I placed my order on the 9th February 2004. Follow the sad e-mail chain below
Dear Sir,
I placed my order for a Canon EOS1D Mk II on the 9th February 2004. I have patiently waited until last week before contacting you as I understood that the camera would be in very short supply and that I was unlikely to receive one before the end of April and possibly May.
It is now June. Many of my acquaintances and colleagues in the USA have now received there cameras from several different suppliers, some of these placed there orders as late as April, and in one incidence I know of someone who went into a shop in New York to enquire about placing an order and walked out with the camera!
I placed my order with yourselves as you lead me to believe that you were possibly the leading Canon dealer in the UK, and would consequently fair well in Canons distribution. This is obviously not the case.
I telephoned your 08450 number last week and on two occasions was promised a call back by one of your directors, this has not happened. I called into your Burgess Hill shop on Wednesday last week and was told by the young assistant that both directors were on holiday.
Whilst I understand that you are a little at the mercy of Canons distribution here, I really would like to know what you are doing to try and ensure a little more parity from your supplier.
I have repeatedly asked where I am placed on your order list and each time I have been told that you are not prepared to tell me, that is a little rich considering I am about to give you three and a half thousand pounds.
I look forward to your response to this mail, I hope you can tell me what steps you are taking to try and expedite deliveries, where I currently sit on your waiting list and when I can expect to receive my camera.
Best regards
and the reply....
Dear Mr Rice,
I am very sorry for the delay that you have experienced in receiving a Canon EOS 1D MK II from us. The delay so far has been entirely due to Canon UK inability to supply a sufficient amount to us and the UK market.
We are fully aware that 1D MK II are available of the shelf in the states, we have no idea why Canon have allocated America enough cameras but not the UK.
Our managing director (I too the name out) is constantly arguing this point with Canon UK hierarchy and we have even tried to ascertain reasons for the unfair allocation from the top guys in Japan. Please see the e-mail we sent to a gentleman who is on the board in Canon Japan that follows this e-mail, which as yet has not been replied to.
All this aside the UK is still not getting fair treatment and as a result we are not getting very many cameras.
We are one of the leading Canon dealers in the UK and we are allocated a large number of their stock, we are not allocated a large number of the worldwide stock. If this were the case we would have been able to supply you a camera in the first batch.
You are approximately 16th on the list and we are expecting a delivery next week, but unfortunately Canon have not confirmed how many. Although I would be surprised if they deliver more than 16. Therefore I am very sorry to say but we probably will not be able to supply in that delivery. However if Canon suddenly pulls their finger out we could get more than the usual few units.
If you miss out on this delivery then I am afraid I do not know when the next delivery is due.
I am very sorry for this poor situation and I realise how frustrating it must be, but rest assured we are trying all means necessary to get stock as soon as possible.
Yours Sincerely,
E-mail address we sent to Yukio Yamashita in Japan, for obvious reasons I could not forward this and include his e-mail address:
Dear Yukio,
I hope you are keeping well.
Last year business was very good and Canon's delivery was better therefore we did ******** with Canon.
However this year we were planning ****** plus with Canon and planned orders for over ******* for delivery in the first half of the year.
The delivery has been appalling; we ordered 400 EOS 1D MK II and so far only received 22.
We have 130 client orders and Canon UK have told us that that we are only getting two for May/June, we therefore will not be in stock for over 6 years at this rate.
We ordered 500 EOS 10D and so far only received 140.
We ordered 800 Canon Pro 1 and received 6 initially, we have now cancelled most of our backorders as Nomatica selling retail £60.00 below our cost.
Roscoe went into B&H in New York last week, and they had 400 EOS 1D MK II in stock and had already sold over 2000 since product launch.
Why have we been deprived of stock? The EOS 10D are also available retail below our cost in America as well Nomatica in France.
Could not Makota Fujuchi liase more with UK to chase our stock please?
Yours Sincerely,