Tamron - Anyone had difficulties registering/dealing with them?

[xystren]

Greetings all,

It's been a while since I last posted, funny how pursuing a master degree can do that, but on to the topic of the thread.

Has anyone else had any difficulties dealing with Tamron in regards to registering their item, honoring their warranty, or any other types of difficulty? I've run into a situation where I have purchase a lens, went to register it, and they are claiming it was a "floor" model due to an inventory location of where the stock was located which was reference on the invoice. The salesman, supervisor, and management have confirmed it was a new unopened product - yet Tamron is unwilling to accept this.

I've had nothing but grief trying to get this resolved, and even management at the dealer (ABT) is having a horrendous time trying to resolve this. Tamron appears to be unwilling to change their stance and even accused ABT of being a sketchy dealer (which is not even in the same universe of the truth). The dealer is now in the process trying to work things through the Tamron sales rep.

So has anyone had any dealings with Tamron and if so, what have your experiences been? This is causing me concern, especially if this is the type of customer service I can expect should warranty work be required.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Greg

PS: The lens was Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 SP XR Di II VC

So I'm curious if anyone has

[n8]

No experience...yet, but I just bought one of those myself, so now I'm feeling a bit weary.

[xystren]

No experience...yet, but I just bought one of those myself, so now I'm feeling a bit weary.

Well, let me know how your experiences go... And if you just bough it, they have a $50 rebate on that lens - Unfortunately, I don't know how that goes until I get this fiasco resolved.

Thanks for your comments. I'll keep this thread update of how things go on my end.

Otherwise, how do you like the lens? Had a chance to give it a workout yet?

[n8]

So far I like it. The VS works like a champ, and it's pretty damn sharp, even wide open. I have found that it seems to front focus on my d7000 when at 2.8, but I was able to correct that with some in camera af tuning. I haven't submitted my rebate yet.

[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.

...
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.
...

Finally after several email back and forth again..

...
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.
...

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.

[xystren]

So far I like it. The VS works like a champ, and it's pretty damn sharp, even wide open. I have found that it seems to front focus on my d7000 when at 2.8, but I was able to correct that with some in camera af tuning. I haven't submitted my rebate yet.

When you say the VC works like a champ, your not kidding. I couldn't believe how nice the pictures were when finally got to give the lens a workout.

Only a about a month left on the rebate, might want to get that in (they did honor mine, have the check in front of me).

Tamron Rebate

Gota say, I do love the lens.

[Grandpaw]

Thanks for letting us know what the end results were, Jeff