I bought an A6000 on the strength of amazing reviews and since my partner is also a Sony shooter who has raved about her A7RII and A6300's performance. I probably should have talked to her more about how hard she found dealing with Sony can be on things like warranty and, most importantly, trying to buy lenses. After a month or so of active shooting, I decided in early March that I want to expand to getting a good zoom lens (their ASP-C 18mm to 105 F4) and a good, stabalised low light prime (35mm F1.8).

I ordered the latter in early March and the projected shipping date went from "after Easter" at the point of order (I thought they weren't that serious about it taking so long and was just acting out of an abundance of caution) to "End of April" when I followed up about a month later. Yesterday, when I rang up the Sony store the first staff member told me that more or less that lenses only get shipped to NZ in batches as/when it suits Sony HQ and that he didn't know where my lens is and when it will be coming. I asked for an escalation to a manager and have just learnt this morning that they will lend me a loaner to cover off a week where I would have loved having this lens for my own activities but she still had no ETA whatsoever on when the lens will arrive. She's assured me that the local product manager is on the case.

Whilst I was waiting for the 35mm, I decided to try and order the 18-105 from an authorised reseller thinking that Sony might treat their retailers better. The retailer provided quite regular updates about what Sony allegedly told them and dates have again been repeatedly missed. This morning the Sony manager also agreed to follow up. From my experience, basically lenses of fairly fundamental vintage (like a 50mm equivalent) are basically never in stock in NZ and that if retailers or customers order, Sony just takes their merry time and expect you to be happy to wait for months. Talking to other retailers not involved, they all basically whispered that they were all frustrated by Sony and how hard it was to order in stock and to receive them within estimates given. One retailer (which sold me my body but didn't sell either of the lenses) basically told me that they would never attempt to provide an ETA to a customer on any stock orders from Sony and would only order in Sony lenses for established customers whilst asking only for a small deposit to cover the risk of customer cancellation in frustration.

If I decide to upgrade in the future, I will almost certainly leave the Sony ecosystem on the back of this experience.