Our nightmare with Canon, or Bad Luck Part III

I promised the lady at Canon today that I would blog about this after being told that the one person who can help me is "in a meeting for the rest of the day and won't be available until Monday." Sounds believeable, right? NO! We got the same answer last Wednesday, and Doug Dodger at Canon conveniently cannot answer the phone when I am on the line, or when Canon Customer Relations calls him to get the information they need to make this situation right. Apparently he has been in a meeting from the time he arrived at work Monday morning and will be in that meeting until he leaves today. I know he is lying. Any normal person knows he is lying. I'm not sure what kind if push-over he thinks I am. Here's the scoop:

Mark has been a Canon guy since 1984 when he bought his first 35mm camera. That camera served him well for 13 years, until he moved up big time to his professional auto-focus yet still film camera. That camera brought him happiness for many years. But 2 years ago Mark decided to join the technology bandwagon and go digital. He bought the Canon 5D, which has been an incredible camera. The only problems we have had are with the lenses.

When we were in Belize, yes, once in a lifetime Belize, his lens broke. Something inside of it locked up and then it really, really broke. We have hardly any of our own pics from that heaven-on-earth place, but the rest of my fam took plenty to help us remember our trip to paradise. This lens was 11 years old, so we figured it wasn't the end of the world to buy a new lens.

We returned from Belize and immediately ordered a new lens for Mark's camera. The Canon EF 70-200 L. A great lens with outstanding capability--we thought.

Mark took many shots of kids and scouts, but not until our trip to Canada in August did we discover that there was something really wrong with this lens. Many shots in Canada were taken at f 32. These shots taken with this aperature have black spots throughout them. Pictures with other lenses do not have black spots in them. We discovered this after printing the pictures a few weeks after our return. Mark cleaned his camera sensor, thinking that perhaps the spots were on there. But still he was getting black spots on the pics. He then looked more closely at the lens. He discovered black pieces of debris exactly where the more prominent spots were showing up, and bubbles, or imperfections in the glass at the top of the lens, where other spots were showing up. We called Canon, and they told us where to mail the lens to have it repaired under warranty.

I overnighted the lens and paperwork to the Irvine service center, and they received it before Thanksgiving. We had it back early the next week--with all the same spots INSIDE of the lens. I called Canon, and someone apologized profusely, and promised to email me a label to send it back to them. The label didn't come. I called. They told me it could take 24-48 hours. It didn't come. I called again. They told me to wait. I called again. Somebody said he was re-creating the label, and I would have it within 24-48 hours. It still didn't come. I called. I waited. I called. I was promised another label. This one arrived about 12 hours later. In all, it took Canon 6 days to send me a UPS label to mail them the lens.

Now, we clearly had explained to Canon what the issue was. We explained verbally, on paper, and even included photographs with the spots so that the technician would be able to see what was going on.

We got the lens back a week later with all the same debris in the lens. They told us to send in the camera body. Not a chance. This problem doesn't happen with other lenses. Allen at Canon promised me a new label which would arrive in 24-48 hours. I told him I wasn't falling for that one again, and he was able to get his supervisor to get a label to me within about 5 minutes. He told me that there should not be any debris inside of the lens, whether or not the technicians can make black spots appear when they test it. A lens this expensive should be clean.

We sent the lens back. Canon called on December 23rd to say that they can see the debris in the lens, but that they think it's fine and we should just live with it. Hungh said that all lenses have stuff inside of them, and you just have to live with it. We asked them if they had tested the lens at f 32. They only test up to f 22, and would not test at f 32. He told us to talk to Doug Dodger, who also said that indeed he can see the stuff in the lens, but they are unable to get it out of there, and as far as Canon is concerned the lens is fine and we should just live with the crud and photoshop it out if it bothers us. Mark told him we wanted a new clean lens, not this one they have taken apart 3 times and which Dough said probably now has more dust in it than when we first sent it. Doug said he could not authorize a new lens--we would have to call Jim in Virginia.

The problem with Canon is their customer service is in Virginia, and the repair facility is in Irvine. Nobody at either place claims to be able to do anything about anything, because they other person is always the gatekeeper. It's a perfect trap for the consumer. We got hooked up with Jim, who was no help, and very hostile. He eventually sent us on to Roderick at the Canon Customer Relations Center 866-886-1901. That's their secret phone number that they won't give out. Roderick said he cannot authorize a new lens--that has to come from Doug in Irvine. Yes, the same Doug who said he couldn't do anything about it, and the same Doug who is in meetings all day every day.

When I call Roderick (who is actually very nice), he says he can't do anything until Doug responds to him to verify that he can indeed see debris in the lens that they cannot get out. Doug doesn't answer Roderick's calls or requests for info. Doug doesn't answer my calls. Doug is NOT in meetings all day, and I know it. He's trying to blow us off.

I called Roderick again today, and he is not working today. I had to speak with someone else who said she could do nothing, because it was Roderick's case, and he was very sorry. This has been going on for 6 weeks now, and we are tired of it. I told her that my only hope for getting Canon's attention now was to blog about our horrible Canon warrany experience. I'm going to get the kids to help me make a youtube video tonight about this. She was suddenly eager to jump in and see if she could help. But she never called back..... What a surprise.

Doug Dodger's phone number is 949-753-4200. See if you can catch him NOT in a meeting!