lukeb wrote: Section 2 makes illegal a firm's refusal to deal with another firm if the refusing firm refuses for the purpose of trying to monopolize the market. Meanwhile, section 1 prohibits a group from refusing to deal with a particular firm. A group refusal to deal is known as a group boycott. Because of seemingly contradictory Supreme Court decisions over the years, the question of whether group boycotts are subject to the rule of reason or a per se rule has been left murky.
Exclusive dealing agreements require a retailer or distributor to purchase exclusively from the manufacturer. These arrangements make it difficult for new sellers to enter the market and find prospective buyers, thus depressing competition. However, because companies widely-use requirements contracts, which essentially are exclusive dealing agreements, for purposes that promote competition, exclusive dealing arrangements only face rule of reason scrutiny....Show more →
They aren't monopolizing a market - they are setting a policy on service parts. It is a pretty offensive policy, but I'm guessing a real attorney will show up here at some point and clarify what you've referenced above (and I'm betting it doesn't apply...).
Is this a sign that I should keep my two D700 til something fails on them, then start looking at Canon bodies? Getting a D800 AF fixed doesn't seem like a pleasant experience, & it doesn't sound like the D4 is completely immune to that issue, either...
Interestingly, I have a repair coming back from Nikon tomorrow, and the shipper is listed as "Island Camera Repair". It seems Nikon is farming out their repairs but not allowing us to make that choice.
Signed? No.
More like "resigned".
Nice to see a petition though. It should help change Nikons policy like all the other petitions have. Lets start one for lower prices while us gleaming eyed optimists are at it.
I have had a D7000 in for repair at an Authorized Service Center since 8/22/12 and they are still waiting on the parts from Nikon. They seem to have a production and supply problem even for their authoried repair centers as well as this bad policy on refusing to sell parts to non-authorized repair shops.
I am on board 100% and I was screaming about having to buy an entire cf card door when only a rubber piece was needed. Thank you RCicala for excellent information. If we quietly go along with gouging, then that is what we will get. Petition signed!
Looks like an act of desperation of the guy who's large part of the income comes from the 800 page "improved" manuals (which is also remarkable) and who is afraid of loosing it.
I wrote him a long time ago about this problem. It is nothing new.
Writing petitions is a dumb idea. It will help as much as his quarterbacking Nikon business.
The only change will happen when buyers will start voting with their wallets.
Lan11 wrote:
Looks like an act of desperation of the guy who's large part of the income comes from the 800 page "improved" manuals (which is also remarkable) and who is afraid of loosing it.
Who are you talking about? The petition was started by Matt Fuehrer. As far as I can tell, he repairs cameras for a living.
Lan11 wrote:
The only change will happen when buyers will start voting with their wallets.
Sadly, I think you're probably correct. I say sadly, because to some degree buyers will vote with their wallets and once they've moved because of frustration it will take a lot of effort to get them back. Which means fewer sales which means smaller R&D budgets, etc.
I think those of us on the forums aren't going anywhere: we've invested too much in the equipment to pack up and change brands. But we're in the middle. The huge end users (agencies and such) run cost of ownership numbers every quarter. They'll make simple business decisions. The user with one camera and two lenses, may well change, especially when 'Brand X' starts advertising guaranteed repair turnaround times or we replace the equipment (and one Brand X already is doing that with another beginning that policy in 2013).
I have some vague hope that maybe we can get Nikon's attention, letting them know that they are going to lose business from this idea before they actually do, that they've made a short-sighted decision here.
Full disclosure -- I also make a part of my income from Nikon, by renting their equipment. Just like Nikon, I get some short-term gains from this policy (people end up renting a necessary item for a month while theirs is in repair) but in the long term it will be a loss for me as well as them, I believe.
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