Yes I have! this sounds typical of Olympus high handed attitudes.
I have used Olympus equipment for over 20 years and a couple of years
ago went to olympus digital pro-sumer. You can imagine what I thought
when they told me I had to use a special olympus re-charger for the
battery which just happend to be =A360! the same sort of device with a
mini change in amperage can be bought for about =A310, for "ordinary"
battery re-charging.
The Co-axial lead "special" connection pins, olympus dedicated, =A360!
O yes and the flash, must be the dedicated "Olympus model" for this
camera.
Now why should i stop using my more powerful studio flash equipment
because it dosen't suit olympus!
I returned the camera to the shop I bought it from and got a realistic
repalcement that never cared, who's flash or coax, the charger is
dedicated, but was included. What i say to you is be very sure you know
what you want to do with the equipment you buy and don't waste cash on
things you don't need. I shoot top quality silver images on my 20 year
old olympus and use a seconic meter that I would always use. I also
shoot digital at 6 million resolution, just for editing purposes for
web and specific work (17million is comparable digital to silver
quality) I am a professional.
Get shot of that equipment!