Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
I just managed to get the sensor in an Apogee U16M replaced under warranty. I bought the camera secondhand but only a few months old and basically unused. I checked with Apogee that they would honour the warranty before I bought it and they said they would. And indeed they did, asking me to send the camera back once I demonstrated that the sensor performance was not within spec. So, kudos to Apogee and especially their sales manager, Tim Puckett, who was very helpful.
The thing I learned during this process, however, was that some (all?) camera manufacturers don't provide any warranty on the sensor itself. That is provided by the sensor manufacturer - Truesense Imaging, Inc. (previously Kodak) in this case. The warranty on the sensor may be shorter than the warranty on the camera itself and it starts when the sensor is shipped by the manufacturer. In my case, a camera that had only been in Australia for a few months had just a few days left on the sensor warranty. I got it back to Apogee just in time!
The other thing I learned is that this process can be slow. I returned the camera in early October and it just arrived back today. The bulk of the time was waiting for Truesense to evaluate the sensor and provide a replacement.
Hope this info may be useful to others. Make sure you check out the sensor on a new camera carefully and do it ASAP.
I love the camera, BTW. It's obviously built to a very high quality standard and the cooling is amazing, albeit slow. I can get to 60C below ambient no trouble at all. The filter wheel is very precise and solid with no flex at all. I'm really looking forward to getting it out under some dark skies on my FSQ-106ED and AG12.
Cheers,
Rick.
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I am not sure that this is correct as Aust law allows a reasonable time for warranty, not just what the manufacturer feels like giving.
From the ACCC website:
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.../itemId/322947
How long do consumers’ statutory
rights apply?
Statutory rights are not limited to a set time
period. Instead, they apply for the amount of time
that is reasonable to expect, given the cost and
quality of the item.
This means a consumer may be entitled to a
remedy under their statutory rights after any
manufacturer’s voluntary or extended warranty has
expired.
For example, it is reasonable to expect that an
expensive television should not develop a serious
fault after 13 months of normal use. In this case,
the consumer could argue the item was not of
merchantable quality and ask for it to be repaired,
even if the manufacturer’s voluntary warranty had
expired.
Who must provide a remedy?
Sellers – Each sale is a contract between the
seller and the consumer. So if the seller breaches
the contract by providing goods that do not
meet a statutory warranty or condition, it is their
responsibility to provide a remedy.
If a seller has to return goods to a manufacturer
for assessment or repair, the seller should arrange
delivery.
The law allows sellers to recover the cost of the
remedy from the goods’ manufacturer or importer,
if the problem was related to a manufacturing
fault.
Passing on responsibility for a remedy to a
manufacturer
Because each sale is a contract between the
buyer and the seller, consumers are entitled to
insist that the seller provide them with a remedy,
even if a problem is due to a manufacturer’s fault.
It is a breach of the Act for sellers to mislead
consumers about this right – for example,
by claiming they can do nothing and that the
consumer must contact the manufacturer for a
remedy
From reading this, the retailer of the Apogee camera has to honour the warranty even if the kodak sensor is out of the manufacturers warranty.