Another Dead Rig

[Alex Menendez]

This is my first post and I would like to apologize for the frustration that I am showing but I was on the phone and internet all night last night and was suppose to shoot the Space Shuttle this morning with a camera that is not working!......
I shot the Space Shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center yesterday with my new HD100U and after a few minutes the warning button came on to clean the tape heads. This camera is brand new and has about 3 hours on it. I cleaned heads with the cleaning tape and the camera worked fine from that point on. When I returned to the shop I captured the footage into FCP. The shots at the beginning of the tape (3 minutes of the vehicle assembly building, polarizer, beautiful) were nothing but a grey screen, full frame. The camera never caught the images even though the viewfinder had the image in it and I was focusing manually.
I went home and turned the camera on to play with my settings and the camera would not power up. I tried the Anton Bauer brick that was sent to me as the promotion, that failed, I then took the Anton assembly off and went with the standard battery that came with the camera, Nothing again. I then tried the DC cord that was shipped with the factory. The camera is dead and I need to shoot the Space Shuttle tomorrow, the Florida Gator NCAA football game on Saturday and then off to Colorado on Wednesday of next week.
I spoke with JVC support today and they had me send it off to Georgia ($239.00 for overnight) in hopes of getting it back by Friday. They also informed me that I would not get a replacement camera due to the fact that I own the 100 and not the 110, even though its less than 30 days out of the box. I spent over $5000.00 for this camera (I purchased 2 of them) and feel like I bought a lemon. The JVC website and all familiar pages are not working and the support number kept giving me the answering machine and the whole run around.
Needless to say this is very frustrating after deciding to leave Panasonic in favor of the JVC..........I guess the internal fuse is broken and I hope this is not a recurring nightmare. I also discovered a green pixel on my existing footage but thats for another day, I will keep you posted on my progress.
Thanks,
Alex Menendez
Delve Productions.com


HD100U
Purchased new with Anton Bauer Dionic

[Ken Diewert]

Alex,

"Ouch!" that is nasty.

I feel your pain and hope JVC comes through for you (somehow). You came to the right place though. If nothing else you get to vent. Sure beats swearing into an answering machine. The good thing about this site is there's 20,000+ videophiles listening to see how JVC responds.

[Tim Brown]

See post #5 on this thread http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=74608.

Seems like it may be key to getting things accomplished efficiently.

[Carl Hicks]

Hi Tim,

Alex is right. As I have said many times on this forum, when you have a hot issue, please get your dealer and JVC District Sales Manager involved. Many times, we can save you time and money. If you don't know who your JVC manager is, then e-mail me the name and location of your dealer, and I will let you know who it is.

Regards, Carl

[Jack Walker]

Originally Posted by Carl Hicks

Hi Tim,

Alex is right. As I have said many times on this forum, when you have a hot issue, please get your dealer and JVC District Sales Manager involved. Many times, we can save you time and money. If you don't know who your JVC manager is, then e-mail me the name and location of your dealer, and I will let you know who it is.

Regards, Carl

How do I determine my district sales manager....

The camera was bought mailorder from North Carolina.

I live in Southern California.

The company has offices and/or service departments (not for the camera) in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland and California.

Thank you.

[Carl Hicks]

Originally Posted by Jack Walker

How do I determine my district sales manager....

The camera was bought mailorder from North Carolina.

I live in Southern California.

The company has offices and/or service departments (not for the camera) in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland and California.

Thank you.

Jack, what is the name of the dealer, and what city are they located in? Check your sales receipt if needed.

Regards, Carl

[John Vincent]

Carl, I did have a question about this man's problem. I understand that sometimes things go wrong with the manufacturing process and you have to either replace a faulty product or get it repaired - it's the nature of the beast. I do get that.

What kind of got me was the fact that he had to spend over a couple of hundred dollars to ship it in. If the camera is legitimately a "bad seed" should not the burden shift to JVC not only for repair but for shipping?

Or is it the case that he should have not depended on ANY BRAND of camera out-of-the-box if time was of the essence - ie -the risks shifts back to him in this specific matter?

I guess what I am asking is that if a buy a new camera from a legit JVC dealer and it's obviously busted when I get it (ie- JVC also agrees that it was defective when it left the plant), do I still have to pay reasonable shipping costs to fix/replace it? It may not seem like a big deal - but the reality is, a lot of us have extremely tight, even if large, budgets. I didn't mind sending in my camera to get the "A" upgrade, and I'm glad it was offered, but it IS expensive to ship and insure these things, and it does take away production time.

Is this an area where a district sales manager would normally be able to help with (ie- offering a temporary replacement, etc.)?

Thanks for all the help Carl - you are a great asset to this forum.

john
evilgeniusentertainment.com

[Tim Brown]

Not to answer for Carl, but in my experience this is where doing business with a legitimate dealer pays off. As you'll see in other posts, when you have difficulty with a rig, the dealer usually steps in and offers support in the form of a loaner unit or close coordination with JVC so that the matter is resolved quickly.

Another reason why I've found that working with a local "mom-n-pop" on some purchases really, really pays dividends.

[Alex Menendez]

The two camera's that I purchased were bought through a legit JVC dealer in Florida. I was also informed by JVC national that there are no more HD100's to replace it with.....

[Tim Brown]

Alex,

Understood--but did your dealer step up and offer a loaner. I know many that would have. There may be no more stock of the 100, but surely there are 110's in abundance.

[Carl Hicks]

Originally Posted by Tim Brown

Not to answer for Carl, but in my experience this is where doing business with a legitimate dealer pays off. As you'll see in other posts, when you have difficulty with a rig, the dealer usually steps in and offers support in the form of a loaner unit or close coordination with JVC so that the matter is resolved quickly.

Another reason why I've found that working with a local "mom-n-pop" on some purchases really, really pays dividends.

John,

Tim has the right idea here. Working closely with a local dealer that you can look at face to face usually is worth any small increase in selling price that you might pay. (There are exceptions of course, but this is generally true.) Also, working with a local dealer and your local JVC rep. , many times expenses such as shipping costs can be greatly reduced, and the issues can be resolved faster. In Alex's first post above, I did not see where he had made contact with his dealer or his JVC Rep. Perhaps he did, but it is not noted above.

At the top of this forum, there is a sticky note that reminds customers to not only use the JVC national support line, but to also contact their reseller and local JVC rep. for support if needed.

Regards, Carl

[Alex Menendez]

Just got off the phone with Lee in the Georgia service center. My camera was originally sent back to wherever -when they upgraded it to an "A" version a few months ago. The tech did a crap job on the sottering and caused the guts to burn up in the camera. Lee replaced the part and fixed it, he also removed the dead green pixel in the bottom of the frame.
The Georgia service center people are very nice and answered all of my questions and rushed the job for me so that I can have the camera for my Saturday shoot. I however have to rent another camera for the Space Shuttle shoot tomorrow if it goes, my Sony betacamSP and Panasonic DVX 100 won't suffice as they are not HD and this is what I need to shoot, oh yeah, and the reason I purchased (2) HD100's.
I was originally told this morning that the camera would take a few weeks to repair and to call JVC in Jersey and get a "PERFECT EXPERIENCE" camera exchange, I have left messages for Hakim, Jim and Pete over 2 hours ago and am still awaiting their timely response. (I think this program needs some major work Guys!!) Since then, Lee has informed me of the repair and left for the FED EX box already to send it for tomorrow delivery.
I will keep everyone updated on the status of the camera and the repair job, hopefully all will be fine?
My dealer, Watson-Industries has been helpful as well and put me in touch with the correct people, I guess I just got a bad camera.
For those of you who might have this same problem, the camera has been giving me a hard time since I opened it from the factory. The warnng signs are as follow:
1).When you power up the unit, the blue light inside the JVC logo on the side of the camera will glow and then shut off, then glow again, then off
2). The camera won't turn on when you power it up: numerous times in a row, even if you wait the required 5-10 minutes
3). The LCD screen on the side buzzes and has horizontal lines coming and going while you view the picture during capture:
4)The warning in the viewfinder says to power the camera off:why???
5) The brand new camera says to clean the heads.....

Good luck fellas,
Alex Menendez

[Carl Hicks]

All,

The camera was repaired and returned to Alex via UPS Red. It arrived today at 11:58 A.M.

Regards, Carl

[Tim Brown]

Thanks for being here for the users Carl. The level of customer service the JVC team has provided on this board is extraordinary and your help and presence is greatly appreciated and was one of the deciding factors for purchasing an HD100.

Thanks again.

Tim

[John Vincent]

Yeah, it's pretty boss that JVC and its people are so helpful - Carl and Ken's presence here is one example of this, but so is JVC' seemingly willingness to champion the 'little guy,' even if it's just by listening to us bitch from time to time.

The thing about this is that this technology is so new and relatively untested that there are bound to problems - which is why personal service and an overall willingness to help is so huge. We are the early adaptors. We are the little fat girl from Ohio who will make something great for under ten grand...

With a little help from our friends-
john
evilgeniusentertainment.com