Pentax Stops Selling Parts
Pentax Stops Selling Parts
Technicians servicing Pentax image products were dealt another blow to their service business when Pentax/Ricoh stopped selling parts to “un-authorized repair centers” in March of 2020.
As of this writing, only one Pentax/Ricoh service center exists in the US.
Independent service techs may not suffer as much as when Nikon closed their parts dept to all but ASF’s (Authorized Service Facilities). Later they closed all ASFs.
Pentax digital product service, in general, is not a large part of any tech’s business.
For parts support, techs need part lists and Ricoh would not share those with anyone.
So if you didn’t have a parts list, you couldn’t search for a part number and Ricoh would not sell any part unless you had a part number.
Ricoh doesn’t want to sell parts. Do they want to make cameras anymore? Makes me wonder.
I hate to see companies like Pentax go away. This Nikkei Asian Review article mentions Pentax is costing Ricoh money and more.
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I guess that was confirmed to me when I emailed a purchase order to parts and sometime later received a reply only to see the “Please find the attached official service update”
Almost exactly what Nikon said to technicians when it closed theier parts dept in 2012.
Dan Savoie, Technical Solutions Manager, Ricoh Imaging North America writes…
“As you know the complexity, preciseness, and requirements of repairing digital imaging products have far surpassed those of analogue film products… Ricoh/Pentax digital imaging products require specialized equipment, tools, service manuals, parts lists and proprietary software along with proper technician training to service and repair our digital imaging products and return them to our high manufacturing standards set forth by Ricoh Imaging
Due to the requirements mentioned above, Ricoh Imaging can no longer supply parts to un-authorized repair centers”
You may see the letter here.
When our parts are 0 stock, I guess we will be through working on Pentax digital.
See all Pentax parts online at USCamera here.
Pentax Stops Selling Parts
Without good support of service info and parts, it is difficult for techs to attempt service on some products.
I have plenty of experience to know what parts are required for many common failures with Pentax digital cameras. Also knowing when specialized equipment is required for an accuracy (rarely).
With Pentax only commanding about 3% or 10,000 units of the shrinking DSLR camera market, will Pentax survive?
Having to soon turn away Pentax equipment needing service and parts away is sad.
