Pentax Repair - Positive Experience

Given people are sometimes keen to complain, I thought it might be nice to note that my K-7, which was posted to SRS for repair on 4 January, has returned to them in just over 2½ weeks.

I know that Johnsons were closed over the Christmas period, followed by the snow, and it sounds like they did quite a lot (new PCB and other stuff as well as general clean and service plus updated firmware etc). Don't ask - my camera really wasn't very well over Christmas!

All in all, I don't think that I've had to wait excessively long, and as long as the problems are indeed solved (will only know when I get it), I'd say that I'm happy. I know people complained when Pentax moved its service, but Johnsons are used by other big manufacturers too - maybe they know what they're doing.........

SRS, as you would probably expect, were also good at keeping me informed and doing a bit of prodding this week.

Will post again once I know all is working, but if others are dreading warrantee repair worries, I'd suggest that things may work out better than you fear!

Glad to hear your K-7 is back at SRS, I hope all will be well with it now.

I must admit, I've rarely had to use Pentax service and even in the dark old days, it was acceptable at usually around 3-4 weeks if things had to go to Germany. The longest repair time was when my FA*300 had to go back to Japan for replacement parts and re-alignment (my fault) after being sent to Germany (they couldn't do the work), that took a total of around 4 months!

I think that Johnsons now have a pretty reasonable handle on Pentax repairs, I believe some staff from Pentax UK actually joined them and moved there.

Thanks Richard - actually SRS have sent it back (!) as I also asked for a quote to have the bottom plate replaced (at my cost). I slipped on a long walk the first weekend I had the camera (when they first came out), and had decided to live with the scuff on its bottom - but given it was sent for repair anyway, I've decided that an extra £45 to get it back in as new condition seems like a reasonable deal.

Aside from the fact that, at the time, I was covered head to toe in mud (and I can confirm the K-7 is mud-resistant!) the real insult was that by far the best photograph I took that day was the accidental shot when I pressed the shutter in mid-fall!

I've heard that one before, it really makes you think why you're trying so hard...

How did you get the mud off btw, just put it under the tap?

Hi Stefan - I wasn't brave enough to do that, although I know of people who have showered their Olympus E-1's and had no problems. Luckily there was a nearby mother with young child and box of nappy-wipes! These got most of the gunk of the camera (well,just another form of brown squidgy stuff I suppose) until I got home. I then used a lightly dampened anti-static cloth, which sorted out the rest (and removed the smell of nappy wipes) no problem.