Canon USA Ripoff, Canon A85 Digital Camera, Warranty voided Elk Grove Village Illinois

Like others who have posted to this website, my Canon Power Shot A85 digital camera simply stopped working. No abuse, no drops, no exposure to liquid...it just stopped working.

I sent the camera to the service center in Elk Grove Village and at first all seemed fine. I received a letter indicating that "based on their initial examination...repairs will be completed at no charge to me."

However, I then received a call telling me that the entire inside of the camera was covered in corrosion thus voiding the warranty. They offered to sell me a refurbished A95 for a ridiculous amount of money.

I called and spoke to two individuals, both of whom were entirely pleasent and polite. Neither of them claim to have the discretionary power to right this wrong. I even spoke with the individual who claims to be the director of the service center.

The implication they make regarding moisture is that if you don't "take care" of your camera that condensation may occur thus causing corrosion. The only example he could provide me of NOT taking care was if you repeatedly move the camera from hot to cold environments without allowing the device time to acclimate.

He also implied that the corrosion from condensation can appear similar to corrosion that would occur if you exposed the camera to liquid. Are you kidding? Are we to believe that taking the camera from an air conditioned house into a warm car will yield the same result as dropping the camera into a swimming pool?

I'm not finished with this people yet. I've now moved on to the actual Customer Relations department of Canon USA. I expect no satisfcation other than letting them know that I am now eliminating Canon from future consideration for anything. This includes the proposal I'm working on for my company for office equipment. Canon will lose the opportunity to bid on a project worth hundreds of thousands becuase they want to rip people off at a few bucks at a time.

By the way, there's a class action lawsuit that's been initiated by an attorney in Chicago that might provide some remedy against this. I don't know enough about it yet to determine if I'm eligible.

Steve
Orange County, California
U.S.A.