Ikelite release dates...

[MagnaBoxer]

This is a first for me in the "complaints or problems" forum and I know that this won't help the situation but feel I have to vent about my experiences with Ikelite.

Last October I was hoping to upgrade my UW camera setup for my trip to Bonaire. My travel plans were that I'd leave on the 20th and spend 10 days there with my family. From Ike's website I found that they were to release the housing for the G10 by Thanksgiving. I asked the SB Ike rep if this was accurate and was reassured that the housing should be available by Thanksgiving. Based on this I preordered my housing from ST and proceeded to buy the new G10.

Thanksgiving comes and goes and still no housing. The Ike rep then states they have issues getting components for the new housing and the latest update was that they would start shipping by the 3rd week of December. Needless to say that this really ticked me off as I had spent all of my photography budget based on what they had told me and now I was not going to have a new set up to take with me as I had planned. I ended up having to purchase a Canon housing as a back up to take to Bonaire.

I sent the Ike rep a PM to inform them of their misleading comments and my dissatisfaction regarding those comments. They were polite and I dropped the issue there as it would do me no good to stew over something I couldn't change. There was a happy ending to all this though and ST received the housing on the 17th and it was in my hands on the 18th which was two days before I left for vacation. Thanks so much ST!! I didn't have to take the Canon housing to Bonaire and since I didn't need it I sold it here on the forum.

Which brings me to my next issue with Ikelite. We booked a Blackbeards cruise in January and are leaving this Friday. A couple weeks ago I note that Ikelite has a wide angle dome lens for the G10 housing coming out and per their website it is supposed to be released late February and is available for preorder. Well dumba$$ that I am I'm thinking how nice it would be to have that for my cruise on the 14th of March and to get some nice pics with my first WA lens.

So I holler at Joe and ask him to please preorder the dome for me and it's a done deal as always with ST. So now here it is March 10th and still no dome. Get on the Ike website and it still shows late Feb as the release date. I've never had ST hold me up so no sense calling them. If they had it I'd have gotten it by now. This morning I posted in the Ike forum asking why no update and when they will be available.

The Ike rep was polite and quick to respond (thanks for that) that they ran into delays and they hope to have the necessary parts in the next couple weeks. Too late for my trip and very disappointing for me.

I've been very pleased with my G10 housing. However your product is only as good as your word and right now that ranks quite low with me. From now on I'll never order anything from Ike based on their posted "availibility" dates and quite honestly may never make another Ike purchase again. This is a shame because I really do like my housing but hate being mislead far more than the like for their products. As I am just beginning with UW photography I'm sure I'll be upgrading again in the future and this will definitely be a factor when I choose my next UW set up.

Walter

[MagnaBoxer]

Ikelite has offered and is overnighting me a prototype WA lens to take with me on my trip. According to them the prototype causes a little vignetting in the corners that the production lens will not but regardless I appreciate the loan and hope to make good use of the lens during my cruise.

Thanks,
Walter

[CompuDude]

I was going to say....

Ikelite is actually known for spectacular customer service.

"Spectacular customer service", however, is NOT the same as being able to ship new products on the planned (and earlier-announced) ship date. They frequently hold them back so they don't ship products with problems, rather than allowing shoddy product to ship and fix it later, if people complain. (Think Microsoft.)