Complaint Review: Nikon Inc

Ashton Kutcher has great fun on vacation and at parties on yachts with his NIkon cameras.  It was the reason that I decided to purchase a Nikon Coolpix S4100 camera at a suburban Walmart store on 7/23/11.  The price was $162.55 which included tax and an additional $10 for a 1yr replacement plan. Almost two weeks after my purchase, my Coolpix camera would not read the memory card.  I took it back to the Walmart store where I purchased it just before the 14 day return expired and purchased the same brand of camera on 8/06/11.  On Nov 2nd, I plugged in my camera to charge the battery and the camera would not respond.  I tried charging it via the wall outlet and my computer and still no charge.  Thinking that maybe the battery was bad I purchased a new one.  When that battery was exhausted, I again plugged in the camera to a wall outlet and my computer, no response. 

On 11/11/11, I first called the number on the extended warranty I purchased from Walmart.  The representative there informed me that this warranty does not kick in until after the 1yr manufacturer warranty from Nikon has expired.  So, I contacted Nikon and was told that I needed to return the camera at my expense.  I asked why should I bear the expense of sending the camera to your company for repair when it was still under manufactures warranty and I've had little more than three months use.  I asked to speak to a manager and was put in touch with a man by the name of Arshad who echoed the same thing as the first representative.  When I insisted that I should not bear the expense of returning this defective camera, he said that he would see what he could do and call me back.  He never did call back.

I filed an online complaint with Nikon and instead of addressing my concerns, I was repeatedly told to follow the very specific steps to charge the camera.  When I told them I had done this several times and the camera still didn't work, they insisted that if I wanted it repaired that I would have to send it in at my expense.

To make a long story short, I mailed the camera to Nikon on 11/29.  Today, Dec. 20, 2011, I received a letter from them with an acknowledgement of repair and a repair charge of get this...$99.50!!!  They are requesting my consent to repair the camera because the USB Port was damaged and this repair is not covered under warranty!!  What??!!  I have had two defective Nikon camera's in the span of five months and in addition to the $162 price I paid for the camera, they have the audacity to want to charge me an additional $100 to repair a camera that should still be under warranty!  I am stunned!!  My original letter requested a refund because after two defective cameras I thought I'd cut my losses.  Not only did they not honor my request for a refund, I was sent a bill for repair!  I'm tempted to Tweet Ashton to let him know that I bought this camera because of his fun commercials, but I certainly have not enjoyed my experience with NIKON.  Their customer service sucks!  I will never purchase another of their products!