Schierer Space

As some of you may know, I had a camera accident a few weeks back. I picked up my camera from the coffee table and the strap -the sole mission of which is to prevent damage from falls- snagged underneath the table. This pulled the camera from my hand as it was forced to follow the loci of points equidistant to the coffee table landing squarely on the lens. The glass was intact but the focusing mechanism was no more. When the motor attempted to turn the news made a slight clicking noise and gave up. A lens without focus is reduced to pretty much the cylindrical paperweight department. This was, unfortunately, one of my favorite lenses:^[1] my 50mm f/1.4 prime. I use it for portraits, indoor natural light shots and with some diopter lenses for macro work. It’s a great bang-for-the-buck lens… and of course… out of warranty. The silver lining, I suppose, is that the body was fine.
Canon U.S.A. has a pretty efficient repair and service system. Enter your product, serial number and purchase date and it basically tells you this:

1. Request Estimate
Based on the information you provided please find below a standardized repair cost to repair your product. This standardized cost enables Canon the flexibility to provide repair estimates to our customers at no charge. Please note that this estimate charge does not include applicable tax.

Repair Information
Model:	EF 50 1.4 USM
Service Type:	Out of Warranty
Estimated Repair Cost:	$95.00 (plus any applicable tax)

…
In the unlikely event that any additional repairs are found to be necessary after receipt of your product, a revised estimate will be sent to you for your review and authorization. Please note that you will be able to approve or refuse any re-estimate online.

So basically my $399 lens^[2] has a standard repair cost of $95. Presumably Canon has figured out that this is a price point that is generally profitable for the normal repairs on this product. Not a bad way to do business actually. Of course, then there’s the catch at the end… which is a bit worrisome considering I’m already in for $95 before they even tell me what I’m really in for. Let’s face it, I’m going to get back essentially a refurbished lens which has a street value of maybe $200. So if the ‘additional costs’ are more than $100 or so, I’d probably be better off buying a new one. So you fork over your credit card number and they send you a repair number to ship against. Oh, and I have to pay to ship it to them with tracking and insurance: about $10 at the post office.

On Thursday I got word that my shipment had been received, and strangely, now the repair cost reads $102.60. I honestly can’t remember if I paid tax or not but I don’t think so. I checked on the status today and it shows as “Completed” but not yet shipped. Strangely it now says “Amount Due: $102.60″. but yet… no bill. So either I’m about to receive one (I would have expected something by email) or this is just poor wording on the website. Since I’m already logged into their site, I’d expect a “Pay Now” button if they thought I owed them, but there isn’t one. I guess I’ll wait and see. In the end if the ~$105 is the sum total I’m out, then it certainly will be better than A) buying a new one or B) going without. $207.60… well still cheaper than a new one I suppose and since the $105 is sunk cost the decision will be $102.60 vs. $399 for a new one. Really no debate there.

1. I don’t have all that many, so really they’re all favorites. [↩]
2. Current retail, but I think I paid less. [↩]

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 11:20 am and is filed under Computer / Tech, Life, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.