That sucks.
I can only suggest pestering them about it regularly. Ask for a loaner if the can't guarantee you having it by Friday. Asking you to wait a reasonable amount of time for a repair is one thing, but not fixing it the first time puts them in a dubious position to be asking that.
Haven't used Canon repair since 1998 on a 1N that got flooded. I'm not even sure about CPS since the restucture, but it really sounds like just plain old bad luck. And in my experience, unless your a member of CPS, don't expect any loaners or a rush on your repairs. It's seems to be the standard practice of CPS and NPS to treat everyone else as consumers...which they are. And, I've known many colleages over the years that were not members and were treated like they bought their $30000 worth of equipment at WalMart. Member or not, if you purchase ANYTHING regardless of price, you should be totally satisfied with that product and the mfg. should make sure of it. But, as in most everything else, money talks and bs walks. I do know first hand though, that CPS is/was known for loaning out lenses at major events to CPS members. And I recall at Lake Placid, that the NPS booth would do on the spot repairs for free. In fact, a close friend "slushed" his F2 at Lake Placid and the NPS guys completely dissasembled, inspected, adjusted, and dryed out his F2 for free (he wasn't a NPS member).
CPS's recent restructure basically returned the program to a pro-photographer support service, which to be honest I agree with (they require that 51% of your income comes from photography).
Normally, for a repair like this, the customer calls in to initiate the repair, and Canon emails back a form to be filled out and included with the camera. When it's a re-repair, issuing the form triggers some internal actions that notify the technician's boss about the failed repair job, and supposedly causes an expedite of the repair. We'll see how accurate those become in the coming week.
Personally, I'm torn: I want to tell them to take all the time they need to fix it right, but I purposefully sent it in during the best possible window that I have for another two months to be without the camera and now I want it back. I've felt for months something wasn't correct inside my camera, and I've felt like I had to be ready all the time to "work my magic" if should error out (I had a magic routine that would return the camera to operation - remove battery, insert battery, lock focus on anything/nothing, and shoot just as quickly after power-on as I could). I knew it was "abnormal mirror operation" when the mirror wouldn't flip on me once for a manual sensor cleaning, but the telephone agent (on the first try) said my camera's serial number wasn't affected by the problem.
We're a Canon/Profoto family: five cameras, sixteen lenses, fifteen Profoto lights, too many modifiers.
A follow-up, for those who care.
Camera shipped to Canon 6/5 priority overnight, arrived 6/8 AM.
Conflicting reports on whether it was checked in 6/8 PM or 6/9 AM. Canon never emailed me the repair ID, but once I got it I could check status online by using the repair ID and my office zip code (that's the primary shipping address on record for me).
Checked online regularly, and on 6/14 it was showing as "Completed, not yet shipped".
Got a voicemail late in the day 6/15, called the rep back, and he wanted to confirm what address to ship to. I asked him to send it to my parents' place in PA, since I would only be at a conference through noonish 6/17 and then heading to the parents' place (if they shipped standard overnight or problems ensued, I didn't want to have to go back to the hotel to get my camera). He said no problem, I'd have it there tomorrow (even though I wouldn't be there...).
Checked online 6/16 AM, and at that point I had to use my parents' zip code for access. Grabbed the FedEx tracking number, and checked FedEx. FedEx showed that the package was scheduled for Standard Overnight (not the Priority Overnight as promised) to my office in TX. I called the Canon rep directly (same one from the night before) and told him. He had FedEx reroute the package to PA, and it actually arrived 6/17 AM with a hand-written sticker over the shipping label showing the correct address.
Canon replaced the mirror box assembly, according to the form. They also included a page with information about joining CPS (thanks, but I don't qualify...). So far, so good.
In the end, it was four weeks start to finish (shipped Tuesday May 17th, returned Tuesday June 2, reshipped June 5, returned June 17) for a service bulletin repair.
We're a Canon/Profoto family: five cameras, sixteen lenses, fifteen Profoto lights, too many modifiers.
You have my sympathy.
I hope your experience was extreme and rare.
I'm going to have a 24-70 going in for evaluation/service. Hopefully it will come back better in the CA department. I'm glad they didn't try to avoid even looking at it. Given a prior exchange regarding backfocusing on another lens, I was getting kind of discouraged with their motivation to correct problems.
I have good wishes for you that you don't have to send it back again, ever, and it works flawlessly here on out. Good luck!
Follow-up... Sent my 5D in for repair (mirror detacthed from carrier), to the factory service center in Jamesburg, NJ on 6/5 a Friday, and got it back 6/15, a monday. Replaced main mirror, focusing screen. Checked all, cleaned and adjusted to factory specs. No charge. So far so good. I took about 100 test shots with no problem. Going to Road Atlanta this weekend for 3 days and several thousand shots of motorcycles. We'll see how that works!
JeffersonPoster
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