[filmscanners] Re: Slide holder for Polaroid SS4000

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

I'm not sure your comments are completely fair.

I will admit that I am surprised that Polaroid has no extra slide
carriers around, but I suppose that could happen.

There was a batch of bad slide carriers made which may have caused an
unexpected flow of replacements under warranty at one point.  In fact, I
experienced breakage twice, but I repaired it with methlyene chloride
solvent, and it ended up stronger than it was originally.

More likely is they may have some carriers designated for warranty
replacement and true emergencies, and maybe some "used" ones could be
supplied if push came to shove. I'm not sure that if you were really
stuck with a completely non-functional slide carrier that they would
really ignore your plight.  Since your question was hypothetical, it's
hard to know.  Maybe they didn't want to tell you how they handle the
problem because they were concerned you would blab it all over the
internet (not an unreasonable assumption, based upon what you did ;-))
and then everyone in a rush for extra carriers would claim they had a
non-functional one, and then Polaroid really might end up with none
available for the true emergency situations.

The new scanners probably come boxed and sealed from the factory in the
orient.  As you can probably understand, opening up sealed boxes and
unpacking them to sell you a $10 slide carrier, and thus both delaying
the ability to sell that scanner, and or having to explain to a customer
why the box was resealed could be costly and problematic.  I believe
Microtek was charging up to $40 for these same carriers, BTW.

Although I have no information that can support it, I'm guessing in real
emergencies the situation might be handled differently than you were
informed, and in fact, Polaroid's response may have been to protect
people who might indeed end up between a rock and a hard place by
stating a policy to avoid having their internal policy abused by
impatient people who have no real emergency.

All I am saying is that your tale of woe may not be printed in black and
white or stone, as it may appear.

Art

Thomas Maugham wrote:

> Dear Gentle Readers, draw near and hear my tale of woe.
>
> Nearly two months ago, on July 31, 2002, I telephoned the Polaroid customer
> service number (800 343-5000) to order a spare slide holder for my SS4000.
> The CSR I spoke to (I didn't record his name) accepted the order and told me
> that the slide holders were currently on backorder with delivery to Polaroid
> expected in 2-4 weeks.  I told him to process the order, which he did and
> gave me an order number, and he said that Polaroid would call me when the
> order would ship.
>
> As it is now September 24, 2002, and I have not yet received the order, I
> called Polaroid to check the order status.  Lo and behold, I was told that
> my timing was excellent, the slide holders are in stock and mine will ship
> tomorrow!  Needless to say I was overjoyed but I managed to curb my
> excitement sufficiently to ask why, if presumably the SS4000+ scanners are
> shiping to customers, why did I have to wait nearly two months for a
> replacement slide holder?  The CSR with whom I was speaking confirmed that
> the SS4000+ are indeed flying out of the warehouse but could not answer my
> question so I was transferred to someone in the scanner department.  He
> informed me that it's Polaroid's policy to give first priority to shipping
> complete "kits" (a kit being a scanner, instructions, film holder, slide
> holder, etc.) and to ship replacement parts (slide holders for example) if
> they happen to have any that are not dedicated to making up "kits".  I asked
> him if that priority would change if an existing scanner owner was unable to
> use his/her scanner because the slide holder was completely broken. His
> answer was that it would not. I suggested to him that it appears to be
> Polaroid's policy to gather new customers and relegate existing customers to
> the back burner and he basically told me that I could draw my own
> conclusions.
>
> Now I am fortunate in that my original slide holder is not broken, I simply
> wanted a spare "just in case".  But given Polaroid's customer service
> policy, it might be prudent for any owner of an SS4000/4000+ to invest in an
> additional slide holder "just in case" as it is apparent that Polaroid is
> not going to be sympathetic if yours is unusable (except perhaps to sell you
> a complete "kit"!). Now might be a good time to place your order as I am
> told that they are currently in stock for shipment as replacement parts.  I
> did ask how many they had in stock but they were unable to tell me.
>
> Happily for you scanners-of-negatives, negative holders are plentiful!
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom Maugham
>
>
>
>


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