Buying from DigitalRev

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robitay said:
Thats food for thought, I never thought that could be a problem. Did you get it sorted out in the end?
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No, I posted the camera to them at their request (Spain to Hong Kong at my cost). For a week a waited for a non-existent courier to come and collect it. Now I have to wait to see what they decide to do next. I have literally been weeks without the camera. Processing a warranty claim with them is a long, drawn out process, and if there is an issue covered by the warranty you have to pay for the repair, then wait for reimbursement. At every stage you have to pay for mailing, and again, wait to see if they will reimburse you. DigitalRev, Panasonic and Panasonic's official repairer all have photos that show the fault. Panasonic's official repairer aren't sure what the issue is, though acknowledge there is a problem. Why DigitalRev insist on seeing the camera myself is beyond me.
By the time this gets resolved we will be talking about months without the camera.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
No, I posted the camera to them at their request (Spain to Hong Kong at my cost). For a week a waited for a non-existent courier to come and collect it. Now I have to wait to see what they decide to do next. I have literally been weeks without the camera. Processing a warranty claim with them is a long, drawn out process, and if there is an issue covered by the warranty you have to pay for the repair, then wait for reimbursement. At every stage you have to pay for mailing, and again, wait to see if they will reimburse you. DigitalRev, Panasonic and Panasonic's official repairer all have photos that show the fault. Panasonic's official repairer aren't sure what the issue is, though acknowledge there is a problem. Why DigitalRev insist on seeing the camera myself is beyond me.
By the time this gets resolved we will be talking about months without the camera.
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I am sorry you are going through this stress. I would never have bought from Hong Kong until after being a member of TP & I read so many reassuring comments about DigialRev. In my case on a total spend in the past six months of £570 would have been £770 at the cheapest in the UK so easy to see why people by from them.

Do you think it has anything to do with being in Spain?

Do DR's statements on their website, about local service, not apply for some reason? They say "Digitalrev 12-Month Warranty with Local Servicing"?

Can you not ask the Top Ream at TP if they can help by putting some pressure on?

But good luck & keep us posted (y)
 
DayDreamer said:
But good luck & keep us posted (y)
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Thank you, will do.

tdodd said:
The "Local Warranty" is supposedly world wide, so Spain really ought to be covered....

http://www.digitalrev.com/help/worldwide-local-warranty/NDMzNTc5MQ_A_A
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They are meeting the terms of their warranty. If you look under the section headed Worldwide Local Warranty, it says "Send the estimate to us for approval (we check if the repairs being carried out matches the problems described, and also make sure it is covered by the warranty terms and conditions, e.g. accidental damage is not covered).

Once approved, your product will be serviced and repaired with all the costs paid by us." What it doesn't say is that YOU are responsible for those repair costs and you have to wait payment from DR to cover that cost.

In the section headed Door-to-door Warranty, it says "we offer Door-to-door warranty where we will send a courier to your home to collect the faulty product and have it returned to our global service depot". In my experience a Courier never arrives. I was given a number of ridiculous excuses by DR for this. They also claimed to have kept me informed, which they certainly did not.

digital said:
Why not post your problem in the DigitalRev forum (http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=108)? That way you add some pressure and we all get to see what they say.
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I have had some private correspondence with their person here, who clearly is not interested.

srichards said:
They are clearly not honouring the terms of their own warranty.

Their FB page if you want to make complaint more public: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalRev
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I posted to their FB page a few days ago and got a very sarcastic reply. The then edited their reply to remove the sarcasm. I then pointed out that page edits a publicly viewable. They have since deleted their comments. The gist of what they said was "customer service department is nothing to do with us".

hollis_f said:
Well, you could always try taking them to court - in Hong Kong.
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Indeed. As I said before. Lesson learned. Next time I will pay a few pounds more.
 
I wonder?

Has anyone on TP had a warranty problem with anything bought from DigitalRev & where they found the service to be good?
 
Ricardodaforce said:
I have had some private correspondence with their person here, who clearly is not interested.
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Then post a public enquiry in the DigitalRev forum and let them answer it in full view of all of us. That way they either deal with you in a fair way or we all get to see what they're really like.
 
DayDreamer said:
I wonder?

Has anyone on TP had a warranty problem with anything bought from DigitalRev & where they found the service to be good?
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I seem to remember that the issue with fake serial numbers took quite some time to sort out and ended up with them changing a serial number rather than providing a new camera with a legit serial number.
 
Maybe posting a couple of responses on their YouTube channel may get you noticed .
 
Another great purchase made with DigitalRev (y)

Ordered an official Nikon D7000 grip with them around a week ago

It arrived today, well packaged and clearly brand spanking new

It's definitely a genuine Nikon one, its much weightier than the copy ones and all dials and such work perfectly on my D7000

Best of all it was around £100, yes that's £100!, cheaper than buying from a UK Nikon stockist! The saving means that on the off chance there was a problem with it that couldn't be resolved to my satisfaction I could practically buy another with the saving made.

I can't understand the fear people have of grey importers, surely it all originates in the same factory anyway???
People seem to get hung up on warranty worries but you can buy official UK and still have problems when there's a defect needs repairing.
 
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Well as mentioned above I certainly have not been given good service by them and I have been lied too. Maybe that helps explain some people's concern.
 
digital said:
I seem to remember that the issue with fake serial numbers took quite some time to sort out and ended up with them changing a serial number rather than providing a new camera with a legit serial number.
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I was one of the 2-3 people with the serial number issue. In my experience customer service was excellent. Camera was picked up sent to canon HK and dealt with. I receive the camera back along with a copy of the canon service centres work report and invoice.
 
Big Nick said:
People seem to get hung up on warranty worries but you can buy official UK and still have problems when there's a defect needs repairing.
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The big difference is that I can easily take a UK supplier to court if they try to rip me off. That's not feasible with a HK supplier.
 
It's the same as with insurance companies. They are only as good as their service when you need to claim, not how cheap their premiums are.

Al
 
At the end of the day it comes down pretty much to risk-reward assessment. You can save money up front, but with the potential for more aggravation down the road. More often than not I'd say the savings leave you quids in. Certainly that's been true for me as I've never been stuck with a repair bill on anything sourced from abroad. Unfortunately the natural order of things will mean that once in a while somebody may come unstuck.

For my own part I do try to weigh up the balance quite carefully and certainly do not simply go for the cheapest supplier every time. One way to look at things is to guesstimate whether the saving made are at least equal to the probable cost of one out of warranty repair. If you end up not needing any repairs you're ahead of the game. If you need one then you're at break even. If you need more than one then I guess your gamble did not pay off. If you can source it cheaply and be pretty much certain of solid local warranty support (HDEW for example) then you're laughing.
 
hollis_f said:
The big difference is that I can easily take a UK supplier to court if they try to rip me off. That's not feasible with a HK supplier.
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No the big difference is the price

You can but whether you would or not is a different matter as you'd run out of money a bit quicker than they would.

There's also no guarantee you'd win of course in which case you'd get hammered for both yours and the suppliers legal costs, again not cost effective in comparison to value of the item you were suing them for....

I have bought loads of electronic devices over the years and experienced early faults with less than 10% of them.....with those odds I'll take the savings offered by DigitlRev, HDEW and the like every time.
 
Big Nick said:
No the big difference is the price

You can but whether you would or not is a different matter as you'd run out of money a bit quicker than they would.

There's also no guarantee you'd win of course in which case you'd get hammered for both yours and the suppliers legal costs, again not cost effective in comparison to value of the item you were suing them for....
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Unless you are buying from the Cartier branch of a camera maker, and took the gold plating and encrusted diamonds option there aren't many cameras that cost more than £10 000.

Under that amount, there are no legal costs other than the MCOL fee, at least if you are taking about UK court processes.
 
I stand corrected now the limits have been raised and the cost lowered

Personally though I think you'd probably need a professional opinion if it was faulty goods and you would have to stump up for that if you wanted a realistic chance of winning

Couldn't be arsed with all the hassle myself though
 
Just an update on my situation. DigitalRev received my camera last Friday. I've been expecting a "Dear Richard, we acknowledge receipt of your camera, this is how we are going to proceed......".
But nothing.
I will chase them up.
 
I've bought from DigitalRev on 2 separate occasions now and personally have had absolutely no problems. In fact, they even matched a price for me with plenty to-and-fro communication, arranged priority handling and when I placed the order for my Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM on Friday afternoon it arrived 3 days later on Monday morning. That's more efficient than Amazon.
 
jakamo said:
I've bought from DigitalRev on 2 separate occasions now and personally have had absolutely no problems. In fact, they even matched a price for me with plenty to-and-fro communication, arranged priority handling and when I placed the order for my Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM on Friday afternoon it arrived 3 days later on Monday morning. That's more efficient than Amazon.
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There's no problem buying from them. The problems start when you need to make a warranty claim.
 
digital said:
Do we assume they've still not resolved your problem?
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I received this 5 days ago after chasing them up:

"Dear Richard,
Thank you for your email and our apologies if we have not provided an update sooner.

Our receiving department did not see a return form with the return so they were not able to inform us until we asked them just now, we would like to confirm that this has been received and already taken back to repair centre for checking."

There most certainly WAS a return form with the camera, completed and enclosed as requested by them.
 
jakamo said:
I'm sure it's a royal pain in the ass posting gear to and from HK, but having to return anything to anyone under warranty whether it's in store or online always has been. If you're having a problem, hope you get it resolved soon.
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To be fair there is "pain" and then there is torture. I've had to return things for warranty repair/service to Jessops, Canon and Sigma. A short drive, friendly discussion, paperwork completed, goods dropped off, receipt obtained and then between a few days (Canon) or weeks (Jessops-4, Sigma-2) later it's all done and dusted. There is no radio silence, no argument about what was included and what was not with the returned goods, no worries about if/when they will arrive, no lies or broken promises and the blood pressure remains low.

I've bought from Digital Rev several times and when it all goes well the value is excellent, but when it does not then things can go very sour indeed. I've been on the receiving end of their aftersales service myself - when they sent me the wrong item in error - and it is no picnic. It took a solid four weeks for me to finally receive the "correct" item. Even then, by agreement, it was actually a substitute of equivalent performance/value. It is enough to make you think twice about whether the savings are worth it, especially if they are modest.

How can it be in anybody's interest - theirs or the customer's - to make such a meal about a warranty return? There's no winner on any side from such ham fisted efforts. The customer suffers and, with the power of the internet, so does the reputation of the supplier.
 
It states on their website now about Local warranty? Surely that's good?
 
Luke. said:
It states on their website now about Local warranty? Surely that's good?
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Oh it's great. Did you know that YOU have to pay for the repair and then wait for them to reimburse you?
The other option is that they send a courier to collect your faulty product. Who, in my experience, never turns up.
 
tdodd said:
To be fair there is "pain" and then there is torture. I've had to return things for warranty repair/service to Jessops, Canon and Sigma. A short drive, friendly discussion, paperwork completed, goods dropped off, receipt obtained and then between a few days (Canon) or weeks (Jessops-4, Sigma-2) later it's all done and dusted. There is no radio silence, no argument about what was included and what was not with the returned goods, no worries about if/when they will arrive, no lies or broken promises and the blood pressure remains low.

I've bought from Digital Rev several times and when it all goes well the value is excellent, but when it does not then things can go very sour indeed. I've been on the receiving end of their aftersales service myself - when they sent me the wrong item in error - and it is no picnic. It took a solid four weeks for me to finally receive the "correct" item. Even then, by agreement, it was actually a substitute of equivalent performance/value. It is enough to make you think twice about whether the savings are worth it, especially if they are modest.

How can it be in anybody's interest - theirs or the customer's - to make such a meal about a warranty return? There's no winner on any side from such ham fisted efforts. The customer suffers and, with the power of the internet, so does the reputation of the supplier.
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This is exactly the case. As I have said before, lesson learned. I will never buy from them again.
 
tdodd said:
To be fair there is "pain" and then there is torture. I've had to return things for warranty repair/service to Jessops, Canon and Sigma. A short drive, friendly discussion, paperwork completed, goods dropped off, receipt obtained and then between a few days (Canon) or weeks (Jessops-4, Sigma-2) later it's all done and dusted. There is no radio silence, no argument about what was included and what was not with the returned goods, no worries about if/when they will arrive, no lies or broken promises and the blood pressure remains low.

I've bought from Digital Rev several times and when it all goes well the value is excellent, but when it does not then things can go very sour indeed. I've been on the receiving end of their aftersales service myself - when they sent me the wrong item in error - and it is no picnic. It took a solid four weeks for me to finally receive the "correct" item. Even then, by agreement, it was actually a substitute of equivalent performance/value. It is enough to make you think twice about whether the savings are worth it, especially if they are modest.

How can it be in anybody's interest - theirs or the customer's - to make such a meal about a warranty return? There's no winner on any side from such ham fisted efforts. The customer suffers and, with the power of the internet, so does the reputation of the supplier.
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Agreed.
 
There's always an element of risk buying from a non UK supplier which is reflected in the lower prices, you pays your money and all that

A mate of mine has just had to send a Nikon body back for repair bought from HDEW which cost him £26 but even if he doesn't get that back he will still be up on the deal compared to buying official UK.
 
Big Nick said:
A mate of mine has just had to send a Nikon body back for repair bought from HDEW which cost him £26 but even if he doesn't get that back ...
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I thought HDEW claimed to be a UK company, in which case they're bound by UK consumer law - which means they are responsible for postage costs of faulty items.
 
hollis_f said:
I thought HDEW claimed to be a UK company, in which case they're bound by UK consumer law - which means they are responsible for postage costs of faulty items.
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I have bought from them and they issued a VAT receipt, so they must be UK based, with there HQ in Surrey.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
This is exactly the case. As I have said before, lesson learned. I will never buy from them again.
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I was looking to purchase a XE-1 from them, looking a there prices they are not as cheap as others. i.e Panamoz.
After your problems, for the extra I would rather purchase from a UK company, with less anticipated problems if things go wrong.
 
I'd expect them to pick up postage costs for goods faulty on receipt, or maybe a failure within a few days, but not after months of use, warranty or otherwise. Would you expect a shop to repay costs of travel and parking in order to return something to a store?

Whenever I've returned expensive items such as camera bodies or lenses I've always driven them in personally as I have time on my hands and the fuel costs are trivial compared to insured postage. Also I avoid the inconvenience of having to package things up and queue at the post office to send them.
 
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