Suggestion box - Repair/Service/Warranty - Tab

[Caps]

It might be silly but I thought a repair thread might be helpful to some (there may be one but I didin't see it). Looking on the web myself I didn't find much about the going rates for fixing a Nikon ________ with problem _______.

I ended up calling a local and shop that and they were not very helpful - $100.00 an hour - no estimate/promises on end costs. I could feel the verbal -shrug- over the phone as he said , "ya we get a lot of these issues with the older cameras. " Not knowing the camera had 2K clicks.

Anyway, it may be helpful to know the going rates and the experiences of forum members with both Nikon models and the cost to fix things locally and nationally. A kind of Angies List of repair houses and warranty experiences done by brand. (Tamron is suppose to have great CS relations - I hear)

It has an added benefit of keeping an informal service history for the various models and bring to light the various design issues/problems the appear to be chronic.

Service

.............Nikon
.....................Warranty Covered Repair/Manufacturer Recall -
......................Service -Cameras/Flash/Other -


Anyway...........

 

[manaheim]

Was it a certified repair center?

 

[snowbear]

A few of years ago I took my out-of-warranty D40 to Calumet (then Penn Camera in Laurel) and they quoted a flat rate. They sent it to Nikon, but the rate was the same.

The SD lock mechanism was replaced (reported problem), the sensor was cleaned and, IIRC, the AF was adjusted. The total was $225. If I have any complaints, it was the wait time (2-3 months) but it was at the time of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan and the flooding in Indonesia - parts were in short supply all over so I fault no one for that.

 

[KmH]

Nikon USA service basically has 4 billing levels - A, B, C, D.
A has the lowest cost, D has the highest cost.

When they quote the cost of a repair they also quote the billing grade A, B, C or D.

Identical or similar problem symptoms can be caused by different factors.
Also at issue is that many camera owners are technologically illiterate and cannot accurately describe the problem symptoms.

Lastly, it is virtually impossible to trouble shoot a camera remotely with any certainty.

 

[jrizal]

Aside from official service centers such as those from Nikon, Canon, etc. Yelp is your next best friend. This way you can see which alternative repair shops are near your place and get feedback and find out which ones are reasonably charging, turnaround time, which ones do outsource repair jobs making costs prohibitive and repair time months. My local repair shop wans to charge me $250 for a sensor cleaning and they would have to outsource it too. By using Yelp I found another repair shop has standard charge of $50 for sensor cleaning and it's done in-shop with an average time of 30 minutes. (Of course you can argue about cleaning the sensor yourself, but I hope you do get my point.) So do your research first.

 

[manaheim]

I would be really leery of a non authorized repair center.

 

[KmH]

For Nikon cameras, non-authorized repair stations have great difficulty getting parts.

 

[Caps]

Repair tab -> bad idea -> ....got it :er:

Thanks for the feed back everybody. I wasn't really complaining but it might have come off that way now that I re-read my post.
-------------------------------------
I read all the responses and thanks to all.

Snowbear - I'll check Calumet out.

Casualties - Penn/Calumet and now Ritz. First Penn camera closed most of it's stores here in Va. and was sold to Calumet . The only camera store close by was a Ritz camera here in Old Town Alexandria; poorly stocked but the staff knew about cameras and was helpful - now that location had closed. All casualties of the internet shopper (like me) but I still like the retail store model since it's what I know. The retail business model is a dinosaur from another era - like me