Every now and then we get amazing service and today was one of those days.
I killed one of my Profoto lights last night and it needed an urgent repair. This particular D1 is out of warranty so it needed to go to a certified Profoto repair shop.
In the UK, one of the main Profoto repair places is Luminary Lighting in London.
I walked in today at 9.00am without an appointment. They had it repaired by 11.30am
A highly personal service. They explained what the issue was, charged me very fairly and had it all bagged up for my collection. (I just went for a couple of long coffees whilst I waited.) A fully professional service for a demanding customer base.
I love that you took the time to write this up. I've had similar experiences with a handful of local companies and I'm always trying to make time to leave a review or at least send them a thoughtful email for their service.
leethecam wrote:
Every now and then we get amazing service and today was one of those days.
I killed one of my Profoto lights last night and it needed an urgent repair. This particular D1 is out of warranty so it needed to go to a certified Profoto repair shop.
In the UK, one of the main Profoto repair places is Luminary Lighting in London.
I walked in today at 9.00am without an appointment. They had it repaired by 11.30am
A highly personal service. They explained what the issue was, charged me very fairly and had it all bagged up for my collection. (I just went for a couple of long coffees whilst I waited.) A fully professional service for a demanding customer base.
sungphoto wrote:
Great to hear. What was the issue by the way?
Capacitor block. Damage to one of the caps and the fitting inside - oops... butter fingers me...
So a nice simple repair, but because they're dealing with pro customers day in day out, they have a compete stock of everything for all Profoto and Bron.
Was impressed that they identified the issue so quickly and made little old me a priority because of an important shoot next week. Friendly and personable. And cheaper than I thought it would be.
leethecam wrote:
Capacitor block. Damage to one of the caps and the fitting inside - oops... butter fingers me...
So a nice simple repair, but because they're dealing with pro customers day in day out, they have a compete stock of everything for all Profoto and Bron.
Was impressed that they identified the issue so quickly and made little old me a priority because of an important shoot next week. Friendly and personable. And cheaper than I thought it would be.
Ha very cool. I think this is where the compartmentalization of the components helps a bit - ie the capacitor block is separated from the circuit boards and aren't soldered in (assuming the D1 is structured similarly to the B1), and are attached with high quality spade connectors.
I had to replace the ring/reflector on one of my B1s (purely cosmetic damage from a drop that bugged me), and being that it seemed like a pretty simple repair, I just had them order the part for me from Sweden and I did it myself (out of warranty so didn't care about voiding it doing my own repair). Was only a couple hundred bucks for the part. These things are freaking tanks.
I'm off to New Orleans with my D1s for a shoot for our mutual client - four days of headshots...
sungphoto wrote:
Ha very cool. I think this is where the compartmentalization of the components helps a bit - ie the capacitor block is separated from the circuit boards and aren't soldered in (assuming the D1 is structured similarly to the B1), and are attached with high quality spade connectors.
I had to replace the ring/reflector on one of my B1s (purely cosmetic damage from a drop that bugged me), and being that it seemed like a pretty simple repair, I just had them order the part for me from Sweden and I did it myself (out of warranty so didn't care about voiding it doing my own repair). Was only a couple hundred bucks for the part. These things are freaking tanks.
I'm off to New Orleans with my D1s for a shoot for our mutual client - four days of headshots......Show more →
Yes. I must admit I was impressed by the quality of build when I saw the capacitor block. These things are certainly built very well.
I'm told the thing was most likely still working after damage, with the other capacitors taking more of tyhe strain that they were inded to take...! The whole thing is completely separate from the rest of the circuitry and is very much self contained. Makes repairs quick and easy, whilst protecting other parts. The circuit board itself is very solid indeed. Gives good reson why these strobes cost a little extra.
leethecam wrote:
Every now and then we get amazing service and today was one of those days.
I killed one of my Profoto lights last night and it needed an urgent repair. This particular D1 is out of warranty so it needed to go to a certified Profoto repair shop.
In the UK, one of the main Profoto repair places is Luminary Lighting in London.
I walked in today at 9.00am without an appointment. They had it repaired by 11.30am
A highly personal service. They explained what the issue was, charged me very fairly and had it all bagged up for my collection. (I just went for a couple of long coffees whilst I waited.) A fully professional service for a demanding customer base.
ilovewolves wrote:
That's great. What was repaired and how much did it cost if you don't mind me asking? I'm expecting broncolor equipment to be similar.
About £180 for the capacitor block, (it comes as a complete unit and 2 of the 4 caps were damaged)
About £80 for an hour of labour.
That's more reasonable than I expected, thanks for the information. Capacitors can range in price, so if they're cheap ones it's less reasonable but I've seen some as much as $50 each.
It's interesting how capacitors are always one of the first things to go. This has been my argument against having a built in flash, with a camera, for a while. Even if a pop up flash can be sealed properly, you need room for the capacitor inside the body. Slightly off topic, I apologise. It's interesting to learn about the repair process.
I've gotten the same great service from the service center in NJ, they replaced an out of warranty trigger for free, replaced an umbrella I dropped and broke and replaced an in warranty A1 immediately
I'm hoping to be able to reort back with a similiar story. My strobe blew over in the wind and it completey stripped the stand adapter from the strobe. Now the stand adapter will not tighten down at all. I just started the service process today. Will report back with the results.
It's great that you can still get fast service like that. That's the kind of service I used to get from the authorized Balcar repair here in L.A. More often than not, Greg Leon would fix it while I waited. It helped a lot that I never complained when something broke and that I was shooting music stuff mostly and Greg was, let's say, a pretty well known guitarist. I think there are three or four of us shooting Balcar here in L.A. and because they rarely break, Greg now fixes our guitar amps.
I am curious, Lee, though, why, when it's out of warranty, you're required to take it to the authorized service center. That usually means you can then go to an independent repair business, which usually charge less. Hell, I picked up a used Balcar 5000 off eBay and now have twenty-four spare capacitors.
I take it to authorised repair place because I find they're the fastest, and they carry every part in stock - all the time.
And they're no more expensive than anyone else. Indeed they did a mod on one of my D1's free of charge. I was pushed for time on this one and so they did it by the next day.
Unlike car repairs (at least in the UK), I rarely find authorised repair places more expensive, (all my repair guys are very reasonable), but I do find them more efficient because they know the kit intimately and because of stock levels.
For those in the UK that need to know - my service centre of choice for Profoto (they also do Bron), is Luminary Lighting in London. Personal level of service, friendly and know the quirks of the kit inside out.
I agree, profoto did some work on my B1s on two instances, and both times I got my strobes back in 5-6 business days including repair and shipping time (thankfully the first time they were going to the NY service location when I was living in NY then, and the second time the LA location when I was in WA). Love my D2s and B10s.
When you make a living from your gear service is as important as performance. If the manufacturers don't have good pro support, the gear has little value to us. I've been a Profoto advocate for decades because of it's design features, durability in harsh conditions and pro service.
