Mad At Olympus Support

I don't know what to do right now, but I'm about to sell every Lens and Olympus camera I own. I have sent my camera 1030sw in twice now for repairs and they keep sending the camera back to me with the same problem... The Led Illuminator does not work! This is the focus assist light that turns on when the lighting is low. Without it the camera has no way to focus in the dark.

First time I sent it out it came back with a new shiny front case, and the LED still did not turn on. So I sent it out, and this time I used my computer to hand print the return slip, and tried to even more clearly identify the problem and even explained how to reproduce the problem (try to use the camera in the dark). Not only did they ignore what I wrote on the return form but they shipped it to the wrong address (Not the Return address that I listed under their "Return Address" field. So I had to drive 2 hours or about 120 miles to go get the camera from my ex-landlords house!

I guess I will continue to send the camera in for repairs until they get it right. It's not the easiest thing to do. It took almost 1/2 hour for UPS to figure out how to bill Olympus for the shipping the last time, since at least they covered that...

I'm tempted to get rid of my e520 and all my lenses because the word Olympus is really starting to piss me off.

You may want to mention that next time. But the problem is, that simply saying that you may sell your equipment is no big thing since they already have your money. What you may be able to do, however, is get your credit card company involved. Tell them you've been having problems with a lemon and that Olympus won't make it right. Request a charge back. That'll get Olympus' attention.

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Originally Posted by byjamesderuvoDHQ

You may want to mention that next time. But the problem is, that simply saying that you may sell your equipment is no big thing since they already have your money. What you may be able to do, however, is get your credit card company involved. Tell them you've been having problems with a lemon and that Olympus won't make it right. Request a charge back. That'll get Olympus' attention.

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Mention what next time? Selling my equipment does hurt because, it means no future business and I have a few grand invested already. Never had any problems with the SLR, but this is crazy. Maybe I will give them one more chance, but 3 strikes and your out. Why not just contact me and tell me they don't know what is wrong with the camera instead of sending it back! I don't think charge back would help since I did not order it from Olympus or one of their affiliated partners.

I'm kind of surprised. I've heard nothing but good things about Olympus support - so much that it was a deciding factor when I was picking a system.

Dumb question but is it possible with the Olympus to turn the illuminator off and on on the Olympus? If so, is yours on?

Maybe some of the Olympus higher ups will read this post. It is a good place to vent. I also have never experienced nothing but good with Oly support. Keep climbing to the top of the ladder until you get someones attention that will help, don't give up get satisfaction.

olympus support was great when I sent my camera back after water got in it (it's supposed to be waterproof) Replaced pretty much the entire camera, no charge.

It is possible to turn the LED illuminator off (thats not the problem with mine though), perhaps when repairing they just assumed it was turned off? I called them and they said the main board had been replaced (probably twice). Apparently the LED illuminator is not part of the main board.

Anyways I take back what I said about their support. They did make a mistake but they are planning to more than make up for it. They are going to send me a tough-8000 as a replacement! No need, or real want to sell my SLR now :)

As usual I will leave a review after I have some experience with it. Hopefully this time the camera is not locked into using the lowest aperture available at all times, which is what I believed always caused the 1030SW's landscape photos to look soft. The only way to guarantee the 1030SW to increase aperture was to zoom the lens, but that does not work well for landscapes either. Well either way it will be good to have another pocket camera available again.

Every body makes mistakes...not everybody admits to them.
Good for them to admit it and make up for it.

I'm afraid it is my turn to admit my mistake.

I got the new camera and I was wondering why the AF assist does not work on this one either! Then after playing with it and the manual I realized that apparently these camera do not have an af assist. However the LED illuminator is activated by holding a button.

I remember the tech support call to olympus where they had me go into the menu and turn the LED illumination on. Then they told me to press and hold the display button and it would test it, so I did.

The steps I used was go to the LED illuminator and turn it on. Then press and hold the display key. I told them it it took me to the help screen but did not turn on. So I thought it was broken, and so did they. Also I thought I remembered the LED working as AF assist, so I really did think it was broken. I tried to explain this every time I sent it in, and they just kept replacing all the internals etc. I wish someone would have just told me there is no AF assist!

I feel really stupid now :mad2:

However I do believe I had put it in Macro mode with the flashlight icon and the old one still did not light up. So the first RMA it probably was broken, but I don't even remember for sure at this point. But when I got it back I was trying to use the LED as AF assist for sure, thinking it was still broken!

I probably RMAed a perfectly good 1030sw at least twice because I didn't use it enough to get familiar with the controls:rolleyes: . It is the only digital camera I have ever purchased that does not have an AF assist, and looking at the LED on front I could swear that it did, so I figured it was broken. Especially after my call to tech support verified it. (well not really). I feel guilty now and embarrassed for posting this. But let me say that my first impressions of the 8000 are really good, except the front cover, which is mirror polish and even more susceptible to scratches than the old ones were. Also the camera does not feel as solid as the 1030sw, almost plastic like (maybe it is, I'm not sure). The one thing I really liked about the 1030sw is how solid it felt. It was aesthetically like a piece of art with a real quality feel to it. The 8000 feels and looks like a cheaper camera, it has really lost the quality feel to it IMO I can't figure out why though. However the menus, controlls, speed and the camera itself seem better so far. And Real IS!

Now if only I could change that thumbs down to a thumbs up!