C200: Canon Cinema EOS Customer Service is a Sad, Sad place

npm

npm

Well-known member
An experience I just had. Bought a C200 in July of last year in the US and have been using it happily and making a good living working with it.

I am now in Finland, then Norway and Austria shooting a ski documentary. In Finland unfortunately an accident occurred on the slope (not my fault) and the camera was wrenched from my hands. The viewfinder broke off and the camera won't power on. Needless to say I need to continue production.

I called the Canon EOS hotline and got a very snooty response from the Canon agent, who said that "the chance of me getting help outside of the US is “less than zero”. The guy was very rude and I wasted money making an international call.

Needless to say I am sorely disappointed in Canon as a company. I realize that accidents are not covered under the warranty but because I bought it in the US, it seems they won't even touch it in Europe, even for a repair. So now I am looking at spending thousands to rent a camera over here.

I am regretting buying a Canon, their customer care is horrid. As soon as I can sort out this situation I will likely be selling it to buy a Panasonic or Black Magic.

Anyone else dealt with these clowns?
 
Sorry to hear about your situation. I would check if Panasonic or BM would act any differently for your expectations before you make any moves.
 
My experiences with with Canon US support have been very positive. Not long ago, I had a camera sent down-and-back for service and everything went very smoothly. But people's experiences vary.

I've dealt with plenty of other companies, too. With big companies, my experiences vary. I recently had a pretty crappy experience with a company trying to solve a very simple issue. Basically, the first two people I dealt with blew off dealing with a simple problem (ie- gave answers and proposed courses of action that would do nothing for me). It took over a week, but the third person handled everything quickly and politely. Maybe give Canon another chance... not for their sake but for yours. If you just unluckily came across a crappy agent at Canon USA, maybe you can reach someone who's better at their job. Maybe make a Skype-to-phone call to keep costs down or something?

Have you tried contacting Canon Europe? HQ is in the UK, I think, and they have local offices in each of the countries you listed. I don't know if each has C200 experience, but perhaps they can help you out.
https://www.canon-europe.com/contact_us/

Maybe send an email to both Canon USA and Canon Europe and ask how everyone can coordinate to get you up and running (and not going broke from rentals).

Good luck.
 
Stressful situation. Canon reps should be more aware.


I had my issues with them in the past, but thought it was just because they were a new division.

Sometimes contacting them again helps them and you figure out a workable alternative. Just stay open minded and creative, as the reps have their hands tied sometimes.

Do you have friends and contacts in Europe? Plenty of good people out there that can get you back on track.
 
It's very understandable you're super frustrated, but you shouldn't write off an entire company based on one experience with one person.
 
I asked to speak to his supervisor and got the same response. I do agree it's not wise to judge on one experience, but in my eyes a company should be willing to assist in some way when you invest almost $10k in their product.

I'll try CPS UK tomorrow but it's just not a good feeling to be treated that way.



NorBro said:
It's very understandable you're super frustrated, but you shouldn't write off an entire company based on one experience with one person.
Click to expand...
 
True, true. I wish you the best, but if no one can help you over there and you will not be personally replacing the camera with another Canon, and you'd be losing too much money on rentals for a job that doesn't necessarily require a Canon, maybe look into a Pocket 6K to get you through the rest of the documentary. (You'll need a lot of batteries or a brick/bank.)

I'm sure ND filters and AF are two features you're using a lot, but just a solution since you'd consider a BM in the future. You can easily sell it when you get back and it would be like renting a camera for a few months for $300-$400 (the money you'd lose after selling it).

Panasonic has its alternative solutions too.
 
You need to contact a Canon Cinema EOS service center located in Europe if you have an immediate need for repair. Canon USA is not going to arrange service for you in Europe.

https://www.canon-europe.com/support/consumer_products/repair/

https://www.canon-europe.com/video-cameras/eos-c200/

For help with issues in the USA, you can always get your reseller to help by contacting their sales contact or service contact at Canon.

Canon USA doesn't have any connection to Canon Europe other than they both buy products from Canon Inc. Canon Europe, Canon USA, and Canon Inc in Japan are all separate entities.
 
I know this will feel like it's completely unhelpful because you're in crisis mode, and I agree a company (Canon, Panasonic, whoever) in this situation could knock it out of the park with customer service and try to help you come up with a solution, but.....

If a camera breaks during production because of an accident and you're out of the country (regardless of the company) I think the only way you could possibly have a workable, timely solution is if for your insurance for your camera (I hope you have it covered) you pay for the more expensive coverage where your insurance company will cover some or all of the cost of a replacement rental while the camera is getting repaired or replaced. I don't do this for mine because at the end of the day the C200 is only a $6,500 camera and I want to keep my insurance lower (however this is part of the reason why I bought two C200s and try to always bring the 2nd with me even if the client isn't paying for it to have a back up just incase...).

If you're in the middle of production and you have several weeks or months to go, if you can cashflow it, it might be cheaper to buy another C200 and then sell it at the end than it would be to rent one for weeks or months - however, only do this if it's going to be covered by insurance incase another accident happens.
 
Thanks Chris. Luckily I do have insurance, but not one that will hook me up like that. Luckily I was able to borrow a Panasonic S1 for now to continue production. If Canon USA is unable to help in Europe, it would have been so easy to just be friendly, and mention trying to call Canon Europe. They never once mentioned that and thankfully this forum has helped get me going in the right direction. My father is a birder and has been a loyal Nikon optical scope customer for 40+ years because they have amazing customer service and have taken care of him time and and time again. That's how you build brand loyalty. When you spend this kind of money on a production tool, to be treated poorly and with an attitude, is just bad. No wonder Canon sales have declined so much.

chris f said:
I know this will feel like it's completely unhelpful because you're in crisis mode, and I agree a company (Canon, Panasonic, whoever) in this situation could knock it out of the park with customer service and try to help you come up with a solution, but.....

If a camera breaks during production because of an accident and you're out of the country (regardless of the company) I think the only way you could possibly have a workable, timely solution is if for your insurance for your camera (I hope you have it covered) you pay for the more expensive coverage where your insurance company will cover some or all of the cost of a replacement rental while the camera is getting repaired or replaced. I don't do this for mine because at the end of the day the C200 is only a $6,500 camera and I want to keep my insurance lower (however this is part of the reason why I bought two C200s and try to always bring the 2nd with me even if the client isn't paying for it to have a back up just incase...).

If you're in the middle of production and you have several weeks or months to go, if you can cashflow it, it might be cheaper to buy another C200 and then sell it at the end than it would be to rent one for weeks or months - however, only do this if it's going to be covered by insurance incase another accident happens.
Click to expand...

Would have been nice if Canon USA customer line mentioned that instead of acting like shitty used car salesman. I'll be trying Canon UK today and hoping for better luck!

Terry Nixon said:
You need to contact a Canon Cinema EOS service center located in Europe if you have an immediate need for repair. Canon USA is not going to arrange service for you in Europe.

https://www.canon-europe.com/support/consumer_products/repair/

https://www.canon-europe.com/video-cameras/eos-c200/

For help with issues in the USA, you can always get your reseller to help by contacting their sales contact or service contact at Canon.

Canon USA doesn't have any connection to Canon Europe other than they both buy products from Canon Inc. Canon Europe, Canon USA, and Canon Inc in Japan are all separate entities.
Click to expand...

Thanks NorBro. Luckily, I was able to borrow a Panasonic S1 to continue production for now. It's not a C200 but it'll do the job. At this point the bigger issue is lugging around 15-20 lbs of C200 kit that's essentially a glorified paperweight. I'm going to try Canon UK today and see if I can get a better response.

NorBro said:
True, true. I wish you the best, but if no one can help you over there and you will not be personally replacing the camera with another Canon, and you'd be losing too much money on rentals for a job that doesn't necessarily require a Canon, maybe look into a Pocket 6K to get you through the rest of the documentary. (You'll need a lot of batteries or a brick/bank.)

I'm sure ND filters and AF are two features you're using a lot, but just a solution since you'd consider a BM in the future. You can easily sell it when you get back and it would be like renting a camera for a few months for $300-$400 (the money you'd lose after selling it).

Panasonic has its alternative solutions too.
Click to expand...
 
I've had one interaction with the Canon Authorized Repair in NJ and it was negative. They were dismissive of the issue. I've moved on to Sony. Canon IMO is in decline as a company and their financials show it...
 
Canon _stills_ support is most probably excellent, like Nikons, which is a company in decline.

scorsesefan said:
I've had one interaction with the Canon Authorized Repair in NJ and it was negative. They were dismissive of the issue. I've moved on to Sony. Canon IMO is in decline as a company and their financials show it...
Click to expand...

Canon in decline? I thought they lost the least and this way increased their market share? Not withstanding that they still make a lot of money?
 
What Terry said makes the most sense. You would think that the employees of Canon hotline would have knowledge of Canon Europe and could reference you to that, but perhaps they did not. As it was, it sounds like you were asking a Canon USA service to service you in Europe, and realistically, I'd have to agree that there would be a below zero percent chance that a U.S. camera service repair would fly out a technician to Europe to repair a $6500 camera. It'd probably cost around, $6500 to do that.


I recently mailed via UPS an Arri Amira wrapped in a few inches thick of bubble wrap and put inside a box to Arri repair in NY for a $400 fan repair. They received the camera and said it is badly damaged and quoted me $16,800 to repair it. According to them, the sensor got cracked, the memory card slots were not working, antennas ripped out, etc., from...shipping damage. Suspicious that shipping damage could cause that. But what can I do. At least Canon did not destroy your camera.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
I recently mailed via UPS an Arri Amira wrapped in a few inches thick of bubble wrap and put inside a box to Arri repair in NY for a $400 fan repair. They received the camera and said it is badly damaged and quoted me $16,800 to repair it. According to them, the sensor got cracked, the memory card slots were not working, antennas ripped out, etc., from...shipping damage. Suspicious that shipping damage could cause that. But what can I do.
Click to expand...
If the package was insured by UPS you can claim the repair cost (minus the fan repair) to UPS.
 
Calling Canon USA will not help as you are out of your country. It doesn't matter where you bought your camera. You have to have warranty in the country where you are currently in. If you contact Canon Europe then they will treat your camera as out of warranty and charge you accordingly. Earlier I used to buy cameras from other countries and have many times got repairs done in India by paying extra as international warranty is not valid in my country. So now all my camera purchases are in India.

To avoid these kinds of problems, I always carry a 1DXII along with my C300 so that there is always a backup. Unfortunately it increases the weight, but I don't have the courage to risk being without a camera in any situation.
 
Used CPS a few times and it's been positive, especially given that I'm in a nightmare location for shipping.

I broke the pins on the my C500, they covered the shipping, had it fixed in 2 days and even reduced the cost as I was a bit miffed that the design made it easy to break (it was still my fault). Had it back within 4-5 days. Also sent one of my C200's to them to get the EVF removed, again they covered my shipping, did the removal FOC and got it back to me again in about 4 days. Everyone I spoke to was helpful and gave perfectly fine customer service.

What you have a to understand is one bad experience isn't indicative of an entire companies service & support and Canon is pretty good considering its size and global scope. You'll have just as bad an experience with Panasonic or BMD if you get a person with the same attitude.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top