Is this normal for Canon Service?

We just sent our 40D in to Canon for an Error 99 code that we could not resolve. Even with our CPS discount, the estimate we received from them via email was $215.

The shock to me was that they would not / could not tell me what was wrong with the camera until after I paid the estimate and they actually began working on it.

With such a vague error code, I'm surprised that they were providing such a high estimate without even knowing what was wrong with the camera. Is this normal?

It is tough to swallow a $215 bill on an 18 month old camera.

mminnig wrote in post #8696925
We just sent our 40D in to Canon for an Error 99 code that we could not resolve. Even with our CPS discount, the estimate we received from them via email was $215.

The shock to me was that they would not / could not tell me what was wrong with the camera until after I paid the estimate and they actually began working on it.

With such a vague error code, I'm surprised that they were providing such a high estimate without even knowing what was wrong with the camera. Is this normal?

It is tough to swallow a $215 bill on an 18 month old camera.

do a search here on "error 99" - there's a thread on ERR99 repair costs.
it does seem hard to swallow after 18 months - how many shutter clicks?

Maybe 30,000 clicks.

Just to follow up on this thread:

Our 40D came back from Canon with:
New shutter assembly
New dial assembly (no idea what this is exactly)
New mirror cushion (not positive what this is either)
Cleaned CMOS
Cleaned viewfinder
Updated firmware
Reset to factory specs

In the end, not bad for $215

My 5D cost WAY more than that for water damage. Sucked to be me!

I wasn't happy with the lack of info when I sent a lens in actually I got kind of ticked off but what can you do?

They wanted almost the same amount to LOOK AT a Powershot S2 IS that began malfunctioning when it was under warranty. Very close to buying a Nikon DSLR when I upgraded because of this reason alone.