RANT - Nikon Australia Service

[aim54x]

Now that this saga is drawing to a close, I just thought that I would compile an all-in-one post to fill in the gaps for those of you who have heard about my adventures with Nikon Australia and those who may be interested in hearing my story.

The saga begins when I became the proud owner of a new Nikon D300 (back in Jan 2008) which I purchased locally through work (when I was working with Broadway Camera House). This camera provided sterling service for well over a year (about 14-16 months of trouble free service) before I noticed a degradation of the image quality of the rear LCD screen. At first I ignored it thinking I was being paranoid, but was forced to act on it when members of this forum noticed that my D300 screen was funny at the forum PMA Dinner. At the time, Gary, Leigh and a few others believed that the reason for this image colour and detail degradation could be originating from one of two sources, a faulty LCD panel, or a faulty piece of circuitry. This resulted to my first trip to Nikon Australia.

This first trip to Nikon Australia (June 2009) was pleasant, probably the most pleasant from this saga. I dropped off the camera at Lidcombe in person and was told that I would hear from them in a week or so. I got this initial quote back within a few weeks (June 30), the news:

NIKON D300 DIGITAL SLR S# 601XXXX
Inspect and test camera unit, dismantle
unit, replace LCD monitor, re-assemble
unit, check operation, adjust, clean and
service unit as required and test all
functions. NOTE: Fault was not observed
during testing - repair actions are on
speculation only.

ESTIMATED COST OF REPAIRS 337.81

After reading this, I called up Nikon to clarify the situation and was told that they could not find the cause of the fault but thought that the LCD would be the most likely suspect, I would be covered for SIX months and any further repair work on this situation would be covered under warranty. I was very happy to go ahead on this repair with the firm belief that things would go well and I would have a fully functional camera back soon. However this would not be the case.

When I was told the camera was ready for pick up (July 16) I welcomed the camera back, initial shots showed that everything was in order. However, this was short lived, with the same problem rearing its ugly head again in a matter of hours, so the camera was taken back to Lidcombe on the same day. At this point in time I was still happy to return the camera and have it checked over again.

On July 23 I recieved another email letting me know that my camera was ready for pick up, that nothing was wrong with it and that there was a Technicians report. This did not bode well for me, and I was eagar to see what was in that report.

NOTE: This has been typed up by me as I do not have an Electronic copy of this Tech Report

NIKON D300 DIGITAL SLR S# 601XXXX
Inspect and test camera unit, clean unit as required and test all functions. NOTE: The monitor is a VGA (Video Graphics Array) display, with a 640x480 at 16 bit colour depth. This is a very basic display and when viewing images that have a similar but slightly varied brightness will show the rainbow banding seen in the sample images. The LCD is 900, 000 pixels but still will display the VGA colour depth. Also, the exposure has contributed to the problem. The sample images that show the effect are poorly exposed, generally by about +1 to +2 stops, due to the use of manual exposure mode. Under normal exposure conditions the effect is not present or greatly reduced. This is why it was stated in the previous repair estimate report that the effect was not observed and the replacement of the monitor was to be carried out on speculation only. Had sample images been supplied, monitor replacement would not have been suggested. When seen a monitor of greater colour depth, the effect is not present or greatly reduced. Recommend that the user utilise auto exposure modes to achieve better exposure results and recognise the limitations of a VGA display. The intended use of the monitor is to confirm correct exposure, focus, composition, etc, not as a primary display. For these purposes, the VGA standard is suitable.

I do not need to tell you that I was not happy with this result. I found this report both not useful and offensive, summing to.
- a lecture about VGA displays
- I don't know how to use Manual exposure
- I should use P, A or S modes on a D300

BUT not taking into account
- detail degradation - which makes focus confirmation very difficult
- 14-16 months of faultless service prior to degradation of the LCD image
- supplied images being well exposed or slightly UNDER exposed (-0.5 to -1 stops) as confirmed by Steve Castle (Head of Service at Nikon Australia).

After a lengthy discussion with Steve Castle about the issue, and comparisions between images recorded and displayed on my D300 and then the Nikon Service "master" body, we could not reach an agreement as to what was being observed. I felt as if I was the only one there that was not colour blind, although I had the knowledge that everyone outside of Nikon that has seen the camera can vouch for the presence of a fault. Possibly to my error I took the camera back and pursued a refund on the original repair. This process took until after September 10 to get a partial refund, I agreed to be reasonable and compromised with a refund on the cost of the LCD screen and paying for labour with Kurtis White (National Sales and Service Manager).

The saga does not end here, as a stroke of luck meant that I would have my D300 with me on a Sony Cybershot training (Oct 7) night where I met and got to know some of the VERY NICE people from Foto Reisel Camera House who saw my camera and urged me to bring it in to them so they could try to help me out. To their credit, Colin Macdougall (Retail Manager) and Jade (Repairs) were a great help. I dropped off the camera, along with both repair reports with the hope that having the support of an important retailer would help my case. Before we sent off the camera we compared my D300 with one in the shop, and everyone (myself, Colin, Jade and George - another salesman present) concluded that there was something seriously wrong with my camera. We even let their Nikon rep (Andrew King - whom I had worked with in the past) know about the service history in hope that he could help get to the bottom of this.

It wasn't until the mid October that we would hear from Nikon again. According to Jade, Nikon could not find a fault and had a technicians report for me, this was to the same affect as the previous report. Thankfully, Jade put his foot down and refused to accept that resolution.

The next twist was one that really intrigues me. I received a call from Steve Castle on October 26 telling me that there was nothing more he could do except perform a custom hue adjustment to remove the 'green hue' from my screen and that there was nothing wrong with the unit, it was 'within spec'. I proceeded to enquire the reason for the call and was told that he had already spoken to Jade, so I asked Steve Castle to have the image processing pipeline checked to see if my (and Gary, Leigh, Jade, Colin and Richard - Camera Service Centre) suspicions were correct. I then called Jade to verify that he had spoken to Steve, it turns out that there was no conversation with Jade, only a conversation about the fault, not the proposed solution.

The final installment arrived on November 3. I received a call from Jade informing me that Nikon had "found an improvement when they replaced a DRG board" one of the driver circuits for the LCD display (what everyone had suspected!!) BUT the cost of repair would be $600, however Steve Castle was in conversation with Nikon Japan, Nikon Australia still believes that the camera is behaving within spec. I waited, until today (November 5) when I saw Jade in person and was told that there was nothing to be done but either take the camera back unrepaired ($100 quotation fee) or pay for the repair ($600).

I have decided not to go ahead with this repair, and to Jade's (and Foto Riesel's) credit, they reduced the quotation fee to $60 (what Nikon is charging them). I cannot praise the quality of service that Foto Riesel has provided me, but I cannot say the same about Nikon Australia. I now await the return of my D300 and will update this post when I get the Technicians report that comes along with it. I will however proceed to find and email Nikon Japan directly to share with them my thoughts on the whole matter.

It has taken Nikon Australia 3 (or is it 4) attempts over five months to find a fault (that according to them is not a fault) was speculated by us all along. To their (dis)credit, it appears that they did not fire test images during the first trip, insulted myself (2nd tech report) and are now not fixing a problem that they have indicated to be so unique that it is the first recorded case.

For those who made it to the end of this marathon post, thank you for reading. If you could all share your opinions on how you would feel about this if it were you, I would be greatly appreciated. I know that I cannot praise Nikon Service to any customer who comes in to buy a Nikon, it really is tough to sell a camera from a company that lets you down.

NOTE: this was also posted on my website

[surenj]

All I can say is that, it's to your credit that you kept sane throughout this whole process. I would have torn my hair out!!! :

I suppose having an extended warranty wouldn't have helped either esp if the manufacturer was saying it's within spec!

[gstark]

To add a little bit more to this, When we first observed this issue, we also did a few comparisons:

- We took Cameron's CF card out of his camera, placing it another camera, and failed to observe this problem from those very same issues that we observed the problem on on Cameron's camera.

- We took a CF card from another camera and placed it in Cameron's camera, and immediately observed the same problem with those images that had been taken on a different camera.

This, to me, isolated the problem to Cameron's camera. It was the most basic of diagnostic processes, and I am both disappointed and surprised that Nikon appear to have failed to take even this most basic of steps.

As noted in Cameron's report, this is a most unusual issue, and it seemed to me that there was a bit that was not being resolved in the rendering of the images on the display. While Nikon have tried to explain this away by saying that this was a VGA display, I would describe this more along the lines of this looking like a 256 colour display, rather than a VGA display. THose who have been arund PCs for more than a few years will know what I am talking about here.

And Nikon's explanation totally fails to explain how it is that the images looked fine on different D300s, and their explanation totally fails to explain how it is that images made on other cameras showed exactly the same degradation when displayed on Cameron's camera.

Of course, Nikon's statement that the images look fine when displayed on higher quality monitors is perfectly reasonable; that is precisely the expected outcome, but it is a totally irrelevant statement. The only place where this fault was observed was on the rear LCD on Cameron's camera, and it was immediately evident to everyone - well, everyone except Nikon's technicians - that there was a fault within Cameron's camera.

And no, I cannot accept Nikon's statement that the camera was within spec. In fact, if they are now saying that they had observed an improvement when they replaced a DRG board, then clearly there is a fault within the camera, and equally clearly the camera is NOT within spec.

My personal opinion is that Nikon should be ashamed of themselves for their conduct in this matter. That they failed to observe this problem in the first instance stuns me. That they appear to have failed to undertake some very simple and basic diagnostic procedures also stuns me; this is just unprofessional! And that they now wish to rip Cameron off, to the tune of $600, for what is a fundamental fault within the camera, is shameful.

Cameron, to me, this seems to be a basic failure in the merchantability of the product: a camera costing in excess of $2000 should not suffer this sort of failure just a few months outside of its warranty period, and I believe that Nikon should be undertaking this repair within the terms of the camera's warranty. I firmly believe that The Sale of Goods Act applies in this instance, and as we discussed over the phone, I would encourage you to seek redress through the Department of Fair Trading.

[MATT]

well can i say I'm not surprised..

My D700 is back in my hands now also after a visit to Nikon Aus in Sydney. it does not seem to focus lock will not track focus and when it doe lock focus the taken image is out of focus. I thought it was me but when switching to a D70 in the same light with the same subject and lenses , the D70 snaps focus fast and effective.

Surprisingly or not surprisingly mine was "Within Spec" also.. No problem found. I was told the images were sharp in focus and the D700 has no trouble focusing.

I asked Kurtis what do I do with an unusable camera?? he replied that the D700 just doesn't break down, they don't have refurbished they could swap it with either.

They check the front and rear focus issues but did not find a problem..So I have it back. To Nikon's and Kurtis credit this all only took 3 weeks including postal service there and back. The first trip to Brisbane service center yielded the same result "Within Spec No fault found" but it took 3 months to replace the focus confirm beeper.

Good news though, I did a baptism for a friend with it last Saturday. It seems better and at least the images are in focus now...

Internet searching have found that other people with a D700 have had a similar problem, with most saying it seems to be in anything but bright sunshine. I also tracked mine to people with a MB-d10. Not sure if thats my problem as I now have left it off , mine is a very early Poon special I did not ice that my focus assist light would not work with the grip.So I 'm trying to find a cheap Nikon Mb-D10 to try..


Is Canon backup any better???? And I wonder if it was a gray camera and was sent back to HK would the outcome be better also not having to deal with Nikon Aus.

MATT

[Wink]

I've read it all, but i might be missing something here...
Why couldn't Nikon just copy the test images to another card, stick that card in their test D300, display the same image on both cameras side by side and make a comparison?
As Gary said the most basic of diagnostic tests would've shown a difference, and did in the independent tests you carried out.

I don't know how you didn't just go nuts!

[aim54x]

All I can say is that, it's to your credit that you kept sane throughout this whole process. I would have torn my hair out!!! :

I suppose having an extended warranty wouldn't have helped either esp if the manufacturer was saying it's within spec!

Thanks mate...I have been going up the wall slowly over this one. Something tells me that had it happened within standard warranty I doubt it would have been treated any better, maybe a free repair but still three trips and the insults??

To add a little bit more to this, When we first observed this issue, we also did a few comparisons:

- We took Cameron's CF card out of his camera, placing it another camera, and failed to observe this problem from those very same issues that we observed the problem on on Cameron's camera.

- We took a CF card from another camera and placed it in Cameron's camera, and immediately observed the same problem with those images that had been taken on a different camera.

This, to me, isolated the problem to Cameron's camera. It was the most basic of diagnostic processes, and I am both disappointed and surprised that Nikon appear to have failed to take even this most basic of steps.

Thanks Gary, I did leave that bit out.

I cannot accept Nikon's statement that the camera was within spec. In fact, if they are now saying that they had observed an improvement when they replaced a DRG board, then clearly there is a fault within the camera, and equally clearly the camera is NOT within spec.

My personal opinion is that Nikon should be ashamed of themselves for their conduct in this matter. That they failed to observe this problem in the first instance stuns me. That they appear to have failed to undertake some very simple and basic diagnostic procedures also stuns me; this is just unprofessional! And that they now wish to rip Cameron off, to the tune of $600, for what is a fundamental fault within the camera, is shameful.

Cameron, to me, this seems to be a basic failure in the merchantability of the product: a camera costing in excess of $2000 should not suffer this sort of failure just a few months outside of its warranty period, and I believe that Nikon should be undertaking this repair within the terms of the camera's warranty. I firmly believe that The Sale of Goods Act applies in this instance, and as we discussed over the phone, I would encourage you to seek redress through the Department of Fair Trading.

This is something that I can do, but I have neither the time nor the desire to become entangled with such a process. I will try to find an email for Nikon Global (preferably someone high up....anyone have any email addresses??) and see what they have to say about my story.

well can i say I'm not surprised..

My D700 is back in my hands now also after a visit to Nikon Aus in Sydney. it does not seem to focus lock will not track focus and when it doe lock focus the taken image is out of focus. I thought it was me but when switching to a D70 in the same light with the same subject and lenses , the D70 snaps focus fast and effective.

Surprisingly or not surprisingly mine was "Within Spec" also.. No problem found. I was told the images were sharp in focus and the D700 has no trouble focusing.

I asked Kurtis what do I do with an unusable camera?? he replied that the D700 just doesn't break down, they don't have refurbished they could swap it with either.

They check the front and rear focus issues but did not find a problem..So I have it back. To Nikon's and Kurtis credit this all only took 3 weeks including postal service there and back. The first trip to Brisbane service center yielded the same result "Within Spec No fault found" but it took 3 months to replace the focus confirm beeper.

Good news though, I did a baptism for a friend with it last Saturday. It seems better and at least the images are in focus now...

Internet searching have found that other people with a D700 have had a similar problem, with most saying it seems to be in anything but bright sunshine. I also tracked mine to people with a MB-d10. Not sure if thats my problem as I now have left it off , mine is a very early Poon special I did not ice that my focus assist light would not work with the grip.So I 'm trying to find a cheap Nikon Mb-D10 to try..


Is Canon backup any better???? And I wonder if it was a gray camera and was sent back to HK would the outcome be better also not having to deal with Nikon Aus.

MATT

Very sorry to hear of your misfortune Matt. I hope that Nikon Australia gets their act together. As for Canon...from what I heard they are not doing too much better....ERROR 99...ERROR 05....

[aim54x]

I've read it all, but i might be missing something here...
Why couldn't Nikon just copy the test images to another card, stick that card in their test D300, display the same image on both cameras side by side and make a comparison?
As Gary said the most basic of diagnostic tests would've shown a difference, and did in the independent tests you carried out.

I don't know how you didn't just go nuts!

Adam, we did that during the 2nd visit (when I took the camera back) and the tech's proved to be either colour blind (red - green colur blindness is common in males) or just in denial.

[surenj]

Cameron,

If you taking these higher to Nikon Japan etc, you will need to get documentary evidence of all the transactions and try and document what you see as the problem with photos + video etc preferably with side by side comparisons with a 'good' model. You need to have a solid case. Otherwise it would be a waste of time.

If you play your cards right, you could end up with a d300s... [fingers crossed]

[aim54x]

Cameron,

If you taking these higher to Nikon Japan etc, you will need to get documentary evidence of all the transactions and try and document what you see as the problem with photos + video etc preferably with side by side comparisons with a 'good' model. You need to have a solid case. Otherwise it would be a waste of time.

If you play your cards right, you could end up with a d300s... [fingers crossed]

I have tech reports, emails...and getting some photographic evidence showing differences would not be too hard....I am sure someone here would be happy to meet up and help me record some footage showing my D300's problems.

[aim54x]

UPDATE: Still waiting for camera to be returned......

[aim54x]

I just thought i would follow this up. I picked up the camera from Foto Riesel at the end of November...sorry I should have let you all know...

however, another interesting turn has occurred. Nikon Australia has just offered to repair the camera free of charge, an offer that I will be taking up.

Just have my fingers crossed that I dont get any more surprises of a negative nature....

[gstark]

Nikon Australia has just offered to repair the camera free of charge, an offer that I will be taking up.

I think this is a great response from Nikon, and they should be commended and thanked for taking the extra time and effort to listen and more fully understand the issues at hand here.

Just have my fingers crossed that I dont get any more surprises of a negative nature....

I hope so too. My understanding is that all should now be fine, however.

Thanks for posting the update, Cameron.

[photomarcs]

Hey Cam,

Should have seen the look on your face when you were reading this to me, HAHA

[aim54x]

Hey Cam,

Should have seen the look on your face when you were reading this to me, HAHA

you mean the WTF face when I got the Nikon email....

Further good news, the camera was repaired in approx 5hrs and I received a call to pick it up....I will be doing so tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it is now working better.

Kudos to Nikon for being so efficient the 4th time around.

[photomarcs]

haha maybe Nikon's finally upped the speed due to lack of commitment to fix in the first place.

Well, at least now you can't blame your LCD for anything! and 5 hours? S***!!!! that's real damn quick mate.

[aim54x]

Picked up the camera today...it is fixed and as a bonus they replaced my the rubber grips on my camera as well. My grip rubber was worn down (which i liked) but was also just beginning to come off (front grip) so I guess they fixed it for me.

On a side note, my image numbering jumped about from 4000 to 9000 but shutter actuations did not....wonder what happened there.

I have to say that Nikon came through in the end.

[biggerry]

so what did they exactly do? or is it top secret

irrespective, it must be good to get ur camera back...

[aim54x]

so what did they exactly do? or is it top secret

irrespective, it must be good to get ur camera back...

What did they do? well the report says they replaced a PC board....let me go get the exact part "DG PCB UNIT"....replaced grip rubber unit, rear rubber unit.

"Dismantle, replace parts as listed, readjusted to factory specs. Checked and Tested"

The first thing I did when I got it back was load up my restore card (CF card with all my custom setting) and I was back in business. Gotta love the D300 for having that feature!

[ATJ]

On a side note, my image numbering jumped about from 4000 to 9000 but shutter actuations did not....wonder what happened there.

You or they (probably they) used an unformatted card with files on there in the 9000 range and "File Number Sequence" was set to reset. It is easy to fix: http://andrewtrevor-jones.com/d300fileseqnumber.html

[aim54x]

On a side note, my image numbering jumped about from 4000 to 9000 but shutter actuations did not....wonder what happened there.

You or they (probably they) used an unformatted card with files on there in the 9000 range and "File Number Sequence" was set to reset. It is easy to fix: http://andrewtrevor-jones.com/d300fileseqnumber.html

Thanks Andrew...I will fix it when I get home on Friday. For the moment I am pretending to be a Canon user with a silver 400D 50mm, 60 macrro

[surenj]

Initially I was grtting my teeth when I saw this post.

It's great to see that it's good news!!! Congrats on a good result. Now you can go back to taking photographs rather than writing letters.