Sigma's no response to Emails

[Frank38343]

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology, and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed in their not responding....if this is the way they treat prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a Foveon Sensor....Frank

 

[Dominic Groß]

No marketing at all, not too responsive here in Europe and not at all in the USA (many people complained about unanwsered emails). Sad story...
--

Pictures taken with an old analog Sigma and scanned from Film: http://www.pbase.com/dgross
ICQ UIN: 289647506

 

[Ken N]

That's pretty much on how I feel.....the next camera I buy will have the Foveon sensor unless it just isn't available anymore. I'm just not convinced that Sigma's the brand of camera I want to buy.

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

 

[Laurence Matson]

Frank,

I don't mean to be presumptuous, but could you put your list of questions here and we will see how many we can answer or get answered for you. Otherwise, send me a mail. I answer them.

Laurence

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

--
http://www.pbase.com/lmatson/sd9_images
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/user_home
http://www.beachbriss.com (eternal test site)

 

[Zone8]

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them

I have been OK with service from Sigma in the UK and Foveon in the US of A so sorry to hear of your lack of response. Can only assume the person receiving the queries 9s the wrong one - not that it's easy to sort that one out if you used their website contact e-mail service, of course.

Laurence has suggested you e-mail him and that should be a very positive step to take.

Zone8

 

[Frank38343]

Thank you Laurence for your concern...the question I posed to Sigma was,I thought quite simple...I asked if they were working on a fix for the issues raised in the various reviews of the SD9......that is why I stated in my post that only Sigma could answer the question....hopefully someone can pry the answer loose from Sigma.....what bothers me most is they didn't have the decency to answer my Emails.....thanks to all....Frank

I don't mean to be presumptuous, but could you put your list of
questions here and we will see how many we can answer or get
answered for you. Otherwise, send me a mail. I answer them.

Laurence

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

--
http://www.pbase.com/lmatson/sd9_images
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/user_home
http://www.beachbriss.com (eternal test site)

 

[acanthusarch]

I too am spoiled by the instant gratification of the internet; online buying / testing / interaction. Unfortuneately I have found most companies lack in the online communications department. I've contacted Sigma 3-4 times, but I used the old fashioned hi-tech method: The phone. If you call between business hours, they're quick to answer and very helpful. Give it a shot.

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/contact.htm

Good Luck!

 

[Dominic Groß]

I assume you are talking about the color clippings and blown out highlights?

I don't think this is a problem that Sigma can fix, it is connected to a sensor problem, if one channel is blown out you loose the others as well, and therefore the SD9 tends to underexpose to avoid this. However I had one picture today that showed a reflective blue shirt, it looked blown out on some areas (on the camera display) but ok on the Computer, maybe it is, maybe not. I can't see any funny colors around the blowouts, but the shirt is out of focus....

I don't mean to be presumptuous, but could you put your list of
questions here and we will see how many we can answer or get
answered for you. Otherwise, send me a mail. I answer them.

Laurence

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

--
http://www.pbase.com/lmatson/sd9_images
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/user_home
http://www.beachbriss.com (eternal test site)

--

Pictures taken with an old analog Sigma and scanned from Film: http://www.pbase.com/dgross
ICQ UIN: 289647506

 

[Ladehaug]

No marketing at all, not too responsive here in Europe and not at
all in the USA (many people complained about unanwsered emails).
Sad story...

You are touching a very important issue here Dominic. For example: Doing a quick search today, not a single webshop in Norway has the SD9 in their sortiment. The Canon 10D is already listed on 11 sites. That obviously tells something about the marketing strategy of Sigma. It also tells something about the marked in general and what considerations dealers are doing in order to have profitable products in their sortiment.

The main question that any camera dealer will ask themself is: Will it be profitable to introduce a new camera brand like Sigma in their sortiment? If Canon, Nikon, Fuji etc currently provides better business deals than they can get with Sigma, they will most likely not introduce Sigma in their sortiment. Other considerations are service and reliability of a certain product. If Sigma cannot offer a good service (and return policy) that protects both the dealer and end user economically in case of claims done by the end users, the dealer will most likely not take the risc to have any economical loss. We do not know the "return rate" of Sigma products, but I suspect it is very high compared to most of the more "reputable" brands like Canon, Nikon etc. This is about quality control, which is clearly not so good with Sigma as we could wish for. Dealers do not want to risc using too much time and money on this unless they get some compensation. The same can be said about most people that are considering investing a camera of course. They generally don't want to risc having problems with quality and potential loss of money when they invest in something new.

Geir

 

[Ladehaug]

I don't think this is a problem that Sigma can fix, it is connected
to a sensor problem, if one channel is blown out you loose the

I believe it is possible to fix the color clipping by processing the raw data differently. I've been looking at the pure raw data, so I can see what causes the problem and also how the Sigma PhotoPro deals with the problem by simply clipping the colors. I'm convinced that it can be done differently with a little more sophisticated processing.

Geir

 

[GodSpeaks]

This is a great argument to avoid the Sigma SD9. Lets hope the next foveon chip come in a real camera body (Nikon/Canon).

Declan

 

[Roger]

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

Frank

What country are you emailing from or to? I've never had any problems with Sigma getting back to me here in the USA. You might ask your questions of the people here, they probley have more answers than Sigma and will give you more honest answers.
Enjoy
Roger
Elite photography

 

[whiteOrangedesign]

I wouldn't say that Sigma isn't marketing the product. Not only do they have an ad in every photo mag I have picked up in the past few months but each of these magazines have had a review of the SD9. Most of the reviews have been great. There were a few in which the reviewer obviously didn't know how to use the camera. One complained about how long it took to pull the images up in PhotoPro when they were trying to load them directly from the camera without loading them onto the computer first. It's just simple common sense when using Digicams to download the images to the computer first. It's sad that the future of a technology such as this which has the potential to revolutionize the industry is in the hands of such unqualified reviewers.

--



http://www.whiteorangedesign.com/

 

[Stephen Waits]

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

 

[Barry Thompson]

Hello Frank

I have two direct contacts within the Sigma UK organisation. I always get replies to my e-mails, sometimes with the line "We have passed your query to Sigma Japan for clarification".

They are also helpful when contacting by telephone, I always ask for the SD9 "expert" by name.

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

--
Barry - SDNiner
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/index.htm

 

[montespluga]

agree, with Richard Geir, not necessarly in sense of having no webshop, but of general policy:

Sigma, as newbee "against" the "established Bayer-mafia", has a hard stand.

This situation just can be turned to the positive side, by clear signals from Sigma.

One of these would be: We provide good service, another: Yes, Sigma will bring out the full foveon chip in ca two years.
this would make it easier to a potential client, to make a decision for the sd9.

Buying a digicam means to decide for a camera standart (SA-Mount/sigma). From canon, everbody is expecting to have a follower-camera within 1 1/2 year. I don't have necessairly to get today the best = most expensive one. Today, I might buy a good one, and in two years, buy another (= better) body.

If Sigma could provide some potential customers with such informations, I'm pretty sure, that they will sell much more sd9's.

regards, montespluga

 

[Laurence Matson]

Frank,

To be honest, yours is a pretty general question, and I can understand it not being given a priority. I am not familiar with Sigma's CR team practices, mail routing procedures, or response time rules. However, I do know that companies do not like to get involved in speculative issues. Again, not knowing Sigma's policy, there are many companies which have a 'no negative-engagement' rule. This is best illustrated by Rolls-Royce, which for years would never publically admit to any defects in any of its automobiles even when documented. "That just does not happen to a Rolls."

Having said that, I think that at least a boilerplate response to such an inquiry should be possible.

Somewhere, there was an article about Sigma's development plans, where they stated that they were not working on a new camera at the moment. That is always a safe statement to make when you are trying to sell a product. Sony and Canon are no different in that respect. This is understandable.

That they are working on problems can be seen through their response to specific issues. I know that not all of the national companies have handled such problems uniformly, but there have been good responses to dust issues, battery problems, flash, and sensor alignment. Those who have not benefited from such response times are understandably disappointed.

In this business environment, I understand the reluctance of any of the companies to respond to much. They control their destinies to a large extent by controlling information. Nevertheless, a polite canned response remains the minimum.

Laurence

I don't mean to be presumptuous, but could you put your list of
questions here and we will see how many we can answer or get
answered for you. Otherwise, send me a mail. I answer them.

Laurence

I have Emailed Sigma three times in the past two months,as yet have
not received a response to any of them....if they can't or don't
want to answer my inquiries, at least say so ,but don't completely
ignore them.In the Emails, I stated I liked the Foveon technology,
and was very interested in purchasing the SD9,however I had a few
questions(that only Sigma could answer)that I would like
answered,before making my decision to buy......very dissappointed
in their not responding....if this is the way they treat
prospective customers, they will, and most likely have, a very
difficult time competing in the DSLR market.... I hope the Foveon
technology survives...presently, I will not buy a DSLR without a
Foveon Sensor....Frank

--
http://www.pbase.com/lmatson/sd9_images
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/user_home
http://www.beachbriss.com (eternal test site)

--
http://www.pbase.com/lmatson/sd9_images
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/user_home
http://www.beachbriss.com (eternal test site)

 

[Ladehaug]

agree, with Richard Geir, not necessarly in sense of having no
webshop, but of general policy: Sigma, as newbee "against" the
"established Bayer-mafia", has a hard stand. This situation just
can be turned to the positive side, by clear signals from Sigma.
One of these would be: We provide good service, another: Yes,
Sigma will bring out the full foveon chip in ca two years. this
would make it easier to a potential client, to make a decision for
the sd9. Buying a digicam means to decide for a camera standart
(SA-Mount/sigma). From canon, everbody is expecting to have a
follower-camera within 1 1/2 year. I don't have necessairly to get
today the best = most expensive one. Today, I might buy a good one,
and in two years, buy another (= better) body. If Sigma could
provide some potential customers with such informations, I'm pretty
sure, that they will sell much more sd9's.

With the very limited network of dealers (this is at least the case here in Norway), Sigma will never outperform the other "big" brands as Canon, Nikon ++ in terms of sales figures. It is simply not possible. No matter how good a product is, in the end it is the availability and marketing of a product that will decide how much it will sell. If I want Canon or Nikon gear, I can just visit the camera shop at the corner. To find Sigma in this forest is like looking for the needle in the haystack. If you ask a casual dealer somewhere on what camera they currently recommend, it is a very big chance they will say: "We recommend Canon. We have these models.. The latest dSLR from Canon is very good! It is very good quality at a very low price etc etc.". Why is that? Because Canon has a very well developed business network and marketing strategy.

Geir

 

[montespluga]

Richard

there might be different land-policies of sigma as well. Here in CH, regards to Herisau ;-) , within short time I knew two internet dealers, plus the "general importer" of sigma. As I could see in pro magazines - one that just can get, beeing a pro, or a shop - the general importer makes quit reasonabel advertising ....

I rather think that the shops, much of them not beeing very capable in terms of digi-workflows, as my experience was, mind to have still another brand in their stock; secondly they fear two loose clients by internet-shops, which obviuosly happens, as these people, as above said , are not very competent.

 

[Dominic Groß]

I already mentioned this in another thread, the people they reach by advertising in Pro photo magazines are mainly the ones that are not going to drop their nikon/canon gear and buy new lenses. Most people I know that were on the edge of buying a digital SLR go for Computer magzines and the best and biggest one here in Germany had a quite bad review. And those people that are the ones that can understand the more Computer orientated workflow of the SD9 and the technical issues behind Bayer vs. Foveon. Their conclusions from the test does not sound too bad, but some of their results are awfull. I have seen no advertising in PC magazines and for Germany I can say that I only saw ads in one Photo Magazine. To the fact Geir rised, the Camera is availible from many shops here, but the prices are mostly terrific.

I wouldn't say that Sigma isn't marketing the product. Not only do
they have an ad in every photo mag I have picked up in the past few
months but each of these magazines have had a review of the SD9.
Most of the reviews have been great. There were a few in which the
reviewer obviously didn't know how to use the camera. One
complained about how long it took to pull the images up in PhotoPro
when they were trying to load them directly from the camera without
loading them onto the computer first. It's just simple common
sense when using Digicams to download the images to the computer
first. It's sad that the future of a technology such as this which
has the potential to revolutionize the industry is in the hands of
such unqualified reviewers.

--



http://www.whiteorangedesign.com/

--

Pictures taken with an old analog Sigma and scanned from Film: http://www.pbase.com/dgross
ICQ UIN: 289647506