As a kayaker and a cyclist, I buy a lot of my gear online, and 99% of my online experiences are great. That was until I came across an online shop that sells electronics and specifically camera gear - known as CITIWIDE (http://www.citiwide-online.com/).
After purchasing a NIKON AW100 waterproof camera from Citiwide, I started having issues within the first few weeks of using the camera (the camera would not open its shutter intermittently when you turn it on - i.e. envisage black pictures). I thought it might be an incompatibility with the memory card so tried a few different options, but it would start working again each time I thought about returning it.
This went on for a few weeks before it started to over expose the photos. I knew I needed to return the camera so started proceedings and contacted Citiwide. I filled out the appropriate paperwork, took photo's of the camera as I couldn't find the serial number and sent this off to Citiwide asking if they would honour their warranty.
They emailed back and instructed me to send them the camera at my expense. To cut a long story short, they said because there was no serial number sticker on the camera they wouldn't warranty it and sent the camera back to me, leaving me with a six week old camera that is useless and me out of pocket.
I'm not sure who is a fault here, Citiwide or Nikon for having a serial number which is a sticker on an underwater camera....seems like a fail proof get out of jail free card when it comes to providing a warranty on the products you sell.
Sufficient to say, I would never use this company again!
Well that was cathartic! Now to balance the post, I have some positive warranty stories as well.
Firstly, I broke my split Werner Ikelos (I'm not the first and won't be the last unfortunately). Werner came to the party and replaced the joining components. After some more use I broke the paddle again in the same spot - this is a paddle I had been using since 2010. Werner (via Rosco Canoes - http://www.roscocanoes.com.au/) suggested the solution was to replace the paddle with a new one with no out of pocket expenses.
Another supplier who I use frequently is Expedition Kayaks (http://www.expeditionkayaks.com/). As a cyclist I have a bit of leg drive when I'm paddling and this caused the floating seat in my Nordkapp to break (a known issue with this design). I told they boys from Expedition Kayaks what had happened and sent a photo and within a week my new seat arrived with some instructions how to install and get around this problem occurring again.
Done with my rant - off for a paddle!
I'd go direct to Nikon with your issue, I would hope they help you out
ReplyDeleteAlan (QSKC)