Canon camera and service.

"Jasen" wrote in message
...

"Joseph Chamberlain, DDS" wrote in message
.. .

You're paranoid.

I believe you are the one who is paranoid as you attack someone who
hasn't
done anything to insult you and whom you don't even know.

I wonder if your customers (patients) can expect the same standard of
"service" as you appear to expect from Canon?

No. They get much better treatment, way above what is considered today's
medical "standard of care". What I do does not allow "room for mistakes"
and
I would be embarrassed if a patient came to my office and received the
service and treatment I received from Canon over the phone. More than 98
%
of my business is based on referrals from existing patients who refer
their
friends and relatives to me. This is a sign that they must be happy with
my
standards.


There is a HUGE difference between what is expected from healthcare
professionals. I'm one. To equate a poor service from a healthcare
professional to that from tech service personnel or indeed from their
quality assessment of a product where the degree of error is totally
negligible to the final result of the product is completely irrational and
over the top, not to mention lacking an essence of reality.

Yeah, back in the day I worked a few customer service jobs. First in the
office supply business, and then for an HMO. I couldn't believe how people
would scream at us at the office supply places over things as insignificant
as a 99 cent pack of pens. At the HMO, where the issues were a bit more
serious, our members were much more reasonable.

The dr sounds like those idiots that used to yell at us because the ink in
their blue Bic Roundsticks wasn't blue enough.

Greg

G.T. wrote:

Yeah, back in the day I worked a few customer service jobs. First in the
office supply business, and then for an HMO. I couldn't believe how people
would scream at us at the office supply places over things as insignificant
as a 99 cent pack of pens. At the HMO, where the issues were a bit more
serious, our members were much more reasonable.

The people I know who do support work report similarly. Sadly, it is
to be expected, since the "smart people" generally don't really need
tech-support, as they know how to solve problems, and if it comes to
it, they aren't afraid of reading.

The dr sounds like those idiots that used to yell at us because the ink in
their blue Bic Roundsticks wasn't blue enough.

The initial posting of this thread is a shaggy dog story.

"G.T." wrote in message
...
Yeah, back in the day I worked a few customer service jobs. First in the
office supply business, and then for an HMO. I couldn't believe how
people
would scream at us at the office supply places over things as
insignificant
as a 99 cent pack of pens. At the HMO, where the issues were a bit more
serious, our members were much more reasonable.

The dr sounds like those idiots that used to yell at us because the ink in
their blue Bic Roundsticks wasn't blue enough.

BUT IT'S NOT BLUE!!!! IT'S BARELY INDIGO!!!

lol. I do think this guy has not had much experience with customer
service and 'real world' industries.

Dave

Joespeh, I think it is unreasonable to call customer service for a company
the size of Canon and have someone be able to reivew shipping and
distrubution informaiton. Manufacturing and distrubution systems are usually
not connected to technical support call centers.

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 01:37:00 GMT, "Joseph Chamberlain, DDS"
wrote:

Dear colleagues:

Last week I purchased a Canon EOS 1Ds Mk II. I usually purchase my photo
equipment from BH Photo in NY and have come to rely on the equipment I
always receive from them since they maintain a huge inventory.


Another thing that concerned me was the statement made by the customer
service agent about being considered acceptable to have a certain number of
dead pixels on the sensor. I asked him what would be the best way for me to
verify if there were any dead pixels so I could exchange the camera for
another one if any were present. His claim was that Canon considers it to be
within the range of acceptability (meaning the camera will pass its quality
control inspection and reach the customer) if up to approximately 11 pixels
on the sensor are dead. This is not what I would like to hear from the
manufacturer after purchasing a camera as expensive as this one.


Dr. Joseph Chamberlain
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

I can't believe a camera as expensive as that Canon does NOT have
pixel mapping! Pathetic. There is some kind of program floating
around out there that will count hot and dead pixels for you.
Deadpixeltest from Star Zen Technologies.
Be prepared to have a good cry when you see the results.

http://www.starzen.com/imaging/deadpixeltest.htm

"Joseph Chamberlain, DDS" wrote in message
.. .


No. They get much better treatment, way above what is considered today's
medical "standard of care". What I do does not allow "room for mistakes"
and
I would be embarrassed if a patient came to my office and received the
service and treatment I received from Canon over the phone. More than 98 %
of my business is based on referrals from existing patients who refer
their
friends and relatives to me. This is a sign that they must be happy with
my
standards.

I knew someone who ran a mono amp for years until one day someone asked "why
not stereo?"
He said "what, there's something better???"

"David Geesaman" wrote in message
...

Back when point-of-sale was local, this policy offered large return on
investment. Customers relied on word-of-mouth, and usually shopped at
local venues. Returning customers were a major deal.
This is no longer the case in many industries. We buy from Internet
vendors, have international buy/sell/trade forums, and have UPS and FedEx
which make it reasonable for the end-user to deal directly with the
manufacturer for warranty work. If we as consumers weren't so damned
interested in the bottom dollar, maybe things wouldn't have swung this
far. But they have, deal with it.

Virtually the ONLY reason customers appear to be "so damned interested in
the bottom dollar" is because it's the only piece of information most
sellers give you to make a decision on. Most sellers haven't got a clue.
They ASSUME that price is the most important thing, and pitch their wares at
you based solely on that. Unfortunately for them, price comes in at #4. Live
by price, die by price.

Then one day someone realized that it cost more to retain a customer in
this manner than it returned to them. Like the standup comedian who made
fun of receiving a receipt when he bought a donut. "I do not see a need
to bring paper into this transaction! When will I need to prove that I
purchased a donut?!". Now that the labor rate in the US has grown to
relatively astronomical values, that hand-holding of customer quickly
eclipses the profit generated by even a lifetime of purchases from that
customer.

The market dynamics ARE changing - however - contrary to what you might try
to have me believe, it STILL costs more to find and sell to a new customer
than it does to sell again to an existing one.

Since the number of customers who are disappointed by their inability
to make the supplier go to great extremes to please them is so small, and
cost is SOO competitive, the companies who have retained that
old-fashioned stuff are gone. We, as consumers, combined with the market,
have created this situation.

Going back to the OP - I'm sure the margins on a new 1Ds Mk II are still
sufficient to enable the 'salesman' (read 'order taker') to take 15 minutes
to help the prospect who's about pay that margin (but probably only if he
gets good service).

Welcome to economics. You get what you pay for. You pay for a
mass-produced, bottom-dollar part, and expect one-off, custom service?

Mass produced doesn't come into it - and if it's bottom doller then it's
only bottom dollar because that's probably the only way a 'salesman' with
virtually non-existant sales / people / customer skills knows how to sell.
It starts a whole cause and effect cycle. But it's started by lack of skills
on behalf of those doing the selling, not those doing the buying.

Heck, maybe you're a professional, and you get better rates and
equipment from Canon than us paying peons do. In which case you'd better
feel pretty appreciative that their marketing model includes you to help
guys like me pay for your gear. Cause frankly I don't give a crap what
gear my local news guy uses - he's not coming along with me to take my
pictures.

For what it's worth I usually ending paying an absolute fortune for my
equipment - most things have at least a $200 (NZD) premium just to get them
Fedexed out here - So I'll bet that I've contributed to your purchases a lot
more than vice-versa. I stick with those who have gone out of their way to
give me good service - in most cases I pay more for it, but it's not a lot
more. If margins are tight, then the guy who learns that he can charge 10%
more, can make 300% more profit - which means he then has enough additional
time to follow through with promises and good service. Welcome to Economics
201.

Pardon me for sounding sheepish, but one minute we all line up like
animals to buy the latest product, and we gripe about how slow they are to
introduce it, how expensive it is, etc. The next minute we want them to
walk us home from the store, unwrap it for us, and give us personal
lessons and encouragement. It's one thing to look for the 'whole package'
from a supplier, but in the end, you have to look at the industry and
realize it is what it is. Take it or leave it, they're not likely to
change their practices unless you herd yourself with some other similar
black sheep and create a niche market.

No - what I hear is suppliers moaning about how they can't afford to give me
good service when margins are so tight when in reality I don't care if it
costs a little more so long as they treat me well. I've lost count of the
number of suppliers I won't go back to because they've treated me badly -
hell, many I can't even get to respond to my enquiries - and you want to
accuse me of being a black sheep and being one who's contributed to
merchants being like this? I don't think so.

Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote:

[bs snipped]

Pretty good troll!

"Cockpit Colin" wrote in message
...
Pardon me for sounding sheepish, but one minute we all line up like
animals to buy the latest product, and we gripe about how slow they are
to introduce it, how expensive it is, etc. The next minute we want them
to walk us home from the store, unwrap it for us, and give us personal
lessons and encouragement. It's one thing to look for the 'whole
package' from a supplier, but in the end, you have to look at the
industry and realize it is what it is. Take it or leave it, they're not
likely to change their practices unless you herd yourself with some other
similar black sheep and create a niche market.

No - what I hear is suppliers moaning about how they can't afford to give
me good service when margins are so tight when in reality I don't care if
it costs a little more so long as they treat me well. I've lost count of
the number of suppliers I won't go back to because they've treated me
badly - hell, many I can't even get to respond to my enquiries - and you
want to accuse me of being a black sheep and being one who's contributed
to merchants being like this? I don't think so.

Colin, you're in a thinning group. Yes, there are fuller-service stores
that add value by supporting before and after the sale. Yes, their prices
are higher. But the fact of the matter is most consumers can't/don't want
to pay the extra. Most consumers do their shopping/evaluation in one place,
and then buy for the lowest price (within reasonable risk). Certainly, the
old model is not gone, but it's waning. Profit margins are going down due
to Internet pricing pressures, and stock (and local sales) is decreasing
because of the rapid turnover of technology. There used to be many camera
shops, and now in my area each small city has just one - and those shops are
getting pinched really hard.
So at some point you might find yourself paying much more for that
full-service seller, or not find that seller at all. Do I like it? No, but
as a consumer I have to be aware of the reality of it in order to make
intelligent purchases. And if consumers remain unaware of the trend, they
might not realize what they're missing.

Dave

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:14:14 GMT, 223rem wrote:

Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote:

[bs snipped]

Pretty good troll!

Very low calibre response.