Can anyone give me some advice here (Canon repair warranty issue)?

H

Huy Vu

Veteran
My A1's firewire port is broken. I put a firewire cable in there, took it out and noticed that it wouldn't fit in anymore because the contacts inside are broken. In fact, the entire firewire port is severely bent. I seriously suspect the port was installed poorly to begin with.

The camera is still under warranty so I took it to the Canon service repair center in Irvine. The Canon guy there told me that the firewire port is not covered under warranty repair because I broke it. I tried to explain to him that no amount of thing I did with a firewire cable could have cause the port to bent so extensively but he was adamant that it was a user error and therefore not cover under warranty.

I smell B.S. here because firewire port damage has to be one of the most common repair situation and yet it's not covered under the warranty. I get the sense that they're just trying to push it as out-of-warranty repair so they can charge me more. This makes me extremely angry because I bought from an authorized dealer largely so that I would have the warranty in case anything goes wrong. Now that they are I'm being left out in the cold. Can anybody chime in on on how I might be able resolve the situation? Any suggestion for other Canon people that I can take this too?
 
Have you tried calling Canon directly and getting a case number and an RMA or authorization to repair?

I would call, honestly explain your situation, and then asked that it be repaired immediately.

If you are calm and respectful and explain yourself well you should get some satisfactory traction on a solution.
 
I'm not a fan of the Irvine Facility. A few years ago my 10D died so I took it in. No big deal as I had a 1Ds as my main body. It took them over a month and a half to fix it. Actually, it was 3 separate drives from LA to Irvinne as they had it for 2 weeks, said it was fixed, I picked it up, drove back and it wasnt.... this happened 3 repair times. (And I did try the camera there, but the problem presented again the following day, both times.) The 3rd time they finally fixed it.

I have a 20D, 30D and 1DsII now and have never had a problem with them, and thank God because I wouldnt want to deal with Canon Service again.

You might want to try calling Canon as suggested, but I wouldnt expect any better results. If it were me, I would keep asking for higher ups at the Service Center until you tallked to someone that could do anything. While the guy at the counter isnt just a clerk, he certainly isnt the top rung.
 
I called Canon directly and asked them specifically whether my camera qualifies for repair. They keep repeating the same thing: only the factory service people can decide that. I ended up shelling out $260 for the repair. It's supposed to be finished by now but they're still working on it. Go figures.

And there is no "higher up" that I can talk to unfortunately. The problem with this whole situation is that there is no objective criteria to determine whether this falls under the warranty or not. If they decide out of the blue that it's not, then there's nothing I can say to prove otherwise. Nothing much I can do at all actually. Either I get my camera fixed or I don't. Not much of a choice there.

What pisses me off is that I went to a lot of trouble buying from an authorized dealer just so I would get the warranty. I guess I know how much a Canon warranty is worth now.
 
What do you mean there is no other higher ups to talk to?

Of course there are.

What did you try?

It's actually quite a bit harder to get a refund so it might indeed be water under the bridge...
 
ESTEBEVERDE said:
What do you mean there is no other higher ups to talk to?

Of course there are.

What did you try?
Click to expand...

What am I going to say to the higher up? Threaten to sue? Tell them I'll never buy another Canon product again? Like I said, there's no objective way to determine any of this and I still need to get the camera fixed. Someone more confrontational than me might probably be able to bully them into doing something, but this is indeed water under the bridge.

Sadly, the whole time I was thinking, "If this was Pannasonic, I would have it taken care of by now."
 
Hey man... I would have stayed calm and explained the problem and kept asking for a supervisor and then their supervisor and so on until I got satisfaction.

I most certainly wouldn't have verbally threatened to sue as this would have shut them down almost immediately.

Bullying and being assertive are two different things.

Bullying will get you no where but trouble.

Assertive will get you what you need.


But, maybe there is a cultural disconnect.

It's cool cause it's not my cam but truly I feel for you.


At any rate, I believe you are correct that Panasonic would have treated you better.

Look how good Jan is with everyone here!
 
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