There is a fundamental flaw in this methodology of announcing, identifying, correcting and repairing a known proven defect in a product.
It requires the end user consumer who has already bought the Z6 or Z7 camera, to check his camera serial number and then key it into the given box in the website. Presumably a check is made at the other end to match against a known database of defective cameras. The result is then made known in an Internet response to each individual consumer.
This way of doing things is bad because:
• It presupposes that the consumer knows about this Internet announcement. Which may not be 100% effective.
Better for the Nikon manufacturer to notify all its agents worldwide to contact the consumers who have bought the defective units.
If the customer bought at the retail shop with their credit card, the shop knows who bought what. The receipt may provide further details on the specific serial number of Z6 or Z7 sold.
• It presupposes that the end consumers are internet savvy. Which may not always be the case.
• It waits (very badly) for the whole process of the consumer buying the cameras from the shops, getting it home, using it and then checking online whether he got a lemon Z6 or Z7 camera body. Far better for the Nikon manufacturer to reveal the full list to the whole world and particularly to its agents worldwide and all its retailers. So that if the shop has in stock many defective Z6 and Z7 bodies, they can be sent back to Nikon for repairs BEFORE the units are sold to the consumers.
• Actually if the consumer has registered for warranty of the Z6 or Z7 online, the Nikon manufacturer would already have in hand most of if not all of the serial numbers and the identity of the owners of those camera bodies. Nikon can directly on its own initiative contact the affected consumers that their camera body got a serious defect. In other words, Nikon already has the data, so why wait for the consumer/customer to tell Nikon what it already knew?
Why must the onus be on the customer to do the check? You Nikon, the manufacturer already know that the customer had bought a defective Z6 or Z7.
• What if in the process of keying in the serial number to check, the consumer accidentally keys in the wrong number? He would not know that he got a defective camera. He may think that it is proven to be good after the online check.
My guess as to why Nikon insists on doing the defects recall this way, is to HIDE the magnitude of the problem.
Nikon does not want to release a humongous list of serial numbers of defective Z6 and Z7.
It is bad for the image of the company and questions the Quality Control of the production.
