My Sony A7RII Repair Experience with Precision Camera

<p>I'm hard on gear. I know it. In the field, babying my camera is the last thing on my mind. Subsequently, the thing gets bounced around a fair bit. This was rarely a problem with my Canon EOS gear and, in fact, my Sony gear has been fairly robust as well....until recently.</p>

<p>One day after a return from a rough and tumble outing in the woods, my A7RII just stopped working. It powered on OK but none of the buttons, rear wheel or shutter worked. The lens tested fine on another body. I tried removing the battery and rebooting but no luck. This camera was going to need service. As I prepped the camera for shipment, I pulled out my paperwork to include in the package when I noticed I still had two days, a mere 48 hours, left on my original Sony warranty! Hooray, I thought, but that would mean sending it to Precision Camera for Warranty service. I have not heard good things about Sony Service in general and this place in particular. The camera showed no physical damage but would they honor the trailing edge of my warranty? I gave it a try.</p>

<p>I went to the Precision Camera website identified my camera and got a preliminary "estimate" of about $360. Yikes! This is a blind, general estimate meant to prepare you for the standard costs of most repairs I assumed. I filled out the forms, I indicated this was a warranty repair, got a ticket number and express mailed the camera to them. Pretty easy to figure out and accomplish. So far, so good.</p>

<p>The next day I got an email that the camera had been received and entered into the repair shop. They have a web page where you can follow the progress of the camera: entered in service, waiting for parts, and then ready to be shipped. At the end point of the process, I called to see when it would be shipped. I talked directly to a customer service agent who was pleasant and knowledgeable. The camera was shipping that day. It was received by them on November 29th and express shipped to me on Dec 5th. They state this is their standard turnaround time. The repair sheet indicated the replacement of "mounted C. Board RL-1048", all settings calibrated, new firmware installed, mount checked and realigned, focus tested and calibrated, address values measured and adjusted, and the sensor, viewfinder, and external camera cleaned. Total cost to me...$ 00.00! All covered under warranty, no questions asked.</p>

<p>This was a very positive and pleasant experience. Despite past horror stories of Sony warranty service, my experience was great. Not only did the website make beginning the process easy, but the whole affair was handled professionally and quickly. My camera was returned looking like new and working perfectly. Even with mere hours left on the warranty, it was no problem. This was my Sony/ Precision Camera warranty repair experience logged on 12/7/2016</p>

 

<p>Worlds different from my experience with Olympus service in India, which I have described on the Olympus forum.</p>

<p>I googled Precision Camera and saw varying kinds of comments on their service. Glad that you had a great experience and hopefully that is the norm.</p>

<p>But what interested me in the OP was that apparently Precision Camera is the only authorized service centre in the USA? I checked the Sony site in much smaller Canada (10% of USA population) and here is their statement: "Across Canada we have a broad network of Professional Authorised Service Centres with expert staff ready to help you get the most out of your Sony equipment." So are there not more Sony service centres south of the border?</p>

<p>Just a guess, but it could be that Precision Camera is a dedicated Sony repair facility whereas, in Canada, Sony farms out the work to techs that have had the requisite training in servicing Sony gear. Saves Sony money, yet still enables them to provide the service.</p>