I have used Canon equipment for the passed 10 years and never had to call Canon for a repair. Maybe I'm just lucky. So I never really had any experience with their support center.

Today I had a reason to call them. I called the number listed on their website and to my surprise a real person answered the phone, no recording or dial a number to get redirected. I told the person my problem and she said she would transfer me to the proper department. When she said that I figured I'd be on the hold for an hour. So I put my phone on speaker to do other things.

No sooner I did that and a gentleman got on the phone. We discussed my problem and he know exactly what to do for me to get a resolution. It was refreshing to have the kind of support we had years ago before everything was outsourced to 3rd world countries.

High fives to Canon USA!

Here's the background on my issue if you're interested in reading it:
I had an opportunity to purchase a 5DMiii on Ebay at a lower price than authorized dealers sell it for. Well, as you know, I'm weary of doing that because of the grey market and warranty concerns.

I read recently that Canon could verify the serial number of the body to see if it's a ligit camera. The seller gave me the number and when I asked Canon if they could verify it they said they did not have that information. They advised that it was not necessarily bad to buy Canon from a non-authorized dealer, or reseller because chances are there would not be a problem. Well, as we all know you can always get a lemon and may have to get it fixed or replaced. Without a valid warranty, Canon would not be able to help me.

You need a valid warranty AND a valid receipt showing the authorized dealers name for the body in order to be covered by Canon. So he said it's a gamble to go that way. You, as the buyer, haver to decide if it's worth the risk to sarve a f ew hundred $ to buy from a reseller. I mean for all I know it could be stolen equipment. So I think I'll save a few more $ and buy from an authorized dealer.