These folks have perfected the “It’s not my fault — what do you expect?” attitude once you’ve bought from them.
An under-warranty sensor cleaning of my Canon EOS RebelXT will take at least 2 weeks, maybe 6, maybe more, who knows? The store has to send every repair back to mother Wolf in Minnesota.
The guy I gave the camera to originally said 2 weeks but told me to call after a week so he could see if he could expedite it. I called and a veteran clerk who answered the phone was immensely patronizing as he ridiculed any idea of getting the camera back before 4-6 weeks. I hung up and decided to call back ask by name for the guy who had told me to call.
I phoned back yesterday and talked to the original repair clerk. He looked up the claim tag and discovered that the camera hadn’t been checked into the Minnesota depot, 10 days after I gave it to the Van Ness Street store. By now the local clerk has drunk the company Kool-Aid, and he sounded astounded that I expected to get the camera back in 2 weeks. Oh, no… it takes 4, 6, or more weeks. This is for a simple, in-warranty repair.
Slow remote depot service coupled with a customer-hostile culture will keep me from buying more them these folks. They combine the lack of personal responsibility of a large chain (which they are) with the helplessness of a small camera shop (which each store is).
I’ve been having good luck with this recently, so … try writing a polite letter of complaint to Wolf’s headquarters. Be sure to name names, dates, promises, attitudes, and results.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I am a frequent writer myself. In this case, I will send mother Wolf a note once the camera is safely back.
Letters work best when there was a screw-up, I think. Here I’m running up against Wolf’s business model. But, we’ll see!
Boy, it never occurred to me to buy a camera from a local store 🙂 I guess I’m a mail order kind of guy. Wouldn’t you normally just send the camera directly to Canon instead of working through the dealer?
I’m not sure they work well, but there are various cleaning kits out there that allow you to clean the sensor yourself.
The XTi I just got has an ultrasonic cleaner that cleaners the sensor every time you turn the camera on or off. It seems to work well so far.
Thanks for the tips. Once the warranty is over, I won’t darken Wolf’s door with repair problems.
CCD dust is a big problem for astrophotography. Some people have said they lie on their back, camera over their head, with a bright light shining on the sensor. Then they use a small debris-free brush to get the dust off, which falls down onto them instead of staying in the camera.
If I wanted to belong to an organized party, I would be a Republican!
But, still, it’s frustrating.
Peacemaking that leads to war.