Canon Complaints?

[Alex]

Hey guys,

Has anyone ever go anywhere with complaining to Canon? I have had to send my 1DX to them 3 times due to faults... I recently sent mine in for the " Modification ", when it was returned the view finder was full of dust same with the sensor. After using it, it started flicking the lube on to the mirror, focus screen and sensor. It has also failed to focus on numerous occasions, and to top it off the Error 80 kept coming up. Has anyone had any success with complaints to get a small or large reimbursement for the inconvenience?

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Canon should fix it, and might give you a loaner. Certainly, they are not going to give you $$$ for the loss of use. That is explicitly covered in the warranty.
There is no lemon law for cameras, but call and talk to a manager. Explain nicely and ask that your camera be replaced with a new one after failing to be repaired three times.

 

[scottkinfw]

I had similar miseries.

I purchased a new 70-200 f2.8L is II. It was a bad copy. I sent it back or 4 times racking us several hundred dollars in shipping/insurance fees. I had CPS gold so at least return shipping was free. Ultimately, I had to speak with a number of "company men" who assuaged me by giving me a refurb lens. The big problem with this lens for me now is psychological, in that I don't know if this is as good as it should be or what.

Service wise, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I would also add that the web site is a pain to navigate.

If you want it fixed, don't stop fighting until it is right.

Best of luck.

 

[dgatwood]

There is no lemon law for cameras, but call and talk to a manager. Explain nicely and ask that your camera be replaced with a new one after failing to be repaired three times.

In some states, there actually are lemon laws for electronics—California, for example. (CA civil code 1793.1). Oh, and your warranty is automatically extended for the period of downtime, and they're required to make repair parts available to service personnel for at least seven years, and.... As much as the sheer volume of California laws annoys me at times, I'm glad for some of those consumer protection laws.

 

[axtstern]

The opposite from my side. In 20 years only once a Canon lens failed me which was the 85mm 1.8 but within the 2 year warranty period. This compared to a disfunct 70-210mm, 18-200mm, 12mm and 17-50mm from Sigma

 

[RGF]

I had a 1V that was in for repair 4-5 times. Towards the Canon got serious and finally did repair it correctly and paid shipping both ways. Problem was obscure and it did take them a long time to believe it was real

 

[alexanderferdinand]

Complaints?
The "cripple to fit in a category"-thing.
Explanation: the 1D4 has a 20 picture deep buffer size using RAW+ JPEG.
The 3 years younger 5D3 only 7.
Yes, even calculating bigger size of files it has to be around 15 or 16.
Faster DIGIC- processor?
So please give us all of the benefit.
The 1Dx has a buffer around 40 (am I correct?), so there is still a lot of difference regarding only buffer size.
This I don't understand.

 

[Loswr]

The "cripple to fit in a category"-thing.

This I don't understand.

Actually, it looks like you do understand, although I'm sure Canon would refer to it as 'product differentiation' rather than 'crippling'...

 

[7enderbender]

I've only dealt with them twice so far. One time to repair a video camera which they did just fine. Another time to fix my 200 2.8L that I had dropped and that consequently failed on me a few weeks after the fall.
While having that repaired I sent in my 5DII for a clean/check under the Gold CPS membership.

The repair was borderline expensive I found but no reason to complain really - maybe more my own perception. Then they cleaned the 5D and it looks like new - they even swapped in for free a new focus screen which was dusty and obviously had scratches.

For a shoot in two weeks they'll be providing me an evaluation body and lens so that I can try something out. They responded to that request within a few hours and set it for the requested date in advance.

So from that perspective I have absolutely no complaints. Quite the contrary obviously.

HOWEVER - when calling over there and talking to some folks about authorizing the repair, setting up the membership, this and that - you can a feel for what might become a problem. And again, this is not supported by hard evidence and merely a gut feeling from somebody whose career has always been connected to customer service differences. My guess is that they have some employee issues over there and your experience may depend on which desk your case and equipment lands on. Some folks there are very much with it if you know what I mean. Others - at least over the phone had a bit of a - shall we say - DMV attitude?

I'm sure these folks are not making a fortune and many seem to be hired and then trained in house without much pre existing experience. Nothing wrong with this in general. Non of this is rocket science. But if people lack a certain passion for customer happiness and the field - cameras in this case - things can go bad. Fixing that would likely be a cost problem; meaning our repairs and services might improve or rather be more consistend - but also more expensive.

Anyone had a mechanical watch serviced recently? If so you know exactly what I'm talking about. This is not the kind of stuff you can leave to some kid you hired directly out of the local community college. And there about 3 people left who know the craft. So you pay and arm and a leg and then some even for just relative basic service.

 

[mackguyver]

I'll join the bitch session - most of my experiences have been great, but I'm still mad about my 5D Mark II I sent in to CPS last year. The sensor and viewfinder were very dirty and the remote terminal wasn't working. They charged me $235 to replace the remote sensor, which turned out to be just fine (the remote was bad), but didn't acknowledge the fact that they hadn't even tested it, and sent back my "cleaned and checked" camera with the same filthy viewfinder and horribly dirty sensor.

I complained and a CPS rep called me, arranged to send my camera back at their expense, and they cleaned the viewfinder, but my sensor was better but still has the same horrible clumps at the bottom. They offered to look at again, but I couldn't afford to be without my camera for another week as I needed it for a well-paying client shoot. I'm going to send it in one more time, but I'm still mad and cuss them every time I have to clone out the dust. I wish I could send it to NJ - they do much better work than VA from my experience. I tried to get LensRentals to clean it, but they wouldn't work on a camera that wasn't theirs.

 

[Drizzt321]

I'll join the bitch session - most of my experiences have been great, but I'm still mad about my 5D Mark II I sent in to CPS last year. The sensor and viewfinder were very dirty and the remote terminal wasn't working. They charged me $235 to replace the remote sensor, which turned out to be just fine (the remote was bad), but didn't acknowledge the fact that they hadn't even tested it, and sent back my "cleaned and checked" camera with the same filthy viewfinder and horribly dirty sensor.

I complained and a CPS rep called me, arranged to send my camera back at their expense, and they cleaned the viewfinder, but my sensor was better but still has the same horrible clumps at the bottom. They offered to look at again, but I couldn't afford to be without my camera for another week as I needed it for a well-paying client shoot. I'm going to send it in one more time, but I'm still mad and cuss them every time I have to clone out the dust. I wish I could send it to NJ - they do much better work than VA from my experience. I tried to get LensRentals to clean it, but they wouldn't work on a camera that wasn't theirs.

Yea, LR could probably get a pretty good business going doing basic cleaning/servicing & calibration services.

The couple of times I've sent my gear to the Irvine center it was fast, quick, easy, and they always did a great job.

 

[alexanderferdinand]

I had one contact with CPS in Vienna, Austria.
Nice people, the repairguy explained me, what he did, everything relaxed.
Was a massive backfocus of an 300/4 on both of my bodies.

No complain about that.

Did I miss the topic again?

 

[tcmatthews]

The Last time I sent in an item to Canon for repair was one of the worst customer repair experiences I have ever had outside of Best Buy. Their web system is just not setup to handle repairs. I still do not know if I could have had the camera fixed. I could not find out how to pay for a repair. It was send back still broke stating cannot be fixed. At one time it stated that I owed them $300 in a email and when I tried to pay it told me I did not owe them any money.

When I arrived home from work I planed on calling them. I found out that it was already in the mail. I still believed I owed them $300 when It arrived it said I owed them $0.
All in all it was the most confusing mess I have ever dealt with. They could have sold me on a referb all I wanted was a working camera. It makes me wander if you are not a pro Gold member if they even care about you.

Next time I will set the whole thing up over the phone even if I do not like doing that from work. My EFs 15-85 needs repair so we will see if calling them and using a archaic phone system improves anything.

In contrast Tamaron was about the best I have ever dealt with. They even called and confirmed that repair cost had been pre-proved, Even a Sony TV repair was handled better and Sony repairs are often epic fails. (Sony was slow but at least it was handled professionally.)

 

[Loswr]

The Last time I sent in an item to Canon for repair was one of the worst customer repair experiences I have ever had outside of Best Buy. Their web system is just not setup to handle repairs. I still do not know if I could have had the camera fixed. I could not find out how to pay for a repair. It was send back still broke stating cannot be fixed. At one time it stated that I owed them $300 in a email and when I tried to pay it told me I did not owe them any money.

When I arrived home from work I planed on calling them. I found out that it was already in the mail. I still believed I owed them $300 when It arrived it said I owed them $0.
All in all it was the most confusing mess I have ever dealt with. They could have sold me on a referb all I wanted was a working camera. It makes me wander if you are not a pro Gold member if they even care about you.

Next time I will set the whole thing up over the phone even if I do not like doing that from work. My EFs 15-85 needs repair so we will see if calling them and using a archaic phone system improves anything.

In contrast Tamaron was about the best I have ever dealt with. They even called and confirmed that repair cost had been pre-proved, Even a Sony TV repair was handled better and Sony repairs are often epic fails. (Sony was slow but at least it was handled professionally.)

When I was getting my 1D X serviced for the recall (in person, waiting since they said they'd take of it in <1 hr), a woman brought her 7D in for a sensor cleaning. They quoted her ~$30, when she paid the clerk said she'd see an email invoice for $200-something dollars, but to just ignore that one. Sounds like their entry/billing system isn't the easiest to use...

 

[eml58]

Canon should fix it, and might give you a loaner. Certainly, they are not going to give you $$$ for the loss of use. That is explicitly covered in the warranty.
There is no lemon law for cameras, but call and talk to a manager. Explain nicely and ask that your camera be replaced with a new one after failing to be repaired three times.

Nice to see the Mods cleaning up here.

Mt Spokane's Probably your best advice, I don't see Canon/Nikon etc giving Money out in these sort of situations, Your best bet is to work the issue up the chain of command and ask for the unit to be replaced.

I purchased the Canon 100f/2.8 Macro L II a while back, opened the Box and the Focus Rubber Grip was completely Loose, walked it back to the People I purchased it from, but ended up with Canon Singapore, discussed the issue with the Technical Manager, he authorised a New Replacement on the spot as it would have required a 6 week turn around return to Japan for repair.

Had an issue with focussing on the Nikon D800 when I owned it (the Big Issue), had it back to Nikon Singapore three times, they eventually replaced the Body with a New one, I promptly sold it as "Near New" & ate the small Loss.

You need perhaps to try and work your complaint above the technician level and get into a discussion with management, 3 times in for a straight forward initial issue, caused by Canon I might add, seems a damn poor response from any Canon service centre, I had both my own 1Dx Bodies into Canon Singapore for the Focus Motor Lubrication issue, returned in 2 days all good no issues, maybe try a different service centre that others here at CR are reporting good responses from, I don't know if that's possible though in your situation in the US.