Shipping Charges to Canon Repair Center: Question to those that have sent items under warranty to Canon Repair Center for repair: Is it customary for the customer to pay for shipping...

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

Question to those that have sent items under warranty to Canon Repair Center for repair:

Is it customary for the customer to pay for shipping to the center? Are the shipping costs refunded to the customer after the fact or is it just the consumer cost of a failed product?

I am sending a lens in for repair (still under original warranty) from the NW coast to the East cost and no prepaid label was included in the downloaded paperwork. I anticipate the cost of shipping one way with insurance will exceed 35.00 since it's a heavy lens and traveling a long distance.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

I haven’t had to send anything in for factory repair in many years, but from what a I can recall I don’t think send-in cost was covered by warrenty. Maybe others have different experiences.

dasgeiss

suntouched wrote:

Question to those that have sent items under warra... (show quote)

Can you go on line and read their Warranty specs? Or do they have an 800 number you can call to get their specs? Probably best source of reliable info.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

suntouched wrote:

Question to those that have sent items under warra... (show quote)

I have had to send two cameras for warranty repair. My local dealer shipped the first one for me as a courtesy. They shipped UPS ground with no declared value (insurance). I'm sure their cost was very little. I shipped the other one myself. UPS Air with declared value coverage at replacement value. I think that the cost was $80 or $90. Both times the return shipping was paid by the repair center (NikonUSA, in my case). I believe it is customary in most cases for the customer to pay for shipping to the repair center. For a non-warranty repair, I would expect to pay shipping in both directions.

By the way...I worked as an engineer in the express industry for a number of years. My suggestion is to never ship any high value item via ground. Too much handling, extra sorts and transfers, and too much opportunity for loss or theft. With the much higher volumes, the risk is much higher today than when I was working.

Best wishes on your repair.

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

You can always ask. Worst is they say no to prepaid shipping to them.

With Canon Professional Services, you may have to pay shipping to get items to the repair center because there are tiers of free and paid membership and shipping items back and forth vary. With free membership and lower tier, you pay for shipping to repair center, on higher tiers they provide shipping labels and shipping is free. I imagine that warranty service without CPS membership means shipping cost to them is on you.
For CPS membership, you do have to have qualifying Canon equipment to be membership eligible.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

Thanks everyone. I downloaded all the paperwork and the best I saw from Canon was a 20% discount through their corporate status at UPS which in my experience is an expensive way to ship. I was hoping I had missed something. I think it's crappy to expect the customer to pay for shipping for a lens that is faulty and under warranty.

dasgeiss

suntouched wrote:

Thanks everyone. I downloaded all the paperwork and the best I saw from Canon was a 20% discount through their corporate status at UPS which in my experience is an expensive way to ship. I was hoping I had missed something. I think it's crappy to expect the customer to pay for shipping for a lens that is faulty and under warranty.

Yeah, me too. That's why I changed to Nikon!

IDguy Loc: Idaho

suntouched wrote:

Thanks everyone. I downloaded all the paperwork and the best I saw from Canon was a 20% discount through their corporate status at UPS which in my experience is an expensive way to ship. I was hoping I had missed something. I think it's crappy to expect the customer to pay for shipping for a lens that is faulty and under warranty.

Problem is they do not know if it is a warranty covered issue till they get it. Many times it is user error: the equipment tests fine. Other times it is user abuse. The warranty does not cover that.

The only time Nikon paid for shipping to them for me was on the recall of the 200-500. Nikon and Sigma have covered return postage.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

suntouched wrote:

Thanks everyone. I downloaded all the paperwork and the best I saw from Canon was a 20% discount through their corporate status at UPS which in my experience is an expensive way to ship. I was hoping I had missed something. I think it's crappy to expect the customer to pay for shipping for a lens that is faulty and under warranty.

How many consumer products are you aware of that pay shipping costs to a repair facility, even under warranty? I'm aware of very few companie of any type that do that. Canon generally will pay for the return shipping charges.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

mwsilvers wrote:

How many consumer products are you aware of that pay shipping costs to a repair facility, even under warranty? I'm aware of very few companie of any type that do that. Canon generally will pay for the return shipping charges.

I can't remember if I ever had to send a product for warranty repair, but I certainly don't think the buyer should have to pay shipping. Shipping photography equipment can be a large expense for something that is no fault of the buyer. If it's a question of whether it should be a warranty repair, then they should refund the shipping cost if it is. The problem is that a consumer has to pay higher shipping charges than a large corporate customer.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

mwsilvers wrote:

How many consumer products are you aware of that pay shipping costs to a repair facility, even under warranty? I'm aware of very few companie of any type that do that. Canon generally will pay for the return shipping charges.

Hey how are you?? Haven't seen your posts in awhile.

Well I have been lucky I guess and haven't had to ship anything back for warranty repair so I don't know who charges for what. Canon's business model provides for only a couple of repair centers requiring most customers to mail their equipment in- that isn't my choice. And it is warranty work. And it was a very expensive lens that should not have failed in 3 months time.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

JohnSwanda wrote:

I can't remember if I ever had to send a product for warranty repair, but I certainly don't think the buyer should have to pay shipping. Shipping photography equipment can be a large expense for something that is no fault of the buyer. If it's a question of whether it should be a warranty repair, then they should refund the shipping cost if it is. The problem is that a consumer has to pay higher shipping charges than a large corporate customer.

Agree with all points.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

IDguy wrote:

Problem is they do not know if it is a warranty covered issue till they get it. Many times it is user error: the equipment tests fine. Other times it is user abuse. The warranty does not cover that.

The only time Nikon paid for shipping to them for me was on the recall of the 200-500. Nikon and Sigma have covered return postage.

Won't be user error or abuse. But they don't know that til they look at the lens.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

jdubu wrote:

You can always ask. Worst is they say no to prepai... (show quote)

I may contact customer service- wouldn't hurt. I am not familiar with Canon- didn't know they had levels of service and paid membership.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

larryepage wrote:

I have had to send two cameras for warranty repair... (show quote)

Thanks for the information!