Mount Fuji - Part 3

Dear Mr. Carola:

I am hoping that the situation with my camera can finally be resolved. As explained to Giraldo and Christine before him, I sent the camera to your location under warranty for repair because the screen had turned pink and the picture image was fuzzy. This occurred approximately two weeks after it was repaired - again under warranty - at Advanced Camera Care in Garden Grove. It was used only once after it was returned to me and then, for two weeks, sat untouched on my desk.

I was very surprised to receive a repair estimate that noted "impact damage" and a bill for the repair. As I know in my heart-of-hearts that there was no impact on this end; no dents or separation of top, and since Christine said that if the damage had happened during shipment, there would have been a notation upon receipt, I must assume that if the camera is indeed dented, then it must have been dropped and dented by one of your employees while being unpacked or inspected.

Christine asked me to have Advanced Camera Repair fax a copy of their report in which they note no "impact damage" (or, they they tell me no damage of any kind) to your location; they did so and I confirmed with Giraldo that it was received.

I chose a Fuji camera over other options in part because of your reputation for excellent customer service. I am confident that, upon reviewing the facts, that you will repair my camera under the warranty umbrella under which it was still covered and return it to me soon. The truth is the truth, and the truth here is that there was no damage to that camera of any kind when I sent it to your location. I hope that you will choose to honor the truth.

My contact phone # is 818-881-xxxx.

Sincerely,

Laura

This is the e-mail I sent to Fuji Film after Giraldo - the customer service person I spoke to last week - couldn't help me. He had put me on hold so that he could transfer me to his manager, then said that the manager was on the phone and would only be a few minutes, then finally came back to say that it was going to be a long wait, so why don't I send the manager an e-mail explaining the problem. He promised that the manager would be back to me the same day.

I am sometimes a somewhat patient person. I did not really anticipate that dscarola at Fuji would be back that day. After all, it would take him a while to research my situation so that he could come to the honest truth. I did not dent that camera. So I gave him a whole week to respond, and when he didn't, I called back this morning.

I initially got a girl on the phone who refused to give me her name. Refused to put me through, saying that the manager was not in yet. Would not give me the name of his supervisor, or transfer me to somebody else who would handle the case. And then, on purpose as she announced as such, hung the phone up on me.

I've worked in corporate offices, so I was not daunted. I called Fuji Corporate and spoke to I-don't-know-who, but he was very polite and understanding. I remained calm although frustrated, and verified with him that that's the way that I was coming across. I wasn't angry, or rude enough to warrant being hung up on, and he agreed. I wish I did get his name because he was very helpful. And, after conferring with somebody on his end, put me through to the manager of the Digital Camera Repair unit at Edison - Mr. Scarola, who happened to be at his desk and picked up the phone immediately.

At first I had to explain my position, and the fact that I am very frustrated but am doing my best to be polite and calm, and he agreed that I was perfectly within line. Anger management therapy... you're working. I've spent a long time on this issue and there is a decided difference in my approach.

After explaining to him why I was so frustrated, it came down to the same thing. I say that I did not dent that camera, and they claim that it arrived dented with the top separated. And swore to me that there was not a penalty for their employees dropping cameras... it happens all the time and they even installed rubber floors so that the damage would be minimized. But I would not relent... I did not drop and dent the camera. And I didn't.

He did ultimately try to be accomodating. He said that the original estimate was to replace the part that got damaged in the "impact," but that the damage was not that severe and the camera could be repaired without new parts. They could fix it for $35. But the issue still remained... I did not dent that camera and I don't want a dented camera in return. He mentioned that the camera was quite worn... it had seen a lot of use. "That's true," I replied. "I've enjoyed that camera immensely and used it quite a bit." And I hope that my honesty and candor in that respect made an impression on him.

We finally came upon a compromise that although I am not happy about, I can live with. Fuji, for the $35 'repair fee,' will - rather than repairing my old camera, will send me a "new" one. In fact, the camera that they are sending me will be refurbished from another customer, but since many of the Sony products that I bought while working for them were also refurbished and I never had a problem with any of them, I can live with it. And, in addition to getting a newer camera that will not be dented, I will get a six month warranty. The warranty on my original camera expired this week.

Mr. Scarola thought that the 'new' camera might be shipped out as soon as today, so I might take receipt next week. Even as soon as early next week if I am lucky. Although I am not thrilled at paying anything at all for a situation that I fully state - once again - is not my fault, it is a cheaper solution than going to Costco and buying a new one.

And I will finally be able to take pictures and bring my blog back up to it's full potential.

Mount Fuji - Part 2

The saga of the brojen Fuji Finepix continues.

I made the call to Fuji Repair today and got a woman named "Christine" from the repair department. I was very calm and collected, and told her that there must be some kind of mistake. The camera was not dented when I sent it to them. She asked me to hold while she pulled the camera.

When she returned to the phone, she calmly told me that there was a very extensive dent on the bottom "by the port." Since I know in my heart of hearts that the camera was not dropped or dented in any way when I sent it to them, I asked her if she had any idea how it happened. "It couldn't have happened in shipping" she said. "If it had, then there would have been a report."

I calmly explained to her that if it hadn't happened in shipping, then somebody on her side must have dropped the camera. She wouldn't budge on her postion, but when I explained to her that the camera had only been back with me for a couple of weeks after the last repair, she said that if I had the previous repair center fax a copy of the repair report along to her, she would take it - with their notes of any damage on it - to her supervisor. Since there was no damage, I had no problem with that.

I called the last repair center:

Advance Camera Repair
7441 Garden Grove Blvd.
Suite J
Garden Grove CA 92841
Phone: 714-799-6175
Fax: 714-799-6145

and spoke to Harold. He was lovely and helpful, pulling the paperwork and noting that there were no notes of significant damage to the camera on it. He is having "Lisa," his secretary, fax a copy of the report on to Christine later this afternoon.

Meanwhile, I looked up Fuji Repair on the internet. There are a whole host of complaint reviews about them telling the exact same story. New cameras, older cameras, cameras that never worked right from being taken out of the box new. All of the cameras were sent to them under warranty for repair; all of the owners who swore that there was no impact, received a bill exactly like mine, requesting $80 to repair the camera due to "impact damage."

So the saga continues. Will they fix my camera? Will I ever be able to post real pictures to my blog again? Will Fuji do the right thing?

Or will I be forced to buy a new camera because Fuji does not honor their warranty agreement?

Only time will tell.

Mount Fuji - Part 1

Well, instead of receiving my camera back in the mail, I received the following:

A notice from Fuji telling me that my warranty is invalid because there is "impact damage" to the camera. They say that there is a dent in the bottom of the camera and that the top is separated. This on top of the pink screen that I reported. They will still kindly fix it, but will charge me $80 including taxes and shipping to do so.

The only thing is that I did not drop the camera.

I had sent it earlier this year to Fuji's California Service Center for repair. They actually fixed it very quickly, but wanted to charge me an exhorbatant amount to ship it back to me. Since the warranty did not say I had to pay, I protested, had a very emotional lecture from the man on the other end of the phone (he did claim that he had had a bad day before our conversation), and we ended up agreeing that I would only pay them $10 to cover actual shipping charges and packaging. I agreed.

The camera was back in my hands for exactly two weeks before the next issue; had only been used once, and had languished on my desk for the remainder of the time. I was shocked that it, once again, didn't work when it was pressed into service. And so, since it was under warranty, I mailed it off, this time to the main Fuji facility in New Jersey. And thereafter waited and waited and waited. Until now.

Now I will tell you that I am hard on stuff. I do break stuff. And I am perfectly honest and forthright about the stuff that I destroy. I will not allow Eric to buy me nice things because there's no point to it. But I did not drop or break that camera. I would never have asked them to fix it if I had. (I have a long history of not returning items for that very reason.) The camera malfunctioned on it's own.

I unsuccessfully tried to reach Fuji's Customer Service Department today about it; with the time change, they had closed for the day and the weekend. I will try again on Monday, and hopefully resolve the issue in a positive manner.

Meanwhile, I have a feeling - because the warranty was so close to being expired - that Fuji is not going to repair it. We'll see, and I'll report back here. I truly hope that they do the right thing. Especially because I think we're all tired of pictures for this blog that are 'borrowed' from the internet.