Just had a lucky break with my much loved Sony compact zoom camera (Cybershot DSC-HX9V)
On an outing last Friday, the camera fell out of the carry case 2metres onto the concrete carpark area.
After that the lens wouldn't stay out to enable photos. Everything else worked OK. But then you want your camera to take photos don't you.
Panic & reading the manual convinced me that the lens mechanism was damaged.
So with a heavy heart I rang Sony help desk and they were fantastic. Led me through the reset process & fixed the bloody thing! Hurrah!
I was at the point of bidding on Ebay for one at $70 ... mine cost $357 in Dec 2011 at Trickie Dickie's.
My conscious decision to go with Made in Japan quality, Sony, has turned out to be a wise one. Unusual for me. I usually go for the cheapest option & pay for my cheapskate approach later.
Olympus are really good ,got in touch with them to ask why my unit wouldn't stay open long enough to take a photo, No further questions take back to big W and have them exchange it Big W wasn't happen but after reading the email form Olympus they with some disgust that it was outside their 14 day return policy changed it over.
Something I note that when exchanging a faulty item they won't give you a NEW purchase receipt and tell you that the original warranty period for the old unit still applies to the new one , must ask Consumer Affairs if that's the legal position on warranties as it happens all the time with Woolies and Bunnings
__________________
Pets are welcome but children must be leashed at all times
Another thing to remember when returning something to one of the bigger stores is that if you can't find your receipt for the item, but you know the date you bought it and you paid by card, you can get them to look up the purchase record of the item on their system and can still get a refund. They don't like doing it and may tell you they can't do it, but just ask to see the manager and stick to your guns. We did this for a coffee machine that cost around $250 from BigW and were succesful in getting our money back. Obviously you wouldn't do this for lower priced items, or something they would have sold hundreds of in a day.
Another thing to remember when returning something to one of the bigger stores is that if you can't find your receipt for the item, but you know the date you bought it and you paid by card, you can get them to look up the purchase record of the item on their system and can still get a refund. They don't like doing it and may tell you they can't do it, but just ask to see the manager and stick to your guns. We did this for a coffee machine that cost around $250 from BigW and were succesful in getting our money back. Obviously you wouldn't do this for lower priced items, or something they would have sold hundreds of in a day.
Thanks (all) for your interest.
The camera is still going great guns, ready for our trip to Hawaii for my wife's birthday later in the year.
Re purchase dockets.... I have developed the habit of scanning all appliance type dockets and saving a copy on the lap top & printing out a hard copy. Some dockets fade over time. I put the orig & hard copy plus any warranty information into an envelope marked with Item & date of purchase. These are held in an "Appliance' suspension file in my 4 drawer filin cabinet. Behind that file is another with all the user manuals and other related documentation.