More on Nikon customer service

Nikon sent me the pin-cover. The guy I spoke with was very nice. I told him I was missing a part. He took my service number, asked what was missing and told me he would look into it. If there was a problem he'd call me back.

If he didn't call me they had found the part and it would be sent to me.

Today (two days later) it arrived. It isn't the same pin cover, this one has no signs of wear, which the synch-cord pin cover (located about 3/4s of inch above it has.

Good on them.

They also sent me the receipt/estimate. This was sent to me when they got the camera. Estimate for the repair was zip. It was listed as a good will repair.

Good will. The camera had a defective circuit, and they replaced it. Yes, I suppose that, as it was out of the parts/manufacture warranty they could have charged me for it. On the other hand, when they announced the problem (very shortly after I bought the camera) I could have just sent it in as a piece of prophylaxis.

The inventory was pretty detailed. They noted I had removed the strap (but not the female portion of the bayonet clips) and the LCD cover, and included a body cap (it would have been foolish not to).

In short I sent them the camera, just as they asked for it, body only.

More to the point (and I don't know if it was because I included my Nikon Professional Services number) they did more than I expected.

I was entitled to the camera being replaced to working condition.

I, pretty much,expected them to clean the sensor (becase being an NPS member entitles me to that. They did.

I hoped they'd give it a general cleaning. They did.

I didn't expect them to actually replace the covers they had to take off.

The only thing I wanted them to do, which they didn't was to repair the sealant on the cover for the flash-card. There is a slight design flaw in it. The cover (a textured rubbery pad, which sits beneath the heel of the thumb), isn't quite flush, and so it isn't uncommon for something (say clothes, as the camera dangles about the hip) to snag it, and lift the corner. After that the slow action of time causes it to peel. This wouldn't be such a big deal, if it weren't in a small pocket, so that it's absence makes the camera less comfy in the hand.

So, as there don't seem to be any contacts, or access panels, below it, I'll just take some aquarium sealant, and tacking it down.

Michael Brown

Michael Brown seems deserving of an apology.

Yes, he made some mistakes during Katrina (the can I go home now, and, I need more time to eat e-mails certainly show that) but it seems he was sincerely trying to fix things before that. He knew FEMA was broken and he was trying to fix it (ineffectually, to be sure, but it may be no one could have fixed the mess the Administration made of FEMA).

More importantly, he is still trying to fix it. It may be that he is trying to avoid a life spent ignominiously as a joke. It may be anger; a desire for revenge on those who hung him out to dry.

But the transcripts, the videotapes and the actual work he did (the Mitre Report he commissioned, showing the failings FEMA had, and probably still has), all show that he saw the problems (both instrinsic, and likely to happen in the event of a disaster like Katrina) and wanted to prevent them.

Does it absolve him? Maybe. It may be, as I said above, that no one would have been allowed to fix it. It may be that even Brown had been listened to, and the changes he'd have liked to see been implelented it would have been too late for New Orleans. It may be that even if he'd tried, he wasn't up to the task.

But his stepping up now, that says something about his character, he could have just slunk away, let it go, taken on the role of goat, which the administration was fostering, and we, the public, were willing to accept (even those of use who think the blame goes all the way to the top, were more than willing to pile on and place the primary blame on Brown), but he didn't. Knowing full-well the sort of abuse he could expect he has stepped up to show the emperors lack of clothes.

He seems to have tried before hand. He seems to be willing to accept the blame for his failures, and he is also willing to take the heat which will come from showing where he was failed by his leaders.

Mr. Brown, I apologise.

Godspeed and good luck.