A month ago, I found a notification concerning my old Olympus C5050 purchased back in 2006. The screen stopped displaying any image, and the camera would not take pictures. This happened a week after the warranty expired. I contacted Olympus, they said they would not warranty it. I was SOL and depressed after spending in excess of $300 for a digital camera. I threw this camera in a box in hopes of repairing it myself and just found it a couple days ago. This notification was for a "known" issue that would have been repaired if I would have gotten a hold of a CSR that knew what they were talking about. So I dug out my old camera from the depths of my closet and contacted them a couple weeks back to see if they could repair/replace it.I was excited that they were still accepting this issue to their repair department, I thought it was Awesome they were standing behind their product! I chalked it up to a terrible product when it died, vowed to never buy Olympus again(Which I haven't). Olympus failed to provide a service number (which you need to check the status on their website) and never notified me of the receipt of the item. I finally figure out a way to check the status and saw their spiel about not being able to repair it, and how they recommend a replacement at a "DISCOUNT", which I expected . The item they offered me was a SP-610UZ, and their discount? They tried to sell it to me for $182 and change! I can get it cheaper from their retailers at that price! I could sell the thing for parts and get an even better deal! WTF Olympus!? I decided I would give you the chance to win me back as an Olympus customer and you failed. How is the offer you provided an incentive to purchase from you Olympus? I was hoping that you were going to say, here is a $100 credit to whatever you would like to purchase off our website(choose from new to refurbished)[would have ordered a refurbished e-420 which would have been $$ in the bank for you]. At least with something like that I would feel like I was being taken care of. Even when I contacted you about my disgust of this supposed discount, you said "Thank you for contacting Olympus.." blah blah blah and made no attempt at resolving the issue. That is your problem not mine anymore. The only thing that was good about this Olympus repair is the shipping which they fully reimburse you for( $0 for shipping out of my pocket, Thank god I didn't I have to pay more for this POS camera ). And of course the lady I talked to was real nice, but this was on Monday the 5th when they received my camera. Long story short. Olympus, you ALMOST gained back a customer that you lost because of one of your past lemons, but bitterly FAILED when it came to deliver. This leaves you without ANOTHER customer and me with, well another Olympus Lemon.
Olympus has a new "global policy" that they will not sell parts for any of their products to anyone. They only allow their factory technicians to repair their product.
It is this kind of arrogance that makes my shout to people to "avoid Olympus at all steps".
They think they are the only company out there and they can treat people like they are all too stupid to choose other companies.As far as medical equipment, they will not sell repair parts to trained technicians and charge an inflated price for repairs. Their product is not superior either.