memorly dot com

As many of you know, my parents opened a small pet store when I was 3. Many of my fondest memories take place there: doing my homework on the counter, being proud to finally be judged knowledgeable enough to handle customers, stopping by the store with my homecoming dates to see Dad on my way to the big dance. Dad had the business philosophy that if you take good care of people, they will reward you with their business whenever they can. While this approach never made us rich and we spent years fighting the chain pet supply stores that popped up in the area, we had a strong customer base that kept us loving what we did for 15 wonderful years.

Though our own little store is a thing of the past, for sentimental reasons, if nothing else, I try to support independent businesses. It is for this reason that months after I broke the LCD on my Canon SD400, I was very pleased with myself to have found Camera Works, a small repair shop within a reasonable driving distance. Because my camera still took great pictures, I hadn’t been able to justify the expense of sending it back to Canon. But if I could get my LCD back and support a cause I believe in, well, that would be a win-win situation. Right?

no.

I brought my camera to Camera Works and was told I’d be called with an estimate. Two weeks later and still no call, I started to think that perhaps I had written my phone number sloppily. The woman who answered the phone when I called could not locate the repair and I was assured that the camera would be looked at and I would be called shortly. I was not. This happened again, except I talked to a man this time. A few days after that I got a quote, but on my initiative. I have since been lectured that this should have been warning enough, and I shouldn’t have authorized a repair that was clearly not a priority for the shop. Regrettably, I did.

I was warned in advance that it would take time to order a replacement for my broken LCD, but only about a week. So I gave it two, and called again. Over the next weeks, I heard a litany of reasons for why my camera hadn’t been fixed. If at any point, I received an apology for this delay, I am confident that I would not be writing this post. An “I’m sorry, ma’am, repairs this long are unconventional but unfortunately you could turn 50 before I get your camera back to you,” would have gone a long way. I’m 23, by the way.

It had been six weeks and several calls later, and I was feeling foolish and hurt. In our own store, a customer would have to commit a pretty serious offense to receive such snubbing, and I was unaware of my crime. I didn’t come knocking on their door in the middle of the night, demanding service; I had carefully chosen this shop and come in friendship. Had my weekly calls been too frequent? Being in a fairly specialized field myself, I can relate to the burden of customer ignorance. This is the first time I have ever had a camera repaired, and perhaps 6 weeks is a reasonable time frame for such a request. Maybe no one could have done it faster, better, or more cheaply. This was not my focus so much as the disrespect I’d felt over the whole ordeal. I was treated so shabbily that I’ll not soon forget it.

But it gets worse.

About a week ago, I decided that calling wasn’t getting me anywhere and left work early to talk to this man face to face. Maybe he just has horrible phone manners and will be more straight with me when I can look him in the eye, I thought. Although he saw me through the window to his repair station, he could not spare the time to come out and speak to me himself. Instead, a young man with no more manners of his own insisted it would be ready the next day. I said great, I’ll stop by tomorrow after work. No, don’t come in. We’ll call you.

Well, they didn’t.

When I finally called them, I was told that my camera would need to be sent to Canon. Because I was so emotionally exhausted from feeling like an imposition and a nag, I asked that this not be done. After all, I didn’t want to send the camera back originally. It worked perfectly fine and I could live without the LCD, as I had been until I thought I could get the camera repaired locally.

And so, for a fourth and final time, I left work early and made the trek to Camera Works for my camera. I was not charged for the repair, which I thought was a nice gesture since presumably time had been spent on it. I tried to test out the camera in the car, but something was wrong. It didn’t turn on. I went back inside and asked if there was another battery I could use just to make sure everything was alright. I was given another battery with the warning that that one might be dead too. When the camera was still unresponsive, I was told to go home, charge my battery, and let them know if I had any problems.

When I put my fully-charged battery into the camera the next morning, I got the same result. It was also then that I noticed that the camera case was mangled in the places where the pieces had been pried off. I can’t possibly articulate my frustration at the moment that despite my ideals and notions about the love and professionalism that embodies independent business, I accepted that Camera Works truly did not care about my situation or my camera.

This camera, a graduation present to myself, has meant a lot to me, and I couldn’t afford to replace it. I needed to work with what I had, but now what I had was a lifeless paperweight, and I worried that repair charges for the additional damage done to my camera would be more than I could afford. I talked to several of my coworkers (one who had been to Camera Works and had the same experience, except he had authorized the shipment to Canon) to try to figure out what a fair settlement would be. Some suggestions sounded fair and some less reasonable, but one friend, I think, hit the nail on the head. “They’ve repeatedly made it clear that your business isn’t very important to them. If they were concerned with doing right by you, they wouldn’t have sent you home without restoring your camera to the condition in which you brought it in. You certainly deserve settlement, but don’t expect it without a fight”

I didn’t want a fight. I called Camera Works and explained the situation to the woman who returned the camera initially. She wouldn’t hear it, and told me I’d have to speak to the owner, who was out to lunch. She offered to have him call me back, and maybe I should have taken her up on it, but I wasn’t called any of the other 8 or more times I was told I’d be called, so I said I’d call back myself.

I never did. I waited 45 minutes of the hour I promised before my second call, and I broke down. I had only brought my business to Camera Works because I thought—expected—that I would be treated the way people were treated in our own store. Matt was right, these people really didn’t care about my happiness and I shouldn’t keep forcing the issue. Still, I felt so stupid. Almost in tears from the frustration and disillusionment, I called Canon.

The man I spoke to at Canon was helpful and kind, and outstandingly so for someone with the surely frustrating job of hearing complaints all day long. He listened to my story and made me laugh for the first time that day. It turns out that Canon can upgrade my camera to a newer model for 17 dollars more than it was going to cost Camera Works to fix my old one. Four minutes later, I was assured that the new model was on its way to my mailbox. The service was so extraordinary that I had to ask the support man for his identifying information so I could email his superiors about what an asset he is to the company. I would have posted this yesterday if I weren’t working on that email—I really hope someone takes note of it. The billing representative I spoke to was similarly well-spoken and friendly, and I’ve been left with a very positive impression of Canon in general. They’ll be getting my business in the future for sure.

Well, that’s that. I wanted to record my story so that maybe I can spare someone else the trouble…I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t make arrangements with Canon. I hope that this post will help other people in the Triangle make a more informed decision about their own camera needs. I’m not sure if there’s another Camera Works out there, but for clarity, this is the business of which I speak:

Camera Works
2611 Carver St., Durham, NC 27705
Tel: (919) 477-1189
Fax: (919) 471-8510
E-mail: cameraworks5@hotmail.com


Well, this has been cathartic. I hope you all have a good week…pictures with my new camera forthcoming!