As luck would have it, somewhere between my trip to Durango and a Senior Photo shoot for a kid I coached in Lakewood Junior Baseball, my Olympus E-510 had the LCD die. It *seemed* to still be taking good pics, but I felt so crippled by not having the LCD for all of the settings. I was able to get through my Senior Photo shoot just fine, and the following Monday packaged up the camera and sent it off for service.
At this point I was so thankful I had obtained the extended warranty because I thought my camera might be over a year old. Turns out it wasn’t, luckily I kept all the paperwork in an easy to find place (unusual for me). I was especially disappointed though that I wouldn’t have my camera for a business trip to Lake Tahoe the following week. Sure, I had my wife’s Canon P&S, but it wasn’t the same as taking my E-510. Took a couple of days to get to the repair facility. Once there, they said the problem was easily repairable (secretly I was hoping for an upgrade to an E-3 or something?) and it would be sent back out in a couple of days.
Wouldn’t you know it, my camera arrived home on Tuesday. My wife offered to overnight it to me, but since I was leaving Tahoe Thursday morning, it just didn’t make sense. When I got back, I was happy to see they had been able to replace part of back of the camera (the part with the LCD) and it felt and works fine. And they did a thorough cleaning to boot.
My point in all this? I have sent things in for repair to a variety of companies over the years. I was very impressed by how Olympus took care of my problem, which is saying a lot in this day and age. I’d say that right now, this is one of the key factors that is keeping me in Olympus gear and not jumping to Canon (I want the superior FPS and lower priced glass that Canon offers). I’d love to hear your customer service stories, good or bad, from your camera brand of choice.
Canon service is GREAT! Sent body in on a Monday, with about 2-3 days left on the original warranty. They fixed up a pesky noise issue, cleaned the body and had it back to me end of the week.
If I would have had the body when I was in California, I am told the Irvine Service Center will do a free cleaning in about an hour or so if you drop it off.
After my dealings with Nikon and their “service” I am glad to be back in Canon Land and won’t be going to any other brand anytime soon.