[B]

As some of you may know I was in the unfortunate position of having to purchase a new camera system a month or two back... replacing my much loved Olympus 5060 was a hard one as it is discontinued...

Well what better than to rely on the "experts" and seek some advice. I called CUW numerous times and each time got different cameras recommended to me... all simply better than the next. In the end I settled for the Canon A570i as it is the one recommended by PADI it made sense to buy something for when I become a DUPi that students can relate to, it was also the one they kept pushing for again and again and again so I thought, well it is probably good... I purchase, strobe, Ikelite housing, ikelite tray, wa lens, cables, cards..the lot... not cheap as you can imagine.. this following 4 attempts to get a quote, because for some reason they just left things off all the time... first the camera was not included (forgot), then the sd cards (forgot), then the fibre optic cable (forgot) then the wa lens (forgot)... but we got there in the end, and I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt...

Items arrived drips and drops.. well one can live with it, the housing has to be ordered in so I can live with that too... camera arrives and I am very disappointed to say the least. Plasticky and looks cheap.. but giving it a chance I carry on practicing land based pics... then comes the housing, and whilst the camera fits it ok, the zoom arm does not and the camera can not be operated. I send email to CUW immediately... nothing... call them... nothing... email again... finally they call back, "oh well are you sure" I reply... "well yes, I am capable of inserting camera into housing" ... response is... send it back (at my cost)

I do (city express courier as well)... hear nothing for 5 days.. call them up - again.... long conversation ensues, have you got housing, yes, does it have a fault, yes appears to, and the million dollar question.... (like pulling teeth) what you gonna do about it?? Oh well, we will get some more in from Ikelite to check this is a one off...

Week passes.. .not a word.... emails sent again, then another... then they call... yes we have got the other housings in and they too have the fault.. it is a design fault.. Ok, this is not good I respond, what next??... well you can send the camera back too (also at my cost) and choose another... said in the way "oh well do what you like, we are not bothered"... so I ask, well what am I going to be compensated with, a better model for same money... they are like "no" - I respond, well I paid for the postage, twice and it is not cheap to send insured... they said "it is the customer who pays the carriage, we point that out as soon as you purchase" - I said, well you seem to have omimitted that fact when I purchased and secondly, why should I pay postage when it is your products that is at fault.. why was it not checked before shipping...???? (apparently they do not have quality assurance... they just send the things...)

Since then, lots of emails back and forth, we are getting nowhere, I have no housing but still have the camera, strobe and all the trimmings, students to teach and nothing to use... I am not impressed. The buying power of a club with lots of students wanting to be photographers is huge. I think the service - or lack of same - is poor to say the least. This is a reasonably nieche market and they sit there like lord and master... very very disappointed....

Watch this space...

B x