I sent my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 in to be serviced a couple of weeks ago. I was wondering if they really got the lens, as I hadn’t heard anything from them. I knew they really got it, because I asked for signature confirmation from USPS. Still, I hadn’t heard from them. I decided to go online and look around. I found a service section, but to get a status on your lens you had to have a service order number. I didn’t have one yet. They had a repair status form, so I filled that out. And waited.

I gave up waiting and called. Virtually no hold time and I was though. I give them points for that. I talked to someone who was able to confirm that they indeed had the lens and that it was sent to the repair area. That meant that they agreed that it had issues. Then I was told it would be 2 – 3 more weeks to do the repair. Really? Wow. That is not the fastest shop around. So then I asked if normally they sent out emails on the status of the repair, such as if they recieved the lens, if it had been sent to the repair shop, that kind of thing. The response was “No, we don’t have time.” Really? Wow.

To me, this means that either there are a lot of Tamron lenses that go back so they are overwhelmed, or they just don’t hire enough staff. I have never sent an item back to Nikon. I wonder what the turnaround is for Nikon and Canon, and how well they keep you up on the status of repairs. I was not expecting a personalized thoughtful carefully crafted response. I was expecting and automated email to go out when somone entered into the computer that the lens had arrived. I was expecting an automated email to go out once somone had looked at the lens and entered into the computer what problems they found. There shouldn’t be a time issue with this.

Tamron, you need some technology applied to your customer service area. By the way, I am looking for a programming job, do you want me to implement that for you?

Update: Lens fixed.