Canon Irvine tries to hold my 1Ds MkIII hostage...

I just had the worst experience with Canon Irvine today...I can't believe they did this to me. I wrote it out on my blog to make it easier to copy and paste here (and in case anyone wanted to spread it around).

http://blog.rukes.com/​?p=108

On Monday, June 16th, I brought my new 1Ds MkIII and all my lenses in, and wanted to see if they could do a once-over on some lenses and check for focus issues (I think my 70-200 and 24-70 had some back/front focusing issues and I didn’t want to deal with the micro adjustment feature when I had the opportunity for Canon to do it over a long vacation).

I told them I would be back to pick them up on Friday the 27th and noted it down on the sheet. They said OK and decided that if I left the camera with three lenses, that was the most I could give them for it to be done by the 27th. I even threw in a priority repair sticker, which is noted to repair up to 3 items within 3 business days. Not a problem, so they can get it done in way more than enough time.

I come back from my vacation Thursday night, and head over to Canon to pick up my stuff late Friday (a bit worried since there was no call that they finished the job).

I get there and they say “Sorry, it’s not done, and we can’t give them back to you”. I tell them “How is that possible, considering all the time I gave you guys, as well as noting that I would have to pick them up on Friday the 27th no matter what (considering I have to photograph a 50,000+ person event on Saturday, EDC). They say “Well we didn’t promise you that it would be ready on Friday, we don’t make promises”. Why would I leave three lenses if I we didn’t agree that it would be perfectly fine? I would have gladly brought it down to two or even one.

They finally gave in and said “This is against our policy, you can’t do this again or else”. Great, so now because they mess up, they threaten with banning me from getting my stuff repaired? “You are taking up our time that we could use to repair other people’s items”.

I get the equipment back and get ready to pay the little bit for one of the out of warranty lenses and get hit with another bombshell, the biggest of them all. “Oh, there’s no charge. We didn’t even touch the equipment.”

WHAT?

So Canon has my equipment for almost two weeks, with a priority repair sticker, and does NOTHING. Everything is in the original shape I left it. Not only that, they don’t give me back the $100 voucher I used for the out of warranty lens, OR my rush sticker back. Great.

So now, on Monday, I have to call them back and fight to at least get my voucher back.

I think I could actually send my stuff ground to the New Jersey one and get everything back quicker. What a joke!

Hmm.. that sucks

That is VERY strange. They have always treat me like a VIP. My gear got taken care of within 5-7 biz days at the most. Just as a comment. Did you go over there with a "big attitude" ? If such that might have not help at all. My suggestion would have been to work it out with them instead of posting it over the net.

silvex wrote in post #5807735
That is VERY strange. They have always treat me like a VIP. My gear got taken care of within 5-7 biz days at the most. Just as a comment. Did you go over there with a "big attitude" ? If such that might have not help at all. My suggestion would have been to work it out with them instead of posting it over the net.

Nope, i'm always nice to them. I went with all my gear, all my reciepts, everything detailed on paper and said I wanted to work with them and find out as many lenses as I could leave with them to guarantee a pickup when I got back on Friday.

That sucks. Canon Irvine just serviced my 40D in no time flat, no charge and I didnt even have to show them paperwork.

Well, sucks, but **** happens, maybe they were simply overwhelmed with work in the queue in front of yours. At least you got your equipment back in working condition, it could have been disassembled and "in process"

I'd climb to the top of their food chain and have a nice discussion with him or her regarding the situation. No need to burn the bridges if it was a lower employee just following some goofy procedure.
But I would stress what you stated in your post, "So Canon has my equipment for almost two weeks, with a priority repair sticker, and does NOTHING", and ask why your equipment was seemingly ignored.

I agree, it would be good to know. Sometimes there really is a reason.

I would take it up with someone higher up for sure. It's bad service and unless it's reported to a superior then it will go unnoticed and is likely to happen again.

The only way policies or service change is if people complain about them. It's sad but true

That sucks. I think I know the culprit.... Its probably some new employee who doesn't know what hes talking about who handled your situation.

I called Canon support yesterday about some AF questions. The employee's first reaction was "Uhhh... I think you need to send it in." Total idiots working at their call center, instead of resolving it or even remotely TRYING, "Just send it in and have them take a look at it, sir."

You can imagine how many cameras would be sent in if every customer that this moron talked to and convinced that they should send the camera in?

Canon's really gone down the drain in some areas, and I think QC and Customer service (phone) are two of their main focus/ key points.

For the record, their Email techs are knowledgable.

They must have staffing with split personalities working there as some report top notch service while some kinda like this.

Yeah, when they open again on Monday I plan on trying to resolve this and figure out what went wrong.

Just to note, the same person I dropped the equipment off with on the 16th was the same person I picked it up from on the 27th. So she was the one who said "I remember you, I definately didn't say I promised, I just said you run less of a risk of it taking too long and not being ready by the 27th." Sure.

I'm sure while I wait for the long time that my CPS application gets processed, when I finally get my number, they will end up being so much nicer :P

Edit: I sent an E-mail to Chuck at Canon since he seems to be involved in the community here well, so hopefully he can help me out/point me in the right direction.

u wanna try the call centers in the uk! most of them are in india. Most of the utillities & servers use them.

My guess would be they are bogged down with repairs. I gave them my 17-40 on Monday and just got the acknowledgment that it would be repaired, no charge, today (Saturday). My lens isn't broken, I just wanted it cleaned and examined before the warranty expires in September.

Sucks to hear about that, Rukes. Have fun at EDC, maybe I'll see you there

I'm going to be mainly in the OM room. House ftw!