Calumet mess me around

badboy1984

badboy1984

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In mid June, my Nikon 28-70 f2.8 was dropped while I was out shooting and the focus motor is not longer working. I called my insurance to see what is my option but they told me I need to get a repair quote to see whether the lens will be paid out to repair or get me a new one.

Took them awhile to get me a quote for the lens and the price was £190 for the repair. I told my insurance that the quote is £190 and they reply saying I need to paid £150 excess because is on my policy. Fair enough on that and I told my insurance I will paid for the repair myself and not to proceed the claim.

The repair was proceed in early July and now we in August, I called Calumet today and they said the repair had be declined. I guess the repair team couldn't source the parts to repair.

I'm really not sure what to do now, can I even call my insurance about this?
 
Yeah I'm waiting for Calumet to call me back at the moment to give me some explanation. I'm so p*** off at the moment not because it can't be fix, is they could of told me that first and I can take it to my insurance.
 
Basically the Technician's note said the repair will cost alot and he couldn't do the repair. The AF-S motor need replacing. If Nikon have parts and plus labour cost etc, the price maybe £800-900.
 
A lot depends on how the conversation with your insurance brokers went.

If you declined their offer of repair/compensation etc, they may consider that you took on the liability and that they are no longer responsible. In law, once an offer has been declined, you lose a lot of rights to renege on such a deal.

However, you may be lucky if you explain the circumstances and the change in costs, which you could not have been aware of at the time.
 
How did you get the original estimate? Did you send the lens to Calumet for the estimate?

If you get a revised quote and submit that to your insurance, they may well still pay out.
 
I got the original estimate quote from Calumet and pass that to the insurance. Now the circumstances changed so much that the lens need to send to Nikon to see if the lens can be repair or not. Most likely the cost would be pretty high. I need to call my insurance to find out what is the option.

Calumet wanted £50 to send off to Nikon, but according to Nikon's website, anyone live in UK can send the item back to them for free.
 
Just contacted my insurance, they said I will need a quote from Nikon and send that to them and then they may consider to reopen it. Really not happy about the way how it was. Their technician could of told me that right from the start.
 
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badboy1984 said:
Just contacted my insurance, they said I will need a quote from Nikon and send that to them and then they may consider to reopen it. Really not happy about the way how it was. Their technician could of told me that right from the start.
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Unfortunately it might be one of those things that on first inspection, looks fixable, but once you start dismantling bits, you find the damage is worse than originally thought. Annoying when it happens to you, but occasionally unavoidable.
 
Probably best to send it to Nikon directly in the future ......... I'm very very gutted on how this went. If the insurance decided not to reopen my original claim due to the high expense to repair, I'm very gutted.
 
Right, for a start, Calumet no longer repair lenses themselves and always send them to Nikon regardless of what they may tell you, they downscaled their repairs operation a few years ago and now only offer sensor cleaning, They DO NOT employ any technical repair staff themselves, everyting in for repair goes direct to Nikon or Canon, they will give repairs estimates but cant offer anything concrete on price until its sent to Nikon first.

I suggest you get your lens back and send it direct to Nikon, however, if it is the SWM AF motor you'll be looking at a fair bit more than £190, probably double that.
 
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Part of the whole thing is my problem as well because this is my first time dealing wit lens repair and insurance. So I regret of cocking things up in terms of procedures.

First Calumet told me they send my lens to Hitech camera repair to get a estimated quote. The technician in Hitech repair gave them a quote of £190 which pass on to me. I believe Calumet contacted my home address and left the message to my dad about the estimate quote but my dad's English is not good so he just told me Calumet rang. I contacted calumet and ask for the quote and they send me an email which I then pass on to the insurance.

I thought the quote is £190 because the quote had the list of items that need doing.

Now Hitech repair decline the repair saying they don't feel confident to replace the AF-S motor so it need to go back to Nikon. Calumet said they can send it in for me but would cost £50. I already submit a quote request to Nikon which I can send the item to them for FREE.

Best bet is wait for Nikon's quote and see if my insurance will re-open my claim for good will or tell me is my own fault for not dealing it properly.

Worse case is to sell the lens listing the AF motor is broken and see how much I will get and put some money to buy the 24-70.
 
I doubt the insurance company will refuse, just because the initial estimate was wrong. You've notified them of the incident, and you were either covered for accidental damage, or weren't.
 
I know I will cover is just I close the claim and now tried to re-open it thats where I feel concern. The insurance company just told me to get quote for nikon and supply them the quote as quick as possible and take on from their.
 
The worse thing is I expecting to use that lens end of this month. Don't think it will repair or replace in time. Looks like I will shoot with prime on my holiday lol.
 
Is just a general holiday outing with my wife. I just though the mid range zoom will do the trick. Now going back to the basic and use the 50mm f1.8G and the 85mm f1.4D.
 
Got my lens back to Calumet yesterday. They still prefer me to paid £51 to them to send the lens to Nikon. I told them I can do it myself for free using the Nikon return service.

I've tried the lens yesterday before packing it up and it appears the auto focus motor still works but very slight squeak. Anyway is now on its way to Nikon and see what the real problem is and see how much will it cost to fix.

Fingers cross and hope insurance will re-open the claim for me. I'm with them for 4 years and haven't made a single claim before.
 
Got a quote from Nikon and the estimate from Nikon is £671 inc VAT. Is Nikon estimate accurate most of the time?
 
badboy1984 said:
Got a quote from Nikon and the estimate from Nikon is £671 inc VAT. Is Nikon estimate accurate most of the time?
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I've only had 1 repair done by them. The estimated was exactly the final cost.
 
I would assume so, on their tracking system it says they have dismantle the lens and had a look. I will just let the insurance know about the estimate quote.
 
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