Could someone give me some advice please.

It is hard to do that by legislation since often a manufacturer will be outside jurisdiction. And the manufacturer is not always the same company as the company with its logo on the product. No, I think the legislation is a major improvement in buyers' rights -- after all, as John points out above it does not offer a six year warranty, but certain protections within a period of UP TO six years. The retailer in practice will often be able to charge the cost of a faulty product back to the manufacturer if involved in a continuous relationship with that firm. In this case (and many others), Amazon have essentially chosen to ignore the law, aware that their size and deep pockets hinder the prospects for redress. That is unhealthy.

I'm a little bit upset at some of the comments being made on here.

There seems to be an inference by some that we were not polite in our correspondence and that had we been polite everything would have been OK. We were extremely polite when writing to Amazon. Having been in business when we lived in the UK we do know the correct manner to address people.

There also seems to be some suggestion that we were wrong to contact poor old Amazon in the first place. The law is quite clear in this regard it states quite clearly that one has to go through the correct channels and in doing so must contact the retailer, which in this case was Amazon.

I am a long standing customer of Amazon, I dread to think how much I've spent with them over the years and I really am quiet disgusted at the way in which they think they can flout the law. Mine is not an isolated incident with them, they are continually being taken to task by UK Trading Standards and Brussels but choose to carry on regardless.

What grates even more is that they won't abide by the law and refund me a couple of hundred quid, but they can sell lenses to all and sundry that are discounted by hundreds of pounds.

I am not a direct customer of Pentax and if they do indeed sort my camera out for me, they will have gained my respect and loyalty.

Poor old Amazon on the other hand have just lost a long term customer. My Christmas gifts will come from somewhere else this year. I will never ever spend a penny with them again.

Once all this is sorted out, I will be contacting Brussels and the UK Trading Standards and anyone else we can think of, as it doesn't seem right to me that a company can get away with this sort of behaviour just because they are large and think they are untouchable.

If people want to discuss the rights and wrongs of consumer legislation, I think that's a subject for a different thread. The legislation exists and whether it's fair or not isn't really the topic of this thread and the implication that we shouldn't have contacted Amazon in the first place is misleading. My contract is with Amazon they should have acted as an intermediary between myself and Pentax.

That's all I'm saying on the subject.

I will update this thread if and when my camera problem is sorted out, because there are other people out there with K-r's that have or may have in the future the same problem as I have. Therefore the information may be of some help to them, whoever they bought the camera from in the first place.

Thanks to those of you who have helped and supported me through this,
Charlotte x

Hi Charlotte

Speaking for myself I thought you were both polite and patient. Had it been me I'm certain I would have escalated things way before you did.

Fingers crossed everything gets sorted and I'd certainly be interested in the final outcome as another K-r owner.

Chris

Nobody is getting at you Charlotte, just having a wider discussion that was prompted by your thread.

From a legal standpoint it is absolutely correct to contact and pursue a claim with Amazon and then to take them to court to resolve the issue. Your contract is with Amazon, and not Pentax and you should not have to have anything whatsoever to do with the manufacturer. The law is woolly, I agree with this too, and the onus is on the customer to prove that a there is an inherent fault with the goods provided. Reading through the law and the various commentaries upon it leads me to conclude that the almost inevitable result with a general retailer, such as Amazon, is independent arbritration.

My recommendation, which was after Amazon's original dismissal, to contact the General Manager of Pentax UK, was not intended as the legally or morally correct procedure or because I believe Amazon should not have any further responsibility. On the contrary it was recommended because I thought that it was the most expedient way to achieve a positive result and that was based on my personal experience of problematic cameras and dealing with the the retailer and various levels within Pentax's management hierarchy. Living in France I had to deal with returning faulty Pentax cameras to the UK EIGHT times - this involved four repairs to one camera and then three futher faulty cameras. This was unbelievably frustrating and I wouldn't want anyone else to go through a similar experience. Following that experience my advice on this forum has always been consistent. 1. Buy through SRS who are an excellent retailer and very supportive of the customer . 2. If you don't and you run into problems then go asap to the GM of Pentax UK who I found to be extremely reasonable and willing to put things right. As an aside my previous headaches with Pentax goods were as absolutely nothing compared to my problems with a new car purchased from Ford which was an absolute dog, effectively scrapped after only six years and cost me and other consumers unlucky enough to buy the same model many thousands. So I am no supporter of big business, quite the opposite. I fully support your case and I have always thought you are fully justified in your complaint. I wish you luck in your pursual of Amazon, my point was really that I can fully understand their point of view in the context of the soga and the fact that Pentax offer a one year warranty, in their position I would probably act in the same way. Thta doesn't mean I side with them at all. I just think the best way of resolving an issue is the quickest way, not the by the book way.

I think the discussion in this thread is relevant and of potential benefit to anyone with problems in future. I'm sorry you don't see it that way and I shall say no more on the subject.

I'm very grateful to you for your advice, and if you guys think it's helpful to continue debating the law then that's fine.

I'm sorry if I've caused offence to anyone, it wasn't intentional.

Received this, this morning;

Chapeau to Pentax.
The fault was presumably confirmed and they haven't tried to fob me off by trying to say it was my fault it stopped working.

Hopefully this will give heart to anyone else who experiences the same problem with their K-r's in the future.

Once again many thanks to all who helped and supported me.

Kind regards
Charlotte

Well done, Charlotte - perseverence pays off !

Hopefully you will soon have a shiny 'good as new' K-r back in business.

This will give me confidence that I don't have to rush out for one of those 'bargain' K30's as a back up for MY K-r !

Best wishes

Peter

Well done Charlotte, your considerable patience and perseverance seems to have done the trick. I hope your camera is as good as new when it comes back.

Best wishes
David

Well done Charlotte - really pleased for you.

(I've bought one of the bargain K-30's and will use my K-r as a back up for that if I can't sell it at a decent price. Great price on the K-30, not so great for used K-r prices)