Might be time to switch from Nikon to Canon
One more hit to Nikon‘s manufacturing plants. This time their biggest manufacturing plant for DX format lenses and Camera bodies is submerged and production has halted. Nikon is still recuperating from the earthquake in Japan. A blow like this in Thailand is surely going to have a ripple effect on the end user, the customer.
Nikon’s Montreal based Service Center is already a shamefull, understaffed establishment that lets its normal customers rot in place for weeks without any service updates. In Los Angeles you get a tracking number and you can follow the progress of your repair online. In Montreal you get lied to with a promise of two to three weeks. Four weeks later you call for an update on your repair, you get lied to again, with promises your repair will be completed on the following week. This can go on for months until you get mad, then they decide to repair your equipment promptly. As if that wasn’t bad enough they have shamelessly taken the excuse of the Japan earthquake to slow down turn around in Montreal by an additional two to three weeks. A normal repair in Montreal can take upwards of eight weeks compared to less than 3 weeks in the Los Angeles area.
Now with the Thailand Plant submerged, it’s easy to assume we can forget about ever seeing our equipment returned from the Montreal Service facility in our lifetime. I’ll have to leave my camera and lenses in my will for my children to pick them up. Nikon NPS members get up to same day turn around. The more NPS members show up the more regular customers get put at the end of the line. I’m using a defective lens because it’s been badly repaired by Nikon. It’s easier and less stress for me to use the defective lens than to deal with Nikon’s service facility in Montreal.
It seems every time I turn around I hear news of Nikon surpassing sales and/or revenue expectations. It’s time for Nikon to spend some money where it counts! Nikon, invest in giving your customers the Customer Service they deserve!
Enough with the bull. I’m not the idiot who built manufacturing plants on Fault Lines and Flood Areas. Yet it seems honorable for Nikon to punish us for their mistakes. Hire some techs, stop lying to your customers. It’s disgusting and totally disrespectful the way Nikon has lied in my face and uses any excuse under the sun to justify a sharp decline in their after sales service. If they use the Thailand Floods as one more excuse as to why they can’t repair anything in an acceptable amount of time, it’ll be the Straw that breaks the Camel’s back! I’ve been shooting with Nikon for 29 Years. If Nikon doesn’t shape up it won’t be 30 years!
NIKON NEWSWIRE: Notice on the damage from the flood in Thailand
Notice on the damage from the flood in Thailand
October 11, 2011
Nikon (Thailand) Co., Ltd., a consolidated subsidiary of Nikon Corporation in the Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya Province located in Central Thailand, is submerged by the flood caused by torrential rainfall since last July.
The latest situations at Nikon (Thailand) Co., Ltd. are as follows:
- DamagesThe 1st floor of all buildings at the premises are presently submerged. Details of the damages are now under investigation. As for the employees, the human damage has not been reported so far. The factory is suspending its operation since October 6.
- Estimated impact to our business performanceWe are now doing our utmost to estimate the impact of the flood to our group companies and business performance. We assure you to immediately advise the findings once it is judged there will be an important change in our forecast.
- RecoveryWe are continuing to investigate details of the damage, but are unable to predict how soon operation will be resumed. We will set up our recovery support system and endeavor to restart its operation as early as possible. We are now requesting drainage of the industrial park to the Thai government, together with the Rojana Industrial Park authority, other companies in the Park and Japan External Trade Organization.
- Reference data
Outline of Nikon (Thailand) Co.,Ltd.
| Location | Ayutthaya Province, Thailand |
|---|---|
| Representative | Nobuyuki Muraishi, Managing Director |
| Capital | 1 billion bahts |
| Shareholder | Nikon Corporation (100%) |
| Establishment | October 1990 (factory completed in November 1991) |
| Main businesses | Manufacture of digital single-lens reflex cameras, Interchangeable lenses, etc. |
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- Pioneer, Nikon Drop in Tokyo After Floods Close Thai Plants (businessweek.com)
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- Thailand flooding the worst in 50 years. (mostthingsthai.wordpress.com)
- VIDEO: Thailand floods a ‘national crisis’ (bbc.co.uk)
- Thailand: Honda, Toyota halts production because of floods (inautonews.com)
- Thailand:Thai flooding halts work at 762 plants (laaska.wordpress.com)
- Flooding in Thailand and Cambodia (livinginpp.wordpress.com)
- Thailand: Flood Waters Surge Towards Bangkok (news.sky.com)
- Thailand Floods May Affect Global Electronics Production (pcworld.com)
- NIKON NEWSWIRE: Notice on the damage from the flood in Thailand – Might be time to switch from Nikon to Canon (trolettiphoto.com)
