If you're waiting for your 800 in the UK....

I've just been told by a well known high street supplier (You'll know them by their legendary diabolical customer service/bad attitude) that they have received only 16 units today.

!

They have a waiting list of orders that goes into the hundreds, and they're still taking orders.

The one thing they can't do is tell you where you are on the list, effectively tying you in to staying on that waiting list and liking it. (Although it was suggested that I order with someone else and if that camera came through I could always cancel with them [Thanks for that])

Regardless of what Nikon are up to with this release, this has got to be the worst customer service I've encountered when spending over 2K on something. Scrub that - when spending any amount of money.

Are you being told when you can expect your camera?

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examples of my photography at http://www.alexanderleaman.co.uk

Jessops by any chance?!

I have had mine on order since Tuesday 7th Feb 11:30am.

Have I heard anything -no. I have phoned a couple of times and 3 weeks ago was told the middle of April for delivery. I would now consider this the middle of April...?

I may well give them a call today and see what they can tell me. I know it isn't the resellers fault and I am frankly disgusted at Nikon UK.

Was in Jessops today (16th April 2012). I asked about ordering a D800. The salesman showed me his monitor with stock availability........

The screen showed 1600 units ordered from Nikon!!!!

The screen also showed 418 units preordered!!!!

When I said to him that if I ordered today that would make me 419th in line and did he think that I would get the camera within 6 months time, he almost collapsed with laughter!!!

hey Shaun432x

Is this a true story? Only it's nearly exactly the same as something I read on another thread a few days ago.
Y'know, the one where "he almost collapsed with laughter."

Look, I know they're a bunch of idiots, but it's doubtful that they would laugh in your face in the shop. Twice.

Rude, obnoxious, incompetent, and withholding information - yes, but they're apparent scheming might suggest that they're not stupid.

No. Stupid would be going into the same store, and asking the same guy if you could order a D800 after already being told that there was (hysterically) no chance according to his previous stock check.

I'm also thinking that if you need to make up anecdotes to sound more interesting, that this particular avenue sucks for you. Try a travelling story, or hot chick tale, something like that. Retail hilarity - not so "wow"

Shaun432x said:

Was in Jessops today (16th April 2012). I asked about ordering a D800. The salesman showed me his monitor with stock availability........

The screen showed 1600 units ordered from Nikon!!!!

The screen also showed 418 units preordered!!!!

When I said to him that if I ordered today that would make me 419th in line and did he think that I would get the camera within 6 months time, he almost collapsed with laughter!!!

Click to expand...

--
examples of my photography at http://www.alexanderleaman.co.uk

From what I've been told they have only had 96 units in total, including the 16 they might be getting today.

That doesn't bode well for the 400+ pre-orders that they are trying to fulfil, and that's just online orders.

• Oh, BTW, These are numbers I have been quoted over the phone by different people. There's no way of actually knowing how correct these numbers are. The rep told me earlier that she "wishes they would just take the bloody thing off the website, but it's not my choice".

Still they take orders, which is fine for any retailer, but to have absolutely no information (as in "I'm sorry [jadot], Nobody here can tell you where you are on the list") and be blatantly unable to deal with their customers on a basic human level is a joke.

Not a very funny one.

PaidPeanuts said:

Jessops by any chance?!

I have had mine on order since Tuesday 7th Feb 11:30am.

Have I heard anything -no. I have phoned a couple of times and 3 weeks ago was told the middle of April for delivery. I would now consider this the middle of April...?

I may well give them a call today and see what they can tell me. I know it isn't the resellers fault and I am frankly disgusted at Nikon UK.

Click to expand...

--
examples of my photography at http://www.alexanderleaman.co.uk

Yes, what I posted was true!

The salesman was at all time courteous and helpful.

He did laugh and so did I. We both thought the situation was ridiculous...

418 people having ordered before me... meaning huge waiting list.

I have never said that the staff in that shop were rude or unhelpful.

I have bought loads of stuff from them and they have always been great with me.

I posted my experience to give other people in the UK a "heads up" regarding waiting lists.

I do not make things up to improve my anecdotes, please apologize at once!

I am one of the lucky people who has already received my D800 from Jessops, but I can only say that my local Llandudno store have always been extremely helpful and polite, and the staff there appear to be passionate photographers with knowledge of their products.

This may not be the case everywhere, but the staff shouldn't all be described as being of the same standard.

It needs to be noted also that Jessops, like all other retailers, have ordered more than enough cameras to satisfy their pre-orders, but can only issue stock when they receive it from Nikon, and it also depends on how their central warehouse allocates bodies to individual stores.

hmmmm. It seems to be getting worse by the day. I had no idea it was such a bleak situation before i started watching this forum over the past week.

Looking on the positive side though... surely if none have been shipped out since the first batch 3 weeks ago then Nikon must have been working on the problems with the first batch for at least 2 weeks by now already... so hopefully they'll be back producing in large quantities very soon, maybe at that point we'll get an announcement of sorts.

If Jessops pre ordered 1600 they must have thought they had a good chance of getting a few hundred at least in the first shipment. They surely base their estimates on previous Nikon orders.

Waiting isn't so bad, i'd be more p@ssed if I had to send them back a week later because they malfunctioned.

It's obviously not their fault that they haven't been allocated anywhere near enough stock, but it is a problem that they can't tell their customers where they are on a waiting list, and if they can expect to get more than up to twenty units at a time.

e.g.. If I'm number 200 on the list (who knows) and they're only getting 20 units on a perhaps per-week basis then I know that I have to wait 10 weeks for the camera. I can work around that by buying another D700 (let's say) in the interim. If I'm number 21 on the list, then I can estimate that I can wait for perhaps two weeks, so would hold off on buying the D700.

If I don't know, then I have to spend out on the D700 to enable me to work - I don't want to do that unless I have to.

All Jessops have to do is say: "you are xxx on the list, and with the current rate of allocation from Nikon plus the amount of cameras we have on (back) order we can estimate that you could receive your camera in xxx weeks. If we get them in sooner than that we'll let you know."

Instead there is no information, and they're compounding the problem by continuing to take pre-orders for the camera. Surely they should be focussing on limiting the damage to customer relations which are evidently already tense, and deal with the volume of orders they already can't cope with.
Though I have to say, the damage is already done here.

david357 said:

I am one of the lucky people who has already received my D800 from Jessops, but I can only say that my local Llandudno store have always been extremely helpful and polite, and the staff there appear to be passionate photographers with knowledge of their products.

This may not be the case everywhere, but the staff shouldn't all be described as being of the same standard.

It needs to be noted also that Jessops, like all other retailers, have ordered more than enough cameras to satisfy their pre-orders, but can only issue stock when they receive it from Nikon, and it also depends on how their central warehouse allocates bodies to individual stores.

Click to expand...

--
examples of my photography at http://www.alexanderleaman.co.uk

Just spoken to Mathers or Lancashire and Nikon UK have said they'll get another 3 D800 bodies this week. I think that'll make a total of 7 so far. I'm in the early 20s on their waiting list so the anticipation goes on....

I dont wish to make excuses for Jessops but from my own enquiries it would appear that all of the big retailers are in the same boat. For their sins all they have done is advertise a product for pre-order based on information supplied to them in advance by Nikon UK

Nikon UK and Nikon worldwide would have known well in advance of release that dealers had pre-orders in the hundreds yet it would appear provided no advance information on how they intended to meet it. For the March 22nd release day and subsequently since there has been a trickle trickle effect on distribution leaving dealers with no information as to when or how many they will receive until they virtually arrive.

I bet the majority of telephone calls to dealers over last four weeks have been D800 related.

Even Emails to Nikon UK for information is met with "smoke and mirrors"

No matter how much we deplore the situation the reality is that we are all going to have to wait for our D800's as there is nothing else on the market to match it at the current price point and Nikon know that.

Grunt. Just popped in here to see if I could get a D800 after Park Cameras failed to supply me with an OM-D (doing slightly better than you, at least they were able to tell me).

OK, so no new camera then. Oh well, at least my wallet with be relieved!
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam
http://thegentlemansnapper.blogspot.com

Silverstreaks said:

I bet the majority of telephone calls to dealers over last four weeks have been D800 related.

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I'd agree with that - I would also expect a huge retailer to be able to communicate better than they have done with customers. If they continue to take more pre-orders, they stretch their customer services even further as more and more of those calls come in to complain, and they struggle on a basic level to cope.

1)Ok, take pre-orders, but have the decency to clearly explain to people that there is an unquantifiable waiting list for this camera and at the moment there is no guarantee that you'll receive your camera within 6 months [or whatever]

2)Be honest - tell people where they are on the waiting list. Email them daily if you have to.

3)If that scares you as a retailer, then have an information page for such high profile products that says - We're just being honest in telling you this stuff, but it's the same with every retailer in the UK, and if someone's telling you otherwise then they're lying.

Instead I've had the opposite, pretty much. Something along the lines of "yeah, of course you'll have your camera by the end of March! Just sign here..." to be followed with "It's not our fault, it's Nikon. You'll just have to wait in line, or cancel your order and see if we care - you won't find anyone who'll have one in stock now, etc....

They simply haven't got the customer service bit right. I don't mind having to wait - I've got other cameras I can use. I just don't like being lied to (I was, I'm not just cry babying here) and I don't like being told "uhhh, I dunno?" when I'm spending £2.5K on a chunk of camera.

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examples of my photography at http://www.alexanderleaman.co.uk

I suspect that the U.S, China, Russia,will get first bite of the apple.
Everybody else, especially UK is small fry.

This may or may not be of any interest to anyone but i thought i'd mention it, the nikon MB-12 grip on my online order list went off 'back order' one assumes that Jessops have had a delivery in the past 24hours.... i hope some lucky people get there allocated bodies from this delivery.

I have a D800 on order from 7th Feb and still not heard anything. In the meantime I have got one in the USA and should have it by the end of this week. If anyone would be interested to pick up my order then I am considering put the item on the for sale forum but I can't until I get the camera in my hands.

Personally I'm not in this situation as I can pay for my D800 when I get it (afford it is another question entirely) but this lack of information from suppliers and Nikon UK creates a nasty problem for many people.

Obviously these cameras represent large chunks of money and many are having to sell their present cameras in order to be able to afford the purchase. Not realising the supply problem was going to be so acute many have already sold and are now without cameras. Those that haven't are in the position of waiting an indeterminate period, which may be very long, during which their cameras are losing value fast.

It's not the long wait that's the problem it's the lack of hard information that makes it impossible to plan. I'm just sitting tight and hoping nobody cancels my order.
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Brian
Fine Art Print sales of the Isle of Skye at:
http://www.eyeofskye.co.uk/

Many on this forum have quoted similar problems with previous models such as D200 and D2x models also suffering delays Although I dont recall any problem in sourcing my own D2x and was lucky enough to get my D700 on the day it was released here in the UK

I am still awaiting my D800 despite using the same dealer from whence my D700 came. Up to now I believe they have received just one D800 in over 4 weeks so Im not expecting mine to turn up anytime soon

It appears this is the Nikon way of doing things just brazen it out, after all they have a model which is flying off the shelves and its not as if they have any real competition

Eventually we will all get our D800 ----- eventually

Many on this forum have quoted similar problems with previous models such as D200 and D2x models also suffering delays Although I dont recall any problem in sourcing my own D2x and was lucky enough to get my D700 on the day it was released here in the UK

I am still awaiting my D800 despite using the same dealer from whence my D700 came. Up to now I believe they have received just one D800 in over 4 weeks so Im not expecting mine to turn up anytime soon

It appears this is the Nikon way of doing things just brazen it out, after all they have a model which is flying off the shelves and its not as if they have any real competition

Eventually we will all get our D800 ----- eventually

McKie said:

Just spoken to Mathers or Lancashire and Nikon UK have said they'll get another 3 D800 bodies this week. I think that'll make a total of 7 so far. I'm in the early 20s on their waiting list so the anticipation goes on....

Click to expand...

Wow. Last I heard, mathers had over 300 pre-orders because they were listing the camera at £2099.

So that that rate of 3 a week, it'll be two years to clear the list

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My travel photography blog - http://www.frescoglobe.com