Hasselblad Repair issue. (Recap and continued from previous post)

[straightbanana]

My original post was regarding an odd anomaly of a magenta cast in the lower part of images after I had a IR Filter replacement and remap last June, including an odd orange halo in some of the pictures. The original post was called "Hasselblad Service costs, Ouch."
I tried to edit it too many times in a short time and it seemed to be locked so I deleted it.

Thankfully I have a PDF copy my original post so here is a recap as it's very long.

May 2016: I took my CFV II back into Hasselblad UK for an IR filter Replacement (I accidentally scratched it) and sensor remap.
May 2016: I eventually got it back with a new issue with the display screen which was damaged internally by Hasselblad.
June 2016: My CFV back was returned and I immediately found an odd Magenta issue in the lower half of my images and brought it to Hasselblad UK's attention. I received a reply to ask me to send some raw files, since doing that I have never had a reply, even though over the many months I have repeatedly tried to contact them via email or phoning them to no avail.
July 2016: I tried to contact Hasselblad again regarding my issue but at the same time was packing to leave for Sweden yet still no reply from Hasselblad UK though at this point was mostly using film which did not exhibit the magenta issue.
August 2016: We moved to Sweden and tried the digital back again and the magenta issue was still there which also included an odd Orange Halo issue I'd never noticed before when using very small apertures with the 50mm lens.
August 2016: I posted questions on this forum to ask anyone if they knew what could cause my Magenta issue or the Orange Halo most of the replies were possible back issues, or timing issues with the lenses and the back.
September 2016: Mid September I was getting nowhere with the magenta issue and the advice here seemed to be lens related so after a lot of testing of the lenses camera and CFV back I relented and sent all of my 50mm, 80mm and 250mm lenses off to a repair person in Stockholm Sweden in November 2016. They were all CLA'd and eventually returned in late December 2016.
January 2017: My magenta issue had not gone away and the Orange Halo was also still there on my 50mm lens. I also remembered that Hasselblad UK had not ever replied to my original issue of the Magenta issue at the bottom of my images so I wrote attempted to write to them again, only to get a reply that they had a new service Ticket system for issues. So I logged in and set up a ticket service issue and included my original complaint. Late January 2017 I received a telephone call from a Hasselblad Agent who diagnosed my issue as only lens related even though he not looked at the digital back or lenses in person. But he was going to check with Hasselblad Sweden to see if they would do anything.
January 2017: The Hasselblad UK service assistant asked me to send them some raw files for them to look at. This took 5 attempts and we still not sure they bothered to look at them.
February 2017: I sent off my films for developing in the UK to see if the digital back or lenses were to blame. I eventually received this cryptic message from the Hasselblad rep:-
"Hi, Please could you send me some raw files together with a error log from the back..
In addition, Please could you rotate the camera between shots whilst shooting some uniform colour as well as without?
Thank you for your kind patients"
This message was after 5 messages from me with updates to what I was doing, one of which was that I was testing the back at different angles and the lenses with a completely different camera. The films came back with no magenta issue but only an orange Halo with the 50mm lens at f22 so the 50mm was definitely an issue. There was no answer to the magenta issue though which was still an issue with all of the lenses via the CFV back, just not with the other digital camera. Arrrgh. The other digital camera with my lenses showed no such magenta hue so to me it was definitely the CFV back causing the issue.
February 2017: I sent more messages to Hasselblad via their ticket system  the last one I sent was three weeks ago stating if I did not hear back from them I would just take my CFV back into Hasselblad Gothenburg directly. 10 days ago I received this message:-
"Hi,
Please can I can you ?
Kind regards"
March 10th 2017: I cracked and called Hasselblad Gothenburg and spoke to a lovely gentleman who knew all about my issue via this forum and said he could help. I had planned to go to Norway and drop off my CFV back to them on route. He suggested I drop off all of my equipment including all the lenses so they could test them with the back as they were also a bit stumped at what the issue was.
March 14th 2017: I took the trip to Hasselblad and dropped off my 555ELD, 500C/M, 50, 80 150mm & 250mm lenses along with a host of other equipment and accessories including film) I left in the two camera bags. I left with no inventory or receipt but was promised one. The chap did give me a few emails on where to replace my 50mm lens and they showed me an X1D while I was there. I returned home with a Hasselblad Masters book as an apology. One thing did worry me while i was there was the obviously issue they are having with Hasselblad UK and the comment that my digital back is no longer supported. That maybe but when it was supported it came back with two issues one of which has still to be resolved 10 months later.
March 24th 2017: Not sure if the guy is on holiday (I will call him today) but I have not had the receipt for the dropped off equipment nor a reply from them regarding my question if I could have one. I have also let them know when I hope to have the equipment back or at least an answer to the problem. As they have all of my camera equipment I have no cameras to take shots with, I stupidly turned down the offer of a loan camera from them which I now regret.

So there I am so far.

Has anyone else had this long an issue with Hasselblad UK or Hasselblad in general?

[straightbanana]

Update. I did not even need to call, I had an email form Hasselblad immediately saying my equipment has been logged in and is on a bench being looked at.

Coolio.

[Chris Livsey]

Has anyone else had this long an issue with Hasselblad UK or Hasselblad in general?

No nothing like as long. I did create on on-line ticket last week or so with a query on the now legacy V series regarding the GMS. I received a ticket number and replies stated as within I think 48 hours maybe 24 hours. It took 3 days before it disappeared from the ticket list with no answer. I appreciate those with detailed knowledge of the legacy gear may be thin an the ground or even non-existent but that would have been fine as an answer, I would have accepted that, hearing nothing at all was mildly annoying and bears no comparison to your experience.   

[JJon]

I'm not going to lie. This sort of stuff scares the shit out of me.

[straightbanana]

UPDATE. MARCH 31st 2017

Well I have now had a reply from Hasselblad Gothenburg.

It was an issue with their calibration file...

...Super Angry right now.

[JJon]

Beyond repairing the issue are they doing anything for you? Something like a year extra courtesy warranty or something?

[straightbanana]

I get a call from the lovely chap at Hasselblad Gothenburg who is dealing with the issue for me and explains and apologises for the issue and explains that my back was sent to the guy who built it in Copenhagen. He identified the issue with the calibration file.

At the time of having this telephone conversation I had not received the kit back yet so I was a mix of emotions. Elated that they felt they had found and fixed the problem but also very angry with Hasselblad UK in their lack of effort, communication skills or professionalism. I decided to contact Hasselblad UK to explain that the people in Sweden had felt they had sorted the issue.
To my surprise the person at Hasselblad UK contacted me back via their ticket system and tried to take credit for his lack of effort stating he knew I would get results with Hasselblad Sweden and that he would personally thank Hasselblad Sweden for their help.
I was the one that told him I was contacting Sweden if he did not reply. Cheeky....
My reply to him was "Unbelievable!"

During my conversation with Hasselblad Sweden they kindly offered me a 12 month warranty for the same issue. Which was nice.

Just to recap, these are a selection of images pre Hasselblad 2nd service/fix/repair.
Hasselblad Pre 2nd Service/Repair/Fix

So a few days later my kit arrives and a day after that I go out testing it side by side with another system I bought.
The files kind of looked ok from both cameras, when getting them back into Phocus and Lightroom there seemed to be a White Balance difference going on. So I equalised them both to see if I could see any issues going on. Typically the shots were of colourful subjects so I could not see straight away any problem so I started to breath a sigh of relief.

Sadly the next days testing did not go as well. A lovely misty day on a lake everything was perfectly still and light grey.
I took a few shots then went home to look at them in Phocus and Lightroom.

So these shots are post Hasselblad 2nd Service/Repair/Fix.
Hasselblad_Magenta_Issue - Post 2nd Service.

Arrgh. The magenta was still there.
I emailed Hasselblad but realised that it was a Saturday so it's unlikely anyone would be there. So I now have to wait until Monday to have the dreaded, "er. sorry but", conversation.

My thoughts so far.
Hasselblad UK are about as much help as an ashtray on a motorbike.
Hasselblad Sweden are doing their best to fix what Hasselblad UK did not do.

As it's almost 11 months since my first service where it all went wrong I'm already depressed that this issue may never be fixed.

[straightbanana]

Am I expecting too much for there to be no magenta hue in the bottom of these pictures or is this acceptable?
How should I handle this with Hasselblad as I am concerned that this issue may go on forever?

[straightbanana]

No nothing like as long. I did create on on-line ticket last week or so with a query on the now legacy V series regarding the GMS. I received a ticket number and replies stated as within I think 48 hours maybe 24 hours. It took 3 days before it disappeared from the ticket list with no answer. I appreciate those with detailed knowledge of the legacy gear may be thin an the ground or even non-existent but that would have been fine as an answer, I would have accepted that, hearing nothing at all was mildly annoying and bears no comparison to your experience.

Somehow that does not seem right. Did you get a resolve to this situation?

[straightbanana]

So as another update to my situation, I have had family over and there has been an Easter break in between my last post to today.

10th of April, I get an email from the Hasselblad Gothenburg who was a bit annoyed my situation still had not been resolved.

He felt at this point a swop of my digital back would be appropriate. I agreed and accepted the offer.
He has apparently found a few candidates for a swop but they need to test them before they do the swop.
So at the moment I am waiting for a triumphant and jubilant email from Hasselblad Gothenburg saying they are ready.

Moving to Sweden was certainly not the trip I was expecting and hoping to document it has certainly been more challenging than I ever would have expected.

[straightbanana]

29th May Update.

Technically this update should have happened on the 20th of April but many things have gotten in the way of me updating it, like family member visits, packing to move back to the UK and then France, a family pet getting ill then passing away suddenly to the clean up of the house we are in.

So here goes. Hasselblad found a kindly chose a back to swop with my one and also offered me a very generous years full warranty to make sure I was covered should anything go wrong, which was more than generous in itself. When the back came I was blown away, to me it was the mother of all upgrades as it was a CFV39. I tried not to get excited and was told to keep my back until I was satisfied that my (new to me) swop back was working as it should before I send mine back.

So I did many different days of testing with all of my lenses and also did comparisons with my old back at the same time with the same lenses.
My old back kept showing the faint magenta hue when the new back was perfect.
Again I tried not to get excited and did more testing and could not find a flaw in the new back, there was one hiccup moment when the 555ELD decided not to work one particular morning with the back and my heart sank. I had my 500c/m and the back also was showing the same issue, I thought I was in for a heap of issues again.
I out the film back in and it worked and then I put the digital back in which stopped working entirely, I switched the back to my old back and it showed the same issue, but it worked with the film back. Odd. Then as quickly as it came it all started working and never caused another issue. So I'm still in the dark about that, though in hindsight I had not replaced the batteries in the 555ELD after the 5th day of testing so that may have been it.

So I ended up thanking Hasselblad for coming to my rescue and posted back my old back to them which they received, thankfully.

So fingers crossed my CFV back saga is now finally over and I can now hopefully concentrate on taking photos knowing Hasselblad have provided a years worth of warranty cushion should anything go wrong.
OK it has taken a year but to me this is one hell of an apology and customer service of which was totally unexpected and very welcome result.

So thank you Hasselblad and I hope I am worthy of your commitment and trust to put things right for me.

One thing is for certain, I want to come back to Sweden and live here as it is awesome, not just the people in it but the way of living is what I have always wanted for our family. Only three things have marred the visit here.
1/ Expensive food (and other things) especially if you are living on a budget like we are.
2/ My wife complained of the long dark winters, which I actually liked.
3/ Distance to anything, Sweden is BIG, especially when you have an short range electric car!

The good thing is our 9 year old daughter in 10 months can now speak and write Swedish, which is awesome. We have many new friends here in Sweden whom we will not forget, including the excellent and prompt Hasselblad Service in Sweden (not the UK) too to be thankful for.
We must come back soon there is so much more to do.