GBLOD out of warranty repair cost & help

obelix · Aug 24, 2005

My camera is currently in El Segundo, California for repair for GBLOD.

Nikon has given an estimate of US $210 for repair of the camera. I called and mentioned that GBLOD happens because of a manufacturing defect and nikon has fixed it for free in previous instances. The guy who took the message said he is going to talk with his technician and get back to me.
I have two requests.

1) If you were asked to pay for the repair, how did you handle it? Did talking to someone helped? If yes, who is the right person to talk to.

2) If you were out of warranty and nikon fixed it for free, can you please provide your Service order number? If you have any concerns about providing it on this forum, please consider emailing it to me at lists@anands.net.
Appreciate the help.

Steve S · Aug 24, 2005

Mine was out of warranty, but fixed free

Yup, mine was oow for about 2 mos when i took mine in. Since they fixed it for free, it must be a known problem.

JayR · Aug 24, 2005

Anand,

I have heard that just pointing the service people to the threads on dpreview helped them. Perhaps you could do the same.

Good luck,

Baywing · Aug 24, 2005

For those of us who don't know, what is GBLOD????

Flew · Aug 24, 2005

Baywing said:
For those of us who don't know, what is GBLOD????

Green Blinking Light of Death. It happens on early shipped D70's and is supposedly a loose cable. The cam is basically dead except for a blinking green LED on the back. I have the problem (I got one from the first shipment to the US), but haven't sent it in yet.

Anand, please keep us up to date on what you find. I would be very upset if I had to pay for a known manufacturing or design defect.

Baywing · Aug 24, 2005

I love Nikon's ostrich view, stick your head in the sand and deny anything wrong. I am going through the same attitude with my 70-200 VR. Intermittantly and without warning, VR and AF functions cease, and you have to remove the lens from the body to get it to work again. Known issue (though I thought by the time I bought mine it had been resolved) as a ground wire was added to the first ones out and cured the problem. (Mine does the same on both the D100 and F5, so it's not the body, nor dirty contacts, does the same thing in dry or humid conditions, and does it with or without the TC14EII). Talk to Nikon Service, they act like they never heard of any such thing. You tell them about all the fuss in the beginning and what was done, they respond like it's just a few malcontents on the net who don't know how to use their equipment.
My advice, keep after them, go up a level or two in service and keep after them. I sent my F5 in for repair, it came back with something different broken. I stayed calm, they fixed it, said it had nothing to do with the previous repair, did not accept responsibility, but said they would repair for free. I don't really care what the their rationale is as long as they fix it and don't charge me.

It might be interesting to find out if Nikon NY or CA is better dealing with out of warranty/ slightly oout of warranty issues???

triangular · Aug 24, 2005

Wow. It looks like all the equipment I have my eye to buy has "known issues"! I never had problems like this before digital. Believe it or not, none of my film bodies or non-vr lenses every had any problems for 15-20 years of fairly regular use. Welcome to the digital age.

Baywing · Aug 24, 2005

It is true that digital will have more repair issues, there is so much more to go wrong. When it does, it is expensive and requires a professional to fix. Look at cars, same thing. I used to be able to fix my first Chevy by the side of the road if it broke down, a spare coil, rotor, cap, points and a few plugs, wire or two, timing light, dwell meter and some tools. Carried it in a small tool box in the trunk. Hardly ever needed it, though, but when I did.....now, all you need is a cell phone to call the tow truck to take it to the dealer 'cause they are the only ones who can fix it.
Even the lenses....ok, the 70-200 VR has a vibration reduction system, an internal focusing motor, all this is more than even the older AF lenses had. I would not hesitate to buy a grey AF lens, nothing much to go wrong, never need to send it for repair. The new lenses, if they have VR or AFS, figure you will need the warranty. Likely, you won't, but it's nice to have if you do. There is more to go wrong, but only because they do more to begin with.
I've had Nikon gear for 25+ years. FE needed a shutter, F4 had the trigger wire to the flash in the finder break, F5 just lost a button on the back (Nikon said they never saw one that just fell out until mine.....) and never a lens problem. D100 was in once for an AF adjustment. Not bad considering where all this stuff has gone over the years!!!

obelix · Aug 24, 2005

Thanks all.

I am gathering quite a bit of evidence from the internet of instances of people who got the camera fixed for free.

This instance of Oregon Jim is very interesting. He had to fax printouts from various fora to some guy in nikon management.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=14488152

When I spoke to nikon front end support, the guy feigned surprise and said "Same problem? No no that is different, yours is green light

", I told him it is the same issue and many in the forums have faced it.

Last but not the least, my D70 was repaired last on March 23rd and nikon had replaced my FPC (or whatever), which supposedly, is the part that fails.

I am waiting for the nikon service guy to call be back, but I do plan to take this to the next level if my request is rejected.

obelix · Aug 24, 2005

Will do, Christian.

obelix · Aug 25, 2005

Update

The supervisor was busy the last two days, so she has not made a decision on this yet. Once she makes a decision, I might know what happens.

Hmm, the guy next to me had an out of warranty Canon powershot G2. It died and he called Canon and asked them how to fix it. They said it would cost them $175 to fix the camera, but for $300, they would upgrade him to a G6 [retails for $500ish], it happened in one phone call under 10 mins.

Hmm, hmm.

MontyDog · Aug 25, 2005

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

obelix · Aug 25, 2005

Paul

Yes, that is what I read about GBLOD. Apparently, nikon started soldering the connector since Sep 2004.

But nikon replaced my FPC on March 23rd. I hoped that I will never get GBLOD since the faulty unit was changed.

Then I read that GBLOD can happen for various reasons and for some one, it happened due to a faulty metering system and metering system was replaced.

I guess one needs to hope that it does not fail.

triangular · Aug 26, 2005

They really shouldnt charge anybody for a design flaw. It is too well known an issue to be anything else.

gho · Aug 26, 2005

I agree, but what irks me more is.... Well, I won't say it, cuz I'll get banned - PM me, and I'll tell you if you want my honest opinion.

But a couple of hundred dollars repair is no biggie in comparision - I'd gladly pay several hundred dollars if Nikon would just address *one* issue (the one I'm not going to say openly).

obelix · Aug 26, 2005

Nikon is fixing this for free.

I started a thread in the other place and got quite a few service order numbers that were fixed for free. I put a webpage with links as well.

http://www.anands.net/faq/gblod.html

I mentioned these service order numbers to nikon tech and after 3 days, they are going to fix it for free.

JeffKohn · Aug 26, 2005

Glad to hear they're taking care of you. Nice of you to share your homework with others who may find themselves in the same situation in the future, I've bookmarked that page. I have an early D70 that's working so far, and it's really just a backup now, but given my luck I think it will probably just be a matter of time till the BGLOD shows up.