Casio Voids Warranty, Claims There's A Fingerprint Inside New Camera
UPDATE 10/22/08: Casio has acknowledged its mistake and sent Sam his Casio in full working order, plus an 8 Gig Class III SD card.
Sam can't get his 6-month-old Casio camera repaired under warranty because Casio's U.S. repair center says the camera has been opened. Sam writes that he's even sent in copies of his fingerprints to compare to the inside of the camera, but so far Casio won't budge. We have a particular dislike of Casio and won't buy from them again due to their incompetent repair facilities, so we sympathize with you, Sam. Since he's getting nowhere with Casio's customer service, he's written the following letter to their Executive Customer Service and their Complaints Department in Japan.
Sent via Fax & Mail to: 973-537-8972 (Casio- Dover, NJ)
Sent Via Mail to: 6-2, Hon-machi 1-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-8543, Japan
To: Casio President Kazuo Kashio, Executive Customer Service, and Complaints Department:On April 24, 2008 I purchased a Casio EX-F1 camera from Sandrian Camera shop in Clinton, NJ (USA). I loved the form factor and the capabilities of this truly remarkable product. On October 5,2008 I tried turning on the power to my camera. It would not power on and only a red status light would blink on and off. As the camera was only six months old I took comfort in the fact that I had bought it new from an authorized Casio camera shop, thus the 1 year warranty would cover this glitch.
After contacting Casio I was instructed to send in the camera, insured, at my expense to Casio's repair center in Dover, NJ (USA). About five days later I was sent an email stating that the estimated cost of repair is $470.75. Assuming this had to be a mistake I called up Casio only to be told that the warranty is voided because the camera appeared to be dissembled and a finger print is located inside. Outraged, I began a search to contact some level of executive customer service or higher management in Casio.
Eventually after leaving messages with Casio's technical representative and customer service I was told that a senior technician would take a second look at the camera. Two days later I received a phone call from Adrienne, a customer service rep telling me that Casio would not honor the warranty and my two options are to pay $14.95 to have the broken camera shipped back or pay $470.75 to have the camera repaired. Either way my camera's warranty is voided.
As a consumer and avid Casio camera user (numerous of the exlim series) I took a chance and immediately bought your flagship camera immediately after it came out. I now fear this to be a mistake. On both fronts I am at a loss to Casio's position to not stand by their product and to not honor the warranty. Now my only options are to pay for a camera that should not have been broken in the first place, and not have any warranty on it? I did not open the camera at any point in my short six months of ownership. I did not let anyone open the camera, and it has always been in my direct possession.
Using logic, why would any one open up a $1000.00US camera that is covered under warranty? I am not a technical person, I am a marketing manger, I wouldn't even know how to open it.
I bought the camera brand new and I can have, if necessary the camera shop (Sandrian, Clinton NJ) write a letter stating they sold me a brand new camera. Casio should stand on its reputation and stand behind its product and once again restore a consumers faith to purchase Casio products again, which I am confident Casio will do.
Left with no choice I will have open up a case with the Better Business Bureau (USA). I am consumer looking for options as I have reached no resolution with Casio. As an avid camera user I am a member of numerous web blogs, camera groups and consumer protection websites. While I am sure my case is an isolated one, I will begin to explain my predicament and course of action to [anyone] who will listen. As a consumer, how can I stand behind any Casio product in the future if I know for 100% fact I never opened the camera, [never] gave it to anyone to open, and bought the camera brand new from an authorized agent? I purchased your flagship camera in the correct manner (not grey market), and I have followed the correct channels to have the camera replaced, and all Casio has told me is either pay $14.95 to ship back my broken camera or pay $470.75 to have it repaired (again with a voided warranty, when in reality it that should have more then 6 month left on it ).
I am looking for any assistance. I hope I can resolve this issue with Casio as soon as possible and once again restore my faith to continue to recommend and purchase your products (as I have avidly done in the past). I simply want a 100% functioning Casio Ex-F1 with full intact warranty. If there are components inside my camera that Casio would not represent as a brand new (when I purchased it), I expect Casio to replace the camera with a brand new one. I took a chance in buying Casio's first attempt into entering a higher end camera market. I hope that I can continue to do as I had in the past and voice positive remarks and convince others with my opinions to purchase your products.
Thank you for you time.
Sam
Casio Camera user since 2002
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Comments:
Sorry to nitpick as the first comment, but the story says "Canon" while the consumers' story says "Casio"...
Why is it that companies come up with creative excuses when trying to get out of honoring the warranty? Don't let them get away with this.
I'm confused by the whole "Canon" thing. I don't know much about digital camera, but does Canon own Casio?
@GTI2.0: That's not nitpicking, it's a big deal.
You can't flame the wrong company for another's actions.
Paint me confused too...I own an awesome Canon and would never use any other camera.
The letter should be linked to articles about how to write and effective EECB.
It is thorough, well written and contains a specific and reasonable request and outlines what the consumer may do if not satisfied.
Note that there is no "I'll never buy your crappy product again. You've lost a customer" or similar. Sam makes it clear he was an advocate for Cannon and will continue to be, assuming fufil their warranty obligations.
I hope we'll have a follow up to know if Sam was succesful.
As far as I know, Casio and Cannon are two different companies with both being Japanese being the only connection between them.
Excellent complaint letter- more people's complaints should be as directive and forward as this one.
Hopefully it will get somewhere!
Just buy a new one and return the bad one.
Get the CSI: NY folks on this case. But be sure to use the modern day ones, not the crew from Life On Mars, otherwise it will take a couple of weeks to get a result back.
PLEASE READ RE. CASIO/CANON CONFUSION
Sorry everyone, "Canon" was my mistake. I've corrected it, but for some reason Gawker's servers are being very slow to refresh cached posts today (a typo from my first post this morning is still showing up to a lot of readers).
With any luck the corrected Casio-only version will start appearing soon...
That reminds me of when I bought a Nikon for my wife to use in a photography class, the F6 I think. Anyway, she used it for about 15 months, the camera breaks and does something similar to OP here, I ship it off to Nikon to get an quote for repair since it was out of warranty.
Long story short, they broke the camera at the repair center before they could even look at it, so they sent me a brand new one without me even asking. I just got a letter and a new camera, plus coupons. I was blown away by that.
I call bull to Casio's argument of voiding the warranty. I dropped my Canon PowerShot S3 IS camera (which is almost as sophisticated as the Casio in question). Figuring that the warranty's no good because I dropped the camera, my friend and I took it apart. Let me tell y'all... once one of these little buggers are apart, it ain't coming back together!
I can't speak for their cameras, but I love my Casio SK-1 kepboard.
This is another great way for manufactuers to void a warranty without really trying:
You opened it- we found a fingerprint inside.
You spilled liquids in it- the moisture sensor was activated.
You broke the LCD- not covered.
Any one of these are great because as soon as it's your fault, then they get to ship the broken one back and never have to worry about it again.
@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Ah, I miss my SK-1. I have many fond memories of 10-year-old me making all manner of inappropriate noises into it's 1.5-second sampling buffer.
@starrion:
It's called loss prevention. Somewhere along the way Casio's Operations and/or Accounting people were under fire from Sales because numbers were down and nothing as of yet had been implemented to offset return dollars they were facing each quarter.
Moisture-sensitive labels, tamper-proof labeling, and obvious no-nos in the warranty are ways to prevent over-zealous returns departments and disgruntled workers from hurting the company's bottom line. They are never there to hurt the customer, but sadly they can and when you tell with low to mid-level customer service they can only offer you what they are told to offer you.
In most cases, companies will yield to reason and logic, but you have to present yourself not as a problem but rather a knowledgeable consumer that will not back down until their concern is addressed. This letter sets that tone.
@Chris Walters: Thanks... I was shocked since I've had nothing but awesome experiences with the very few unfortunate times requiring a camera serviced by Canon.
NJ Small Claims. 24 Dollars, you can file in your own county because this is about something over the mail. File for the full amount of the camera (they add the small claims fee, so don't add that) with a shorter description of the camera problem and the issue with the repair center.
Canon is repairing my out-of-warranty Powershot digital cam at its own expense; seems a vendor sold them a truckload of faulty sensors.
I've shot Canons since Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and you can have my Canons when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.
Stick to your guns, Sam. Casio will eventually do the right thing, and probably give you some free stuff too.
$1000 for a non SLR camera? Holy Crap!
I'm a lifelong Canon man, but service like that is part of why Nikon has been one of the best camera manufacturers for decades.
Ask for a picture of the fingerprint. They just might have a working camera handy.
"I am a marketing manger, I wouldn't even know how to open it. "
I LOL'd.
@DrJimmy: Which powershot? I have an A610 that went south a few weeks ago and I've seen that the problem I'm having is similar to others. I didn't bother to complain because the camera is over 3 years old and I've since upgraded to an XTI.
@CharlieInSeattle: QFT. You can get an Canon XTI with a few lenses for about 300 less than that at this point.
Bill Heuer
Vice President of QV Division
Casio America, Inc.
Koji Kimura
General Manager of Service Division
Casio America, Inc.
570 Mt. Pleasant Ave.
Dover, NJ 07801
Fax 973-537-8931
Anyone have a fax number for Casio's Japan headquarters or and email address?
"They are never there to hurt the customer"
That's certainly not true. I used to work for an electronics retailer, and they used -any- excuse to weasel on a warranty. The view was that any time you could deny service, that saved the company money, and the returns people were drilled on all the things to trip people up.
The worse things got financially, the more "creative" they got in denying service to people who had paid for warranties. They denied computer returns for failure to return all the packaging. (ie plastic bags and the diagram sheet that went on top)
At some companies, these things are there to hurt the customer.
That retailer is out of business now. I was so happy to find another job.
@DrJimmy: I just hope you notice that this was a casio not a canon though teh headline was misleading for a while.
Oh, Casio is taking lessons from Best Buy's camera repair center and claiming all kinds of nonsense. This is now common: claiming water damage, customer opening camera, dropping camera, worn off serial #, etc.. It's to the point where warranties are useless because the customer can always be shown to be at fault.
So far, I am a Canon fan. However, once I learn that Canon is taking the low road, I will look to another brand.
Did he buy it with a credit card? He can always got the credit card warrenty rout. I do not use them for paying over time, I use them to buy electronice for the added warrenty. If it breaks because I drop it, or leave it on the roof of the car or almost any other reason, I get a new one. Done.
So can Casio prove that while assembling the camera, the employees wore cots on ALL of their fingers? When I have seen some assembly, they usually have 3-4 on, but rarely all 5.
@GTI2.0: This definitely threw me off, too - does Canon have lousy repair services, or does Casio? Big deal.
Unlike many of the posters here, I am definitely not a Canon camera fan. A few years ago I purchased a new Canon Optura 20 camcorder. Right after the 1-year warranty expired the iris started sticking wide open, washing out the picture. A Google search showed that many other Optura owners were having the same problem. Obviously, this was a design flaw but Canon denied all responsibility and wanted $200+ for a repair that others who tried it said didn't last. Canon's still cameras might be ok but I'll never know because I'll never buy another Canon camera product.
I don't know what Chris' dig against Canon in the pre-corrected post was about. Canon was great about repairing our camera. The only issue is that you need to pay for shipping to them, they pay for shipping back to you.
The only thing I know about Canon that bugs some people is that if they find dirt or sand in the lens or camera they use that as evidence for not normal wear and tear and refuse the warranty repair.
Casio on the other hand, you need to pay shipping both ways and that crosses the line in my book.
Buddy;
Mine's an A85. At least a dozen PowerShot models were affected; here's a link to Canon's service notice.
Of course they found a fingerprint, you can't spell Casio without CSI!
@silver-bolt: Agreed. Might want to name the retailer in the suit in the event Casio wants to claim it's their fault for selling you a CSI camera.
@jjeefff: INSIST on it. In writing. Tell them that they might find it handy when they face you in court.
@scoosdad: EXCELLENT! They are also in New Jersey! Collecting after you wipe them in court will be an easier process - hope they have a retail outlet somewhere there so the sheriff can stand there and collect your money.
Then - go buy a Canon or Nikon.
@vastrightwing: I routinely photograph and document any incoming or outgoing products/RMAs so that I have a fighting chance if they pull something like that. Of course, if it's my camera that's in question I may need to borrow one for that purpose.
Agreed about the Canons, I've used them for years after killing anything SONY and have never been happier with the quality. I have an old S300 that wouldn't die - gave it to my dad, then a couple years later bought him another slimmer Canon and have the fully-functional S300 back.
You gotta wonder how these companies can go about screwing customers like this. Casio must be in very bad shape right now, and trying anything to affect their short term viability.
Even more than people tend to purchase cars from the same manufacturer for years unless given a good reason not to, I notice a great affinity for buying the electronics from the same manufacturer. Not only the cards and accessories and cross-compatibility are more consistent, I tend to have less of a learning curve if sticking with similar designs.
HOWEVER- if a company pulls something that I find deeply immoral or dishonorable such as SONY's "rootkit" criminality, Best Buy's thuggery, or an incident like the OP is relaying to us - then that company is on my personal blacklist - avoided unless no other option is available. And, I will share these stories and warnings with friends and families and others. Just hearing what Casio is putting the OP through has given me a good reason to ignore Casio products and also to let others know how Casio is handling their "warranties."
BTW - isn't a "warranty" a legal obligation of the manufacturer? By doing what they have done, wouldn't that be a breach of contract?
its Casio not Canon.