Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: kevs on June 12, 2008, 09:42:50 pm
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I'm a professional photographers for 20 years. I 've had lots of customer service issues. I find Sandisk to be the worst of the batch. I recommend everyone not buy more from them.
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Interesting - I started with the ATA cards when the 10 mb first became available in the early 90's. Since then I've had ATA cards up to 440 mb, and only had one problem - timing errors on a Seagate 40 mb card, and only then on certain apps. On to many, many CF cards of many brands and sizes up to 8 gb (Sandisk extreme). No problems. Have now had a dozen SD and SDHC cards, most of which are/were Sandisk. Still no problems. If you're using SD, it's a naked card (exposed terminals), so my advice is *always* transfer over the wire, so your card doesn't get static-zapped.
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The cards are fine, except the last one. On whole though they are fine cards.
But I called them, you get a horrid wait, some goofballs with heavy Indian accents who say they will call and e mail back with your RMA ( because of computer problems) -- and then never call back or e mail back.
You e mail support 2x and they don't e mail back. Ever. They also wont do data recovery. And their techs are generally morons.
In contrast to Lexar support it's night and day. I will never buy Sandisk again. Such a garbage company.
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I've never had a single failure of a Sandisk card.
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Same thing here, I am not sure why anyone would expect a CF company to deliver support...
But neither do I understand why anyone would still buy Sandisk when Transent is so much cheaper with large capacities and good quality as well.
Cheers,
Bernard
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The cards are fine, except the last one. On whole though they are fine cards.
But I called them, you get a horrid wait, some goofballs with heavy Indian accents who say they will call and e mail back with your RMA ( because of computer problems) -- and then never call back or e mail back.
You e mail support 2x and they don't e mail back. Ever. They also wont do data recovery. And their techs are generally morons.
In contrast to Lexar support it's night and day. I will never buy Sandisk again. Such a garbage company.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201296\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
(I have no interest in defending Sandisk) I work in an IT dept. and can tell horror stories on customer service from every major manufacturer in the world. If we discarded each one that at least once provided us with bad support or no support at all we would have to perform number-crunching by hand...
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Hi
I use both Sandisk & DANE-ELEC & have had no problems with both. At Adorama DANE-ELEC is way cheaper for the same speed. The real difference is Sandisk spends way more on advertising.
Denis
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Most mfr's are scum when it comes to how they treat their customers, but the worst are those who flood the market with inferior product and then coerce the reviewers to pass on their failures. Sony and HP are the very worst. Apple used to be the worst, and I don't know how their computers are today, but their iPods have been 100 pct. reliable for me, albeit with some software problems.
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We live in a world where getting the absolute lowest price on everything is the first thing on everyone's mind. We largely gave up quality and good service a long time ago. No point worrying about it now.
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We live in a world where getting the absolute lowest price on everything is the first thing on everyone's mind. We largely gave up quality and good service a long time ago. No point worrying about it now.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201329\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
That was wisely spoken Robert
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We live in a world where getting the absolute lowest price on everything is the first thing on everyone's mind. We largely gave up quality and good service a long time ago. No point worrying about it now.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201329\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
That might be the case in some countries, but not everywhere. I can tell you that the quality of the service in many Asian countries, starting with Japan and Korea, is still at least as good than it was in the past. This is simply the result of them focussing on having societies that are very equalitarian.
Besides, I would say that there is in fact a lot more emphasis on quality for many products now than 10 or 20 years ago. Here again, Asian countries mostly lead the pack.
This obvious fact of life leads a few friends to put forward the theory that developping countries are in fact to be found in the West...
Back on CF cards, my personnal belief is that either they go wrong after a few days (and there might be more occurences of that with cheaper products) or they are OK for many years if treated reasonnably well. I am personnally super happy about the 256 GB of Transcent cards that I could buy for approximately the price of 20 GB of fast Sandisks bought one year before...
Cheers,
Bernard
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Thanks Guys, the cards are fine, but the customer support is on par with with a bad government agency. As bad as it gets. I'm just saying if you can be happy buying your cards from another brand, and one day need to call for customer or techsupport, stay away from Sandisk.
I have found the support from Apple, Canon, NIken etc, and just about every other manufacture who deals with photographers to not be this horrendous.
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I'm a professional photographers for 20 years. I 've had lots of customer service issues. I find Sandisk to be the worst of the batch. I recommend everyone not buy more from them.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201271\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I recently tried to get a rebate from Sandisk. They replied a month later saying that my rebate was void because I had not sent the original UPCs, and that I would need to send the originals. This is a great scam; I had sent the originals and therefore had no way to comply.
The only reason I will continue to do business with this pack of liars is that there are so few CF manufacturers, and theirs are quick. If I ever get a chance to dump them, I will do so in a heartbeat.
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There are two lines of Sandisk memory. The cheap consumer stuff and the Extreme line. The Extreme III line have worked flawlessly for me.
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(10..._and_Video.aspx (http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1002)-High_Performance_Photo_and_Video.aspx)
Good stuff. Comes with a very useful data recovery program as well for most of the models.
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(11...iuse_Cards.aspx (http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1140)-Multiuse_Cards.aspx)
Questionable cheaper stuff. You get what you pay for.
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There are two lines of Sandisk memory. The cheap consumer stuff and the Extreme line. The Extreme III line have worked flawlessly for me.
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(10..._and_Video.aspx (http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1002)-High_Performance_Photo_and_Video.aspx)
Good stuff. Comes with a very useful data recovery program as well for most of the models.
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(11...iuse_Cards.aspx (http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1140)-Multiuse_Cards.aspx)
Questionable cheaper stuff. You get what you pay for.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201410\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Note that the "Ultra II" CF cards appear on both lists. I have one Lexar CF card and about a dozen Sandisks of various sizes and speeds. Not one has ever given the least bit of trouble.
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Note that the "Ultra II" CF cards appear on both lists. I have one Lexar CF card and about a dozen Sandisks of various sizes and speeds. Not one has ever given the least bit of trouble.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201429\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I've never had a single failure of a Sandisk card. Mostly from Lexar they ARE bad.In my experience, only.
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Gss:
Lexar: they have a direct line into a competent tech. much better
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Kind of reminds me of when I bought a Canon body and 4 lenses on the strength of their rebate program. Added up to over $400 as I recall. Except they wanted individual apps for each rebate and an original receipt for each, and each in a separate mailing. Aside from the fact that I bought them all at once and they were on one receipt, the person I talked to at Canon was a snot. I got a $50 rebate check out of the deal, perhaps only coincidentally the smallest rebate on the app. I used that rebate check to blow my nose and sold off all the Canon gear. NIB.
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I've used Lexar, SanDisk and Viking. The SanDisk Extreme cards are the only ones still functioning. One must expect the cards to eventually fail, though, because NAND memory chips have a finite number of read/write cycles. See more here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nand_memory#Memory_wear). (Is there a test for this?)
As for their lousy customer service, it probably costs less for SanDisk to employ ambivalent phone support than to send you another card. Strange, because a 4GB card is $120 list. Sandisk must be pretty cheap. Say, don't they have the patent on NAND memory?
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Actually I just paid $54.50 each for three 4GB Extreme III's from B&H, if the III will meet your needs as well as the IV. Deduct $80 for three of them using the current Sandisc rebate, and that's $83.50 for three or $27.93 each if my math is up to snuff. Rebates for the IV are $30 each or $120 for three of them, if you need the extra speed of the IV.
Our biggest hassle with CF cards is losing them, BTW. We've found it's a case of helping people help you. Add your name, address and phone # to all cards, and odds are pretty good they'll be returned if you drop them.
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Interestingly, I just bought some new Sandisk CF cards. The bundled package with firewire reader and 4gb Extreme IV card and a 2gb Extreme III. The Extreme III edging out the IV in my 1Ds Mark II.
The size of the card may of something to do with it as a 1gb Ultra II matched the Extreme IV.
The test was shooting 15 frames of black with each card then timing how long to clear the buffer.
---------------------time to clear buffer-------download time via firewire 400
1gb Ultra II----------5 seconds----------------------24 seconds
2gb Ultra II----------7.5 seconds--------------------16 seconds
2gb Extreme III-----4.5 seconds--------------------19 seconds
4gb Extreme IV-----5 seconds----------------------17 seconds
FYI, I have had the best results with Sandisk pro level cards in my Canon cameras over the many years of shooting digital. Lexars, which I have tried 2-3 times over the years because they were a very good deal, have repeatedly failed for me in Canon's. I sold them off to a Nikon user who has no problem with them.
Cheers,
Duane
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i have about 20 CF cards, 2/3 of them sandisk. i always bought their top line. i didn't have one single sandisk card fail in the last 5 years, 3 or 4 other cards did.
one 2gb Extreme CF found its way into my washing machine at 60°C and then 90min tumble drier. still works flawlessly. if one of them should ever fail, i'll frame it and nail it to my studio wall.
these cards and my Pocketwizards are the only equipment that has never let me down.
Stefan
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I just bought another SanDisk - a 16 gb SDHC card Extreme II - working flawlessly. A few years ago I had some Lexar CF cards that worked in some devices and not others. The problem turned out to be a low-level format. I then reformatted some with Windows 98 for the older devices, and used Windows 2000 and XP for the newer devices. I know what you're thinking - the CF card gets a FAT format either way. That's true, but, the FAT format created by WinXP could not be read by certain old devices, whereas the Win95 format could. I verified that countless times.
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I have SanDisk Extreme III exclusively, and had no failure (knock, knock, knock).
But I heard from a sales man from one of the top photo houses in the US that Sandisk has put lower quality controllers into their cards.
Things seem to be floating around against Sandisk, and there's probably no photographer out there who doesn't realize that all his expensive equipment is useless, if his storage media fails.
So I wonder if those controllers are really of a worse quality now at Sandisk.
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Gss:
Lexar: they have a direct line into a competent tech. much better
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I have heard that, too. But, you know, there are so many rumors going around.
I reformat my SD cards every time after use in camera. That's what I heard is a good method to keep the cards working. Like remapping the data surface freshly every time.
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This is no rumor, I think both companies make fine cards, I'm saying that Sandisk customer service sucks compared to Lexar, so when you are up the creek and need a hand, I think it would be better to have Lexar cards
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This is no rumor, I think both companies make fine cards, I'm saying that Sandisk customer service sucks compared to Lexar, so when you are up the creek and need a hand, I think it would be better to have Lexar cards
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=204193\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I was recommended to get Lexar CF cards (and even Kingston) over Sandisk.
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when you shop for the lowest price for something you very often give up customer service. I buy most of equipment form Roberts Imaging. As a result when I have something go wrong I make one phone call and Jody or Christy at Roberts take care of my troubles. Personally I have found Sandisk the most reliable cards out here Lexar transcend have both given me much more trouble.
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I've used Sandisk Ultras, Extreme III and IV's and not one has failed in almost 8 years. I do reformat in-camera... maybe that helps.
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I've used Sandisk Ultras, Extreme III and IV's and not one has failed in almost 8 years. I do reformat in-camera... maybe that helps.
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Reformatting in camera is generally recommended.
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I "move" my files from card to computer. This eliminates all problems and possible mistakes formatting with files still on the card.
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All my cards are Sandisk (from Extreme to Extreme III) and none of them have failed in the four years I've been using them. I always download the files from the card to computer using a Sandisk card-reader and reformat the cards in the camera.
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I recently tried to get a rebate from Sandisk.
Yup, one's born every moment. Anybody who genuinely thinks rebate
Rebates are handled by third-party companies that have a vested interest in finding reasons not to give you your money. Sandisk is no different from Canon, Olympus, Nikon, etc., etc. in that regard, so if you make your buying decisions on the basis of getting money from a rebate, you won't buy much. Yes, some people do get their money from rebates, but from everything I've read, they generally do plenty of work for it. Just google for rebate + scam.
--Oh, and I use Sandisk CF cards almost exclusively (I have a couple of old slow Lexars as backups); I've never had a problem with any of them. --but as others have said; for safety's sake you should always copy the files from the card to the computer, and never use the computer to format the CF card.
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Is this werid? I finally got the replacement card, and it came unsealed, loose, just in the little cf plastic thing that you pop open. Is that strange or what? thanks.
In other words it could be used for all I know.
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It is obvious from the comments above that one can find good and bad units in all brands.
My personnal experience with Sandisk products has been all good, but who is to say that will not change tomorrow?
But the original statement was about bad customer service and that seems prevelent, today, in the entire electronics industry. As soon as they transfer customer service offshore, you can kiss it goodbye.
Get used to it guys.
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I've used lexar (including their jump drive reader), for my old 1Ds, and had some problems. Never with the sandisk extremes, I've dropped a few, had one in the wash, etc. They work for the price paid. As they names says, they are extreme.
If one goes bad, it's hardly worth the effort or my time to argue with customer service, and just drop into best buy and get another.
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But neither do I understand why anyone would still buy Sandisk when Transent is so much cheaper with large capacities and good quality as well.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201306\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Agreed. I buy Transcent CF cards also. They are much cheaper and I've never had a failure with one.
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I "move" my files from card to computer. This eliminates all problems and possible mistakes formatting with files still on the card.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=205568\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I do the same thing. Haven't lost a single image from any Sandisk CF card in 4 years.
I have one of the Western Digital MyBook World 1 TB drives. Those can be set up to work as remote servers, as long as they're connected to the net. When I'm in the field, I turn off everything in my home network except the router and the WD drive. If I can find net access in my field location, I upload a copy of all the images (the ones I already moved from the CF to the laptop) to the WD drive, and burn another copy on DVD. Seems pretty safe so far.
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Never heard of Transcent.
Guys, you keep talking about reliability of Sandisk. That's not the issue here. The cards are ok.
I'm talking about the atrocious customer service if a card goes bad.
BTW, is it strange they send me an opened replacement?
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Sandisk Ultra and Extreme user here. Never a need to call tech support. I like them not only for reliability but because they are fast. Maybe there are others that are as quick these days but I'll probably stick with them until they give cause not to.
I'm suspicious of anyone who claims company "X" has tech support such that one of the first few people you speak to has any ability, or inclination, to help you if your problem goes off the trouble shooting flow chart they are working from.
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Sandisk Ultra and Extreme user here. Never a need to call tech support. I like them not only for reliability but because they are fast. Maybe there are others that are as quick these days but I'll probably stick with them until they give cause not to.
I'm suspicious of anyone who claims company "X" has tech support such that one of the first few people you speak to has any ability, or inclination, to help you if your problem goes off the trouble shooting flow chart they are working from.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=208234\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I read that Sandisk makes their own Cards.The article did NOT list Lexar as making their own.I have had great success with Sandisk.I have never even had to call their tech support.Lexar, I have and they dealt with the problem WAY too slowly.
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As someone who has been using microdrives and CF cards for the past 6 years I have noted many periodic problems with defective Lexar cards and whole batches recalled. That has not occurred with SanDisk. I have had two defective Lexar cards and 1 defective SanDisk card. The Lexar I no longer trusted so did not bother to replace them. With the SanDisk I phone customer service and got an RMA number in 2 days time and then mailed in the defective CF card and a week later received the replacement in the mail.
ALL companies use 3rd party outfits to handle rebates and I have not had a good experience with any I have tried to take advantage of in the past 5 years. Now I get instant rebates or just don't consider them in my purchase decisions.
I value my images too much to use discount brands of CF cards. Considering that the cards will outlive me it seems foolish to save $20 on a CF card in the overall scheme of things. I have been using the same 32GB in CF cards for the past two years without adding or replacing cards and I do not foresee getting more in the next two years.
I can't see getting worked up about a bad experience with a CF card vendor. It is trivial compared to how Canon has treated its customers with regard to problems with the 20D and the 1D Mark III cameras.
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Best is to wait a while unless you are in urgent need of cards:
Sandisk Prices to Decrease (http://www.itpro.co.uk/604791/sandisk-sees-loss-after-decline-in-sales)
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I've had problems with both Sandisk and Lexar CF cards (two brand new cards from each manufacturer). Lexar was pretty good about replacing the defective cards, but Sandisk was a different story - after about three months of correspondence with them, they finally replaced my two defective Extreme III cards with the slowest generic cards they could find.
The only cards I have never had trouble with are Ridata (those, and the original $500, 1 GB IBM microdrive that I bought with my $8000 EOS 1D...)
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i have been shooting digital for about 15 years now....no problems ever with sandisk...cf or sd card....had some problems with lexar cards in the past....
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Best is to wait a while unless you are in urgent need of cards:
Sandisk Prices to Decrease (http://www.itpro.co.uk/604791/sandisk-sees-loss-after-decline-in-sales)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=210602\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
The current rebate is $100 for the purchase of 3 8GB IIIs...~$66/card. The article suggests that prices will go even lower in the next few months.
Steve
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I bought a couple 4 gig extreme III's with a rebate through calumet, never got the rebate.
I bought a kingston 4 gig card through adorama, rebate made the card essentially free. got the money in a month.
I am not much for rebates myself, so in the future, I will buy the sandisk cards... I have bent horribly two of them, when I smashed my camera strap with a pouch in my car door... bent the two cards back, still work fine...
Rebates bad for sandisk, cards are good
*steve
The current rebate is $100 for the purchase of 3 8GB IIIs...~$66/card. The article suggests that prices will go even lower in the next few months.
Steve
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