Damaged Bigma

[PeterD]

Last Saturday I dropped my Bigma, fractured the lens hood and the zoom is now stuck at 500mm

Contacted Sigma on Monday who confirmed it was repairable and delivered it to their office on Tuesday as it could not be safely sent by courier. I was originally quoted a possible 5 week repair turn-around but they checked the lens, quoted a repair cost and told me I should receive it back in a week. I think that they responded quickly because I told them that it is in use every day for wildlife photography. That is what I call support - Hats off to Sigma.
I mention this here because Sigma have shown that they put the Customer first.

Peter

[Tobyh]

Well that's always good to know....fingers crossed mine stays safe though!

Where exactly did you have to deliver it?

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by Tobyh

Well that's always good to know....fingers crossed mine stays safe though!

Where exactly did you have to deliver it?

Welwyn Garden City. Bit of a drag especially on the A3 but it was worth it.

Peter

[glsammy]

Good to hear that Peter.
I've also had excellent service from Sigma. My Bigma had to go back twice for repair, the second time it was out of the normal warranty period. I'd contacted them simply to get a quote for the repair (the lens lock button had fallen off and the zoom had seized.) They insisted they would cover the cost themselves.

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by glsammy

Good to hear that Peter.
I've also had excellent service from Sigma. My Bigma had to go back twice for repair, the second time it was out of the normal warranty period. I'd contacted them simply to get a quote for the repair (the lens lock button had fallen off and the zoom had seized.) They insisted they would cover the cost themselves.

Graham,
Yours is not the only experience I have heard of where Sigma takes the cost for an oow repair on themselves. Its obviously not something they will do readily but I guess they are playing fair with their customers and treating each repair on its own merits.

I have had similar good experience from Olympus UK. When my E3 Camera had to be returned for repair a second time last year, they loaned me one for a few weeks while they fully tested and repaired my camera.

Its good to record good support. I hope this sort of message encourages other manufacturers/suppliers that there is a lot to gain from thinking of their customer's needs.

Peter

[Boddie]

I have heard a lot of reports of excellent service from Sigma. Great to see that a Company does value it customer base

[glsammy]

Whilst it's good to Sigma doing good service, what is disturbing is the failure rates certain Sigma lens seem to suffer.
As some of you know I had a 120-300mm for a week, and that lens was terrible,obviously faulty.
I've just found a report from a lens rental site that makes for interesting reading.
LensRentals.com - News: Lens Repair Data 2.0
Those statistics are startling! The 120-300 is by far the worst, with a 84.6% failure rate!
To get on that list they have to have at least 9 lenses, and are averaged out over the year.

[JeffH]

Interesting stats Graham - thanks for posting.

Jeff
(Schedule 1 Licence holder for Kingfishers and Barn Owls)

[ron1863]

That's an exceedingly high rate for repairs, almost twice as many as the next highest lens. I see that prime lenses have a very low repair rate, could that be due perhaps to the extra moving parts on a zoom lens?

[PeterD]

Wow very interesting statistics. I wonder how many of the lenses reported faulty were repeat faults and how many were on receipt?

From what I have seen, equipment failures occur mainly on receipt. Sometimes the fault is not repaired and a new replacement is given.

Ron, yes the number of extra parts and extra mechanical movement in zoom lenses would cause them to feature worse in these statistics.

Peter