OLYMPUS USA - let the buyer beware.

What can you do when you feel as though a camera company that you trusted sells you a defective product, refuses to honor its warranty, and calls you liar? If you are like me, and you are dealing with OLYMPUS USA, you pay up and shut up, like a sucker. But at least I can tell you the story so that you don’t have to make the same mistake.

I bought an OLYMPUS PT-020 Underwater Camera case for my OLYMPUS C-5060 Wide Zoom Early last year. After the third use, the bolts that hold a base plate to the bottom of the camera broke free. It seems that the Lexan that supported the bolts crumbled.

I sent the camera housing back to Olympus for what I thought would be a quick repair as the camera housing broke under normal use. But then, I had expected OLYMPUS to support its warranty like the reputable companies with whom I normally deal.

I received a letter back that stated my the damage to my “Camera” was “..not covered under warranty” and that I could have my housing repaired for twenty dollars less than what I paid for my housing new.

Of course this had to be mistake, I thought, and I called Olympus. As it turns out, I was not allowed to speak with the department that supposedly evaluated my housing, but seeing that they called it a camera and not a housing, I doubted if it was ever seriously looked at it. In the end, after 7 phone calls and more than three hours of time trying to get someone who looked at the housing or had any authority on the line, I got a Customer Service rep name Lori, who was at least honest enough to tell me that the technical people at Olympus said that there is no doubt that I tampered with the screws and broke the housing myself.

I assured her that I did not do that and had no reason to do so. She told me, “These are the facts. You broke the housing yourself and that is not covered by Warranty.” But it was simply untrue. I had never touched the screws that broke. She stated that there was no possibility that the camera could have been defective.

In the end, it seemed almost as though I had to “buy back” my housing from OLYMPUS. I wouldn’t call what they did overt extortion or theft, but as I was heading out on assignment to Grand Cayman Island in three weeks and I had already purchased spare lenses and strobes for this camera, I was in no position to do anything but give in and send them more money to get the housing fixed.

Needless to say, I will never buy another OLYMPUS product. Not a camera, not memory, nor even a battery. A company that doesn’t honor it warranty, no matter how nice their products *seem* to be, is just too risky to do business with. And even more than that, there is the question of honor. I never do business with people that I can’t trust. I feel the same way about corporations.

Let the buyer beware.

Final Note: As much as Olympus claimed there was no problem with their housings one of the ultimate authorities on undewater photography, Cathy Church, reported this EXACT SAME PROBLEM!!! Now how can OLYMPUS claim innocence on this one? I smell a class action law suit!

From Cathy's web site (http://www.cathychurch.com/latestdv.html):

Olympus systems--housing tips for older compact digital housings
Be careful with plastic housings. Sometimes screws have been over-tightened at the factory and they develop stress cracks. I recommend that you loosen all screws at least very slightly. Some people even remove the accessory fitting on the top. Beware of using the Ultralight trays with a riser on the back. If not positioned clearly away from the edge of the back door, they will cause a major flood. Be sure that the lip of the tray is either fully between the two rear feet and the tripod foot (i.e. under the housing) or outside of the door completely, holding it shut, but not under the door pressing the door upward. Also, watch the red back-door o-ring. It can jump out of its groove and cause a major flood. Visually check the seating of the O-ring as you close the door, and again after it is closed, especially if you have any difficulty closing the latches. As with all cameras, check it carefully in a tub of fresh water before heading underwater.

Air Jamaica comes through!!!

We were headed to Bonaire with the gang from Adventure Scuba, located in Conshohocken, PA and after paying my way, realized that we were traveling on the dreaded AIR JAMAICA, an airline that I did not trust, not by reputation, but by prejudice. How could the flag airline of such a poor country, with such a limited infrastructure, be reliable or even safe? Boy was I nervous. I had images of the cockpit full of dreadlocked Rastafarian fighter pilots smoking spleefs, and doing loop-de-loops and drag-racing their hundred million dollar Airbuses. And that was just on the runway.

The flight down to Bonaire was problem free, and the stay at Buddy Dive was wonderful. It was on the way home that the problems started. We checked the weather on the Internet prior to departure. It seems a 'bad-assed blizzard from hell' was working it's way up and down the east coast and our connection back in to Philly from Kingston would definitely be questionable.

Still, Air Jamaica Mon, took off on the first leg with hearty, "No worries, Mon." Being a flock of mostly neurotic Northeasterners, we did plenty of "worries, Mon" and low and behold, as we were approaching Jamaica we were informed that our connecting flight home was cancelled, due to weather.

If you happened to be on a container ship anywhere in the Caribbean at the time of that announcement you could have looked up towards a speck moving across the sky and wondered what that agonized groan was that was coming from the heavens. Had all of the frustrations of every Philly sports fan of the last 100 years collected into a living, whining entity? Was it a badly constipated choir of angels? Nope, it was about 200 dive travelers realizing that they would now be stuck in the Kingston Airport until the east coast recovered from the storm.

There were a lot of experienced travellers on board and we never expected what happened next. Immediately there was an announcement: We were to be put up at an all-inclusive resort, on the ocean, with the stay, food and drinks, all provided for free and flown back to Philadelphia the next day, at no cost.

If this had happened with any US flagged carrier, make that any other carrier I could think of, we all would have been left to sleep in the airport and maybe given a food voucher. If it was US Air, I could imagine that they would have a Customer Torture Representative deliver a hearty slap to each passenger as the de-planed.

But this was Air Jamaica, who I would fly again any day. And then even they apologized for our inconvenience. Bravo!