Fantastic service at Canon Service Centre

[user12343]

Sometimes one has to be fair and manage their expectations well.

As mentioned, CSC has a small handful of technicians doing service/repair work, and it is unrealistic to expect them to check on the spot and expect something on the same visit, more so if it specifically involves AF issues.

I believe each case where customer brings in for lens/body AF issues is different, it would be sweepingly unfair to make any judgments based on friend's experiences or hearsay fallacies.

Just like if a car developed a strange intermittent fault, is the agent workshop capable of instantly diagnosing the exact problem given such a short time demanded by the customer, when a few hundred cars are queueing for servicing for that day?

The CSO & technicians are not god. But they are definitely the experts in Canon hardware, more than the customer.

My takeaway advice is to give them ample time to do the necessary work, and have confidence in them to do a good job. Applies to any service centre, not only CSC.

 

[BornAgainShooter]

perhaps free for genuine case. chargeable for "abusers" and "fussy owners". :bsmilie:

 

[Turbonetics]

Sometimes one has to be fair and manage their expectations well.

As mentioned, CSC has a small handful of technicians doing service/repair work, and it is unrealistic to expect them to check on the spot and expect something on the same visit, more so if it specifically involves AF issues.

I believe each case where customer brings in for lens/body AF issues is different, it would be sweepingly unfair to make any judgments based on friend's experiences or hearsay fallacies.

Just like if a car developed a strange intermittent fault, is the agent workshop capable of instantly diagnosing the exact problem given such a short time demanded by the customer, when a few hundred cars are queueing for servicing for that day?

The CSO & technicians are not god. But they are definitely the experts in Canon hardware, more than the customer.

My takeaway advice is to give them ample time to do the necessary work, and have confidence in them to do a good job. Applies to any service centre, not only CSC.

you should read my post properly before getting defensive.
I mentioned that i gave a call regarding checking on the spot before going down,otherwise i won't be making a wasted trip down.
the person over the line even asked me what lens was it and i gave detailed specifications.
if can then say can,if cannot then say cannot.WHY CANNOT ALSO SAY CAN?
CSO is expert in Canon hardware?I highly doubt so because from my every visit,they will sure go in and ask the technician or incharge.

 

[kei1309]

CSC service top notch?
so often i went down that the CSO can't offer sound advise and always have to keep going in and out to consult the technician.
and messages passed to me always not convincing enough,seems to be just brushing away the problem like either i leave down my equipment for or check or i bring it back kind of choice.
I bought a used 400mm/5.6 and called up the hotline and asked if they could do a thorough check on the AF with my camera body on the spot and see if there is any problem so i can decide whether i want to leave it down for calibration..but when i went down,they said they can't do the check on the spot and need to leave it down and they will call me to advise if i need any calibration..in the end,i took my equipments and left. before that,i asked them if calibration is needed,is it done on the lens,camera body or both? she said the lens only and it cost $60 and don't do camera body calibration as it may affect other lens AF.i asked her,if my lens has no problem and they still said need to calibrate how? she replied that u must have confidence in us.This reminds me of a friend who bought the same lens down and in the end they calibrated both his camera body and lens charging $60 each.
this leaves a question mark on me as i believe calibrating the lens alone should suffice?

Sometimes one has to be fair and manage their expectations well.

As mentioned, CSC has a small handful of technicians doing service/repair work, and it is unrealistic to expect them to check on the spot and expect something on the same visit, more so if it specifically involves AF issues.

I believe each case where customer brings in for lens/body AF issues is different, it would be sweepingly unfair to make any judgments based on friend's experiences or hearsay fallacies.

Just like if a car developed a strange intermittent fault, is the agent workshop capable of instantly diagnosing the exact problem given such a short time demanded by the customer, when a few hundred cars are queueing for servicing for that day?

The CSO & technicians are not god. But they are definitely the experts in Canon hardware, more than the customer.

My takeaway advice is to give them ample time to do the necessary work, and have confidence in them to do a good job. Applies to any service centre, not only CSC.

you should read my post properly before getting defensive.
I mentioned that i gave a call regarding checking on the spot before going down,otherwise i won't be making a wasted trip down.
the person over the line even asked me what lens was it and i gave detailed specifications.
if can then say can,if cannot then say cannot.WHY CANNOT ALSO SAY CAN?
CSO is expert in Canon hardware?I highly doubt so because from my every visit,they will sure go in and ask the technician or incharge.

they're right to say that only calibrating the lens is a better solution than both the body and lens together. because if they can calibrate your body to work flawlessly with the lens, your other lenses will be affected like you mentioned.

and while the CSO's knowledge may not be as good as the technician, but they certainly know more than you do.

and you just left without doing the calibration, so how can you assume that they don't know what they're doing?

unless we were there when you were talking to the CSO, we wouldn't know whether you asked questions that were too difficult to answer by the CSO themselves.

as a Service Staff myself, i can safely say that there are some customers who think they know what they want, but end up confusing both the CSOs and themselves because they either can't articulate their intent clearly, or they just think they understand when they clearly don't.

 

[azurebluee]

Still waiting for TS to share how he managed to get his sensor cleaned for free....

 

[user12343]

you should read my post properly before getting defensive.
I mentioned that i gave a call regarding checking on the spot before going down,otherwise i won't be making a wasted trip down.
the person over the line even asked me what lens was it and i gave detailed specifications.
if can then say can,if cannot then say cannot.WHY CANNOT ALSO SAY CAN?
CSO is expert in Canon hardware?I highly doubt so because from my every visit,they will sure go in and ask the technician or incharge.

Maybe I have a reading problem with a poorly-paragraphed wall of words

I am not getting defensive on this, for CSC doesn't pay me anything to speak good of them.

As an owner, I won't be so naive to think they can diagnose and check my gear on the spot. I am not the only customer to them. If I have a problem with the gear, I just let them do their job, fully prepared the gear will be taken apart for diagnose/repair and stay a few days in hospital.

A camera/lens is made up of complicated/intricate innards that a problem can be due to thousand and one reasons for any degradation in performance.

Same analogy as the car having intermittent problem, can a phonecall to the workshop's service advisor tells me everything I need to know?

If your encounters with them is mixed everytime, try doing the same to other camera service centre and see for yourself.

 

[Sivakis]

Lol, let's just all be happy that one of us got extra services from CSC and celebrate in the joy that miracles still do happen from CSC.

I'm sure we don't go around asking lottery winners how they won

For Turbonetics's situation, well, miscommunication can happen - and by this, I mean miscomm from both sides.
Perhaps your message was to want an on-the-spot check but was perceived by the CSO as a general calibration question.
Either way, most of us don't think its unreasonable that CSC cannot do an immediate check on lens focusing issue - they may have their own stringent process to determine if a lens is indeed suffering from focusing issues and could take some time.
(I don't think CSC would use stuff like newspaper printing to check focusing.....)

Just recently, CSC totally went out of their way to help me with my request and resulted in happy client & happy me. I'm not going to go into specifics in case others think that's the norm cos I know they didn't have to do it but they did which I'm very grateful for.

So, don't let 1 experience spoil your confidence in CSC. In the world of the service industry, and like kei1309, I'm in this line, CSC is definitely one of the better players.

 

[Turbonetics]

they're right to say that only calibrating the lens is a better solution than both the body and lens together. because if they can calibrate your body to work flawlessly with the lens, your other lenses will be affected like you mentioned.

and while the CSO's knowledge may not be as good as the technician, but they certainly know more than you do.

and you just left without doing the calibration, so how can you assume that they don't know what they're doing?

unless we were there when you were talking to the CSO, we wouldn't know whether you asked questions that were too difficult to answer by the CSO themselves.

as a Service Staff myself, i can safely say that there are some customers who think they know what they want, but end up confusing both the CSOs and themselves because they either can't articulate their intent clearly, or they just think they understand when they clearly don't.

did i assume they don't know what they were doing?
I just didn't want to leave my equipment down for them to check because i recalled on the spot on my friend's encounter.
he was told to leave down his lens and camera for a check and they will do necessary calibration to the lens and the cost is $60 when my friend bought it down.
when i went to collect his equipment together,he was surprised that they charged him $120 and was told then that they did calibration to the camera and lens.
he asked the CSO how come calibrate the camera also? he didn't pursue further and just paid and was happy that his lens works fine now.
i asked him didn't they informed u beforehand to calibrate the camera and he said NO. I was puzzled and thought usually they will inform beforehand as per my personal experience.
and from the way he asked the CSO,i can see that he really knows nothing about the camera calibration.
I was skeptical and not trying to say Canon did not calibrate both the lens and camera of my friend's,but i was thinking they could have just calibrate the lens only but charged both the lens and camera. The incharge was pretty confident that only the lens need calibration and the camera don't need when i bought my lens down should there be any AF problem.
so in the end,i left without leaving down my equipment because i thought its better to do the AF test myself thoroughly than letting Canon do the test which i may not know of the actual AF perofrmance.

and do note,I MADE A CALL BEFORE BRINGING MY EQUIPMENT DOWN.
why nobody adddress me on this issue? but on others?
whether the CSO knowledge is better than me is not an issue here,i just feel they are not knowledgeable enough to address many problems on the spot.

 

[Sivakis]

did i assume they don't know what they were doing?
I just didn't want to leave my equipment down for them to check because i recalled on the spot on my friend's encounter.
he was told to leave down his lens and camera for a check and they will do necessary calibration to the lens and the cost is $60 when my friend bought it down.
when i went to collect his equipment together,he was surprised that they charged him $120 and was told then that they did calibration to the camera and lens.
he asked the CSO how come calibrate the camera also? he didn't pursue further and just paid and was happy that his lens works fine now.
i asked him didn't they informed u beforehand to calibrate the camera and he said NO. I was puzzled and thought usually they will inform beforehand as per my personal experience.
and from the way he asked the CSO,i can see that he really knows nothing about the camera calibration.
I was skeptical and not trying to say Canon did not calibrate both the lens and camera of my friend's,but i was thinking they could have just calibrate the lens only but charged both the lens and camera. The incharge was pretty confident that only the lens need calibration and the camera don't need when i bought my lens down.
so in the end,i left without leaving down my equipment because i thought its better to do the AF test myself thoroughly than letting Canon do the test which i may not know of the actual AF perofrmance.

and do note,I MADE A CALL BEFORE BRINGING MY EQUIPMENT DOWN.
why nobody adddress me on this issue? but on others?
whether the CSO knowledge is better than me is not an issue here,i just feel they are not knowledgeable enough to address many problems on the spot.

I don't think anyone of us can answer your question since we don't work in CSC.

My advice?

http://www.canon.com.sg/local/sg/service/index.jsp?languageCode=EN

Send them an email - I'm sure they will be able to reply. The question is, will you be satisfied with their explanation? Your guess is as good as mine...

 

[Turbonetics]

I don't think anyone of us can answer your question since we don't work in CSC.

My advice?

http://www.canon.com.sg/local/sg/service/index.jsp?languageCode=EN

Send them an email - I'm sure they will be able to reply. The question is, will you be satisfied with their explanation? Your guess is as good as mine...

i don't take that wasted trip in my heart,otherwise i would have made a scene then..the experience just leave another poor standard in my own book.
i won't email and pursue,just sharing my encounter here as i was pretty surprised on this thread title.
iam not saying the service is very poor,but definitely not the standard of good imo.

 

[doodah]

i don't take that wasted trip in my heart,otherwise i would have made a scene then..the experience just leave another poor standard in my own book.
i won't email and pursue,just sharing my encounter here as i was pretty surprised on this thread title.
iam not saying the service is very poor,but definitely not the standard of good imo.

I can feel your pain. Some observations:
(a) Do not expect anything from the frontdesk folks. Some will take the trouble to ask for very specific instructions from customer and write them down. Others think they are smart and may not bother to write down your specific requests. When that happens, I make it a point to repeat myself until they get it down in their system.

If the frontdesk folks mistreat your gear, tell them. That's how they learn. There was one occasion when one of them removed the lens from my camera and left the camera facing up so I told that fellow if dust settled on the viewfinder and sensor, I would demand the entire camera be cleaned for free. They immediately covered the camera.

(b) Provide VERY VERY specific instructions on what you want them to do. For example, if you send both camera and lens for checks but only want the lens to be calibrated, make sure you tell them 'ONLY lens to be calibrated, camera used for checking ONLY'. Make sure those instructions appear on the blue sheet of paper.

In conclusion, if you pass very specific instructions and know what you are doing, you will leave as a satisfied customer.

But if you do not know what to do, then just leave everything to them. Can't complain. :bsmilie:

 

[Turbonetics]

I can feel your pain. Some observations:
(a) Do not expect anything from the frontdesk folks. Some will take the trouble to ask for very specific instructions from customer and write them down. Others think they are smart and may not bother to write down your specific requests. When that happens, I make it a point to repeat myself until they get it down in their system.

If the frontdesk folks mistreat your gear, tell them. That's how they learn. There was one occasion when one of them removed the lens from my camera and left the camera facing up so I told that fellow if dust settled on the viewfinder and sensor, I would demand the entire camera be cleaned for free. They immediately covered the camera.

(b) Provide VERY VERY specific instructions on what you want them to do. For example, if you send both camera and lens for checks but only want the lens to be calibrated, make sure you tell them 'ONLY lens to be calibrated, camera used for checking ONLY'. Make sure those instructions appear on the blue sheet of paper.

In conclusion, if you pass very specific instructions and know what you are doing, you will leave as a satisfied customer.

But if you do not know what to do, then just leave everything to them. Can't complain. :bsmilie:

reminds me of a similar instance that they left my camera and lens uncapped.

 

[ricohflex]

Different organisations operate differently. A big enterprise like Canon will have many staff and some layers.

The counter staff may not be technicians. They could be front line staff trained in customer service.
The counter staff receive the equipment and hand over to the technicians to service/repair as a back-end operation.
The counter staff or even the technician (if called upon to the counter) will not want to hazard a guess on what is wrong without proper examination of the equipment in the laboratory/workshop.

If you go to to the local camera repair shops, what do you see? It is usually OMO. One man operation. The boss + technician + counter service staff + accountant are all represented by 1 person.

It also depends on who you are. If you are a famous photographer who has more than one decade of good relationship with the manufacturer's service manager and who regularly buys new expensive equipment from the company. Of course you will get especially good service. That is normal. That is what one of my friends gets.

 

[Octarine]

If the frontdesk folks mistreat your gear, tell them. That's how they learn. There was one occasion when one of them removed the lens from my camera and left the camera facing up so I told that fellow if dust settled on the viewfinder and sensor, I would demand the entire camera be cleaned for free. They immediately covered the camera.

I feel pity for them having you as customer ... Next time you will jump into the hawker's kitchen to fry your noodles?

 

[catchlights]

Why can't we have some happy customers showing appreciation towards the service centers for the good experience they received?

if anyone want to complain the front desk customers service stuff don't know much about the camera better than you, or forget to cap the lens/body IMMEDIATELY in a air con environment. Please start you very own complain thread, or write a complain letter to make the service center known where can be improve on their services.


this thread closed.