So often we complain about poor service or lack of follow-through, and never acknowledge the folks who do the job well. Recently, the Olympus Digital Camera Repair Facility in Southern California was one that did it right.
At a family event I was happily wandering the backyard, taking pictures with my Olympus C3000 digital camera. I'd had the camera for about 18 months, it represented a substantial investment, and I have been very pleased with its performance.
As I moved through the yard I tripped on a chair. In slow motion (or so it seemed), I fell in an awkward position and the first thing to hit the concrete was the camera. As I got up, I realized that while I was undamaged, the camera was not. The body was scratched but intact. The lens assembly was in at least four different pieces (those were the big pieces) of jagged plastic. Would a repair attempt be worth it?
The next day I found an 800 number for Olympus on their Web site and called. A pleasant young lady advised me that a repair was most likely possible, and that in the worst case, the cost would be $195 and would include a six-month warranty. She referred me to the Web site for shipping instructions and suggested I also review the repair tracking instructions.
The next day, a Thursday, I went to the Web site and discovered that as long as you had the serial number of the camera, you could track and authorize repairs on the site.
I packaged the camera as instructed and sent it off to Southern California via UPS Ground. Late the following Monday I checked with UPS and found the camera had been delivered to Olympus that afternoon. On Tuesday, about midday, I checked the Olympus site and sure enough, my camera was there and an "estimate in progress" was indicated. On Wednesday I checked again and found an estimate for repairs, with a button to click to authorize the repair. I could pay with a credit card on their secure site. I authorized the repair— it was a "worst case" repair.
On Thursday, at mid-morning, the Web site showed that repairs were in progress. Late Friday the Web site indicated the repairs were completed. On the following Monday the Web site showed that it had been shipped and gave a link that sent me directly, with the tracking number, to the UPS site. Later that week I received the camera. With the exception of a couple of scratches I'm responsible for, it is as good as new.
My congratulations to Olympus for making a painful repair process tolerable by using today's technology to keep the customer informed, and then linking together all of the parts into one seamless customer transaction. This one they did well.
