Last year I bought a Sigma 500 DG ST flash and, whilst I wish I’d paid more attention to the marketing material and bought the more advanced product, the unit has generally been a good purchase.

Until, it went the way of all things slightly outside warranty — and failed.

So, trying to be a little green / penny saving, I thought I would get it repaired. This is where my first problem occurred — I found out that, if I send my flash in, I can expect to pay £10 — even if Sigma can’t fix it; or if they quote and it makes financial sense to replace rather than repair. Also they quote a figure to repair my flash at a little over 50% of the original cost of the unit (not excessively expensive, but enough to consider the repair/replace conundrum)

This being the case I dropped them an email; asking if my fault ‘sounded like’ other faults they had. To which I got an email stating they couldn’t tell me anything by email and to send the lens in to a listed address.

This is what bugged me. 

If you are going to reply to a customer, wouldn’t it be a good idea to actually talk to them in a way that re-assures them that you are a person with some level of understanding of the situation (or avoid any specifics at all).

I will probably still send my flash in to be repaired; but I now think somewhat less of Sigma than I did prior to the failure; and will think longer before buying equipment from them.

Well, that’s it for me — the end of LS1; Leeds’ first web festival.

For those of you free on Wednesday there is GeekUp Leeds at The Lounge on Merrion Street — everyone being talked out I believe it’ll be a wii-athon.

I want to start by thanking all those involved in bringing all the events together; it’s been a resounding success. I enjoyed Barcamp Leeds — at least as much as the last one. This was a bit of a surprise — but then again my unusual role as ‘official photographer’ means I saw a small part of every presentation! I’ll post all the photos in the coming days; I’m surrently editing down from 600+

I think at this stage I got most from meeting new people and spending a bit more time with people I’ve met previously. For me it’s great to meet a bunch of people interested in tech but who aren’t necessarily working in my area of ‘expertise’ (previously corporate recruitment, now corporate communications).

So, my thanks to Ross Brown, Chris Garrett, Debs Bassett, Linda Broughton, The Hodge and of course — Imran Ali for bringing together what has been, for me, a great collection of events.

This is one of those annoying blog entries — where I talk about me and all the uninteresting things I’m upto in my life…

Well, the first of those is the great first networking evening for PhotoNN; held on Thurs 16th at the Design Innovation Centre in Leeds. I think this group has the potential to go far and hope to become involved myself, once the fun of Photocamp Leeds {2008} has died down.

The second of my great nights was earlier on — when I enjoyed a great evening with a bunch of bloggers at WordPress UK North. As I keep saying to anyone who bothers to listen; there’s a lack of networking opportunities for those with a commercial eye to working in micro organisations for the ‘digital’ sector. This is another group I hope to get involved with in the future.

Because of these two events I’m going to press on and try to establish ‘Under Construction’. The concept is that this becomes a virtual network with occasional real world outings for companies working primarily in consulting roles in the digital and creative industries having less than four employees. The premise: to share ideas on how to best do business. If you are interested in this type of thing, head over to the web space.