Vivitar Corp - Horrible Experience

During the February Woot-off, I bought the Vivitar 8300s. I got it, played with it, and it froze! The camera seems to freeze when the camera is storing an image onto the SD memory card. I thought my SD memory card was causing the problems so I tried another SD memory card. Nope, it still froze. I used Vivitar’s eBox technical support to get it repaired/replaced. I sent it to them, waited 6 weeks, and they sent it back saying they could not reproduce the defect. I powered up the camera, took a picture, and it FROZE! I called their customer support once again, and I talked to Frank. Frank told me that the guy who checked my camera was recently fired and that he probably did not even check the camera. Very frustrating… They said they would send a UPS call tag right away so I wouldn’t have to pay for shipping. I was also instructed to include with the camera the battery and SD memory card. It got shipped off, I waited another 3-4 weeks, and still no word on my camera. I called their tech support and they told me they have found the defect. I wanted to make sure they returned my SD memory card so I mentioned it to Frank. The next week, I finally get the camera back and they did infact replace it with a brand new one. But, my SD memory card was not in the box! I called their tech support and talked to Frank and he said they don’t have any records of my memory card ever being received by them! I talked to the manager and she gave me the same story.

I am very frustrated with their tech support. I was INSTRUCTED to ship the SD memory card with the camera and they said they never even received it. I know I included the SD memory card with the camera, so they can see that the camera was defective. The memory card was a Sandisk SD Ultra-II 512MB with the USB connector…approx $50. I haven’t been able to use the camera for 6-7 months and now they lost my memory card… They said they can’t be responsible for a memory card they never received (or just never documented). But I know for a fact that I included it. I can’t prove it and now I have lost $50. GG Vivitar.