Shopping

We went to Tulsa to get the lumbar support put in the car today. I have a good friend who lives there, but she was busy in the morning - she sells bread that she bakes at a farmer's market. And she didn't have room in her work car for both of us, so this is what we did. First we went to a camera store, where I bought a micro fiber cloth and a lens pen. Next we went to her house to get her other car. We each drove to the place that was to put in the lumbar support. We called my friend from there and agreed to meet at Panera for lunch. We left our car and drove her car to Panera. Then we went to another camera store where we bought a new tripod with a ball head and a backpack. Finally, we picked up our car and both drove to my friend's house to return her car. We visited awhile, then we drove home. Whew! But it was a good day - I've been wanting all this camera stuff for awhile now, but I really wanted to try out a tripod and backpack. I'm really glad I did too, because we didn't get the first one of either that we looked at.

So, here's the tripod we got: http://www.giottos.com/MT-2.htm - it's the 9251.

The ball head: http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/cache/offonce/pid/2302?livid=8081&lsf=81&child=2.

And the backpack: http://www.promaster.com/products/products.asp?CatID=40&CatSM=&SubCatID=2&CatName=Bags%20And%20Cases&SubCatName=Backpacks&sm=sm2_402&dir=&page=PROD&product=8773

New camera!!

My husband surprised me this morning with a new Canon Digital Rebel XT! I am so excited - I've only taken 3 pictures with it so far, but I can already tell I'm going to LOVE it!! So here is one of those 3 pictures - it is my precious kitty (his name is Lucky).

Olympus

I wrote my letter to Olympus a few weeks ago. In yesterday's mail, I received 2 envelopes from them. The first one was a check for all of the shipping that I had spent to send the camera back to them all 3 times, so that was good. The second one was a letter of apology, along with a 2 year extended warranty. I certainly hope that I won't need to use the warranty again after my last experience. They stated in the letter that the extended warranty also gives me a free cleaning and check up, but I won't be using that. I won't be sending the camera back to them unless there is something really serious wrong with it, but at least they tried to make the situation right.

So I don't feel quite as negative towards them as I did before. And they actually have 2 service centers, so if I ever do need to send it in again, I will try the other one. But I'm still hoping for a digital SLR camera. Someday soon I hope - I really want the Canon Digital Rebel, because we have a film Canon Rebel with 3 lenses that would fit the digital. If I get that, I don't think I'll ever shoot film again.

Camera

Our digital camera is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. It better be repaired correctly this time! Once it is, I plan on writing a very detailed letter to the company. I don't think I've ever written this kind of letter before, but I'm still mad about this whole ordeal, and I want Olympus to know it! I'm not sure what I expect by writing to them - I probably need to figure that out before I write the letter. But this has been some of the worst customer service I've experienced in a long time. And the company should know!

I hope to be able to start posting pictures of some of my quilting projects sometime tomorrow!

Camera Woes

Well, my digital camera arrived home on Monday, just as scheduled. I opened the box and looked at the packing slip first. I noticed that it referred to the first problem I'd sent it in for, not the second, and it also stated "no problem found." WHAT?? So I put the battery and the memory card in it, turned it on, checked it, and NO, they DID NOT fix the problem. I can not believe this!

Here is the story - sometime in September, the lens stopped retracting into the camera when you turned the camera off. I sent it in for repairs - which meant having Mail Boxes Etc. double box it so that insurance would cover it if it was damaged in shipping. They repaired it and returned it (but we were without it for about 3 weeks). The day it came back, I loaded the battery and memory card back into it, checked it to be sure the lens retracted like it was supposed to (it did), and put it away.

A couple of days later I tried to take a picture with it. This model has a button on the back that lets you switch back and forth between using the LCD monitor on the back of the camera and the viewfinder (when one is on, the other is off). When I turned the camera on, the LCD monitor was on. I pressed the button to use the viewfinder, the monitor went off, but the viewfinder didn't come on. I pressed the button again, the monitor came back on. Every time I pressed the button, the monitor either went on or off, but the viewfinder never came on. So I called the company. I had to send it back (of course). They told me that since it was a "REDO" (their word), they would reimburse the shipping. They gave me a service order number and told me to include copies of all the paperwork. I did that.

When I called them Monday, the guy I talked to tried to blame me for calling it a "REDO." It seems they "thought" I was sending it back to redo the lens, and since the lens worked, there was "no problem found." Of course, if they had READ what I wrote on the form they required me to send them, they would have known I was sending it in for the viewfinder and not the lens. Needless to say, I am still pretty steamed about it.

The guys at Mail Boxes Etc. are getting to know me pretty well now - they gave me a "frequent shipper" card and even stamped it 3 times (since I hadn't had the card for the other 2 shipments).

All of this rant is just to say that I have a number of quilting projects that I would like to post, but I can't until I get the camera back in working order. But I can still share some paper projects - at least my scanner works!