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| Deep woods on a foggy morning in New Hampshire (click to enlarge) X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 29mm; 1/75th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200 |
I am a big fan of Olympus and have been for 30 or more years. I first owned Olympus OM film cameras and lenses in the 1980s. I loved the high quality, thoughtful engineering, small size, layout of the controls and the wide variety of excellent lenses they made available. They were direct competition to Nikon at the time. Olympus stole many photojournalists away from Nikon due to the smaller, lighter but high quality gear. Great company making great gear.
Skip to now. I continue to be a big fan of Olympus as everything they seem to make is excellent. Excellent build quality, excellent design and engineering, excellent optics. I bought into the Olympus M4/3 system shortly after the O-MD E-M5 was first introduced. Wonderful camera and wonderful lenses. Then I bought the E-M1 and was even more thrilled by the images I made with that camera. I now own the E-M1 Mark II and several Olympus lenses. As I said, I have been and continue to be a huge Olympus fan.
Along the way, I bought many Olympus lenses, most new, but some factory reconditioned directly from Olympus. All were excellent. None let me down. Whenever I bought a factory reconditioned lens, the price was good and the lens looked and performed like brand new. I saved money and acquired good lenses to add to my arsenal.
In September, Olympus put their reconditioned gear on sale for two or three days. I had been wanting another 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens. I had one but foolishly sold it a year or more ago. I missed its versatility, quality and I currently don't have any M4/3 lenses wider than 12mm. When I got the email from Olympus that their reconditioned lenses would be on sale, I went to the site and immediately purchased a factory reconditioned copy of the 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens. They charged my credit card immediately and I received it within five or so days. Perfect transaction.
As I always do, whenever I purchase a lens I closely look at its cosmetics, then thoroughly test it for mechanical soundness as well as optical performance. I don't ever assume, even with a new lens, that what I received is a "good" copy of any particular product. As much automation and standardization as there is, I still find quite a bit of product variation not only in photo gear, but in other products as well. Tolerances are met but some lenses are better than others. I'm a bit picky about my lens performance and I always want "good" copies of the lenses I buy.
This particular lens I purchased was mechanically and cosmetically perfect, but after extensive testing over several days, I consistently found that the left edge (about 10%) of the images from this lens were not as sharply focused as the right side. This was at all focal lengths and all apertures tested. In a very scientific manner, I tested and retested and retested wanting to keep this lens, but finally I concluded that for the money this lens costs I couldn't keep it. My conclusion was there was a de-centered element within the lens. That may or may not be, but that is my guess. That may have been the reason the lens became a "factory reconditioned' lens in the first place. Back it would have to go.
I then went to Olympus' website and precisely followed the procedures for returning the lens. They offer a 30-day return period. The lens was insured and shipped off by UPS and received by Olympus in Texas a few days later. In fact, they received it on September 27th.
Here is the issue. I advise you to read all of Olympus's information on how long they can and will hold your money before issuing a refund. There is contradicting information on two separate web pages but here is what they say. In the FAQ section, they say a refund can take as long as 35 business days. That is seven weeks and maybe longer if there are any holidays in that time period! Yes, 7 weeks to get your refund. In their Product Support section, Olympus gives the time period as 25-30 business days as to how long they will keep your money before crediting your credit card. By their own words, they will and do keep your money for a minimum of 5 weeks and potentially even as long as 7 weeks.
However, that can be longer. A good friend of mine bought a reconditioned Olympus Tough camera last spring, then returned it within a week or so. He didn't keep close track of when his money was refunded to his credit card and, after 9 weeks when he checked, his money still had not been returned! 9 weeks!
He ended up doing the same thing I did. We both called the Customer Service 800 number and received no satisfaction. I spoke with a man who told me his name was Caesar and he merely told me to email "orders@olympus.com. I asked Caesar repeatedly if there was anything he could do to speed up the process and he had no answer only to direct me to write an email to orders@olympus.com. So I did. In a very professional manner, I laid out the circumstances and asked them to immediately refund my money or send the lens back to me, but they couldn't have both!
The next morning, I received an email from (I'll assume to be fair) a very nice young lady by the name of Nichole (with whom I had previously exchanged emails before sending the lens back in to Olympus) answered my email She wrote:
We do apologize for the delay. The credit is being processed today and you should see the funds back to your credit card in the next 3-5 business days. We do appreciate your patience in this matter.My friend received a similar email from Nichole in response to his as well.
Thank you for choosing Olympus!
Finally, on Monday of this week (October 30) my refund showed up on my card statement. It took another week from the time my friend emailed his inquiry to receive his. It seems that contacting Nichole (and thank you very much Nichole) allows her to intervene and get the refund more quickly (in my case) and get a refund at all (in my friend's case).
I take full blame and responsibility for not reading all of the information before ordering the lens. Of course, based upon my past experience, I had never had to return an item to them. Nontheless, I should have known. I now want you to know as well.
I have no issue with Olympus cameras, lenses, or anything else except their extraordinary time they keep your money before refunding it. Unlike B and H and some other retailers who only charge your card when your items are shipped, Olympus charges it immediately but won't give your money back to you until weeks and weeks after they have the item back into their possession. With all of the automation, that is unacceptable in today's business world of online purchasing. There is no excuse for keeping a customer's money that long, in my opinion.
Again, you need to be aware of this before you buy a reconditioned product with the chance of sending it back for a refund. As I stated at the outset, this is a heads up.
Lesson Learned: Read conditions carefully before buying. Ensure you are willing to fully accept those terms so you experience no surprises.
Dennis A. Mook
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