NPS Goodness!
- Thread starter Jonathan F/2
- Start date
That's nice. I recently got a letter from the explaining to me that in spite of all the money I have spent with the over the past years, if I wanted to continue to receive their 'free' magazine, I would have to pay for it.
They really need to do more for their paying consumer/semipro customers, and not just the professional ones.
They really need to do more for their paying consumer/semipro customers, and not just the professional ones.
They must have forgotten my flashdrive with my NPS card! They better have it in the next one. :biggrin:
It's not a big deal, but it's a neat thing to have! :wink:
That's great Jonathan, congrats.
Mainly for getting my repairs done and getting priority purchases. I don't even bother with their loaner equipment program.
How do you become an NPS member?
I think it might depend on location, but over here you need to have at least 6 pieces of pro grade Nikon equipment (i.e. fixed focal length lenses) of which at least two have to be pro bodies. You also have to prove that you make the majority of your income as a photographer, and they are very strict enforcing this (which is what got my application denied). There is an application form on the Nikon site.
When I had to send in my D700 for a shutter replacement and 17-35 for a fix Nikon lent me a D700 and I asked to test a (then) brand new 24 1.4; both of which I kept for close to 3 months to "test" (all the while they had sent me back my gear). All this for free of course. :biggrin:
So yes for pros, its more than beneficial. :smile:
Simon, I do not know about Canon but Nikon tends to draw a fine line between the advanced amateur and the professional. As you have already noticed, they tend to favor the professional.
This was not always like that. In the 70's, when Joseph Ehrenreich was the sole importer of Nikon cameras and lenses, things were totally different. Nikon service was superior to what it is now and I am not saying Nikon service is not excellent today, but they paid good attention then to consumers. The privilege of a faster turn around when cameras or lenses were being repaired and loans of gear was still for the professional but I do remember service for customers was first class. In one occasion I complained about the poor performance of a Nikkormat camera, not sure if it was the FT or FTN. It had a meter that all of the sudden would give me erroneous readings. They thought it was a defective diode but when the problem persisted and they could not do much about it they sent me a new camera and no questions asked. Not easy to see this today! In the late 60's I bought a 28mm f3.5 that on close inspection, after I bought it, had bubbles in the optics and I sent the lens to them thinking it was defective. They gave me a lengthy explanation on how bubbles formed and assured me my images would not suffer. If I had any issues, I was reassured the lens would be replaced.
Ehrenreich used to pay a group of professionals to test new cameras and lenses. They will report to him what they liked and disliked about the new gear and some of them will even tell him what they thought should be done to improve on the product. He was known to take a plane and travel to Japan to have meetings there with Nikon executives to discuss those issues with them. More than one camera and lens improved its performance because of that practice.
For those of us that lived that experience, service by Nikon today is not in a par with what it was then. In one occasion, because of my own mistake, I was not using my F3 properly. I got a phone call from NY from the Service Manager, interested in learning the problem. He resolved that issue over the phone in a very professional manner and I have not heard from anybody from Nikon since then when I had a complain about any of their products. I admit that over the years my Nikon gear has been very reliable and I have not been in need of repairs.
There was more attention paid to consumers then than they do now. It is still a great company but if you ask me, they are not what they used to be.
William Rodriguez
Miami, Florida.
Probably true. I think one has to be fair and judge Nikon's level of service by today's standards. My feeling is a lot of companies, while delivering quality service, are subject to the overwhelming volume of repair requests for whatever reason. I think the larger volume of sales combined with the demands and quest for instant gratification the "want it now" generation has put strain on the infrastructure. Good service is good service as the same with poor service. Has Nikon fallen behind the evolutionary curve and failed to adapt by still trying to to cling to the old ways or are they just becoming what every other company has become in today's global market of the internet age?
oooh, i wonder if NPS Australia is sending out such things.....
yes.
the 'best' benefit my NPS membership has gotten me is loan kit when my camera gear was knocked off a few years ago.
i rang Jan, our then NPS rep (RIP), she told me to get my butt into Nikon Australia where she was waiting with an F4, flash, 20, 50 and 80-200 glass.
not a full kit compared to what was knocked off, but enough gear that i could keep working while the insurance company scratched their butt.
all it required was my signature and a promise that i'd replace it if it got busted.
i had that loan gear for over 12 weeks. once i'd gotten my new gear, i rocked on back to Nikon, handed it all over to Jan and everything was hunky dory.
i'm not sure how Canon pro services compares these days, but back then, Canon users regularly bitched about how they had no NPS equivalent at the time (or the equivalent just wasn't up to the same standard).
i've also borrowed exotic glass from NPS a couple of times (600mm f4.0 and a fisheye).
if you qualify, you're an idiot if you don't sign up.
yes.
the 'best' benefit my NPS membership has gotten me is loan kit when my camera gear was knocked off a few years ago.
i rang Jan, our then NPS rep (RIP), she told me to get my butt into Nikon Australia where she was waiting with an F4, flash, 20, 50 and 80-200 glass.
not a full kit compared to what was knocked off, but enough gear that i could keep working while the insurance company scratched their butt.
all it required was my signature and a promise that i'd replace it if it got busted.
i had that loan gear for over 12 weeks. once i'd gotten my new gear, i rocked on back to Nikon, handed it all over to Jan and everything was hunky dory.
i'm not sure how Canon pro services compares these days, but back then, Canon users regularly bitched about how they had no NPS equivalent at the time (or the equivalent just wasn't up to the same standard).
i've also borrowed exotic glass from NPS a couple of times (600mm f4.0 and a fisheye).
if you qualify, you're an idiot if you don't sign up.
NPS here in Canada is great. Top notch service and they loan me equipment occasionally for big assignments. Repair turnaround is quick (days) and I get loaner equipment while I wait. Looks like the USB drive is only for the US.. All I got was my card in a brown envelope!
http://blog.wildernessprints.com/2011/03/dropping-big-lens-pain-agony.html
In short, 4 business hours for loaner gear to be shipped and a one week turn around to get a shattered camera and 500 f/4 fixed.
OUCH!
i got sympathy pangs just reading that.
i've had gear kicked by racehorses, run over by V8 touring cars and trodden on by footy players.
a colleague once dropped an F90x off the back of a motorcycle while covering a multi-stage pushbike race.
that camera 'shattered' into a gazillion bits.
that's pretty good service, but i just have the following points to make:
1: the new CPS was launched in 2010? so now you get the same service i have been getting from NPS for 18 years?
2: $300+ to join? i have NEVER paid a cent for NPS membership beyond buying Nikon gear and i've been a member for 18 years.
i'll be putting my NPS membership to the test this week when i send a D700 in for a sensor clean, an SB-900 in for repairs and a D70 in for diagnosis/repairs.
John's a great guy and an uber-talented photog even if he does bug me about my 'ugly black lenses'.
I can't answer any of those inquiries. But I will say that if you aren't on NPS nikon canada sucks the big one. 3.5 month turn around to have my 80-200 fixed and when it finally came back they charged me a hundred dollars over the initial estimate. The AF in my mom's F55 went on the blink, apparently some sort of factory defect. We gave it to the retailer, they sent it away. To the wrong repair depot. Repair depot in Vancouver (or where ever out west) sat on it for a month, before realizing it belonged at the repair depot in Toronto (or where ever out east). Rather than shipping it directly to the correct place they shipped it back to the retailer, who then sat on it for awhile (I suspect at least two weeks but whatever) and then finally shipped it to the right place, which sat on it for about a month and then finally sent it back. It was about 4 months before she got her camera back. Lots of foot dragging from everyone involved.
In other words, if you're not an NPS member and you drop your gear, you're SOL?
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