30D and Canon Canada customer service

[Puiut]

My first post here (even though I read this forum for a long time) and it’s about the disappointment that I experience with Canon Customer Service and my new 30D.
A very long story short is that in May 20 I purchased my new camera at a Canon dealer in Oakville, Ontario. Then I purchased a Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 at Henry’s, and the combination of two failed miserably on the focus test: it was front-focusing really bad.
After lots of testing (I tried 2 Canon lens and they focused fine), it seems that Sigma is the culprit and I took it to Gentec (Sigma’s partner in Canada) for recalibration under warranty. After 2 weeks I picked it up: absolutely no change! I returned the lens to Henry’s.
Bought a Canon 24-85mm from BH Photo and guess what: exactly the same front focusing problem.
Read a lot on Internet, this thread and other, and decided to take both (camera and lens) to Canon Canada.

Took pictures with the camera, with my lens and two other: a 50mm 1.8 and a 24-70mm L, in the store, printed them on 2 sheets, burned a CD with the RAW images, wrote a letter explaining all the above, and dropped off all of them to Canon Canada on Jun 20. The lady at the Customer Service counter was impressed with how well I documented the problem and said and I should hear back in 10-15 business days.
10 days passed and impatiently, I called back. Of course “it’s too early. It will be 15 days to fix it”. Called today, after 16 days, and a Mike answers saying that the camera is not looked at yet and they shouldn’t have told me 10-15 days, when it’s actually 15-20 days because “it’s our busiest season”.
Pissed off pretty good, I called Canon again after 5 minutes, this time talking to a lady, and she said yeah, that camera is in works now, and that 3 weeks is on Friday (when it was actually on Tuesday already) and “hopefully” I will have the camera ready by the end of the week.

In my opinion this is pretty bad customer service that I received (and I have yet to see if they fixed anything to the camera/lens) and I wonder what kind of experiences other people had with Canon Canada.

On another note, four friends of mine recently all got Nikon D50 and all of them are working flawlessly (actually one of them purchased a Nikon D200 and return it promptly because the first series of these had strong banding).
I’m the only one persisting in buying Canon, and that’s because I had an excellent experience with a G2 (took tons of good photos and it works even today, after has been dropped 2 times on the ground, 2 times on cement, and once even took a complete dive in a lake) and because I invested $300 in a Speedlite 550EX couple of years ago.
Now, 2 months after I paid $2000 on photo gear and ZERO pictures later, I thinking to sell all Canon gear and get Nikon D50.

What do you guys think?

Thx in advance

[ssim]

My experience with the Canon Service Centers is that it varies wildly from one location to another in Canada.

I lived in Montreal for a few years and took a few items in to them. They would give you the standard answer for timeline but I cannot one time where they took it all. They consistently had my gear back to me early.

I now live in Alberta and have had to use the Calgary center once (which is once too many). Rude and abrasive attitudes and they took almost two weeks longer than they promised to fix a 580 flash. In future if I have to deal with Canon I will send it to Montreal.

I certainly wouldn't say sell your Canon gear for Nikon but that is really for you to decide.

[cosworth]

Canon Canada is run seprate from Canon USA or Canon Europe etc. It certainly has no bearing on the quality of the product Japan puts out. You have a very good camera. The fact that your 4 friends have Nikons and no issues is just the luck of the draw.

Certainly if you feel the need to follow the herd due to Canon Canada that is your perogitive. I would caution you that a switch to another camera would be somewhat costly to you in lost depreciation.

Ask yourself this... If you had zero peers with Nikons and shooting problem free would you still be considering this? If the customer service was great would you still be considering a swap?

You hold the camera in your hand. You travel with it. You use it. How often do you need customer service? For the average person - never. Enjoy the camera for what it physically is, not what your friends tell you or because you returned your camera in high season and they are trying to fix it along with every other Joe who has drpped their camera or is excessively pixel peeping and performing incorrect tests and therefore thinking their camera is out of whack.

Chill, pick up the P&S and take some shots. My camera is currently in California (Calgary stinks) and I'm paying again, but knowing that it will get serviced right this time around. My P&S camera is getting some love and I still love the gear. Everyone I know shoots with a Canon so there is no peer pressure to switch...and I realize that service will take care of me as fast as they can.

Don't get the run around, relax, enjoy summer and take some great shots when it comes back. I'm sure they will calibrate it properly.

[Puiut]

Thanks guys for the replies and you're right: I should chill out a bit and wait to see as the things turn out and then jump to a conclusion.

What I was trying to get a feeling of if lots of people had problems with Canon Canada customer service. Indeed, as an Average Joe with a $300 P&S, what big problems can you have with your camera? And if you get really pissed off, you can go always go and buy a $300 Nikon or Sony.
But when you invested already $2500 in camera, lens and flash, and you're thinking of shelling out another $2500 for 3 more lenses, you're not an average Canon consumer (maybe you're an average Canon SLR consumer), and at that point customer service becomes important, because something will go wrong between all that equipment.

I don't want to consider myself an measurbator (as per Ken Rockwell's satire), and I just want to get the equipment out of the way, so when a picture turns out bad there nobody else to blame, but me. But it seems that $2000 and 2 months later I don't get to do that, and more patience is needed, and I almost run out of it.

If anybody else can post their experience with Canon customer service in Toronto, it would be great.
Thanks again guys and I will follow up with one more post when I'll finally get my camera back.