The comments from Royce, pretty much nail the issues on the head, mainly that if things go wrong, you are looking at the 10 weeks wait. It still seems that the bodes stll have to go back to Japan for repair.
That's true for core things, like shutter and mirror assembly replacements, or work on the sensor. Other matters can be handled by whomever in North America is being used on contract for less complicated work. But there's no Ricoh/Pentax internal service center here right now, so anything complicated has to go to Japan.
I had hoped to see Pentax create some form of a North American repair center, for Canada and US warranty work. I realize for the price of the other companies single product, you can purchase 2 of the Z's and have a backup. Not sure what the cost of shipping/insurance is for such a return, but I am sure it's not cheap.
Might not be a bad idea, as products do fail and the failures tend to happen at the most inopportune times.
That's what I called the self-support model.
In the 35mm world I always maintained 2 bodies (at least) for this reason. Of course it's more expensive to do that with an $8500 body, but still far more realistic to run 2 of them than if they were north of $25K or $30K each.
So far I've paid nothing for shipping, insurance, etc. on warranty repair work. I take the downed kit to my local dealer and they handle the rest with Pentax. I don't know if that's exceptional service from my dealer or if Pentax is covering it, I haven't asked. Obviously somebody living away from a metro centre with a good local dealer would not have the same option.
Hopefully Pentax address the service issue in the future.
From what my local rep has said, it looks like Ricoh is going to do something about this. We'll see what they come up with. Hopefully it involves a full repair centre in North America somewhere and a professional-level support program.