Pansonic Customer Service - A Camera Odyssey

UPDATE:

Just got a phone call from Panasonic.
My camera is on its way back to me and should be here on Monday or Tuesday.

Apparently they were able to recreate the problem to some degree, though it sounds as if they never saw it as extreme as it shows up my footage. So I'm not sure what went on there. But the long and short of it is that they attempted to realign the lens, but saw no improvement. They also tested my HVX against others they had in house and saw that the others were performing better.

So they put a new lens on it, ran the same tests, and looks like it made a difference. Of course he stopped short of telling me it was 'perfect' - which is fine, I do have to keep in mind we're talking about a 5,000 camera and most lenses cost many times that. But, I told him as long as there was nothing noticable in my footage we'd be alright.

As soon as I get it back I will set up the same test I did when I had the three HVXs side by side, and get some before and after clips set up. I'm assuming I'll see a marked difference between the two.

I don't want to speak too soon - but it looks like this odyssey is coming to an end.
:thumbsup:
 
UPDATE -

Just received the camera.
Took it out of the box - emailed panasonic to confirm I recieved it - now I'm posting here (of course).

After dinner I'll set up the same backdrop test I did the first time and get some side by side comparisons of the before and after. I still have the loaner from panasonic so I'll get some more shots with that one as well - seeing as I did it the first time. That should allow me to see that I have the lighting set up the same way, as long as I'm getting the same results from the Panny camera.

I'll post the results here tonight when I'm finished up - seeing as the camera has a new lens on it now, I'm expecting everything to be alright.
 
So I did the test shooting - and here you go:

HVX-PITCHbefore&after.jpg



Oh - and I didn't use a matte box.
:thumbsup:
 
Wait a minute, the blue taped X's in the After shot are clearly larger than the ones in the Before shot. Send the camera back, it's still broken!!!

LOL :)


Congratulations, Luis. Glad this had a happy ending. Wookies everywhere can now rejoice and sing.
 
OK, I'm still stumped on how the lens can be the problem. Glad you got it fixed, though. Wow, what an improvement!
 
Okay - good, I'm glad everyones reaction was the same as mine.
Its a night and day difference.
There is still the tiniest bit of shading there - but so minimal by comparisson that its a total nonissue for me. in fact, my camera looks better and cleaner than the loaner HVX they sent me.

So, it looks like this is over...
I'll be sending the loaner camera back to Panasonic, and be on my merry way.

The one thing I can say I definitely learned from this is that if you ever have to send your equipment to service put together as much material for them to look at as you can. If I had taken the time to pull all the stills I sent them at the very start, as oppossed to the second time I had to send the camera in...this probably would have gotten fixed right away. Pull stills, export clips, burn everything to a DVD and package it with your camera. The more information they have the better - and if the problem you are having is a repeatable one, then send them as many examples of the same problem as you can find.
 
Yay... Glad you finally got it fixed, man.... Sorry it took so long, but at least it finally got fixed, and your persistence, paid off in the end.

<another big hairy thumbsup here>

Jason
 
Good work, Luis! I know your intention was in NO WAY to run panasonic through the ringer. You remained professional and incredibly understanding. I also know that this website IN NO WAY serves to commercially promote panasonic nor do they receive any compensation whatsoever. Having said that, though, the net result of this website is tons of free advertising for an already big and profitable corporation. (not the intended purpose of this site - but the net result). When panasonic earns free advertising by designing great products that offer what people want and have great people like Jan actually listening and taking care of problems - that's awesome. But, by the same token, when they act like a big bureaucratic monster that passes the buck or responds negligently in their customer service, they should be held to account.

I'm glad you got your camera back and that it apparently performs beautifully thanks to Panasonic's fixing the problem. I'm left wondering, however, why this took six weeks and why you ever had to pay them to ship a camera under warranty (Apple is one example where that's never been the case in my experience)? More importantly, I'm left wondering what the final outcome would have been had you not been so persistent?

I'll continue to sing the praises of Panasonic for excellent R&D and for designing excellent and innovative products. But given this anecdote, other anecdotes, and my own personal experience, their customer service is truly lacking. This really prevents them from being a truly great company in my opinion. I'll likely continue to buy their products but look forward to the day when a company puts the same emphasis on customer service that they do on development and marketing. That company will have my business and word of mouth "shouting from the rooftops" advertising for life.
 
Luis Caffesse said:
Okay - good, I'm glad everyones reaction was the same as mine.
Its a night and day difference.
There is still the tiniest bit of shading there - but so minimal by comparisson that its a total nonissue for me. in fact, my camera looks better and cleaner than the loaner HVX they sent me.

So, it looks like this is over...
I'll be sending the loaner camera back to Panasonic, and be on my merry way.

The one thing I can say I definitely learned from this is that if you ever have to send your equipment to service put together as much material for them to look at as you can. If I had taken the time to pull all the stills I sent them at the very start, as oppossed to the second time I had to send the camera in...this probably would have gotten fixed right away. Pull stills, export clips, burn everything to a DVD and package it with your camera. The more information they have the better - and if the problem you are having is a repeatable one, then send them as many examples of the same problem as you can find.
Click to expand...

Luis, what you did, with your very correct and professional approach to all this, was a lesson to us users on how to handle a similar situation. It was also a heads up to Panasonic and other manufacturers in general about how times have changed in the internet world. Communities like ours are formed, and information can be shared in a very quick and complex way.

What before would only be one voice of a worried costumer, now turns into a big concern to a group of users of the same product. Defects can no longer be overlooked, and costumer service from all these major cameras have to be in place to respond to the challenge.

Jan, as the online face of Panasonic (at least over here) is really a pioneer and lead the way on the support of this sort of community. This was a very good move, creating brand loyalty among users and very good word of mouth for their products. The next step is to evolve costumer service to be able to respond correctly to this new world.

Costumer service will be, in my view, the main hurdle for the new guns like RED.
 
Luis,

Good work, you definitely took the high road on this and it looks like it paid off in the end. I, for one, am very disappointed that you didn't need a mattebox.

Confidentially, I still recommend a brand new mattebox for every HVX when checking for proper lens to block alignment and white shading.

:beer:

I'm having the same type of diagnosis issue with a laptop right now and my result is almost the same. They've replaced the LCD, motherboard and threw in a brand new battery to boot - all under a Toshiba extended warranty.

Being patient and pleasant with the service people can and does often pay off.

e
 
Nomis said:
*thumbs up*

So what did you actually pay? Shipping costs? The loaner camera?
Click to expand...

I paid shipping costs for sending my camera to them the first time, shipping costs for the loaner to me (which still needs to be refunded - long story), and I paid for the loaner camera.

All together I've spent roughly $494

By the way - thanks for all the 'good job' posts....though honestly I didn't really do anything.
:thumbsup:
 
I doubt I'll get fully reimbursed - $225 of this was for the use of the loaner camera - essentially a rental (plus tax).

I am supposed to be reimbursed $102 for the shipping of the loaner camera due to a mixup on the part of UPS. We'll see how long it takes for that to come through. Apparently they are having trouble coordinating with UPS on it (because I paid Panasonic, and Panasonic paid UPS - so the refund from UPS has to go to Panasonic first, then Panasonic refunds me). We'll see. I'm not going to bother clogging up this board with the minutiae of that transaction though.
 
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