After four good years of service, our digital camera died, about a week before Christmas. Of course, the fiscally prudent thing would have been to wait for the post-holiday sales to buy the replacement. But if you have kids, you know that the fiscally prudent answer is not the same as the “these kids will only be 5 and 3 for Christmas once” answer. So we bought a new digital camera.
My wife picked it out, and did a great job nailing down a good value in a short period of time. After all, she uses it more than I do, and needs to be comfortable with it. We got a Canon PowerShot A-570. My job is to make sure it syncs to the computers. Which was not as easy as we’d hoped.
I installed the Canon CameraWindow and ZoomBrowsers, but the computer was not “seeing” the camera for automatic synchronization. We got through Christmas alright – I’m perfectly capable of creating folders and dragging and dropping pictures. But the point of having a camera that syncs is so my wife can do it without an annoying lecture from me about how it ought to be done. Simplicity is implicit.
Looking for answers
I searched through the Canon forums, and found the online support tips less than helpful. The questions in the FAQ weren’t even close to describing my problem, and several iterations Search terms weren’t bearing fruit. I broke down and sent in an e-mail inquiry, late on the afternoon of the 30th.
Before lunch on the 31st, New Year’s Eve, I had a response from Devin. (I don’t have a last name, he didn’t give me one.) The note was polite, and full of information in multiple levels. He explained what the likely problem was, as well as a more detailed step-by-step solution. And it worked.
So, kudos to Canon for getting me back on track. It was timely, professional, accurate, and on a holiday. (And if you’re a Canon PR rep monitoring the blogs, shoot me an e-mail. I am not asking for free merchandise or services, nor will I accept them. I offer my endorsement for your customer service. Just shoot me an e-mail and let me know that Devin got a gold star on his report card.)
Thanks…
Ike.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occams’s RazR, Social Media, marketing, blogger relations, blog monitoring, Canon, Canon USA, CameraWindow, ZoomBrowser, cameras, customer service[/tags]
…and I will not be starting a clock on Canon, until there has been a reasonable time for a response.
Hey Ike. I have the A530 and love it. In fact, it’s the third A530 I’ve purchase because, as you know, children have a tendency to take things and in a matter of seconds, destroy them.
Does pretty sharp video, by the way.
Great experiment Ike. Unfortunately, looks like you are generally getting the same results I have on similar posts — silence. Whether kudos or criticisms, doesn’t seem like corporate monitoring is going too deep into the blogosphere. Sure if you are Scoble or Godin you get a response. But not down here in the long tail.
I bought a Canon PowerShot SD750 last year and I have been very pleased with it performance. With my newer Macs, I did not even need to upload the software, I connect the camera and iPhoto knows what to do. Of course, I need to learn how to use it better, but that is not a mechanical issue with the camera 😉
I also need to remember to travel with my battery charger. The battery gave up on me in Vatican Square and I had to have it recharged at a local shop while visiting every angle of Vatican City.
I would buy a Canon again in a heartbeat. I have the A70. It is a few years old. It was out of warranty, but I had a problem with it. They fixed it and returned it to me in less than 10 days.
A friend of mine had a piece pop off when her child dropped it. She sent it to Canon and asked how much to fix it. They sent it back to her fixed, No Charge. Now that is customer service.