I've been a CPS gold member for a while now, I'd say at least seven years. overall, great experience. The loaner program is nice, the turnaround time and CPS discount on repairs is good.
But today, I am kinda pissed. Am I out of line here? Let's explore...
I've got 2 5D3 bodies, one bought in Mar of 2012, and the other one bought in October of 2012. So they've been used (shutter count says 107K on the oldest, 91K on the newer one). I sent in one camera a few weeks ago for a clean and check, and they noted some corrosion on the body and had a bunch of recommended stuff to fix (basically, they replaced almost the entire exterior of the camera. Roughly $400 later, I got the camera back and it looks brand new pretty much, aside from a small scuff mark on the one piece they didn't replace.
When I got camera #1 back, I sent in #2 for the same thing (clean and check). I've cleaned my 5D sensor before (wet cleaning), but stopped after the 5D2 and later models had the auto feature. Anyway, I sent it in last Friday via UPS and couldn't find my tracking number label. I hadn't heard anything so i called CPS today (the NJ branch) to see what's what.
The woman on the phone tells me that I've got a cracked top LCD window (no big deal, I've swapped out one before on an older camera myself) and that the menu button is sticking (yep, i knew that too), and it might have some liquid damage. Now mind you, the camera works fine. there is nothing wrong with it, functionally.
I tell her to just do the clean and check, and to not bother w/ the repairs... I don't want to spend a total of $900 dollars on two four year old cameras. She tells me that since the camera's condition won't pass the clean and check standards, that they can't clean the sensor. This baffles me, and I ask to speak with a supervisor.
While I am on hold, I get an email from CPS with a repair estimate. I find that the camera was received on Feb 16th, three days ago. I wonder when they would have told me, had I not called. I also see that no gold level discounts have been applied to anything, leaving the cost at around $500.
The supervisor comes on, and basically tells me the same thing. I find it fairly surreal that they can't just clean my sensor; the LCD screen and menu button stickiness have *ZERO* to do w/ the functionality of the camera (ie, the 'check' part), so just do the clean part, OK? Nope, she says, can't do it. She says she is sorry about the discount not being applied to my quote, and that they can do that if I wish to go ahead with the quoted service.
No, I don't want to, so please send my camera back. So I'm glad that I spent $50 on shipping so that my camera could take a two week vacation to New Jersey. What the hell, Canon?
Does anyone else have a similar story w/ CPS? Am I just being a big baby, or is this a legitimate complaint?
