It might be short-sighted. After all, time heals all wounds, and I'm sure if I ever get one in my hands, I'll quickly forget all the miserable waiting and lead up to it. But there is no denying there has been a serious lack of communication after months and months of teasing. Trainwrecks are rarely intentional. That doesn't mean no one should be held to account. Canon chose not to be more forthcoming about delays more than a few say-nothing blurbs; they should take take their lumps. They also intentionally have kept their vendors in the dark and/or barred them from sharing information with customers. They deserve a lot of the ire they get. I don't doubt this is/will be a very successful camera. But I don't really know how anyone would deny that this roll out has been a trainwreck.
I'm sorry that you've had to send your R5 back. I can imagine how disappointing that is. I have no problem if anyone wants to be understanding and sympathetic to Canon. I generally am. I've had overwhelmingly good customer service experiences with Canon. But I find the general lack of information and communication during this time unacceptable. I think they're doing themselves a disservice and burning up a lot of goodwill by keeping their customers in the dark.
That is a fair point, I guess the words train wreck sounded pretty harsh but then, bad communication is bad communication. You are absolutely right that the communication could be better.
When I spoke with Canon about my sensor, at first they quoted typical times, and then kind of took a step back and said there may be slow downs and they needed to see the camera first- odd when the phone rep was sure exactly what the issue was and that it was a sensor swap. I did not press them on what slow downs meant or if they already had repair parts, etc. but I got the feeling even they were not 100% sure of what the picture is and were just doing their best. So I opted to wait for a new camera exchange since it might be just as long to get the repair back, and a sensor replacement is a major rebuild. Sometimes having a great tech rebuild something is better than factory quality control, and sometimes it is worse, but I didn't feel like playing the lottery, especially as some folks say that certain repair centers are a lot better than others.
I just wonder if Canon are getting the same uncertainty from their suppliers, and if so, what could they say that isn't a risk? We hope to have that last thing we need and ship ASAP? We don't know the date, but it is ASAP? I am not sure that will satisfy people more than silence, but maybe it would?