Wed, May 26, 2004
I hate Canon—10:48 AM
That was fast, wasn't it? Well, awful customer service can really change your mind quickly.
What happened was, after I got my new Canon S500 digital camera home last night, I noticed that there were a couple of small anomalies appearing on every picture. The blemishes are especially pronounced with darker images, but if you look closely, they're always there. Grumble; I just bought the thing, and I was so delighted that FedEx's swift-footedness had brought it to me early. I was ready to play, not call Canon customer service.
You can't see the problems on this reduced version, but if you click, you can see details.
It's a high end camera, so at least I figured Canon would be interested in making me happy fast. It's a $500 camera – you don't want to be getting pink dots and grey smudges on every single image. (I got a super deal and paid a lot less, but it's still a $500 camera.) I figured they'd say, "Our mistake. This is a manufacturing defect. Find the nearest retailer that has this in stock and swap with them; they'll send us back the busted one and we'll work it all out." Oh, not so.
The ironic thing is that Canon's hold message (I listened to it for a long time) boasts about their high customer service rating.
Their first offer was that I could ship it back to the online store where I bought it and see if they'd replace it. It's not the retailer's fault; I don't want to involve them at all. Besides, they're in New York. I want this fixed today. Their next offer was for me to ship the camera to Canon, and they would repair or replace it. Would they reimburse me for shipping? No. At this point, I asked to talk to a supervisor. I buy a brand new camera with a pink spot on the CCD chip and it's up to me to pay to ship it back to Canon?
Sadly, nobody would give me what I wanted, which was carte blanche to walk into Best Buy and take a new S500, then let Canon take the faulty one back. (Interestingly, I could have done this if I had paid full price and bought it at Best Buy. Hmm.) It makes perfect sense to me – even if I'm lying, it's a straight-up exchange for the same product, so they're not out anything. And if the camera gets back to them and it's not defective, they know where I live, they can come get the money from me.
At least they're sending me a shipping label so I can send it back for free. I'm super-tempted to just buy a Nikon or something, but everybody says this one is the best for its size, and it's not the camera I have a problem with (with such a tiny chip, the occasional manufacturing defect is unavoidable), it's the goddamned customer service people.
So, for a few more days I get to take pink-splotched pictures; then I get to wait about ten days for them to process and return my replacement camera.
God, I hate Canon.
"Stacey" — Thu, 5/27/04 12:48pm
Perhaps the worst part of this fiasco is that you may be reminded of the horrid customer service each time you use your pretty new toy. Will the need to spew expletives at Canon's customer service ruin the joy of the new camera? If so, I advise you to go Nikon. It took me years after the World's Worst Cell Phone Customer Service Incident to be at peace with continuing to be a Sprint PCS customer.
Bee Boy — Thu, 5/27/04 3:18pm
Good point. Lucky I've got Lacuna, Inc. on my speed dial.
"Erika" — Tue, 12/20/05 3:25pm
BLURRY PICTURES TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE BEWARE OF WARRANTY WORSE THAN A DISPOSABLE CAMERA BAD QUALITYDon't Buy. Avoid this product. Pictures are blurry. Terrible customer service. It is worse than a disposable camera!I purchased the canon powershot s500 digital elph last March. I kept getting blurry pictures so I called Canon technical support. They went through the whole procedure to make sure my camera was all set up. Well I followed their directions but everything was the way it should have been. So they said I should send it in because there was obviously a problem with it. Then I sent it in and had to pay for the shipping there. They sent it back and said they had switched out some optical thing. Well I just finally went to get my pictures developed and they all have the same problem. They never fixed the problem. Mind you this was the approximately 9 months of my son's life before the age of 2. I called tech support and ended up having to wait more than 24 hours for a call back from a supervisor. She said they would send me pre paid envelope to check out the camera. Well I was greatful and had to tell her that during babysitting in late August a little boy had dropped my camera so there was damage to the outside part of the camera, but it did not effect the quality of the pictures because they were the same as prior to the day it was dropped. She said that they would probably not cover it due to the fact that it might have been caused by the dropped camera. I told I have proof of when it happened and that the pictures prior to that date are coming in blurry just like it was before I sent it in the first time. I started to cry that my son's 9 months are all ruined and she was practically laughing when I got off the phone. The camera is worse than a disposable camera. Don't waste your time or money on this piece of junk. I recommend Olympus. My Olympus prior to this was only 3 megapixels and was better quality than this piece of junk. I am planning on contacting the Better Business Bureau regarding this matter. Please don't waste your time on this, like I have to! I hope this helps people make better choices! Good luck! I wish someone could have forecasted this for me!
"the dixster" — Mon, 8/14/06 5:31pm
Well, there's a lesson here - keep your conversation with the tech to the problem at hand and don't make the mistake of volunteering any information unless you are asked. It is especially true nowadays as every single call to support is recorded...
"Rick H" — Wed, 9/6/06 3:03pm
Canon Customer Service is the worst on the planet. Want to ask about XP drivers for a £3500 printer? Tough, call the hotline for support at a pound a minute - Canon, you stink!
"Adam" — Tue, 10/9/07 7:06pm
What you have there is dust on the sensor.
"Pussman" — Wed, 7/30/08 7:16pm
You people are a bunch of babies.
"I wish someone could have forecasted this for me!"
lady, you're a noob. you should have bought a service plan from the retailer. I'm just way too lucky with my Canon cameras - I've never had a single problem ever. I will always buy Canon, they rock, all the other brands drool. Especially Olympus, bleh.
You might want to buy that Olympus after all, they have one for idiots that let children near cameras, it's called the Stylus 790 and it's drop proof, it's the perfect camera for all you sissy babies bitching about Canon. You's are just hating because Canon pwns.
"JOEL Santana" — Sat, 9/20/08 3:53pm
NEVER EVER BUY A CANON CAMERA!!!! IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT BUYING ONE, DON'T BECAUSE YOU WILL LOSE A GREAT DEAL OF MONEY. I BOUGHT AN SD550 LIKE 2 YEARS AGO AND I GOT THE "E18" ERROR AFTER 6 MONTHS, GOT IT FIXED BECAUSE IT WAS STILL UNDER WARRANTY. I RECEIVED THE ERROR AGAIN ANOTHER 8 MONTHS LATER, AND I WAS OUT OF WARRANTY AND SO I PAID MONEY TO GET IT FIXED, AND THEN WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED NEXT??? I GOT THE SAME ERROR AGAIN!!!
HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, AND THEY WERE VERY RUDE ON THE PHONE WITH ME. DON'T BUY A CANON - I'M SPREADING THE WORD BECAUSE I'M VERY DISGUSTED WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY HAVE LOST ME COMPLETELY, AND ARE GOING TO LOSE MORE CUSTOMERS. I BET THEY WOULD HAVE TREATED ME BETTER IF THEY WOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT IM A MARKETER. THATS RIGHT FOLKS, I'M A MARKETER AND I KNOW HOW TO RUIN YOUR CUSTOMER LOYALTY. THAT'S ALL.
Bee Boy — Sat, 9/20/08 6:10pm
Marketing 101 – Caps Lock: customer loyalty's achilles heel.
"Tanner" — Wed, 11/12/08 11:49am
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it makes perfect sense that you weren't able to walk in to Best Buy and swap the camera.
You state that Best Buy would not be "out anything" if the swapped it for the same camera. Except they would be. The man power, shipping, handling, etc of dealing with your return would be quite significant if they became a depot for defective merchandise for every manufacturer they carry.
I managed a retail electronics store and what you are proposing make absolutely not sense. If you want local, face to face service, then you should be prepared to pay a little more and buy your camera at a local shop. You decided to take the cheap route and now have had to deal with the consequences. Next time, I'd recommend paying a little more and getting your camera from a local camera shop. Not even a Best Buy type store, but a store that deals specifically in cameras. You may pay a little more, but the knowledge and service that will be available to you will easily be worth the 50 or 70 dollars you might save.
Bee Boy — Wed, 11/12/08 2:32pm
Gosh, everyone sure does love Best Buy.
"Thom" — Tue, 12/2/08 5:11pm
I am currently on hold with canon support to get info on the write speed for the a590is. Total stone wall. I have been on hold for 27min and have to admit that I am not the least bit happy about canon service.