Another Sony Zeiss lens repair story, currently in progress.
Living in Ireland I normally use a great independent camera lens repair guy based in Dublin (Declan in Photographic Repair Services Ltd). Declan has been repairing and servicing cameras lenses and flash for many pro photographers for donkeys years.
Earlier this year he stripped and rebuilt my Minolta 2.8 80 to 200 hss G, not only repairing the zoom issue it had but replacing the wiring loom from an old spare that he had at no extra cost! traditional good service values at work.
My 24-70ZA had developed a very similar problem with the zoom sticking around the 35mm mark. The lens was out of guarantee so I had no qualms about sending my lens to the Declan for assessment. He had a look at the lens and could repair it for a very reasonable figure provided the spare part (zoom slider) could be obtained.
This is where problems arose, he tried all his contacts in Ireland and the UK but could find no one whether Sony or third party who could supply the part. I then took on this task myself and rang every available Sony number in UK and Ireland including 'professional support' in the UK, no one could help, at every stage people were very polite but of absolutely no assistance.I was referred to a third party sony parts distributor in UK but who won't deliver to Ireland! (which century do they live in?) Oh there was the incident of one sony employee who gave me a ficticious number to ring as a way of getting me of the phone but we won't dwell on this!
No one thought to point out that Sony have an official service partner in Dublin (Bennett Audio Video Services Ltd). This I found by accident after yet another web search for some assistance.
So having failed to obtain the required part from either Sony Ireland or Sony Uk I decided to send my lens in to Sony via Bennett Audio Video Services Ltd as the official agent in Ireland. This I did several weeks ago, they rang to confirm receipt of the lens and to inform me that they had dispatched it to Pencoed which I expected. Then followed a silence of a few weeks until I rang them to enquire about the repair (having received no repair number or reference. They were efficient and helpful on the phone but needed to get a technician to call me back. I rang again the following day and spoke to Noel who explained the situation to me.
My lens has been assessed as requiring a repair to total L600! bear in mind that Declan has told me that it is a simple and easy repair requiring only one part. Noel from Bennett Audio Video Services Ltd is currently negotiating with Sony on this issue as the lens was sent in under the fixed price repair agreement. He has also said if this does not work that he may be able to source the spare part required.
I will keep this forum updated as to progress on this issue.
PS
Bennett Audio Video Services Ltd have so far been very helpful and easy to deal with and service most sony items in house, I would not hesitate to use them if the need arose for such repairs.
