blog.andrewsteele.co.uk

For a while now, I’ve been after a Nikon 70-200mm f./2.8 VR IF-ED. The complicated series of letters and numbers listed there rather subsumes the important specification of this lens: it will allow me to take photos of things that are either small or far away, which currently I can’t.

However, since I decided to buy it, Nikon have had seemingly insurmountable stocking issues meaning that I can’t buy one anywhere in the World. Having been waiting on one dealer for about a month, they finally rang up while I was in France to inform me that the lens in question had been discontinued.

Distraught, I decided to e-mail Nikon customer support:

I recently put in an order for a 70-200 VR IF ED and, after increasing delays, was disappointed to be informed by my dealer that Nikon had discontinued this product.

Is this true?

Their response was prompt, incoherent and utterly useless:

Dear Andrew,

Thanks for your mail, i have made some queries on your behalf and have been able to find out that it is highly unlikely that this lens has been discontinued. As it is a new type of lens and has not been in the market for too long, but there have been troubles with the distribution of this particular lens. We apologise for the inconvenience and are currently working to resolve the issue.

I would suggest that you try some of our online dealers as they may have it available for you purchase. I am sending you a link to the lens at ouor website as well as a link to our distributors.

Link to the lens on our website:
http://www.europe-nikon.com/details.aspx?countryid=20&languageid=22&catId=121&prodId=275

Link to online dealers list:
http://www.nikon.co.uk/where_to_buy/online_dealers/

Kind Regards,

Sabhat *****
Nikon Europa, Support
www.europe-nikon.com/support

During the first paragraph, in a mere sentence and two fragmented clauses, he manages to convey absolutely no useful information whatsoever. It’s “highly unlikely” that the lens has been discontinued?! Don’t Nikon know?

So, I e-mailed again, this time deciding to be slightly more insistent.

I am afraid that your e-mail leaves me none the wiser. Surely you know whether or not the lens in question has been discontinued?

I am about to take up a post as a newspaper photo editor, and need the lens urgently.

Can you please advise me at what time the stocking issues will be resolved?

And, actually, I am about to take up a position as a photo editor…admittedly only for one of Oxford’s student rags, Cherwell…but it would be nice if my photojournalism were not restricted to nearby and/or large things.

My by-now good mate Sabhat was only too eager to respond:

Dear Andrew,

I apologise for my sentence formulation, they have not been discontinued was the answer.

You can buy them from one of our online dealers they have sometimes more stock available. I checked it on www.jessops.com and they had them available for purchase.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards,

Sabhat *****
Nikon Europa, Support
www.europe-nikon.com/support

“Sentence formulation”? Yes, it was very poor, and I’m glad you apologised for it, but the reason I got the impression that you didn’t know was not due to your appalling syntax, but the phrase “it is highly unlikely that this lens has been discontinued”, followed by a “sentence” (sharing only the property of being delimited by full stops with this grammatical concept) qualifying the assertion.

Mildly desperate by now, I checked Jessops; not only were they claiming 2-4 weeks as their expected delivery time (their longest possible, I believe, and rather too slow if all they need to do is get it out of the warehouse), they were also charging some £350 more than would be even mildly competitive.

I also decided to ring a few of the other dealers, just to make sure. Lo and behold, only one place had any even coming, and they, obviously fully aware of the “troubles with the distribution of this particular lens”, were charging fifty quid less than Jessops were.

One more time, now:

I have now rung every stockist recommended by your website. Jessops do not claim to have any in stock, counter to your assertion. Only Grays of Westminster even have any idea when they are likely to receive stock.

Have you got any suggestions, please?

It turned out that he had:

Dear Andrew,

I apologise for the inconvinience, i actually just went to the website and tried to buy one. the site let me even take it to the check out so i assumed that they must have one.

As to the stock and availability i am left with as little information as you are. As i rang up the UK Head office and they told me that they will be available shortly but no dates.

So the best way to approach it is to order one from one of our dealers and then you will be first in the queue when they are available.

Kind Regards,

Sabhat *****
Nikon Europa, Support
www.europe-nikon.com/support

Wow! His technique for establishing whether or not they were in stock was the utterly-infallible “proceed to checkout” - because Jessops would be very upset if they sold a product they didn’t have. Nikon HQ also appear to be none the wiser, which is quite a sad reflection on the state of the World today. And, finally, he suggested the ever-helpful “ring up someone and ask to be told when they’re in stock”. What was my first e-mail as a result of? “I recently put in an order for a 70-200 VR IS ED and, after increasing delays, was disappointed to be informed by my dealer that Nikon had discontinued this product.”

Ah, well.

I shall include this unrelated quote of the day: “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”

I hope I have now evaded a frankly unlikely libel prosecution.

Friday, September 16th, 2005 17:25 | permalink | trackback