BEWARE! Canon Service Center accused me of mishandled and won't honor warranty.

I bought a Canon T1i back in April 2010, on March 2011 the LCD display suddenly stopped working. There was nothing showing on the screen even though it was turned on. I can see the shutter speed, iso, aperture, etc. when I look through the viewfinder but none of that shows up on the LCD display. I tried taking pictures with it and nothing shows up to review. I then uploaded the pictures into my computer and all of the pictures are there with all the settings I set to. First let me say I am extremely careful and soft with my camera gears. I never dropped it, banged it, took it for a dive or even in the rain. It was always placed inside a cushion bag when not in use.

So I called Canon to schedule a warranty repair and have the camera shipped to them which was $19. Then when they got it they told me the camera is not covered by the warranty. They told me the LCD is broken and I have to pay $250 to fix it even though it's still under it's damn freaking warranty. I asked them what caused it and they said "probably mishandled, you probably dropped it. We didn't take it apart, but the LCD is broken, so we need to get new parts for it. You will get like a brand new camera when it's fixed."

After they accused me of dropping it I told her there's no single scratch on the camera body. How can she tell me to pay $250 when they didn't even OPEN UP THE DAMN CAMERA to see if it's manufacture malfunction !?!? So nothing was solved I asked for the supervisor/manager and he refused to get it warrantied because he said "It's not a known factory part problem." WTF !?!?!!?!!? So a few thousands people have to have this issue for you guys to say it's under warranty or not !?!? Then why even advertise the warranty !!

The supervisor then said, "We are just charging for the parts and this is the cheapest repair." I shouldn't even have to pay to begin with since this is obviously a manufacture defect issue. I never mishandled it but Canon Service Center from Virginia accused me that I did, what can I do? Not much I can do other than file a class act lawsuit against them which I do not have money to do so and their top lawyers will eat me up alive. All I can do is post something out there and let everyone know how Canon USA are treating their customers like me who are out another $50 because Canon require me to pay them return shipping. Canon will never see another penny from me. Anyway...Nikon here I come !!

http://consumerist.com​/

Post your story with all the details and see what happens.

This is unacceptable. Canon is the stingiest camera maker. The 1 year lens warranty is pathetic comparing with other makers, also look at the Canon lens cap and hood. If Canon can find way to save 0.01, they will.

Nikon is not much better. A friend of mine sent a 3 month old lens for checkup, the lens worked perfectly just not as sharp as he expected. Nikon told him that the lens was dropped and beyond repair, which is totally B.S. That's a consumer grade lens though, he told me that when his pro grade gear needed service, Nikon is superb.

My guess is: if same thing happened to 7D or 5Dii, they might treat differently. I would try to contact the higher level manager in Canon service, keep arguing your case. They should fix it for free if there is no apparent damage to prove "mishandling".

Tell Canon to prove it. The have to prove 100% that the camera was dropped. they can't tell you it was your fault when they have not even opened the camera. Call back and try to instantly get a manager in the customer service/ complante department. If they still refuse to fix it tell them to ship it back and you will go to a private camera service place for a second opinion and if they find it was a manufacturer problem you will sue them for all repairs and shipping. Before you sent it out you should have borrowed a camera and took pictures so you had proof their was no external damage. I do that for everything i ship. I had a similar problem with another manufacturer getting warranty. I told the idiot on the other end of the phone im hanging up and i will continue to call back until i get this resolved. 2 phone calls latter the problem was rectified and they tossed in extras for the trouble

Bummer. Find out the service center managers name, and write a letter explaining what happened. My bet is they'll fix it for free.

If it is a cracked LCD they can see that from just looking at it in good light. Also about the only way to crack an LCD is to drop it or hit it...

I worked at an electronic repair location for a while and learned that all to often the owner would tend to exagerate how well they took care of the item.... I have seen dozens of cracked laptop screens where the owner would claim how well they took care of it, one time you could make out that the screen still had an imprint of the car keys they left on the keyboard and shut the screen on

That being said I would still want to believe you that you never dropped it, so they should be able to prove that it was indeed dropped. Ask to talk to a superisor, and if that doesn't work keep going up the chain. Eventually you will get to someone who agree to have it fixed to get you out of their hair!

I love Nikon too! Sorry about the LCD screen.

Agent 655 wrote in post #12043656
...Also about the only way to crack an LCD is to drop it or hit it......

A LCD can easily get cracked by pressure as well. You might have the camera in a bag in the back seat. Place something on top of the bag and if there is anything inside pressing on the screen it can crack.

I've always found Canon to be very easy and quite reasonable to deal with........They repaired my 40D for nothing and it was past the warranty period. I suspect if they are saying abuse they are correct. They aren't going to make that claim without evidence to suspect that is the case.

I think we need some clarification from the op:

IF the screen is "cracked" then I would have to side with Canon. I can't imagine how a screen could crack without the camera being mishandled in some way.

IF the screen is "broken" (simply does not work) then I think Canon should honor the warranty unless they have some proof that the op mishandled the camera.

It is really not clear with the info provided whether "broken" means cracked or something else.

I have seen screens crack and even car windows shatter due to excess heat. Also, within tight confines of a camera body if the case was on too tight could cause the LCD to crack since it is already under pressure. I have no evidence to doubt the OP so I won't do so. I recommend contacting Canon and explain how you are dumbfounded by their response it a calm and professional manner. If they just continue to refuse, try to negotiate you paying half and them paying half of the cost.

BTW, I don't think you can just sue Canon with a class action lawsuit. Who is your class? You could launch your own suit, but a judge as to agree to a class status I believe.

pasm365 wrote in post #12043523
This is unacceptable. Canon is the stingiest camera maker. The 1 year lens warranty is pathetic comparing with other makers, also look at the Canon lens cap and hood. If Canon can find way to save 0.01, they will.

1 year is standard for many, many products. Your view is very unwarranted, IMO. I have used Canon warranty services several times, each time service was great. Sony and Nikon offer 1 year as well. Not sure how their selling practices and warranty periods even play into this issue though?

sharrowm wrote in post #12044128
I think we need some clarification from the op:

IF the screen is "cracked" then I would have to side with Canon. I can't imagine how a screen could crack without the camera being mishandled in some way.

IF the screen is "broken" (simply does not work) then I think Canon should honor the warranty unless they have some proof that the op mishandled the camera.

It is really not clear with the info provided whether "broken" means cracked or something else.

My thoughts exactly. Based on Canon's response it sounds as if the lcd is physically damaged or their customer service has completely gone sour.

Just a little point -> Canon SLRs have that plastic LCD protection cover over the screen.

If you wanted to crack the screen you'd need to get through that first, and to be honest, I cannot see how you can break that without some serious accident or purposefully attempting to attack the screen protector.

Now I really do not think the OP sent a camera with a broken screen protector in as "well handled" because this would be definite damage on his part.

-> I.e. something sounds fishy here - however I cannot tell you who is the guilty party.

It actually does not matter how you feel at this point.

You know your options: pay to fix, no fix, try a complaint (again)

And if you loaned the camera out, or someone else handled it, it may have been broken and you just didn't know.

If you put it into a pack, and that was impacted by something else, could have broken it.