quality and customer service

I am considering either the Olympus C-750 or the C-5060. The concern I have relates to the number of complaints about poor reliability and subsequent poor handling of the problems by Olympus Customer Service.

In particular I am concerned about the number of people reporting "button lock-up" on the 5060, and also one complaint I read about internal electronics corrosion causing failure on a C-750. In each of these cases, it appears Olympus customer service was unwilling to correct the problems to the customer's satisfaction.

In general I have seen more complaints about product failure and poor customer service related to Olympus products than any other manufacturer

Any comments would be appreciated.

John S

I didn't have any problems with 'button lock-up' but I did have problems with the focusing mechanism on the first camera I got. My dealer replaced it without question.

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Theresa
The Digital Junkie! (w/an Oly C-5060)

Thanks Theresa

I am also hoping to get inputs from someone who has had to use Olympus customer service. It is amazing to note that even in this forum, how many people seem to have broken Olympus cameras.
John S

Theresa K said:

I didn't have any problems with 'button lock-up' but I did have
problems with the focusing mechanism on the first camera I got. My
dealer replaced it without question.

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Theresa
The Digital Junkie! (w/an Oly C-5060)

Click to expand...

Hi,

I don't think Olys break more often. If you have a look into the other forums, there are also many issues, especially with the DSLRs. Many people start to use the forums after they got a problem,

Within the family we do have 4 Canon and 3 Olympus cameras. All 4 Canon's had to be sent in for repair at least once, the Olys are running fine although they are used more often.

Despite this bad experience with the Canon quality, I am very pleased with their service. My EOS broke during a holiday in the middle of Australia. They fixed it within 2 weeks and even provided me with a free spare cam to use during that time.

AFAIK Olympus does not have a global warranty, so this can cause trouble when not being in your home country..

brgds...TC

Thank you very much for your insight

John S

Out of curiosity, I went to some other forums and searched for "broken" and got lots of responses on all the forums I searched. Clearly, people don't post when they aren't having a problem. I have had my C5050z for almost a year now. It's my walkaround camera so when I leave my apartment it's hanging around my neck, every day. It's banged into door occasionally, fallen off a table twice, been rained on a little, and generally gets used well. The only thing I'm particularly careful with is the battery door. I haven't had a problem with it but it just seems sort of delicate. I always do the lock on it. If I'm opening the flash card door I always have the strap around my neck so if I do drop it, it won't land on the open door.

I did have a problem with it occasionally locking up when I switched modes and would normally turn it off to change modes but upgrading to version 82 seems to have solved that problem.

That said, their failure for the months I've had my camera to allow me to upgrade the firmware made me question their customer service. Either they considered their customers stupid or didn't care about them and neither impressed me. Now, I understand, they've started posting upgrades for users to flash their firmware. That's good.

What I've found John, is that happy people typically don't run around telling everyone what made their day.

Did you ever notice that women only tell the horror stories about childbirth?

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Theresa
The Digital Junkie! (w/an Oly C-5060)

If yer gonna base your buying decisions on other peoples experiences, you'll likely miss out on lots of goodies. Like Theresa says, most people don't mention the things they're happy with, only the disappointments.

You ever know of someone who buys a 'lemon' of a motor car? Naturally enough 'that' model is the worst car ever made, irrespective of the 2 or 3 million identical cars that owners are absolutely delighted with. Make your own decision, if you get burnt, at least you made the decision and learn from it.

jack
http://www.pbase.com/jackeroo