Bob Kozlarek made it clear that:
1) He is active on the foums on his own free time. He gets no incentive from Panasonic for doing it (and, as I understand, had to overcome some resistance and be subject to restrictions).
2) Panasonic Japan (the people who call the shots) and probably other branches as well do not consider a handful of enthusiasts on photo forums to be a target demographic.
I'm too tired to search right now but if you check his posts on Steve's Digicams you'll find exact quotes to that effect.
Only if they are shown a correlation between the amount of bitching on the forum and the level of worldwide sales of Panasonic cameras. Can you?
Believes are wonderfull things. No proof is needed, no facts are required...
Out of the total population of Panasonic digicam owners, what percentage have contacted Panasonic directly to express their displeasure with the cameras and to state that they will not be buying anything from Panasonic unless their concerns are addressed?
How many people worldwide have returned their Panasonic cameras because of their flaws?
Different companies have different policies. Some release upgrades for free, others prefer to either introduce another model (FZ2) or sell an upgrade for 6000 Yen.
Actualy, you have a privilege to do so on Phil's forum, not a right .
Most owners who are active on this forum were aware of the limitation before they bought the camera.
Fair enough. But tell me this: How many people at Panasonic have you contacted directly about the issue? Have you sent any emails? Faxes? Snail-mail letters? Made any phone calls? Organized petitions? Picketed outside their headquarters? Went to photo stores and persuaded people not to buy Panasonic cameras? Started media campaings?
Is anyone at Panasonic (aside from Bob, who has very little clout in Panasonic and does not seem to share your convivtions) aware of your gripes? Or even of your existance?
