If Pentax UK vanished would anyone notice?

Or to put it another way - is Pentax UK the most dozy and lifeless Pentax office in the world? As someone else wrote once in a similar context, if silence is a mask for unease then (Pentax UK) must be in a state of panic.

A couple of months ago I contacted their press and PR representatives asking a simple question about who to send some information to. Result - silence.

I contacted Pentax UK directly asking the same question. Result - silence.

I see now, days after the K20D and K200D announcements, that Pentax UK persists in the belief that the most recent Pentax DSLR announced is the Grand Prix edition of the K10D. I see they also think that the best award they have received of late (on their DSLR page) is Novice Camera of the year 2007.

I wonder how Hoya will react when they discover that having their products marketed and supported in the UK is like being represented by a petrified forest.

If anyone from Pentax UK management has roused themselves from their slumbers for long enough to browse this forum, please read and inwardly digest this message: If you want to start enhancing your market share, do wake up and try a bit harder.

Well said

I've only had call to contact Pentax UK once (via email) and received a helpful reply within 15 minutes - perhaps my experience is not typical though...

You've obviously never had to deal with the Pentax importers in the Netherlands.
When Pentax had their own place in Breda they were well known for their good service but whe that closed we were left with the useless importer to deal with everything. Hopeless.

Mindyou, the news page of this Pentax User site thinks the latest news is the 18-250 lens...

Pentax NL has the Optio S10 as it's latest news. Enough said

On the other hand, they've (or someone has) managed to get the K100D listed in the latest Argos catalogue. Not, perhaps, everyone's idea of a great place to buy a camera, but a sign of mass market appeal/uptake. Previously I've only ever seen the Canon/Nikon entry level SLRs in there.

Not sure how many sales they'll make - anyone reading the small print might be put off by the fact that it's shown as weighing 795kg!

Robin

They have listed the K20D, they seem to have waited until the weekend was over...

I was very shocked when I found out that Pentax NL in Breda had closed when they did. It was just a few weeks before I had to visit a customer which is close to where the Pentax office was. I wanted to go to the Pentax office because they allways had a collection of demo and refurbished equipment for sale at very good prices.

They representative of Pentax in NL at the moment is nothing more then a box-pusher as we call it in the Netherlands. They don't know what they sell and they don't care what they sell as long as they make money out of it.

Golfdiesel said:
Sad, but true....I think the small market in the Netherlands doesn,t justify a Pentax NL office anymore. Even Nikon closed down INCA for the same reasons and relocated in Germany. Cost effective, they call it. Don't be suprised if your next Pentax item bought in the near future has an German sticker on it.
Martin.

Even Canon rely on their importer in NL, and, having had dealings with both, the Canon one make the Pentax one look great!

Does Germany also offer a two guarantee on Pentax cameras? I don't think the UK does for instance.
I don't mind dealin with Germany as long as I can communicate with them. I don't speak German at all, though i can understand a fair bit. Would have to get my daughter-in-law to have to deal with them for me otherwise. (She's German )

All the Germans I have ever met speak fluent English, so communication should not be difficult!

Well most I have met don't (or won't?) speak much if any English. And in e-mails and the like they assume because I have a Dutch (e-mail) address that I speak German.
Gets very frustrating at times.
But hopefully we will still get service, such as it is from the Dutch importer for the foreseeable future.

That's very intriguing. Perhaps they realise that the British are utterly hopeless at speaking anything aprt from English.

I was about to say it's your accent - then remembered where the forum was based... We have a British Ex-pat that hangs around at the local watering hole with us, and he gets right irate when someone suggests that he has an accent - He says it's impossible for an 'Englishman' (note capitalization - that's how he says it) to have an English accent - goes on to state that he's probably the only one in the pub without an accent...

My french teacher in high school was from Trinidad, but had been taught at a University in London - now that was a complex accent...

At the risk of alienating most of the people here...

Isn't it quite remarkable that the further south (sorry, sarf) Englishmen live, the more they are convinced everyone else has an accent. BBC (nothing exists beyond the M25) Radio 4 listeners were once incensed that a Scotsman, James Noughtie, would present 'Today'.

Everyone has an accent ant the more the merrier!