For those of you who have read my earlier post about my tale of woe, this is the 5th and last installment. Yay! To refresh you all and for those reading this the first time, on March 17th, I fell down 15 flights of stairs while carrying my Sony a580 with a 300mm lens attached. I was injured slightly ( I am all healed up now) but my camera and lens took the brunt of it. The aluminum base plate on the camera body was dented in, the electronics were all messed up and the lens was stuck and would not rotate nor would it release from the camera.

I had bought an extended, full damage covered warranty from Sony. Unfortunately, this did not cover the lens since it was bought separately without an extended warranty. It too is a Sony.

I kept posting updates on what Sony had to tell me and that they would repair it, but not the lens. I was O.K. with this. I did not like this lens that much anyway. It was their cheapest, low end 300mm lens that they had and I had all sorts of fringing problems. I really just wanted my camera fixed.

Sony first told me that it would be 7-10 days for the repair once they received it. They got it on the 23rd of March. Two weeks went by and nothing. So I could them and they told me that they had to order more parts and it would be about another week. O.K., fine.

Now it was going on about a month and not even a courtesy call. I was a little upset because a year ago I sent in a different Sony camera in for regular warranty work. They would call me at least twice a week with an update. At that time they even asked me to send my lenses in for calibration. They did not have to do this. It took 3 months but I was not upset because they walked me through everything that they were doing for the camera. I was extremely satisfied with their service.

This time however, I was having to call them each time and I was getting a little miffed. Every time I called, I got a different person on the phone and I kept getting a different story even one saying that it got sent back to the factory for regular warranty repair. This is when I got hot and asked for a supervisor or some one. I got a call from the Person in charge of extended warranty repair last week. This was on Tuesday. She told me that this was ridiculous and that she was going to get to the bottom of this and call me back. More smoke, I thought. She went over the original claim and noted that the lens was not part of the warranty. I already knew this.

She did call back on Wednesday and told me what was really going on and apologized. She said that when they first attempted the repair, the one part that they had which was important, was itself, defective and they had to send away for a new one. I asked how long this was going to take? She said that the part just came in and that my camera was on the bench and that it will be done by Thursday and it will then go to the factory for final alignment and that I should have it back by next Monday(yesterday).

Well guess what? I did get it back yesterday and the 300mm lens was with it but something was rather strange. The lens was telescoping once again and it looked unnaturally clean. I put a memory card in and a charged battery back in, and, for shits and grins, I put the crappy 300mm lens on. And it worked!!! And the crappy lens was no longer crappy!

I knew exactly how to test this lens for the fringing and for focus. Fully extended at f5.6 under really contrasty conditions (we had a bright sun). I tried all sorts of positions and I could not get it to fail. No fringing whatsoever! Just a wee bit when over pushing it. In addition, the camera was working even better then when I bought it. The shutter thumb wheel would sometimes hang up. Not any more.

Then I decided to read the repair bill. They ordered all sorts of new parts for the camera and new parts for the lens. Then they calibrated both separately and then they calibrated the lens to the camera with an emphasis toward back focus. I have read that Sony had an issue with this on their cheaper lenses. Sweet. Here. I will let you judge for yourselves:

For those of you who have read my earlier post about my tale of woe, this is the 5th and last installment. Yay! To refresh you all and for those reading this the first time, on March 17th, I fell down 15 flights of stairs while carrying my Sony a580 with a 300mm lens attached. I was injured slightly ( I am all healed up now) but my camera and lens took the brunt of it. The aluminum base plate on the camera body was dented in, the electronics were all messed up and the lens was stuck and would not rotate nor would it release from the camera.

I had bought an extended, full damage covered warranty from Sony. Unfortunately, this did not cover the lens since it was bought separately without an extended warranty. It too is a Sony.

I kept posting updates on what Sony had to tell me and that they would repair it, but not the lens. I was O.K. with this. I did not like this lens that much anyway. It was their cheapest, low end 300mm lens that they had and I had all sorts of fringing problems. I really just wanted my camera fixed.

Sony first told me that it would be 7-10 days for the repair once they received it. They got it on the 23rd of March. Two weeks went by and nothing. So I could them and they told me that they had to order more parts and it would be about another week. O.K., fine.

Now it was going on about a month and not even a courtesy call. I was a little upset because a year ago I sent in a different Sony camera in for regular warranty work. They would call me at least twice a week with an update. At that time they even asked me to send my lenses in for calibration. They did not have to do this. It took 3 months but I was not upset because they walked me through everything that they were doing for the camera. I was extremely satisfied with their service.

This time however, I was having to call them each time and I was getting a little miffed. Every time I called, I got a different person on the phone and I kept getting a different story even one saying that it got sent back to the factory for regular warranty repair. This is when I got hot and asked for a supervisor or some one. I got a call from the Person in charge of extended warranty repair last week. This was on Tuesday. She told me that this was ridiculous and that she was going to get to the bottom of this and call me back. More smoke, I thought. She went over the original claim and noted that the lens was not part of the warranty. I already knew this.

She did call back on Wednesday and told me what was really going on and apologized. She said that when they first attempted the repair, the one part that they had which was important, was itself, defective and they had to send away for a new one. I asked how long this was going to take? She said that the part just came in and that my camera was on the bench and that it will be done by Thursday and it will then go to the factory for final alignment and that I should have it back by next Monday(yesterday).

Well guess what? I did get it back yesterday and the 300mm lens was with it but something was rather strange. The lens was telescoping once again and it looked unnaturally clean. I put a memory card in and a charged battery back in, and, for shits and grins, I put the crappy 300mm lens on. And it worked!!! And the crappy lens was no longer crappy!

I knew exactly how to test this lens for the fringing and for focus. Fully extended at f5.6 under really contrasty conditions (we had a bright sun). I tried all sorts of positions and I could not get it to fail. No fringing whatsoever! Just a wee bit when over pushing it. In addition, the camera was working even better then when I bought it. The shutter thumb wheel would sometimes hang up. Not any more.

Then I decided to read the repair bill. They ordered all sorts of new parts for the camera and new parts for the lens. Then they calibrated both separately and then they calibrated the lens to the camera with an emphasis toward back focus. I have read that Sony had an issue with this on their cheaper lenses. Sweet. Here. I will let you judge for yourselves:

I had many thought about 15 flights. 1) How could you survive with only slight injuries. 2) Where are there 15 flights without switchback landings? 3) How did you fall around and down from the landings? 4) Why was your camera not in pieces strewn down the 15 flights? Glad to hear you mended well, cameras are fixable or replaceable.

The real sad part is that I technically still have another good Sony for backup. The problem is that I gave it to my oldest daughter to borrow so she could take lots of pictures of her newborn. She won't give it back. Then, she loans it to my younger daughter who is a Graphic Arts major and she could not give it back because she needed it for one of her courses. I can't win for losing. Ended up using the wife's Fuji. That sucked.

See? Another customer support success story! I'll bet your daughter and her daughter will be back for more.

Glad to hear that all came out well.