Why I will never purchase another Olympus product ...

[pilot fish]

I posted earlier about the recurring issues with my PT-030 housing. Today I spent more than an hour on the phone trying to resolve it with Olympus customer service. First I called the California office, only to be put on hold for about 20 minutes, then told to call the New York office. When I called the New York office, I spent another 15 minutes or so on hold, only to be told I had the wrong department (despite that it was the logical selection from the available options), and that they would transfer me to the correct department. Another few minutes on hold, and I got some fellow named "Tony", who told me I would have to go through the same process that failed to fix the problem the last time.

I've had this camera and housing for five months ... about a third of which it has been either unusable or simply out to Olympus for repairs. They kept the housing for more than a month the last time, and I only got a few dives out of it before it broke again.

I explained this to Tony, and told him I didn't want a repair ... this housing is obviously defective ... I wanted a replacement housing. He said (and I quote) ... "Olympus doesn't replace defective equipment, we repair it."

I said, that's not an adequate solution ... I can see us just going through a cycle where I use this thing for a couple of weeks, return it to Olympus, and keep doing that until the warranty expires.

Tony's answer "There's nothing I can do."

My response "Can I please speak to your supervisor?"

Tony's answer "He can't do anything either."

At which point I hung up the phone ... it's obvious that they don't care about my problem, and that I'm wasting my time even trying to deal with this company.

So I'll sell the camera, throw away the housing, chalk it up as a $500 mistake, and move on.

I will never again ... in my lifetime ... purchase another product from Olympus.

I am simply in awe that a company can treat their customers like this and still be in business ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Do not let it end there. That is a very poor way to do business. Rather than throw it away, send it to them with a letter detailing whom you spoke to, their responses and what they need to do to make it right. Just say, this is useless to me, either send me a new one, or refund my money. Do not accept that crap!

 

[alcina]

That really seems out of line. Seems like Oly is having a bit of a trauma with customer service lately.

Just as an aside, I have known a couple of people who sent their housings in for "repair" and the housing was, in fact, completely replaced. Happily, almost all of the Oly owners I know are actually happy - but to be fair most of them own the 5050 version,not the version you are dealing with.

Tony did offer you a solution - send it in for repair. You chose not to accept this solution so some of this "bad service" seems to be outside of Oly's control. I don't see what the harm would be in sending the unit back to them to repair or replace - what's the worst that could happen? And their company public statement might be that they only "repair not replace defective gear" but the reality is they do replace some things some times. Worth a go, IMHO

OH, and I recently had to send in a little compact to Canon and so far they have been wonderful to deal with

edit: I just found the other thread that says you have sent it in for repair once already. I understand why you're frustrated and I'd be peeved. But then I'd still be on the phone with them and/or I would have a lovely letter typed, my housing packed up and the whole shebang sent off. Then I'd be on the phone again every other day asking questions and trying to get answers. But I like banging my head against the wall just for the satisfaction of it. Dumping the housing may be far less taxing! I know it isn't the solution you wanted to hear, but you might be surprised and the next guy at Oly that lays hands on the housing might do the right thing.

 

[H2Andy]

Tony did offer you a solution - send it in for repair. You chose not to accept this solution so some of this "bad service" seems to be outside of Oly's control.

well, he's "been there done that" already, for five months:

I've had this camera and housing for five months ... about a third of which it has been either unusable or simply out to Olympus for repairs. They kept the housing for more than a month the last time, and I only got a few dives out of it before it broke again.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

That really seems out of line. Seems like Oly is having a bit of a trauma with customer service lately.

Just as an aside, I have known a couple of people who sent their housings in for "repair" and the housing was, in fact, completely replaced. Happily, almost all of the Oly owners I know are actually happy - but to be fair most of them own the 5050 version,not the version you are dealing with.

Tony did offer you a solution - send it in for repair. You chose not to accept this solution so some of this "bad service" seems to be outside of Oly's control. I don't see what the harm would be in sending the unit back to them to repair or replace - what's the worst that could happen? And their company public statement might be that they only "repair not replace defective gear" but the reality is they do replace some things some times. Worth a go, IMHO

OH, and I recently had to send in a little compact to Canon and so far they have been wonderful to deal with

edit: I just found the other thread that says you have sent it in for repair once already. I understand why you're frustrated and I'd be peeved. But then I'd still be on the phone with them and/or I would have a lovely letter typed, my housing packed up and the whole shebang sent off. Then I'd be on the phone again every other day asking questions and trying to get answers. But I like banging my head against the wall just for the satisfaction of it. Dumping the housing may be far less taxing! I know it isn't the solution you wanted to hear, but you might be surprised and the next guy at Oly that lays hands on the housing might do the right thing.

Actually, I will be sending it in for repair ... but that doesn't solve the problem of having the camera and housing for my trip to Bonaire. Last time it took about 5 weeks to get back ... that's about a week and a half after the trip ends.

Then there's the fact that if they didn't repair it properly the first time, I have zero confidence that they'll do so this time either. How much good is a housing that spends more time in transit between owner and repair center than it spends being used for its intended purpose?

Oh ... then there's this. I did get another response from Olympus customer service today. They told me that since I had my camera repaired previously, the warranty is only good for six months past the repair date. Swell ... it came with a one-year warranty when I bought it, which would've expired in March 2007. However, since it failed two months after I got it, and was repaired in June, the warranty is now only good till December 2006!

These folks sure know how to run a business.

And for those of you who are REAL masochists ... try calling their help line sometime.

1-800-622-6372

The "music" you get to listen to while spending endless minutes on hold sounds like something out of an old WWII era Russian movie ... dirge music almost completely drowned out by static. I couldn't imagine a more annoying sound to listen to on the telephone. Either the person who set this system up is a complete idiot or it is a not-so-subtle encouragement to just hang up.

At any rate, I figure on about mid-September I'll be offering this system up for sale ... so I probably shouldn't talk about it so much ... :shakehead

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[rwe]

Just wanted to say that your experience is consistent with many others when attempting to deal with Olympus parts and repair. I have attempted to deal with them on two occasions. The first time I simply wanted to buy the small plastic part that attached to my C-8080 camera to hold it straight in the housing. After talking to more than a dozen people over 2 days and being returned to my starting point 3 times the lady recognized me and transferred me to a manager. He said it would take him approximately a week to find out how I could get the replacement part. He got back with me in less than a week but regretfully informed me that I would have to ship the housing to Olympus, have it leak tested for ~ $140, and then they would sell me the requested part. Luckily, I found someone with a broken housing to provide me with the part.

The port tabs on the pt-023 housing all break off. I am presently trying to find out if Olympus has designed a fix for the design defect. So far I have not received a meaningful response. Does anyone have a do-it-yourself fix? If so, please let me know. I used duct tape and electrical tape to hold the port to the housing on my last trip and it held for 6 days of diving but I would prefer something more permanent.

 

[Sasquatch]

I appreciate this thread and the feedback it received.

I can empathize with Bob and any others who have gotten crappy after-sale customer service. In the case of certain huge consumer goods providers the dating, engagement, wedding and honeymoon of the transaction are wonderful. But after the honeymoon you have a conflict and your mate is out the door and won't return your calls or you discover you thought you married Barbie but it turns out to be Chucky.

For years and years I was a customer service manager for a large national consumer brand and I'm telling you as an expert in this field that the type of behavior exhibited by their service department and their philosophy on customer service in general is reprehensible. If they only knew how much money they were losing...

The last expensive kit I need to buy is a camera (and a Zodiac) and what this thread has done is helped me to knock off one manufacturer from consideration. I appreciate this because the Nikon and Canon lines are hard enough to pick from.

 

[Quero]

I had the same thing with Canon a few years ago. I took the housing down for a test dive--no problem. Took it down with the camera--it flooded. Everybody around me was saying how I must have got some debris in the o-ring, making it my fault. So I got a new camera. Again tested the housing in a test dive before taking it down with the camera. Again it flooded! I eventually figured out it was an o-ring in the shutter button, but only under pressure (not in a rinse tank). Sent the housing to Canon, where they kept it, and kept it, and kept it... for SIX MONTHS! Eventually they did give me a new housing, but they refused to provide me with a replacement camera even though the flood was caused by the defect in the housing. In the end I switched to Oly. I have had one problem with the Oly housing, but it was identified and fixed within 24 hours by Oly Singapore. So I'm happier with my Oly experience than with my Canon one.

 

[alcina]

Bob - I know how you feel...been there Hopefully your trusty Fuji will do you proud in Bonaire

Be interesting to see what results you get this time from them. I'm not expecting miracles...but I've been surprised before.

 

[Fotoz4FX]

The port tabs on the pt-023 housing all break off. I am presently trying to find out if Olympus has designed a fix for the design defect. So far I have not received a meaningful response. Does anyone have a do-it-yourself fix? If so, please let me know. I used duct tape and electrical tape to hold the port to the housing on my last trip and it held for 6 days of diving but I would prefer something more permanent.[/QUOTE]

Use permanent Duct Tape instead of 6-day.

I use Nikon so I have nothing to complain about... sorry.

 

[f3nikon]

I removed the lens port and put a thick bead of silicon glue around the area where the port contacts the red oings on the housing. Reinstalled, then latched the port tabs, let the excess silicon dry then trimmed away the excess with a blade. This port may never come out again, but then the prices on these housing were so low that I bought two and use one for flat port only and the other I'll use for wide angle (when I install a wide angle dome port).