Leitz, I just noticed that you are in London. A good friend of mine is quite active in Photography in England. I am curious in knowing if you may know him. His name is Ernie Fullbrook. I got to know him when I was Director of International Color Slide Competition for the Photographic Society of America.

I think the fools are the ones who made a mountain out of a molehill on this forum Most of them did not get the facts correctly, and instead of asking for clarification a whole lot of them made incorrect assumptions. I will challenge any of them with respect to writing. For crying out loud some of them did not even realize that I took the camera personally to Nikon. Some of the people who were polite and truly understood what was going on were chided by the ones who did not get it. Most said I did not get it,but apparently I did, and I did not call anyone names until now. I am fed up with some of the imbeciles who are part of this forum. The Forum preaches about being nice to people. A lot of them need to follow that premise.

PROBLEM RESOLVED, I called Nikon at 9 A.M.this morning and spoke to a very nice young lady. I explained what happened from the time I brought the camera in and the receipt of their quote in the mail. She said she would not spend that amount under the circumstances either. She put me on hold while she went to speak with the service manager. After about 5 minutes she told me that the service manager would give me a 40% discount, and they would repair the camera and ship it back to me for a total of $145.99 including taxes and shipping it to me. Perhaps at times the Company is not to be condemned, but the employee one deals with. I surprised her by offering my credit card number before they did anything. It was a totally gratifying experience. As I have said previously, I never had problems with Nikon in the past.

Jaackil, When I told her that I did not want to spend the $200, she should have told me at the window that this was their policy and given me back the camera. Why take the camera and then send me a letter telling me what I had already told her I did not want to do?

Jaackl, What bothered me was when I told her I did not want to spend the $200 and some odd dollars, she should have handed me back the camera and that would have been the end of it. Why drag it on if in fact they would not touch the camera for less than the amount she quoted me. Working there she had to know if that was their policy.

I can understand that most of you feel that Nikon charges a flat rate to look at your camera and bring it up to Spec. However, I can tell you that I went to the Melville repair center a few years ago and they quoted me a price to repair my camera. It required a repair that was apparent from the outside ( a damaged battery cover). Perhaps there is a difference in making that kind of repair compared to having to troubleshoot. I agree with the person who said that companies are in business to make money. As a matter of fact if they would break even they could close their doors. When I took the DSLR in, the lady did look at a chart and told me how much it would cost for my model ($200 approximately). I told her that I did not want to spend that much because the camera is not worth that amount. I asked if they could look at the camera and give me a price. She signed the camera in. What I SUSPECT is that either someone in the repair shop overruled her, perhaps not doing anything with the camera, and just put what she originally told me in writing and mailed it to me. I agree with some of you who have stated that this subject matter should not have taken 11 pages to discuss. Perhaps as some of you have said I could have made myself clearer to begin with, but many of you did misinterpret a lot of what was said.

Madman, Nobody ripped me off. If you would have read the posts carefully, you would have seen that I purchased the package at a religious rummage sale. For $125 I got the DSLR, two Nikor DX zoom lenses, a 70-300 new Tamron zoom lens (for Nikon), along with two batteries a battery charger, and a Nikon camera strap. I grew up in Brooklyn so it would take a lot to rip me off. I fully was aware that perhaps there may have been something wrong with the camera, but it was too good to pass up even with that being the case.

Hi Bob, I just rounded the estimate by saying $ 200 plus. The actual quote is $ 224 plus $ 19.32 sales tax, bringing the cost to $ 243.32

Hi Mikeazz , The EBay $112 D70s is not the problem camera. That works fine and takes great photos. The D70s that I drove to Nikon is another camera. I liked the one I purchased on EBay so much that I was interested in having the camera fixed so I would have two that worked.

Hi Gene 51, When I started reading your comments I was a bit surprised, but by the time I read all of your words I wanted to tell you how this whole stupid incident came about. About four months ago friends of mine asked if I wanted to go to a rummage sale with them. While there I noticed a Nikon kit which contained the D70s in question plus two DX zoom Nikor lenses. All of the items looked like they just came out of a store. They wanted $100 and I was ready to purchase it when the woman asked if I would be interested in a Tamron 70-300 zoom lens for an additional $25. Needless to say I took them all. The only problem I had was that the camera did not power on. I liked everything about the camera so I went to EBAy and purchased a used D70s with a DX zoom Nikor lens for $112.50. After I had the EBay camera for a few weeks I wondered what Nikon would charge to repair the rummage sale camera. When I went to Nikon in Melville, I told them the exact story I am telling you. I even told her that I could not tell her if it was a grey item or not. She looked at the serial number and told me it was not grey. I would be amenable to spending $!00 to $125 to repair the camera, but I am not interested in a refurbishment. I have taken cameras there in the past and they just repaired what was wrong with the camera. Perhaps they have changed their policy.

I firmly believe that what Nikon is doing is that they quote a price to totally refurbish the camera. My feeling is that the camera owner should be told what is specifically wrong with the camera and quote a price. Nikon has never told me what is wrong with the camera. I will speak to them on Tuesday in an attempt to clear this up. Interestingly enough, I received an E-Mail from my local Congressman (unsolicited) today that there are two bills in Albany that would prevent manfacturers from denying sale of parts to small private repair shops. This would pertain to many businesses, not only camera repair. I was unaware that the New York State legislators were working on this. This should be a good thing for all New York State consumers.

Jethro 39, I did not understand your comment "if he didn't know what was wrong with it why did he take it to Nikon". That is the reason one takes items for repair. I told them that the camera would not power on, no matter how many batteries I tried.

>Micklely, Thanks for being understanding. Of all the people who commented you were the only one who really understood the situation. Most people on this website do not seem to be very adept at photography as far as I have seen to date. They give positive comments to photos that good photographers would throw in the garbage pail. And people that understand photography know that it is not the equipment that makes good photographs, but the person behind the camera. What I really do not understand is that most of these people think I hate Nikon and have a grudge against them. This is not the case at all. This is the first time that I can recall that I said something negative about Nikon and these people took it all out of context.

I have found that there are many of you who like to sass people beforethey have a correct grasp with respect to wh

I do understand what free estimate means, however I did not get one. While I was at the counter with my D70s the woman told me that it would cost over $200 to repair the camera. I asked her to detemine what was wrong with the camera and I would decide if I would get it repaired. What they did was hold onto the camera for 5 days and sent me a letter that it would cost over $200, which i s apparently their flat rate to repair the camera. With respect to the other D70s that I purchased on E-Bay, I purchased it before I ever drove to Nikon which is 8 minutes from my house. I own many Nikons from Nikormat, F5,D100, D1x, and on and on. Most of my equipment was purchased new. I worked in Manhattan for 34 years, so I am well aware what things cost, having dealt personally with B&H, Adorama, 47th St. camera, and Ken Hansen. I basically got the impression that Nikon has a set price to repair different camera models and that is in my opinion wrong. With respect to the value of the D70s, it is a lot less than the flat rate to repair. My belief is that they cater to Professionals and not amateur photographers which in my opinion accounts for the rather high prices