I really never wanted to see this day come, but it looks like it unfortunately has. I sent in one of my D7000's to get cleaned and fixed up, first time to service since I bought it back in October 2010 (one of the first here in the states, took 2+ years to have issues) and received it back actually pretty quickly. Other than just the clean and check, the AE-L/AF-L button has been sticking, the autofocus needed adjusted and the autofocus was also very intermittent. Explained all that on the invoice, offered my opinion on the topic: dirty contacts or something with the mount, I had the same issue on another D7000.
Anyway, I get the body back last night and have a job immediately shooting some prep basketball games, and immediately the body isn't working. I shot the first game of the doubleheader with my other D7000 and everything was fine as usual. In between games I start messing with the body I just got back, tugging at the mount mostly, and what do you know, it starts working better than ever!
Obviously I'm happy the body is working now, but I still want to send it back into Nikon so they can figure out why this issue isn't constant. My worry is sending it back in, they can't replicate the issue and then this process keeps happening. I can't have an unreliable back up, so it's gotta go back. Nikon Melville is closed today, so no one at the service center to speak to, but has any one had a situation like this? For all I know the body was just warming back up or something, it's working again this morning but I don't trust it. What's the best way of getting them to see an intermittent problem like this?
Sounds like this isn't warranty work so I would suggest trying a responsive repair center like APS. Nikon seems to be getting out of the "customer service" business in favor of the "bottom line" type of business.
I plan on doing so next time I have to send something out, unless I get NPS before that. But I guess I'm mostly just curious what to expect when I give Nikon a call on Monday.
I assume you already paid Nikon for the initial (non)service. If you can convince them to fix it again at no cost to you, it should go back to them. Otherwise send it to APS. Give them a chance to fix it.
Another option is to sell it. Two service charges on a D7000 should pretty much get you to 50-60% of a new D7000.
