Tamron - Anyone had difficulties registering/dealing with them?

[xystren]

Well I just received my rebate today...that part went smoothly...

But getting the lens registered for the 6 year warranty - my gosh, what a pain in the butt. After about 2 dozen emails between Tamron, Abt, Tamron's sales rep for Abt, I was told it was confirmed, they (Tamron) would register it and honor the warranty.

So just to be sure, I sent an email to Tamron to confirm this, this is the response I received:

I spoke with several people at ABT, and I also spoke with their Tamron representative. They confirmed to me that this IS absolutely an open box item. As a courtesy, we will confirm your 6 year warranty. However, please be aware that it is an open box/return item, which is why it was so heavily discounted (this lens typically sells for around $650). We cannot verify the condition of this item, as some other customer had it in their home and it could have been subject to a variety of poor treatment or conditions. If you were not intending to have purchased an open box/floor model item, I would recommend returning this item.

So Tamron is trying to convince me this is a floor model and has been in possession of another customer. Of course I forward this response back to Abt and again several email back and forth. This was the facts regarding the lens from Abt.

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The facts regarding this particular lens is as follows: The lens in question was received by Abt in May 2011. It sat in our warehouse for 6 months until it appeared on our dead inventory report. As is customary here, when an item sits stagnant for an extended period of time we are instructed to either return it for credit or turn it into cash, no matter what the loss to the store. I chose to not ask for return authorization, as it was not Tamron’s fault that the product did not sell thru, trying to be a reasonable partner. So our reward for trying to sell this off at a loss was to have Tamron inform a customer of our store that we were pulling a fast one on him and selling him used merchandise, which is clearly not the case.
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Finally after several email back and forth again..

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I was informed by email from Tamron that this had been resolved. They agrees to register this lens, per the service manager.

I have also left a message for Jim confirming this by phone.

I will be following up on this again next week when I return to the office.
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I suppose receiving the $50 rebate was the final confirmation that everything is in good shape. But I tell you, Tamron was digging their heels in, not wanting to honor the warranty or register the lens.

But as it goes, it is now resolved. Abt Electronics took care of things beautifully - I can't say enough about their good customer service. Tamon on the other hand, I will be thinking once or twice before purchasing another one of their lens.

But I managed over the past weekend to give the lens a workout and it is a great lens. Nice and sharp, and the Vibration Compensation (VC) is great - sharp even when taking handheld shots at 1/10 a second. I have to say, I do love the lens and the nightmare getting it registered I think I can overlook for this time. Future? Hard to say.

But that's been my experience with Tamron customer service thus far. I don't know if I was just lucky, and because I got a good price on it (about $549), they [tamron] got their knickers in such a bunch and assumed it must have been a floor model.

But things are good now. Just wanted to ensure I let everyone know how things ended up.