A stunning bit of customer service from Canon on my vintage 2005-purchased S1 IS. The display puked, showing purple lines and the camera was unusable. The ante is $US150 on your credit card (big lump in my throat) but I sent it off twelve (12) days ago. Got it back today from the repair facility in the Midwest US: fixed and No Charge! My VISA shows no activity at all.

I am impressed.

This camera is way behind the current models, but for a free fix, it is still going. Only 3.2 megapixies, but pretty good glass and a 10x optical zoom. Works for me.

That was a free warranty repair a year or two ago, so Im assuming it still is.
I posted a note when I got mine repaired, warning others of the known problem. Guess you missed that.

Your Flash capacitor should go next. Not warranty

That's pretty cool, Dave. My old S1 IS packed it in a few months ago (my daughter has been using it) -- the zoom stopped working. No complaints though -- it had taken tens of thousands of photos.

*****

I vaguely recall something like that. But mine is out of warranty, so Canon was not obligated to repair it for free. I'll hope the capacitor lasts a while.

Canon is great! I have used there repair depot twice and not charged either time. One of my "l" lenses wouldn't focus correctly and my "old" 2.0mp camera just stopped working.

Ooops recall was the word I was looking for, not warranty... my bad

None the less its a free repair regardless of warranty (at least in Canada)
So nothing to do with excellent customer service...at least in this case.

http://www.canon.ca/product_reg.asp?lng=en&pid=274&pname=PowerShot+S1+IS&pr=0&shlink=http%3A%2F%2Fcanoncanada.custhelp.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Fcanoncanada.cfg%2Fphp%2Fenduser%2Fstd_alp.php%3Fp_li%3D%26p_page%3D1%26p_prods%3D13%2C247%26p_pv%3D2.247%26p_cats%3D0%26p_search_text%3D%26p_new_search%3D1%26p_search_type%3Ddflt%26p_sort_by%3Ddflt

As for your flash capacitor, have you noticed you are going through battery's faster then normal?

I'd call that good customer service.

I recently had a laptop computer from a large company that shall remain nameless (the company initials are H.P.) -- they sold me a computer with a video chipset that was incompatible with the motherboard. It's all over the internet that the chipset is faulty, people have complained vehemently and still, this company with the initials H.P. will not even acknowledge that they sold computers with faulty chipsets. I know this first-hand as my computer died miserably, and I had several days of runaround from this company with the initials H.P. I guess the thing about this H.P. company is that they know that the faulty chipsets don't create a problem until after the duration of the customer one-year warranty.

That Canon is repairing the problem even after warranties have expired, seems like excellent customer service to me. I'll have to take another look at my S1 IS to see if that's the actual problem. Thanks.

*****

Darren,

Is this the one?

Service Notice: CCD Image Sensor Advisory (Updated Oct.31, 2006)

URL you posted won't penetrate the search engine, so this is what I cam up with under S1 IS Product Advisories.

On the battery consumption, yeah, it has been using up batteries, even when turned off. Sounds like I'm dead, no?

So we disagree..

Id call it good business practice. Is that what its come to? We should be pleasantly surprised when a manufacturer fixes/replaces a defective product?

We paid good money for these things and they broke through not fault of us.
Damn right they should fix it free of charge.
And they should have gone one step further. They should have contacted EVERYONE who owns one of the defective units and informed them of the issue. Not let us dig through their website to find out....

I work in the electronics mfging industry, if we pulled this crap we would be out of business. Cannon is huge they can afford to do business this way I guess....


Sorry to hear about your HP.

You have a leaky flash capacitor... Me too. Your battery's are constantly trying to charge it. I haven't taken mine in yet. Still need to send my Olympus back too....

getting sick of spending good money on crap.

Yes that's the service notice, Dave.

No, I don't think that we disagree -- I fully get what you're getting at.

But after my experience with the company with the initials H.P., I see how easy it is for a large, well-known company to stiff their customers -- so when I see a company standing up to the plate and dealing with a particular problem head on, I tend to like it. I can assure you that the company with the initials H.P. has lost the opportunity to have me as a customer ever again.

I also agree with you that companies should contact the customer rather than playing games with hidden info on a website.

So really, I'm very much in agreement with you -- but I still can commend a company that doesn't shirk its responsibility to it's customers.

*****

LMAO HP.....

Ok

Perhaps you should go with 3 letters.... like maybe an M and an A and a C?

I went with the initials - D - E - L - L.

So far, those letters are making me quite happy (and a lot faster).

*****

Oooo, easy there, scout. I just joined the ranks of the deviant Mac users...and so far I'm liking it (although I had no complaints about my old Dell Latitude except for its size)...unfortunately I had to "donate" it to my youngest daughter in her quest for a degree in anthropology.

Check back in about three years to see if I'm still happy. (with the Macbook Pro I mean)


Agree fully with the comments regarding camera brands however... too easy to spend a few hundred on a "disposable".

My previous D-E-L-L was G-O-O-D (finally died on me after 5 years or so), but my current one is a P-O-S. I miss my old one (it was a tank!)

Think of a computer that hasn't changed its design in years but just keeps improving the insides. Come on - think (pad).

Dave and Darren, I'm wondering -- when the display crapped out on you, did the camera also stop taking pictures? My camera is taking pictures but they look exactly like what's on the screen -- which is purple coloured horizontal streaks.

*****

That's the same problem.

Big ditto. Exactly what mine did, all at once. Did not even try to take any photos. Send it in. They will encumber your credit card to the tune of $150, and then return it, fixed, free, with the lien against the card removed. It only costs you shipping to them. They pay the return.

I brought mine to a local authorized repair center.

Yah, my S1 working again. Same purple lines symptom. Work order shows CCD replaced, all free of charge. It was repaired by the Canon Repair facility in Mississauga, Ontario.

Unlike the other guys though, Canon's customer support site never asked for my card number. It a preliminary estimate of $149 for out-of-warranty work, subject to change.

I'm happy paddler.

Alf.

Update on mine: no longer eating batteries, either, Darren. Not sure why.

mine seems to do it off and and as well... A friend has it in Hawaii right now, Ill report his battery consumption when he gets back.