I must rant.
While on vacation this year in San Diego my 40D and 20D were wrapped around the handles of the boy's stroller. My wife took the ballast (diaper bag) out of the seat and the stroller tipped. The lens on my 40D took the brunt of the fall. It was just the stock 28-135 lens that came in the kit but none the less an issue. It was shaking A LOT during autofocusing and would not focus down. Then it stopped doing it so I thought all was well. Well it started again near the end of October so I took it to Best Buy since I purchased the drop plan. (I learned my lesson when my xbox 360 burned up) Now when I went in they told me they needed the body as well as the lens. I called BS on that and told them in no uncertain terms "NO, you do not need it." They said they would send it off and if they needed the body they would call me. On October 23rd I received an email fromt hem saying that the repair was complete and the lens was on it's way back to the store. Well on the 30th I called and asked where it was, "uh it's not here and our system is down can you call back later?" Ok. I call back later "oh it was sent back to Canon to be repaired." Ok. A few days later, "do you guys have a status update for me?" "uh well our service center wanted to replace it but it has to be sent to Canon to make sure it can't be fixed but we don't have an update beyond that." Fine. Today:
Me: "Yes I'm calling to get an update on service order #######"
Geek Squad boy: "Sure let me look that up for you. Oh we need the body to send off to have that fixed."
Me: "No we already discussed that this will not be happening, I use the camera body on a daily basis."
GS: "Oh but we have to have it, it's our policy."
Me: in my head "your policy is stupid" spoken "then why was I not notified of this?"
GS: "It says that update was sent on November 11th."
Me: "Then why wasn't I called? That was a week ago?"
GS: "I don't know."
Me: "Why does Canon need my camera body to check a lens issue?"
GS: "Your lens was never sent to Canon."
Me: Head explodes "So I was lied to?"
GS: stunned silence
Me: "So we obviously do not have an answer to this question then?"
GS: stunned silence
Me: "When will a manager be on duty tomorrow? There is a high chance I will begin yelling and a regular GS rep should not have to endure that."
GS: "Uh.... John will be here before 3 and Nick will be in after 3."
Me: "Tell him to be prepared."
What a freaking hassle. Next time I just buy my frigging camera at Roberts like I should have in the first place.
Me: "Yes I'm calling to get an update on service order #######"
Geek Squad boy: "Sure let me look that up for you. Oh we need the body to send off to have that fixed."
Me: "No we already discussed that this will not be happening, I use the camera body on a daily basis."
GS: "Oh but we have to have it, it's our policy."
Me: in my head "your policy is stupid" spoken "then why was I not notified of this?"
GS: "It says that update was sent on November 11th."
Me: "Then why wasn't I called? That was a week ago?"
GS: "I don't know."
Me: "Why does Canon need my camera body to check a lens issue?"
GS: "Your lens was never sent to Canon."
Me: Head explodes "So I was lied to?"
GS: stunned silence
Me: "So we obviously do not have an answer to this question then?"
GS: stunned silence
Me: "When will a manager be on duty tomorrow? There is a high chance I will begin yelling and a regular GS rep should not have to endure that."
GS: "Uh.... John will be here before 3 and Nick will be in after 3."
Me: "Tell him to be prepared."
What a freaking hassle. Next time I just buy my frigging camera at Roberts like I should have in the first place.
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Comments
In this case sending both back, while inconvenient, insures a higher likely hood you'll be happy when it comes back. I say this because you dropped both camera and lens. If the mount is damaged, you won't know that until you mate it and the lens up again.
It's definitely frustrating dealing with commodity like camera dealers.
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FW
I know I should have known better, the financing and the price were what made the decision this time. Every other puchase I have made has been with Roberts Distributors in downtown Indianapolis, hell I don't even stray up to their northside location. NEVER again will I go against my better judgement and shop at a big box store.
Glad you were able to eliminate the body as a part of the problem. Good luck getting your stuff taken care of--hopefully it goes better when you get the manager.
Retailers push extended warranties because they are extremely profitable. Can't speak on those too much, never been foolish enough to buy one.
With the quality of work coming out of factories I do not buy anything electronic without purchasing the extra warranty. I received my third xbox 360 from Microsoft under the warranty yesterday, Dell has replaced the motherboard in my laptop twice now, and in an update to the above I went in to speak to the manager yesterday and walked out with a new 40D kit. He was rather upset with the length of time my lens had been gone adding to it the fact that I was not called when they were notified that the body was needed over a week ago. So he said they would bring the lens back to the store and send the whole thing out to be repaired, then sell it as an open box item. I get a new camera and my butt kissed a little. So while you may feel that they are profitable for the retailer, I am well ahead thus far if I had needed to pay for the repairs myself.
If it was a girl I would have said Geek Squad Girl. Geek Squad is the name of the service department at Best Buy stores.
Roberts!? ..must be in Indy!
I live up in Carmel and agree that I have the best luck at the downtown Roberts. I just hate the drive and the hours. The north store is ok, but only good for smaller items as they don't really stock pro gear. I did hear they are going to expand the north store and make it as good as the downtown store in a year or so. ..currently I either buy from B&H or Roberts.
Unfortunately places like Best Buy are taking the place of "REAL" CAMERA STORES in a lot of the country.....At Best Buy I have of 3 or 4 camera brands of DSLR at my local cam only stores I have a choice of a total of 2 brands....go in and ask about Leica, Sony, Olympus or Pentax and they ask you to leave if your not interested in Nikon or Canon.......the rest of the accessories are no better than BB or W-mart or targot......It really sucks to have to depend on mail order for things that truly need to be handled or inspected before purchasing......damn shipping is getting outrageous.
Amazon Prime will sort that out.
5D2/1D MkII N/40D and a couple bits of glass.