Nikon is killing its authorized repair program in the US

Nikon is reportedly ending its authorized repair program in the US in early 2020:

Nikon is ending its authorized repair program in early 2020, likely leaving more than a dozen repair shops without access to official parts and tools, and cutting the number of places you can get your camera fixed with official parts from more than a dozen independent shops to two facilities at the ends of the U.S. That means that Nikon’s roughly 15 remaining Authorized Repair Station members are about to become non-authorized repair shops. Since Nikon decided to stop selling genuine parts to non-authorized shops back in 2012, it’s unlikely those stores will continue to have access to the specialty components, tools, software, manuals, and model training Nikon previously provided. But Nikon hasn’t clarified this, so repair shops have been left in the dark. (Ifixit)

In a letter Nikon sent to the roughly 15 Authorized Repair Stations still operating in the US, which was later obtained by iFixit, the company revealed that it would not renew agreements after March 31, 2020, meaning these repair shops would potentially no longer have access to official parts, tools, software, instruction and repair manuals, and training previously provided by Nikon. There’s still the chance these smaller repair facilities could still be provided access to official Nikon parts and other components, but they will no longer be officially considered authorized to perform these repairs. Instead, authorized service will be exclusively performed by Nikon facilities in Melville, New York, and Los Angeles, California. (Gizmodo)

This is one of those head-scratchers – why would Nikon do that? How much can they save or make by killing the program?

Update: this thing seems to be happing in other parts of the world as well – the only authorized dealer in Austria (Traiskirchen) also lost its contract with Nikon. Repairs seem to be shifting to the Czech republic and I guess that will happen for other European countries as well.

For your repair needs, there is always NRC Taiwan (no, this is not an ad, they really do a great job):

The water damaged Nikon D850 camera was fixed at NRC Taiwan

Amazing restoration of old Nikon lenses

Nikon Repair Center saves a lens damaged by salt water by boiling it

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