GH1 Shipping Today! According to Panasonic Sales Rep

[mikeydvx]

You won't believe this!

I have been checking my order since the 23rd of June on PD's website.

All of a sudden today a G1, yes a G1, has been added to my original GH1 order made on the 23rd of June. So now there is a GH1 and G1 in my order..

They charged my account for over 800 bucks for G1 and overnight shipping.. I'm gonna scream.........

I called and spoke to Mark an agent, and a Supervisor Alex. They can't figure out how this even happen. However now Im being shipped a G1

This just adds insult to injury; they can't get me the camera I ordered, and then do this!

I'm F-ing sick of this sh*t with Panasonic Direct.........

.

Ouch! Well, normally I'd suggest simply refusing delivery but it sounds like they are shipping the GH1 and G1 together. I wonder if they shipped them in separate boxes? Did you get two tracking numbers or just one? If two, you could always refuse the one that contains the G1. I'm sure Panasonic will make this right. Worst case, you'll have to get Panasonic to issue a UPS return and have UPS pick it up on their dime for a refund. I'm sure they'll do that.

Mike

 

[RogerB1]

"more K7 footage. apparently in 24p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uowd7...e=channel_page

this is amazing footage imo... but the one thing i'll say is that the gh1 so far looks to me to output a more cinematic look. this looks like a REALLY REALLY good video camera.

oh and it only does 720. but honestly i think that's enough? you can upconvert and it should look pretty good.

very impressed with the k7."

I don't like so many out of focus shots in clips. I wish all "testing camera people" would cut them out before posting. yuck

 

[jpygmy]

I know how you feel pappas... There are nice people over there but their policies are obviously totally out of wack. When they screw up (like my case where they charged my card, said it was on the way, and then 10 days later reversed the charge) they claim they have no way of fixing the situation... Then it's stuff like two options... 'cancel your order or STFU']

I wonder if all these operational F-ups don’t lie with Panasonic USA. In the last nine months that I have been cruising the web reading about the G1/GH1, I visited Panasonic’s UK web site several times because the site offered much more information and was much better organized than the US site. I ordered a GH1 from J&R as soon as they started taking preorders. When Panny US began selling the camera before filling their preorders to J&R, I ordered it from Panny Direct. But I was astonished at how screwed up Paniconic’s US computer purchasing system was. I haven’t seen any posts from Europe or elsewhere in the world from people who have ordered the camera from Panny where the camera then doesn’t show up in their order status system for a week, where after two weeks the camera then also mysteriously shows up in their shopping cart again, where it shows up as “in stock” and it is not (at least for people like me who ordered it when it said “in stock” but was never sent), where they ship cameras to people who just bought it instead of folks who have had it on order for a month. Panasonic should fire the lot of their US web site operation and bring in someone who knows what they are doing.

Clearly some of the things that have been frustrating us Americans have been Panny Japan’s corporate decisions and have nothing to do with how screwed up their US operations are (for example, to release the camera first and with more supply to the Euro countries where they get 1,489.90 EUROs which is equal to $2,106.79 US Dollars. We can’t blame them for that. What American company wouldn’t do the same thing? We have a weak currency. We have had a balance of trade deficit since 1976 which took off during the 80's and reached an astronomical seven-hundred-billion-dollars last year because we have shipped much of our manufacturing infrastructure to China and elsewhere and no longer have much to sell to the rest of the world.

I still think Panasonic produced a great product in the GH1 and is a world-class technology corporation. I fear that in the near future the GH1 may cost more in the US than it does in Europe instead of less. I’m hoping that Panny US can get its sh*t together and that we will receive good support for this outstanding product. We’ll see. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

 

[Ben_B]

This may be of use to those of you buying from Canada.

In my GH1 box (NOT FROM CANADA) there was warranty information for US and other markets, as well as a seperate envelope marked "canada only supplement" inside was a Canadian warranty info.....so basically my camera came with warranty info for all markets. I don't know if this actually affects the way your camera will (or will not hopefully lol) be serviced, but it's possible that you could get a canadian camera and still get a U.S. warranty....or at least warranty info card thingy...I didn't really read it too closely, didn't notice it until I was cleaning up all the boxes that came yesterday.

 

[Mike@AF]

I wonder if all these operational F-ups don’t lie with Panasonic USA.

Ummm... any particular reason why you change the font to TNR? I think it would be better to leave it as default as the TNR is more harsh on the eyes than the default font, especially with large blocks of text like your post.

 

[jpygmy]

Done. Thanks Mike.

 

[Steve Dave]

just wondering do u guys think that the gh1 will be on the regular shipping like not back ordered by early or mid august. (don't know the word for that)
because thats when im going to be buying my gh1

 

[delaney]

Its really up in the air and NOBODY seems to know for sure.... however from the 30+ camera shops I've called it looks like most are expecting a shipment late this month/early next

 

[josephj]

Thank Guys for all the support! All of you are awesome.....

Friday turned into a Nightmare on Panny street reality. I will follow the advice with the note for UPS and also get in contact with the Headquarters on the east coast first thing Monday and start that milking. No one should have to go through this crap for a camera..

Again, I really appreciate the support from all of you! Makes me feel better...


.

At least you didn't wake up this morning to find 6 fraudulent charges on your debit card like I did. @#$%^%$#%^&*(&^%$

 

[Rayzrsharp]

At least you didn't wake up this morning to find 6 fraudulent charges on your debit card like I did. @#$%^%$#%^&*(&^%$

Aw man, sorry to hear that. I hope you get that straightened out. I know exactly how that feels. I purchased a DVX100 off Ebay and what arrived in the box was a large bottle of cranberry juice!! That was probably the first time in my life I actually felt like seriously killing someone. Suffice to say that since I payed with a visa/debit card, my credit union put all the money back into my account 8am the following morning because I reported it as fraud. ALSO, the actual person who sent it to me refunded all my money the next day claiming he had no idea about that (after I made some serious threats LOL). But talk about pissed. So don't fret - your bank should put all your money back while they investigate for I believe 60 days.

 

[Rayzrsharp]

Don't post much but I've been watching this page for about 2 weeks now and its really disheartening that Panasonic is dragging their feet with the delivery of this camera. So it got me thinking, COULD IT BE that Panasonic is actually doing something right now to improve the camera BEFORE they start making it widely available everywhere? Updating it somehow? Fixing known issues like "jello" in 1080 24p mode? This might be naive wishful thinking but it seems like a logical thing to do.

Also, is it actually POSSIBLE to fix "jello" issues with a firmware update? Don't know much on the technical side of this but that seems to be a much bigger issue to fix than a simple firmware update. Anyway, here's hoping that Panasonic is actually addressing camera issues NOW before they let this camera fly en masse world wide.

 

[Martti Ekstrand]

The most expensive part of new electronic mass-market consumer goods isn't designing them but building the logistic chains for manufacturing and distribution. Measuring the balance between how many units that can be produced and how many will be sold is a very tricky proposition, part science - part voodoo. Produce too many of a new item and you look at millions of dollars in losses. I guess that the demand for GH1 has blown Panasonic's own projections to smithereens and they are pushing like crazy to ramp up the manufacturing process.

Can't say I have much problem with jello on GH1 but I don't shake the camera vigorously back and forth when filming. There's is skewing on the background when panning fast with something but if the audience rather look at that than the foreground object I have graver issues with my film than jello. Of course it would be better with a global shutter but since it's not used I assume it's too expensive to implement. Even Red or EX1/3 cameras use a rolling shutter.

 

[dojoman]

Don't post much but I've been watching this page for about 2 weeks now and its really disheartening that Panasonic is dragging their feet with the delivery of this camera. So it got me thinking, COULD IT BE that Panasonic is actually doing something right now to improve the camera BEFORE they start making it widely available everywhere? Updating it somehow? Fixing known issues like "jello" in 1080 24p mode? This might be naive wishful thinking but it seems like a logical thing to do.

Also, is it actually POSSIBLE to fix "jello" issues with a firmware update? Don't know much on the technical side of this but that seems to be a much bigger issue to fix than a simple firmware update. Anyway, here's hoping that Panasonic is actually addressing camera issues NOW before they let this camera fly en masse world wide.

I don't think that's the case. Why would still people able to buy this if something is wrong with camera? It's purely Panny cannot make enough to meet demand. Just look at LX3. They don't make mass amount like Canon and Nikon.

 

[Nitsuj]

So what do you guys think, Is it better to just wait for a camera to get in stock or is it best to do a pre-order at this point?

 

[Ozpeter]

Measuring the balance between how many units that can be produced and how many will be sold is a very tricky proposition, part science - part voodoo.

And in the present situation, where the level of the very first demand was unexpected, matters get worse - retailers must be reporting to Panasonic the level of preorders and enquiries but Panasonic must then have to guess how many are duplicates caused by people understandably trying to get what they can where they can. And if they ascribe too much of the demand to duplicates, the level of duplicate orders is likely to rise, and then... even more uncertainty. And if there is a GH2 in the works, any hint of that might kill the GH1 demand suddenly, just when they have ramped up production, so maybe they are almost deliberately making the GH1 a rarity and the real production effort will go into the GH2 based on what they've learned about the demand for the GH1.

All guesswork of course.

As for making improvements - I also guess quality control may be more the issue, as there can't be much room for latitude there in a device of this kind - getting perfect sensors and displays in quantity may not be so easy.

 

[saaby]

GH2 would be at least a year away.

 

[Mike@AF]

Measuring the balance between how many units that can be produced and how many will be sold is a very tricky proposition, part science - part voodoo.

Not true. If it was true then you wouldn't be able to find other products either. Think of what Apple does with the iPhone, the iPod, or other products. They never have issues like this and they are a highly profitable company. Panasonic needs to hire better analysts and do better market research. They need to do a better job of supplying their products.

 

[saaby]

Think of what Apple does with the iPhone, the iPod, or other products. They never have issues like this and they are a highly profitable company.

Not true, not true at all. Every company has supply chain glitches from time to time. Notable delays for Apple that stick out in my mind were the G5 PowerMacs when they were new, the first iPod Mini was impossible to get for awhile, as was the first iPod Shuffle. More recently, there were long delays getting certain configurations of the MacBook Air...and that's just in the few years since I bought a Mac that I've followed Apple news.

 

[RS-Colo]

The Wii was in short supply for nearly forever.

 

[Mike@AF]

Not true, not true at all. Every company has supply chain glitches from time to time. Notable delays for Apple that stick out in my mind were the G5 PowerMacs when they were new, the first iPod Mini was impossible to get for awhile, as was the first iPod Shuffle. More recently, there were long delays getting certain configurations of the MacBook Air...and that's just in the few years since I bought a Mac that I've followed Apple news.

You're comparing a "glitch" to a complete and utter failure. Impossible to get for a day or two or even a week doesn't count because there's not a single product that can avoid that. But not being available at all for months is a failure and is what Panasonic has done. That's what I meant.

EDIT: We should also exclude the holiday shopping season as no one can avoid supply issues during those times.