You make good points but in fairness to WHE, the person I spoke to didn't have personal knowledge of the recall and rang Pentax to check what to do. They told him (and I overheard) to have it picked up by Fedex and sent direct to them and they would replace it.

When I complained, the replies were interesting, in that Pentax said 'they would look into it', ie no sense of urgency at all whereas WHE took my complaint on board and sent me a new camera by return.

Early adopters, yes and usually I never do buy at the beginning, waiting for prices to drop, revised firmware etc. But I had such a good offer on my GX20 that I couldn't turn it down.

What I have found is that there is not that much that my little Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f1.7 and 14-140 mm lenses can not do. As these camera types are further developed, I think the DSLR will have a bit of a fight on its hands for sales to keen amateurs and hobbyists.

I wonder if it is a field that Pentax will enter?

Anyway, I have my K5 back and am happy now - all's well that ends well!

Sorry to disappoint

Seriously, since I sounded off about it I should report the happy ending. On Monday I emailed Pentax saying that unless they supplied my replacement by Friday I would take small claims court action over it. I got an email back saying they would look into it. Duh!!

I emailed a copy of the email to Warehouse Express who got on the phone to me and sent a replacement straight away and thanked me for being so reasonable. I can't imagine why Pentax said that WHE should send the camera from me to them for replacement but I heard it said and they did.

I received the camera this morning and have just spent an hour setting it all up with user mode settings and all the other stuff.

Having been without the camera for as long as I had it, I had forgotten why I'd bought it. It's a lovely little device and it's nice to have it back.

WHE contacted Pentax who told them to have the camera picked up directly from me and delivered to them, whence they would send the replacement directly to me, so I don't really think it is WHE who are messing me about.

Either way, this is obviously getting boring with me harping on now.

If I don't get a new camera this week, I shall ask for a refund. I loved the K5 but given my personal experience of Pentax service I'll get a D7000 with the money since Nikon UK's HQ is a 15 minute bike ride away from me and I got excellent service from them in my pro days.

If I do this, I have some quite tasty Pentax lenses that I will want to unload smartish - maybe a bargain or two available!

John, thanks for your helpful comments in particular but to everyone else too. I feel confident now that I am not unreasonable.

I am glad your experience was positive - but I can't quite see the relevance to my original post.

Are you saying that you think I am being unreasonable? I'm unsure for how long I should resign myself to being without my K5.

To address my question, how long would you have considered reasonable without communication or have been willing to wait?

I don't want to start any controversy here.

I take John's point but I did what Pentax told me to do which was to contact WHE. The (very helpful) customer service man I spoke to said he was aware of the recall and would phone me back after consulting with Pentax on the arrangements for the recall. He called back and both he and I did what Pentax instructed.

Obviously, I've been suckered here but I'm dealing with two reputable organisations and I'm surprised. As it stands at the moment I am £1000 down with no idea when I'll get my camera. I'm glad I'm not being considered unreasonable - unfortunately, I also wish I'd never bought the K5 and it has soured my opinion of Pentax (or Hoya) no end.

I thought they'd responded swiftly to right a problem - like I say, it appears to have been window dressing in my case at least.

Luckily, I had my lovely little GF1 with 40mm f1.7 for my hols- what a lens!

I contacted Pentax on reading about the recall, who told me that all replacements would be handled through the retailer, Warehouse Express in this case.

WH sent Fedex to me to pick up the camera to be taken to Pentax and Pentax, when I asked to get the replacement in time for my holiday, told me the replacement would be sent directly to me from them. They did also say that they had no information on how long this would take.

This is a quote from the email from Pentax UK:

"The unit is currently awaiting a replacement due to the sensor mark. We have chased these but unfortunately we have not been given a date for the delivery of the replacements. We will forward the replacement unit as soon as the shipment arrives."

I assume that deliveries to SRS, WH et all all come from Pentax so their excuse looks lame, to say the least.

I feel I have paid out £1000 and am being fobbed off - and I don't like that

I returned my Pentax K5 with sensor marks to Pentax 5 weeks ago. I asked if possible could I get the replacement before I went on holiday, 3 weeks after it was returned.

I have heard nothing and am now back from my holiday. What annoys me is that having paid for the camera, I am now left without it for what seems to be an unforeseeable amount of time, with no update or communication from Pentax.

They cannot replace my camera in a reasonable time yet are able to stock retailers with new ones for sale. In other words of you want one, you can get it straight away. But if I want the one I have already paid for, they cannot supply it.

I feel really sore about this. I thought Pentax were handling the sensor issue well originally but that appears just to have been window dressing.
I'm going to leave it for another week or so and then contact trading standards to see if I cannot insist on a schedule for replacement.

In my view, 5 weeks is already too long. Am I unreasonable?

I went into PC World in Fulham yesterday to replace a defunct wifi router.
As I usually do, I had a nose around the cameras having bought some good bargains there before.

And there was a Pentax AF-360FGZ flash - brand new, obviously, boxed, guaranteed etc - for £99. I know Pentax flashes aren't cheap so I bought it without the research I normally do before buying.

It's paid off on this occasion. A lovely flash - and listed at £269 at SRS. All I have to do now is wait for my sensor blobbed K5 replacement to arrive!

I bought a Pentax 35mm f2 there a while back for £150 - I do like bargains but I wonder why they let stuff go so cheaply?

They reflect it by writing about them and featuring them more. I can't see where you get the idea that I said they knowingly give better reviews of them. That's just putting words in my mouth.

What you stated as a well know fact is not, in my personal experience, a fact. That's why I queried it.

If you have experience of reviewing and have been offered inducements, then it would be a fact for you and I would have to agree with you but since you didn't cite an example I made the possibly unwarranted assumption that you didn't know it be a fact.

I don't think it's fair to accuse people of unprofessional conduct without any grounds as I am sure you would agree, so if you have factual knowledge of it occurring, I apologise.

A fact is something which can be demonstrated to be true - a 'well known fact' usually means that the writer believes something but cannot demonstrate it. Saying it enough times does make it 'well known' but does not make it fact.

I have reviewed editorially both motorcycles and computers and I've never come across any pressure from any source.

The fact is that the majority of the DSLR market goes to Canon and Nikon and any magazine that did not reflect that would be cutting its own throat.

I don't often read here that there is a bias towards Photoshop and against Paint Shop Pro. That's because most people here use Photoshop so they accept that most magazines feature it more heavily than PPP.

I used to have a mate who was a motoring editor of a national newspaper. His bete noire was people who already owned the marque was he testing. They would accuse him of bias - as he came to realise, all they really wanted of his tests was reassurance they had bought the 'best' car.