rancho_gordo, on Aug 17 2006, 02:11 PM, said:
I find from your posts that you have a lot of issues with corporations and tend to personalize them. I think their job is to get you off the phone as soon as possible and your job is to get what you need out of them. These two things are at odds with each other so you're going to have to be your own advocate in this new economy. I find if I'm not getting the answer I need, I can often make an espresso, call back, get a more reasonable person and get what I want. A lot of times it depends on the individual you are talking with.
But really, Canon (and your bank, your cell phone, your computer maker, etc) is a corporation who most likely outsourced their customer service and you got a lemon of a person. The idea of corporate culture at the level you're talking is mostly a thing of the past.
While your initial point is good—I am emotional about this issue—you have no idea how many people I spoke to, or how many actual phone calls I made. The first go-round was at least two phone calls a day for over a week. With a person who was bending over backwards to help me, but whose superiors would not allow him to do the right thing: replace the camera that they knew then was a lemon. (Firmware issues that, once upgraded, still did not improve the camera's performance.)
First of all, every single person I spoke to was employed at a Canon facility. (I ask these kinds of questions because I want to know, in just about every situation with any kind of customer service, from my telephone service to the cable, or what have you.)
I made at least fifty phone calls over the course of a year, and asked each time to be put in touch with someone with the power to be helpful, not someone who merely expressed (useless) sympathy at my plight. I wound up with the head of Customer Service, a woman with ice water in her veins named Elizabeth Wood(s). I was in tears more than once because I'd spent $1000 on a camera that did not work, they knew it did not work (it was in the shop three times in seven months), and which they PROMISED to replace with a brand-new camera.
When I opened the replacement to find "REFURBISHED" on the box, I went ballistic. I never had a working, brand-new camera, and the second one was a lemon, as well.
In this instance, the notion that I couldn't find a reasonable person is not true. The truth is that, at the head of Customer Service, a stupid woman made the very bad mistake of not doing the right thing, and my intense frustration with this kind of idiotic mindset (which included a letter to the CEO telling him that I was going to stop recommending their cameras) only served to deepen the feeling that they had abused me.
Sorry, my sore feelings are 100% appropriate, and have nothing to do with failing to connect with a reasonable person. I know how to get good customer service: I go straight to the top, or at least to a manager with the power to take right actions. I begin each conversation with something like, "I am not upset with you, but I am upset because my camera is malfunctioning, and you keep telling me to send it in for service. You know it's a lemon and you need to replace it, please. If you can't do that, please put me on the phone with someone who has the power to make decisions and make things right."
I am effective complainer and praiser, equally, and would far rather crow joyfully from the rooftops than sit and bitch. But by golly, $1000 wasted is plenty to bitch about, and my ire is exactly with the cold-hearted corporation who thinks in the short term of their bottom line, without realizing that they are alienating a loyal customer who sold LOTS of cameras for them.
I'm not moving into the Nikon camp in the same way one changes one's party affiliation. It's not political. I simply have a Nikon because I won't buy another Canon again as long as I live. I'm glad if yours works, and that you're having a great time with it, and I'm also glad you haven't had to endure the hell I did, trying to get them to send me a working $1000 camera.
Fini.
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