Hear that? That’s the sound of those little New Year’s noisemakers fwee-ing out. Why? Because, it turns out Roberts has won an award for best photo shop in Indianapolis! And, we get to show off this shiny, shiny virtual trinket to prove it:

Pretty, innit? We received it from the Indianapolis Reward Program, who are:

 an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Indianapolis area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

But really, we’re just happy to have so many of you wonderful folks around to help. Insert something here about you guys being the real prize, and we’ll call it about right, yeah?

So, there’s been a frankly disturbing trend we’ve been noticing lately, and that’s that people seem to be assuming that we, the end-dealer, are responsible for covering limited manufacturer warranties. Which really just isn’t the case. Don’t get us wrong, we’re really concerned about making sure you get something that works. Roberts has its own two week return policy to protect you. If it’s dead on arrival or just not what you wanted, we’ve got you covered for the first two weeks. Under certain circumstances, we can extend that.

But, what happens three months later when something goes wrong? Well, your manufacturer warranty kicks in. Almost everything you buy from Roberts is backed by the people who made it. The catch is, they’re the ones backing it. We’d love to help you more, but, if something goes wrong with your stuff, it’s the manufacturer who’s covering it, not Roberts. And so long as you’re within warranty, they’ll gladly fix initial defects in your device. They’d love to, it’s not their intention to have sent you a faulty product. But, it’s gotta be them that does it, our hands are tied. We’ll gladly help you find out who you need to contact, or where you need to send a product. We’ll even help with warranty disputes sometimes. What we can’t do, after the initial two weeks, is be the warranty provider.

So, we’d like to offer some advice about protecting your purchase:

1. Keep your receipt. Whether for us or the manufacturer, this is important. Increasingly often, the warranty cards aren’t needed. Your receipt is your warranty, respect it as such.
2. Don’t fill out any paperwork or warranty cards for the first 14 days. We can only take products back if they’re in the condition you got them in, if you’ve filled out the paperwork, you might be stuck having to go through the manufacturer from the get-go.
3. Take your equipment out and test it. Maybe you won’t need to use it for another month, but by then it’ll be too late for us to help. Take it out, check it over, look for missing accessories and bits. Fire a few shots. Run a few tests. You’d be surprised how many return problems result from people just waiting too long to check what they’ve received out.
4. After the Roberts 14 day purchase protection, check your warranty cards. Some manufacturers require that you register your product within a certain period, or at all. Some will offer you free warranty extensions if you register. This is important to know, so, once our protection period ends, please make sure to check what the manufacturer wants from you. If you need our help, it will always be easier to get you help on a product that’s properly registered with the manufacturer and which has all the paperwork. Please keep track of that.

If you follow those 4 steps, it should be easy to make sure your purchase is protected. And it’ll help us get the service you need. Which is what we all want.