Experience with/How to initiate warranty repair/replacement?

Hi all,

How do I go about filing for a warranty repair or replacement? In particular for a BlackMagic 4K Pro camera? It is still under warranty.

Any experiences anyone can share? I'm in the U.S.

Would love it if they would just swap out a new one (ala Amazon) but have a feeling it won't be so easy.

[Peter Chamberlain]

The BMD web site lists the support offices and numbers to call.

The BMD web site lists the support offices and numbers to call.

Thanks for that. I did try emailing them a few days ago by filling out the long email form but so far haven't received a response (or a notice that they received my email). I will try calling next.

8/10/22 follow up.

As mentioned, I did not receive a response to my first email so went through the web based email form a second time to follow up (there is no direct email link to warranty service).

After doing this, I received a response from them asking for more details, to which I replied on 8/6 with videos of the problem, a write up of the issue and serial number information.

As of today I have not had a response to my email. Will let you know how it goes.

If anyone is interested in seeing the issue I am having, I have videos of the viewfinder of the camera glitching out, which possibly seems related to the screen overheating.

My thoughts so far --

1. I wish there was a direct link or email or phone number specifically to warranty services.
2. I wish there was more detailed warranty procedures on the website
3. I wish emails to Blackmagic through their webpage responded with an auto-reply that they received your email
4. I wish my warranty request would be assigned a ticket and webpage that tracks the warranty issues and warranty status. Maybe a place to upload photos/videos rather than just linking to them in an email.
5. The only email I've received so far indicates the status of my issue is "closed" which is confusing, I would assume it would be "open"

Will follow up with more details as they come in.

From BMD's support website:

Your local support team is:
United States: +1 408 954 0500
If you need phone support then please use the phone number above. If you need urgent out of hours assistance, then please use the phone numbers below to call one of the worldwide Blackmagic Design support offices.

United States support line operating hours:
Monday ... 7:00am - 4:00pm PST
Tuesday ... 7:00am - 4:00pm PST
Wednesday ... 7:00am - 4:00pm PST
Thursday ... 7:00am - 4:00pm PST
Friday ... 7:00am - 3:00pm PST

Suggested other support offices:
United Kingdom +441 565 830 049


But I'll agree that the whole email support process lacks a bit and needs to be improved.
The great suggestions you made above would certainly help.

Sometimes you send them a request through the web form and it just seems to go into the void because there is no auto-reply confirmation.

Following up.

I eventually emailed them again and after that they responded pretty quickly.

I recorded the issue I had with my camera and provided them a video of it and they confirmed there was an issue and asked me to do some further testing and updates, none of which helped.

I got the RMA number and shipped it to them, which was kind of a pain and is fairly expensive, especially if you want insurance.

They were eventually able to find the issue and fixed it and shipped it back to me after a few weeks.

I just went through a repair process. Est thing to be is call the support number for your area. If it is under warranty they will get you an RMA via email with instructions on how to send it in. For me, it took 3 days for them to receive the item and another 15 business days for them to repair and return the item back, which took another 3 days of shipping time. All in all, it took about 25 calendar days for the repair process. Now, replacement might have a faster turn around time.

As most repairs are not even done in the country you live in. Be happy you got it returned within 30 days.

It's not like Sony where they have a full certified repair center in every country.

For EU customers BMD has to pay for the RMA shipping. At least for private customers, I don't know about companies. Does that still work for EU customers after Brexit or are there more hoops now as the service center is still in the UK?

It still goes to the UK. But they have a lot to declare to get it into and again out of the UK.

Word is that some things might change in the future for Europe mainland but we will see.