Canon USA Multiple levels of incompetence Elk Grove Village Illinois

I'm a police officer in a small village in upstate New York. Because I have a background in photojournalism, I have recommended the department purchase Canon cameras. The department-issued camera is a PowerShot A570IS. I carry a PowerShot A560 in my duty bag.

Recently, I decided to upgrade my camera. The Canon G10 seemed most attractive. Reminded me of my old days with Leica M2s and M4s.

Right after its arrival from Amazon.com, I found a service bulletin on line -- the G10 imprints spurious horizontal lines in its images. Before I had used the camera, I sent it back -- per instructions -- for a factory remedy. I pictured myself in court, testifying, "No, that body on the floor is not a spurious image generated by a poorly-designed camera."

I was elated when I received a package from the CanonUSA factory service center. My elation was short-lived. The camera I received was a PowerShot SD1100IS, which has no value to me and is -- in fact -- about $300 less in retail value than my G10.

I notified Canon and the company said it would retrieve my G10 from whereever it was shipped and send it to me as soon as I returned the SD1100IS. WARNING BELLS!!! "Mrs. Hoy didn't raise no fools." You send me my G10 and THEN I'll send you your SD1100IS.

"That's not the way we do business,' said the service rep and her supervisor.

Obviously, the way they do business is to sell a defective product, claim that they've fixed it, send an inferior product that has no relation to the G10 I've sent in for repair, then DEMAND I send the SD1100IS back before they'll ship my G10.

They've already screwed up twice -- FIRST, my manufacturing a defective product and selling it even after the service bulletin was published, and -- SECOND, by sending me back the wrong camera. I'll not be sending back the (useless) SD1100IS until I get my G10 back.

Officer Ray ****
Schoharie, New York
U.S.A.