Olympus support, ROCKS!

Before I returned to college I spent 13 years in customer service and believe me when I say Olympus customer support rocks I know of what I speak.
I had a problem arise last night with my Oly E-520 where every other photo I shot was black, as though I had left the lens cap on. I panicked. I take very good care of my Oly E-520. I baby it and nobody, with the exception of my photography instructor, puts a hand on my camera. It remains safe in a well padded camera bag, so when this happened I thought, "What did or didn't I do?"
So I printed out the information to send it in for repair. Then I decided to call and speak with a support rep at Olympus first. Hey if I set something wrong I would be wasting the repair department's time and I'd look pretty foolish!
I don't know about you reading this blog, but I've had some pretty nasty customer service experiences. Most recently with Sprint. My contract is up next week and then bye, bye Sprint, hello Verizon, but I digress. I hate calling for customer support because most of the reps act as though it's an inconvenience to even take my call. "Sorry did I interrupt your nail painting or that chat you were having with your co worker about the hot date you went or are going on?" To damn bad. My purchase of your product or service helps pay your salary so treat me with the same respect you would like to be treated or I can easily take my business elsewhere." I don't actually say that, but it goes through my head as I'm being treated as though I ruined someones day because I need support for a product you are supposed to cheerfully provide. Sorry I had to get that off my chest. I bet many of you understand.
Well shame on me. I expected the same from Olympus and was I ever wrong! The support tech was wonderful, knowledgeable and simply amazing! We were on the phone for nearly an hour trying to figure out what was going on with my camera. I actually turned it on and we went over several reasons the black photos could be occurring by playing with settings. They determined my lens could be going bad, since the photos Michael asked me to take with my 40-150mm lens did not produce any black images. but there is a firm ware update for the lens, yes the lens, which I intend to download. if that doesn't work the lens goes back for repair or replacement. That simple and Michael, my tech support rep treated me with respect and made me feel as though I was the only customer Olympus had. He also found out about trading up for another camera. I was so blown away by the end of the call I said, "please send me a link to a survey or an email where I can tell your supervisor how awesome you and Olympus in general are! It was in the email he sent and I took the survey and just raved about the company, their support and said thanks.
I'm an Olympus customer for life. They rock period and they make damn great cameras & lenses as too. Please check out Olympus and their fantastic products and support at:
http://www.olympusamerica.com/

They not only make great cameras, binoculars, voice recorders and work with the medical community as well.
So my weekend started out great and hopefully will end that way!

Term is over and I did good!

Well the term is over, grades are posted and I did good. An A in creative writing and a B in intro to photography. Overall I feel good and I'm glad it's over. I have about 2 weeks off then here comes summer term.
I'm looking at another camera, a Canon or maybe Sony. The Sony SLR has a lot going on. I like to be different. I went with the Olympus instead of Canon or Nikon. I did have a Canon XTI and it was great, but again I like to be diferent and use a camera most people wouldn't consider because they go with the herd.
I slept better last night then I have in days. It was wonderful. Even Spooky didn't wake me as she usually does at the crack of dawn.
Just hanging out working on my novel and playing video games both on my PC and PS2. It's nice to just do nothing.

It's Sunday and tomorrow is my last day of class for at least two and half weeks, then summer term. Summer term flies by so fast I barely have time to breathe. I love it though and feel both proud and honored to be going back to school. I've always been told you're never to old to learn and I learn something new everytime I go on campus, hell I learn something new everyday. My biggest lesson is to believe in myself.
Wow the sun is peeking out. it's been a very crummy, wet weekend here. Even a little glimpse of the sun is good. Getting ready for my photography final tomorrow. I'm sure I'll do fine. I love to take picutres so i should know this stuff.

It's all about the dream

I returned to college at 46 and discovered it was not much different from when I went in my early twenties. I use a laptop or desktop for writing instead of an electric typewriter or word processor. Everyone is younger and many of them act as though they don't want to be there. Hey, don't screw up your education. It's not as though you can try it out decide you don't like it and then return you think you need the education. There are consequences to those actions.
I write and hope to be published one day. I also got into photography, I love the Olympus line of SLR cameras. For the money they can't be beat. They have amazing features and their lenses are by far the very best. My E-520 is like an extra appendage, it goes with me everywhere and has never let me down. You should check out the Olympus line. Here is the direct link to their SLRs: http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_digital_slr.asp
So no matter what you want to do in life remember it's all about living the dream!