7D crushes my soul for a 2nd time...

My original situation started and ended in Feb 2010. My camera can't give me a break, so 8000+ shots and 1.5 years later... same issue pops up.

It was a good day, gf's graduation the previous day and then it was my friend's wedding day. I got home from the wedding and wanted to review some photos, dead.

Sat on it for a few days, no cf pins bent, removed grip/lenses, swapped cf cards, formatted cards in my laptop and same deal. I sent it in last week and today got a quote for $642. Mainboard's gone for the 2nd time. It's disheartening that it happened twice and I have to pay out of pocket again, anyone have insight into the "Card cannot be accessed" error.

Guess it's Canon's way of telling me to stop using their products. Luckily my usb card reader still worked else I probably would have chucked the 7D out my window.

Thanks for reading... again (Guess I'm just looking for an outlet)

I would write them a letter ( President, VP Sales ) and copy this link and make myself the biggest, loudest P.I.T.A. that they have ever seen and demand a body swap with at least a refurbished one. This is nuts. Canon don't want the kind of nasty press the internet can whip up overnight.

Me:

Canon:

I think you went about it the wrong way.

I would email the president of Canon Canada and explain everything that has happened to your 7D from the day you bought it. I would also explain that 2 failures of the same part in < 2 years cannot be considered normal. Explain how nicely you treat the camera and how few shots you have taken.

You can close by saying that Canon is a top notch company that you have always had the greatest respect for but lemons like your 7D and no satisfaction from the service department, (you're paying yet again)..... you're disappointed in the way you have been treated and cannot recommend Canon any longer....blah blahhh. You are expecting the "lemon" to be replaced by a properly working one.......anyway, you get the idea.

Bradfordguy wrote in post #12667091
I would write them a letter ( President, VP Sales ) and copy this link and make myself the biggest, loudest P.I.T.A. that they have ever seen and demand a body swap with at least a refurbished one. This is nuts. Canon don't want the kind of nasty press the internet can whip up overnight.

Unfortunately Canon still wont care. Because you see, in the normal course of events in a thread like this, half of the posts will be defending Canon: "its out of warranty, its on you now", "you must be abusing it", "this problem in rare", "you dont know how to use your camera properly" etc. Many people will read this thread and still go buy a new Canon body tomorrow.

Hope things work out for the OP, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

btw... I have had success with Canon when they didn't fix a hot pixel issue the first time around (in spec) and I could not get a response from the service manager. I have also had success with an online travel agency by posting on a board I knew they monitored, after emailing them and not getting anywhere. I made out on that one like a bandit

No company wants bad publicity especially if you can make them feel that you can reach a lot of people. People may not worry about the odd lemon since every company makes those. They will listen when they hear about poor after sales service.

Whether you actually influence anyone is irrelevant... it's what the company thinks.

Thats to bad, you got that bad one. Always 1 bad apple in the group. Fix it then sell it, get some money back. Buy a different camera, knock on wood, I've never had a problem with any Canon product and will always buy them.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted out.

So Canon didn't fix it under warranty the first time around? I would have assumed as much since it should be under the 1-year warranty initially.

My other question... are you using the same CF card? It's a wild-goose chase but I would probably chuck that card into the nearest lake/ocean (after you've downloaded whatever images you have on it first).

I haven't seen too many complaints of fried "mainboard" for 7D. It's a lot of everything else complaint wise (noise, AF), but IIRC, yours is the only one that's got this mainboard issue that I've read here on POTN.

Sorry to hear about your situation.

I may have gone about it the wrong way but o well, someones gotta try

It isn't the same card, been using a 16gb I purchased new after I got it fixed the first time. I did swap between a few cf cards I have access to to make sure it wasn't just the one card.

I probably will write a letter soon, I was thinking about it on the way home from work this afternoon. I wouldn't mind the repairs if they told me exactly what was wrong other then just "the mainboard needs to be replaced". I just added the reference to my online account, they spelled my name wrong even though I was already in their system under the same serial number and it was on the UPS packing slip lol.

My XSi will return as my main camera for the time being, it's always treated me well

LOL

That tactic never works. The president has far better things to do. Hell, the presidents secretary has far better things to do. The only help you could expect is maybe from a service manger.

Canon doesn't care, especially with such a limited problem. You do realize that many electronic devices have as high as 10% failure rate, and that is an accepted industry standard?

Just how much "nasty press" do you think this will drum up? I think you are a bit delusional.

I feel sorry for the OP, I really do. But some of the comments here make me laugh at how much of a sense of entitlement Americans have.

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #12668953
I feel sorry for the OP, I really do. But some of the comments here make me laugh at how much of a sense of entitlement Americans have.

How did America get dragged into the conversation?

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #12668953
But some of the comments here make me laugh at how much of a sense of entitlement Americans have.

Huh? You mean the way we expect a $1700 "semi-pro" camera that's "shutter rated to 150,000" to take more than 8000 photos without two "main board" failures in a year and a half? If so, yeah I guess we're pretty demanding, spoiled and downright entitled.

If it's a very limited problem, Canon should step up and replace a "lemon" even if it's a bit out of warranty. That's just plain good customer service. My cameras take 8000 photos in a month typically... so the OP's should have lasted more than a year and a half (which is about the age of both of my 7Ds, too).

Most electronic devices fail early... Well within warranty. If they work for the first week or month or two, they are usually good for many, many years use. Actually I think Canon would get a lot of goodwill and have very little out of pocket offering a longer warranty. Canon's 1 year warranty seems sort of cheap, for a high quality manufacturer.

Mocows:

Here is a tactic I have used successfully with 2 firearms manufacturers. Got me a replacement handgun in both cases (Taurus and Smith & Wesson).

Send the 7D in to the Canon repair facility with a letter detailing them replacing the mainboard once and now saying it needs it again. Instruct them that if all they are going to do is replace that mainboard again without tracking down the cause of it's second failure then they are to DESTROY the camera so no other poor soul has it inflicted on them.

Advise them that you would rather take your financial "lumps" than say get it back and sell it because you could not trust it again.

Don't ask for a replacement, there's a fair chance they'll offer it themselves. What you do with this method is face them with a problem they don't see often, if ever.

Don't threaten them with bad publicity, they'll think of that themselves. "Customer sends 7D in for same problem for second time. Tells them to destroy it if they cannot fix it properly."

Just the kind of thing that would go "viral" on them.

You could pay for the repair and then sell the body as soon as it gets back, but my sense of integrity wouldn't let me do that and pass the problem on to another poor unsuspecting soul. But that's just me.

Smith & Wesson (when I sent the same pistol back for the same problem a second time) responded to my "if you can't fix the underlying problem destroy the pistol" letter with a phone call, customer service said "Sounds like you would like a new gun". They had discontinued the model I had so they gave me a choice of 3 others. I picked one.

Taurus simply sent a new one.

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #12668953
LOL

But some of the comments here make me laugh at how much of a sense of entitlement Americans have.

What is so wrong with you that you would make such a comment?

I agree re the likelihood of an actual exec reading complaint email, but sometimes whoever does read it has the ability to escalate. How would one get exec's addresses, though?