

I have heard similar stories concerning Canon supplies and repair services as well. I suspect its dependant on who and where you are (As well as a bit of luck) as to if you do or do not encounter this sort of action.

On the Canon forums it seems to be 60/40 (happy/unhappy). Granted, dissatisfied people typically are more vocal than happy customers.

I have read some stories on the Canon forums that made me think "wow, that's bad". I've also read quite a few where Canon went above and beyond what you might expect them to do.

 

[Overread]

On the Canon forums it seems to be 60/40 (happy/unhappy). Granted, dissatisfied people typically are more vocal than happy customers.

I have read some stories on the Canon forums that made me think "wow, that's bad". I've also read quite a few where Canon went above and beyond what you might expect them to do.

with forums and the internet there is a good chance that the level of service you get is highly dependant on what country (and in large countries like the US what state) you are in as to what level of service you get.
It does seem to be highly variable though - which is a great shame - though with all things photography one has to remember that there are sometimes problems that users report which are not real (the lens is not soft - its the user either; not shooting right; not using the light ambient lighting; having too high expectations of the gear

 

[JerryPH]

They were on sale one week, gone the next when I was going to order. The 900 is, to me, ridiculous in price.

The last few months the SB-900 has dropped enough in price that it is about $20 less than the SB-800s were before they went ballistic in pricing, so there is that, but then overall all prices for everyone (Canon and Nikon) went up ridiculously, and that is the big "bend over please and grab your ankles" that annoys me.

I seen at least one other thread were someone was going Canon just for their more reasonable prices, and I know one shooter personally who dumped Nikon for Canon (the guy I picked up the used D70 from). So from that perspective, yes, Nikon is gaining in dissatisfied customers...

One or two people moving from one camp to another is an every day occurrence. I know hundreds of Canon users that went to Nikon just because of the D3. Fully 35% of the Olympic photographers went to Nikon for the same reasons.

People will go back and forth, and what we as consumers need to do is listen less to these people and do more of our own homework. First question is does the camera do what you want it to compared to the competition, second is the price and farther back comes customer service, which, because of what Canon is doing (matching Nikon), won't be any better or worse than Nikon in the near future. Heck, Canon has had it's share of serious reliability or functionality issues just like Nikon (the 5D's autofocus issues for example).

No manufacturer is perfect and no one has any kind of customer service advantage at this point in time over the other side. There are other, what I would say are more important points to consider. If you do the camera to camera comparison in price vs feature/performance, you will see that prices, in the end, are not *that* much different.

 

[smyth]

Don't know about service, being pretty new to DSLRs, but I know that the recent large price hike Nikon doled out, plus discontinuing things like the SB800 has soured me somewhat. Others as well. So, for example, after reading some threads here, I was going to by my first flash and decided to go with the SB800, maxing out my budget. They were on sale one week, gone the next when I was going to order. The 900 is, to me, ridiculous in price. So, if / when I do get a flash I'll most likely vote with my wallet and buy a different brand to express my displeasure.

I seen at least one other thread were someone was going Canon just for their more reasonable prices, and I know one shooter personally who dumped Nikon for Canon (the guy I picked up the used D70 from). So from that perspective, yes, Nikon is gaining in dissatisfied customers...

The price increases have bothered me, especially when it comes to the 70-200. But what gets me even more than that, is the fact that Canon makes a 70-200 f4 usm, a 70-200 f2.8 usm, and a 70-200 2.8is usm and it's nice because of the varying price range. I mean I probably wouldn't pay the extra $600 for the IS version. But with Nikon, you have essentially one choice: 70-200 af-s f2.8 vr for the same price as the canon equivalent which is fine, (except the nikon is not very good full frame.) but the only other flavour it comes in with Nikon is the AF 80-200. Why not have kept the 80-200 af-s ? It makes it so that in the near future, for me, I won't be able to afford the nikon 70-200 and I want AF-S even if the body doesn't need it.

I guess my rant comes down to this: Nikon needs to smooth out some wrinkles in its lens offerings.

 

[table1349]

odd. I was reading on another forum that said Canon service was going downhill, and nikon had much shorter wait times. Although this is Canada I'm talking about, so maybe it's different in the states, i don't know.

I have heard the same thing about Canon/Canada.

I recently had to send in my 24-70 f2.8L to the Irvin CA repair center and the total time gone was 7 days from leaving my doorstep to back on a body and is sharper than before. I have never sent anything to the NJ repair center so I have no idea as to their speed or quality of repair.

The other photography shop in town that is the official Canon dealer has no problem getting Canon stuff in 3 days, unless the regional Canon distribution center is out. It may be a mid-west thing with Nikon, I don't know. Like I said in my first post I was very surprised.

 

[AlexColeman]

I had stellar experiences with repair, my 70-200 under 8 business days for a messedup vr mech. Might just be the local.

 

[rufus5150]

Little tidbit from the service industry... on average, if a person receives excellent customer service, they'll convey that story to peers for 3-6 months. If they have an exceedingly bad experience, they'll continue to tell that story for 12 to 18 years.

 

[kundalini]

Little tidbit from the service industry... on average, if a person receives excellent customer service, they'll convey that story to peers for 3-6 months. If they have an exceedingly bad experience, they'll continue to tell that story for 12 to 18 years.