Kodak Complaint – Drama BIG TIME.

So this started happening at the beginning of April 2011.

I had to really think about whether to put Kodak on this blog because at some point they attempted to correct the problem. But after being ignored twice more by David at the customer service department (read below), I feel my story needs to be told & their shareholders need to know what’s going on from a consumer’s perspective.

I’m really shocked. As I later told the Office of the President, my father was an amateur photographer, & all he ever bought was Kodak film. While I’ve never been a customer of Kodak until now, to me it was an iconic family style company that I respected just because of all the film he had in our house over the years.

Well my views of Kodak has changed!

In my opinion, Kodak is run by incompetent people. The people working in the Kodak US office seem to be charismatic, but then they drop the ball, ignore or forget. I have NO idea what goes on over there. Normally when I have problems with a company, they get resolved within a few weeks. As you will read, this problem took 3-4 months to resolve & only because I didn’t give up.

They also farm out their first level customer service to the Philippines, hence why this entire mess happened in the first place, but in defense of the Filipinos, the higher up customer service dropped the ball about the same exact issue months later, so I guess it’s NOT just them.

So here is my store…

I bought their new underwater camera easyshare sport C123 because shipping was free since it was a pre-order item. I didn’t mind waiting a couple of weeks to get it & it looked cool.

The reason I even considered buying a Kodak camera, was because I had bought a used camera that was from Kodak, but there were problems with that camera. It wouldn’t zoom properly. I called up the company to talk to them about the problem & they offered me a discount for a new one saying this one clearly wasn’t working. Little did I know at the time that I was to have SO many more ongoing problems with more of their cameras.

The underwater camera came with a USB cord that was sooooo short, I couldn’t put it on my desk & really, they expect you to get up from your desk & bend down on the floor to deal with all my numerous cords & plug & unplug the camera that way? LOL, give me a BREAK.

I also had a problem when looking into the viewfinder. It was always dark, it didn’t matter where I was in the house, I couldn’t see the item I was shooting even though it would come out fine once I uploaded the pictures to my computer.

So I called up asking for a longer USB cord. I mean they have to have them right? The used camera had a VERY long cord that was perfect, but it wasn’t the right one for this new camera.

So their first level support argued with me telling me to go buy a new USB. LOL, yeh right. They screw up by manufacturing or buying a USB cord that is so short it won’t stretch to the front of my desk from the CPU & I should spend more money & time doing their job for them? No thanks.

I e-mailed trying to get to the bottom of these issues, when that didn’t work, I called.

So first I had to deal with the Filipinos which I’m sure many of you know don’t understand English well at all.

When I asked to speak to a manager, I had to wait 25 minutes to get one because the first Filipino was too stupid to figure out what questions in my previous e-mails to answer. I don’t have time to hold people’s hands & walk people through what’s been addressed, what’s outstanding, etc. These are obvious things to someone with 1/2 a brain.

The supervisor Adrian wasn’t much better. I had to direct him to actually look at each question’s answer so he DOESN’T waste my time answering each of my questions that had already been answered (yes, that’s what he was doing, repeating things.)

He was also very slow in actually stating what I needed to do to solve my problem. It would take forever for him to say one word & then he wouldn’t understand all that I did say. I finally had to get him off the phone because someone arrived at my house & he was driving me insane.

Finally after more than an hour of being on the phone with him because he thinks & talks so slow, I got the answers to most of my questions, but there were still some further issues & questions, so I wrote to their customer service at [email protected].

I also figured out that the camera didn’t have a self timer. What digital camera these days doesn’t have a timer so you can take a picture of yourself???

I received a response back, but whoever was responding didn’t understand a word I had written. I said I wanted to speak to the head office. I then forwarded my questions again to [email protected]. This time I was livid. I was in the middle of a major move & I’m wasting all this time dealing with Kodak.

They proceeded to e-mail me & tell me they are the highest point of contact within Kodak. Like do they think I’m  a MORON??? Of course e-mailing someone & dealing with Filipinos isn’t the highest point of contact. What kind of company is going to give over the entire operations to an overseas call center that doesn’t understand any English at all? LOL

Shareholders, beware of who is manning the helm.

They then told me to do the one thing that always gets my blood boiling, they wanted me to send a letter snail mail to:

Eastman Kodak Company
Consumer Advocate Department
343 State Street
Rochester, NY 14650-0944

Then the morons went back & answered all the questions that had already been answered before LOL I was tearing my hair out a this point. We were already 5 days into this drama.

Then I FINALLY get the truth out of someone. I got this:

Senior Customer Relations Specialist
Worldwide Customer Care
585-724-2804

And the name of Jonathon Tremblay. He was the nice one who was sharp, so I was relieved that someone was finally going to take care of me – NOT!!

He said he would send me a longer USB cord plus a smart card as a gift. I had already purchased some accessories which I told him about – the water flotation device thingy.

So I get the package & guess WHAT!!!

The USB cord is long, but it has the WRONG connection LOL

And I didn’t get a smart card, I got another water flotation device thingy. Obviously I can’t do anything with 2 of them.

JUST NUTS! But wait, it gets better.

I spoke to him again & since I was moving out of the country,  we decided to wait until I had settled down before he replaced everything a second time.

Once I settled down a bit I started e-mailing him in June of 2011. I could see he was reading the e-mails, but I never got a response back.

I called him & left a message on his voice mail, no return phone call. I called twice more & still nothing.

He FINALLY returned one of my e-mails & apologized saying he was having phone issues.

Then I find out that Kodak sent me a bill (my sister told me, as she was getting my mail). It turns out Kodak charged me for the courier costs on the items Jonathon sent me. It was either that or I was charged duty on the original camera. Jonathon said he would take care of it.

Oh wait, the story isn’t over yet LOL

Another 8 days went by & I just wanted this nightmare to end. I have no problem waiting for things when people communicate to me, but Jonathon had just disappeared again, so I kept e-mailing him over & over again asking him what is going on.

He writes me & tells me they will ship me a new camera plus the right USB cord this time. It will be shipped on June 24, 2011.  And to clarify, this was being shipped outside the US. I also faxed him the bill I was charged by FedEx.

He wrote me again confirming the package will be shipped that weekend. All seemed fine.

On July 4, 2011 I still hadn’t received anything & since it was going courier I was concerned, so I e-mailed him asking if all was fine.

I don’t hear back from him & so again on July 13, 2011 I e-mail again because I believe I had already called & left him a message with no response back.

July 19, 2011 I e-mail again & now I’m FURIOUS.

I even tried to contact that other e-mail address & no one would respond there either.

Reception refused to give me the number to the office of the president, but the manager tried to help. He directed me to this Public Relations page or something on Kodak’s website with some blonde woman (I think her name was Judy Goonan) who supposedly overseas ALL customer relations. I e-mailed her on the contact form on the site & she TOO didn’t respond to my e-mail. We were on the 3rd week now.

I tried to find the number to the Executive office online, but couldn’t, so I had to pay someone to find it for me. He got me the CEO’s information so here it is in case you need it. It took me almost 30 minutes to dig it up, so I hope this helps you

 

Antonio Perez
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, EKC
585-724-3230 x43230
[email protected]

So I finally speak to the Executive Assistant of the CEO was a very sympathetic as she listened to my whole story. In some companies these Executive Assistants are the ONLY ones who get anything done. You need to utilize them when you have a HUGE problem like this.

I was then passed to someone named David Senkiw who said he would take care of me. No one ever ended up telling me what happened in the end as far as all the drama & I had REALLY wanted to know since while everyone has problems with companies, clearly this was a NIGHTMARE!

I finally did get a new camera (different better model or so he claimed, it’s called the Play Sport HD 1080 AND it’s refurbished while the one I bought was brand new.) & while he was nice about doing that, one day he had to really state over & over again that he was doing me this HUGE favor as this camera cost over $100. I mean give me a BREAK. I wasted 3-4 months of my time trying to get this resolved, was treated like garbage & he has to try & make me feel like I’m getting the world?

I should have been given a top of the line camera. This thing was no better than the other one in the end. It also doesn’t have a timer or a flash.

Oh & they made Jon apologize to me via e-mail & when I wrote him back asking what was wrong, he ignored my response. So much for being a nice guy.

When I found out the USB cord was once again too short, David refused to do anything about it. Yes he was professional in how he spoke, but then he had the nerve to tell me that no one else out of the thousands of people who buy the camera have complained about the length of the cord. Either he’s lying, or they all use laptops. I don’t use a laptop, I use a desktop. And as I told him, most people don’t complain, they just take their business elsewhere. I feel it’s my duty as an entrepreneur to help companies by telling them what problems lie within their company. That’s assuming the company even cares & at this point I don’t feel Kodak does.

David suggested I buy a new USB cord & when I asked if I would be reimbursed, he ignored me.

The only way I have it working now, is I had to buy a USB hub for something else, & I put it on top of my CPU which I normally don’t do, so that’s the only reason the USB cord will reach the part of the desk that is near me.

I’m really shocked that Kodak doesn’t make good cameras. You’d think they would know how, but I had a Canon before which was the BEST camera ever & I should NEVER have purchased from Kodak. That discount they gave me was the reason I did purchase.

No wonder Kodak doesn’t advertise their cameras, they SUCK! I’ve had 3 cameras, & they all had problems?

I did get the FedEx bill taken care of.

End of story.

So the reason it’s been over a year before I posted, is because I forgot to post because I was just too busy. I hadn”t used the new camera, but today I took it out to start using it & you know what, I don’t like it. The pictures are grainy no matter what I do, & because there’s no flash when I take pictures at night indoors in dim lighting, the pictures don’t come out at all. So now I have to wait for sunlight tomorrow.

 

Michelle

 


Leave a Comment