Fujifilm Professional Service

[rwforster01]

The Fuji warrantee in Canada is 2 year too. I sent my XT-1 in for a minor set of repairs, post warrantee. I was told the camera should be ready within 10 days. I received confirmation emails when they started work and when they completed and would ship the camera back to me.

 

The returned camera package included a postcard advertising Fujifilm Professional Services pro rental service. The email contact:

hlusprorental@fujifilm.com

 

 

 

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[milandro]

This shows, once again, that, beside different legislations, each and every country distributor appears to work differently.

 

 

 

Camera rentals, by the way, are common in the North America but not as common in Europe.

[darknj]

[...]

 

Camera rentals, by the way, are common in the North America but not as common in Europe.

 

Tell me about it, it's a nightmare if I need to have a very specific lens for a task and not able to find any shop that would rent it. I have to resort to asking other pros if they would be willing to lend me the lens...

[milandro]

I think that this is a cultural thing.

 

Most photographers in continental Europe prefer owning the equipment which they use.

 

Strangely enough shared ownership of cars for example is way more popular in Europe than it is in the US ( of course the population density does play a role in this).

 

There are however, and there always were, places where you could rent cameras and lenses but they are generally targeted to the most popular models and brands for professional use, some only in the film industry where renting was always the norm rather more than the exception.

 

Here a few addresses in the Netherlands and Belgium

 

http://www.grobet.be/nl/services/verhuur/

https://budgetcam.nl

http://www.camerahurennederland.nl

http://cameraverhuurxl.nl

http://www.pixto-f.eu/camera-huren-verhuur/canon

http://www.fotokonijnenberg.nl/occasions-verhuur/verhuur

http://www.ostron.be

http://www.kamera-express.nl/over-ons/verhuurservice1/

[johant]

I'm glad to live in Germany.

Free loaners for everybody during the repair time (one only has to ask).

And free one-time sensor cleaning by Fujifilm with every system camera purchase.

And 2 years warranty.

Indeed, Kleve is excellent. It sounds more like a Fujifilm USA issue to me than like a Fujifilm (as a global company) problem.

 

When I, as an ordinary consumer, sent in my X-Pro1 for repair, I think my loaner camera was already delivered to me before my camera had reaches the service centre. Moreover, they were very responsive to emails and on the phone.

 

That's good.

 

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[milandro]

Repairs and Guarantees issues are not dealt with by Fuji uniformly all over the world. They are local issues.

 

We have seen this in the debate around the camera skins coming off or the bulging doors. Different members reported different ways to deal with the issues from different Fuji distributors.

 

Some were charged for the repairs , others weren’t.

 

The policy on repairs has shown time and time again to be all over the place. More often than not, involving the Tokyo office has resulted in a positive attitude towards problem solving from Fuji’s head office.

 

Local distributors weren’t always all that forthcoming.

 

A physical shop will generally take care of its customers but, as far as I know, no “on line” shop will.

 

This is one of the most important reasons for me to buy from a physical shop in the NL where I live as opposed to buy “ on line”  and from an on line vendor. 

 

As I very often said, this is probably the only area where shops in the NL can actually compete with each other since they DON’T do that on price.

 

Shops over here have a remarkable synchronicity in changing the price ( all...the same price  ) at the same time and there isn’t even the chance that one shop will add a filter, a battery, a card, for “ free”.

 

So why should anyone prefer to buy form shop A rather than shop B?

 

Service is one of the areas where one shop can do better than the other.

[Mike K]

I agree, it depends on the individual distributor and also prevailing attitudes to customer service in each particular country. I live between France and South Africa.

I was in South Africa en route to Tanzania for a client photo-safari and my Sony A7r (purchased in Europe & out of warranty) developed a problem. I went into Sony South Africa, they immediately gave me a free loaner A7r, no questions asked. The camera had to go to Singapore to be repaired, this took some 12 weeks. BYTW they never charged me for the repair either.

I've purchased 3 Leicas in France, 2 M9s and a Monochrom. Early last year all three cameras developed the dreaded sensor delamination problem, on top of which the Monochrom's sensor cracked as well. I contacted the Leica agents in France, we're now in 2016 and I'm still waiting to hear back! It was nothing less than I expected, I knew that I would never hear back from them and did this more as a test to see if I could prove myself wrong....

In the interim I contacted Leica in Germany who immediately arranged UPS pick up from my home in France, and I shipped the 3 cameras to Germany under Leica’s “Professional Repair Service”.  All 3 cameras were repaired and returned within 1 week. On the other hand I've heard many nightmare stories about Leica USA's service dept.

Recently had a run in with Fuji in France as well. I cracked the LCD screen on the X100T. I contacted the Fuji distributor and as with the Leica agents in France, I'm still waiting to hear back.....
I've sent it to Fuji Germany for repair, quick, efficient and no aggravation.

FYI- when filling in the online repair form on the Fuji DE website, I had to enter a German postal code and country as Germany in the address fields, which I then changed manually to my French address details after printing out the PDF form.
 

[frod]

My main takeaway from this is don't lend a camera to Mike K!   

[Antony]

I think that this must be a. fuji USA issue. I have had several interactions with Fuji Australia, and once they found out I was using the cameras for professional purposes they went out of their way to have the cameras serviced quickly. On one occasion they completed the repair on the day of receipt of the camera, and posted it back the same day, so I wouldn't be without it for my wedding the next weekend.

 

Even without having a professional services department they have been incredibly responsive.

[T-Man]

My experiences with Fuji's service have been nothing but excellent. I have two X-T1 cameras (Black and Graphite Silver.) G.S.' SD Card Compartment door got really loose and the Black's Connector Compartment door was warping. Sent the GS to their Edison (NJ) service facility; only took a week from the time I sent in and received it back. The Black was sent in yesterday.

 

About ten months or so ago, my X100s after firmware update started introducing horizontal bands when used with film simulations (jpegs) at smaller apertures. The camera had been out of warranty for a few months then and Fuji service was going to charge me; I think they quoted me $185. The next day I got a response to my first email I had sent to tech support that requested me to call them. The person I spoke with worked in QA. He asked me to not send the camera to Service, instead send it to his unit; apparently for testing. They offered me a X100T as replacement. Arrived next day via Overnight. When I opened the box it included the X100T camera, tele and wide attachments, hood, thumb rest and soft shutter release, an extra battery, and the leather case with strap. Everything black instead of silver but brand-new! Made me very happy.

 

Cheers.

[frod]

I have just had to return my XF 60MM due to the aperture ring registering the widest two notches as Auto aperture, so I'm going to see how the UK guys fare.

[RadBadTad]

Last year I had an issue with my X-T1 and battery grip. I had put the grip in my bag without the contact-cap and a couple of the pins bent. I didn't realize, used it with the camera, and caused some errors. I then tried bending the pins back myself, and broke off two of them. I mailed both the body and the grip to Fuji on a Tuesday. They received the box Wednesday morning. They called me Wednesday around noon to talk about it. The person I spoke to was friendly, completely professional, very very kind, and told me that they were re-setting the firmware on the body, and would fix the contacts on the grip. They told me it would ship back out to me on Monday of the following week (four business days) without charge. I told him okay. We hung up. He called me back about 10 minutes later and asked if I thought I needed the camera in that time. I told him I had a couple of shoots scheduled for the weekend, and that I was looking at renting a camera to cover them. He told me he understood, and that since I had shoots to do, he would in stead, just mail me a brand new grip along with my body (which was already re-loaded).

 

I got it in the mail the next day (Thursday) all free of charge. 

 

I live in the USA. 

 

I am also a CPS member, and in November, sent a 5Dmk2 with battery grip in to Canon. The grip had failed (as a lot of them do) and was stuck half-way on the camera and wouldn't tighten or loosen. Some googling informed me that it was a very common problem with their grips, because they use plastic gears in their linkages that frequently strip. I overnighted the package to them. They called me about it six days after they received it. They charged me $95 to remove and fix the grip. They tried to charge me $150 to wipe off the outside of the 5Dmk2, and "verify the shutter count" (which I declined). I said okay. I got a shipping back notification another seven days later, and received the camera four business days after that. 

 

I have since sold my Canon gear (Not ENTIRELY because of that, but it was definitely a factor) and shoot nothing but my X-T1 (Until my pre-ordered XPro2 arrives)

 

It's possible that you get "pro service" with "pro cameras" but I prefer to think that the tech was simply having a bad day that day? Either way, I'm overall very pleased with Fuji service. 

[russw]

I agree it's unfair to compare Fuji service to CPS or Nikon Pro Services. I've been a CPS for over 10 years now and it's fantastic but you pay for it yearly and you have to meet certain qualifications (a certain amount of pro equipment). Hopefully Fuji comes up with a similar service and sounds like they are heading in that direction. I'd happily pay.

 

Before I worry about service I'd just like to see a more durable camera. The X-T1 is not well weather sealed with rubber doors that can't stay closed. Hope the X-T2 is better (still trying to resist the X-Pro2).

 

One thing to consider though- a 1DX costs you $4-7K. For that you can afford to have an extra Fuji body (or two) in case you run into problems. Two X-T1s are still probably smaller and lighter than my 1DX. Doesn't address broken lenses but those have been super solid for me- I'd put them up against Canon (wonder what lens rentals thinks) so I just try to not drop them and have enough overlap in my lens collection to cope with a missing lens

[Docphot]

I have to say that Fuji UK have been exceptional, and improving every time i've had to deal with them. Ideally I'd like things to get to the stage where I don't have to 'deal with them' any longer by hey ho...

 

Camera's repaired in days usually, with great communications and tracking. Living abroad and always on the move can be nightmare but Fuji service UK seem determined to keep up with me. The latest repair was last week, I had a 50-140 2.8 get repaired in a morning! I also had its receipt and dispatch, including tracking numbers confirmed via email. It was simply superb service.

 

Over the last few years I've had linty lenses, an odd camera body shut down in the cold and even a minor paint issue dealt with graciously. I'm continually impressed by Fuji's professional service in the UK.

 

I only hope that Fuji Japan's QC is evolving as quick as their UK customer service...

[frod]

I have just had to return my XF 60MM due to the aperture ring registering the widest two notches as Auto aperture, so I'm going to see how the UK guys fare.

Well, it took 13 days from dropoff at my store to collection but it's developed the same fault almost immediately. Not really very impressed with the lens anyway.