Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Beware: Kodak warranty service
As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, I am pretty loyal to the brands and products that I like. I'll blab on about them all day if you let me. However, if you give me bad service, I get very upset. The latest company to give me bad service is Kodak.
I recently sent my wife's digital camera, which is less than a year old, back for a warranty repair. During one of Mahlon's football games, The "Telephoto / Wide" button, which zooms in and out, fell off and I couldn't find it. As you can imagine, it is difficult to take good pictures without the ability to zoom in or out.
In order to get the camera back in time for our Thanksgiving trip to Memphis, we mailed the camera out last week. This meant that I couldn't take pictures of my trip to Chicago (which was a real bummer); however, we definitely wanted to have it for Thanksgiving. Plus, Kodak promises that warranty repairs will be back in the hands of the customer in 7 days, so we were all set.
Well, this morning, I got an e-mail from Kodak saying that they had voided my warranty and wanted either $120 to repair our camera or $35 to send it back! Huh? So I called the toll-free number provided in the e-mail and got, you guessed it, a recording. In order to talk to anyone about my claim, I would need to leave a message and wait for a return call. I imagine that they have gotten a lot of angry callers from people who received their "shakedown" e-mails. Otherwise, I can't figure out why they would put such a frustrating call system in place.
Anyway, I finally get a call back from Sue. She explains that Kodak does a thorough inspection on all of the cameras and that it appears that our camera sustained some water damage (which is absolutely not true) which is going to lead to corrosion which is going to lead to slow painful death for our camera. And, of course, water damage voids the warranty, so they aren't going to fix the button since the camera isn't under warranty. Brilliant, huh?
After several calls back and forth (I must point out that Sue was very helpful throughout the process), Kodak agreed to fix the button and send the camera back free of charge (which is all we asked for in the first place). Now, however, we won't have our camera for our Thanksgiving trip, so I'm still not pleased.
I guess the silver lining in all of this is that, when our camera does die, I'll have one less brand to have to choose from.
As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, I am pretty loyal to the brands and products that I like. I'll blab on about them all day if you let me. However, if you give me bad service, I get very upset. The latest company to give me bad service is Kodak.
I recently sent my wife's digital camera, which is less than a year old, back for a warranty repair. During one of Mahlon's football games, The "Telephoto / Wide" button, which zooms in and out, fell off and I couldn't find it. As you can imagine, it is difficult to take good pictures without the ability to zoom in or out.
In order to get the camera back in time for our Thanksgiving trip to Memphis, we mailed the camera out last week. This meant that I couldn't take pictures of my trip to Chicago (which was a real bummer); however, we definitely wanted to have it for Thanksgiving. Plus, Kodak promises that warranty repairs will be back in the hands of the customer in 7 days, so we were all set.
Well, this morning, I got an e-mail from Kodak saying that they had voided my warranty and wanted either $120 to repair our camera or $35 to send it back! Huh? So I called the toll-free number provided in the e-mail and got, you guessed it, a recording. In order to talk to anyone about my claim, I would need to leave a message and wait for a return call. I imagine that they have gotten a lot of angry callers from people who received their "shakedown" e-mails. Otherwise, I can't figure out why they would put such a frustrating call system in place.
Anyway, I finally get a call back from Sue. She explains that Kodak does a thorough inspection on all of the cameras and that it appears that our camera sustained some water damage (which is absolutely not true) which is going to lead to corrosion which is going to lead to slow painful death for our camera. And, of course, water damage voids the warranty, so they aren't going to fix the button since the camera isn't under warranty. Brilliant, huh?
After several calls back and forth (I must point out that Sue was very helpful throughout the process), Kodak agreed to fix the button and send the camera back free of charge (which is all we asked for in the first place). Now, however, we won't have our camera for our Thanksgiving trip, so I'm still not pleased.
I guess the silver lining in all of this is that, when our camera does die, I'll have one less brand to have to choose from.
¶ 8:29 AM 
Comments:
My KODAK C743 rec'd at Chistmas 2006 turns on and only has blotchy white spots everywhere. My daughter was off to nationals competition, I took a photo of them hanging out at the airport. I went thru the screening process with camera in my bag, arrived in Orlando and the camera turned on showing white blotches. My local walmart said I could return but they can only give me the bundle pkg deal and they no longer have that. So i thought being an honest person and all that honesty would prevail. Sent camara in, rec'd email stating the cost to repair is $90 and the warranty will not cover. I was never told that if they couldn't repair or I didn't want to pay the price that I would still be charged $40+ dollars to get the camera back. What a scam. This is my THIRD KODAK CAMERA. I will never ever buy Kodak again and if I can stop one person then I've made progress. DO NOT BUY KODAK or if you do, be prepared for warranty issues that are NEVERED covered. They told me the lens was busted. I have no clue how that could have possibly happened. Honestly I don't know.
posted by 
Bonnie : 5:20 PM
Bonnie : 5:20 PM I work for one of the companies that repairs Kodak cameras under warranty and I am sick of people thinking that we are scamming them. It doesn't do us any good, you think that we would still have the contract if we lied all the time? Come on! We find damage and you all freak out cause you think it should be covered. Well good luck with Fuji, Nikon, and the rest of them. THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME WARRANTY LIMITATIONS!!!!!! If they covered everything then you would have to pay more for the cameras since the repair costs on a camera can outweight the cost of the camera. Take some responsiblity and read the manual, it has all the info there.
posted by 
: 12:11 AM
: 12:11 AM OK, maybe you can form a customer service support group with the folks from Sirius. They love to bash me for posting my experience with them.
http://www.smorty71.com/2006/06/sirius-warranty-service-sucks.html
The point of my post, which you failed to address, is that I sent the camera in to repair a button and you/Kodak don't want to fix it because you/they claim there is water damage (which there wasn't) somewhere else in the camera.
If you have a phone system that discourages support calls and then deny valid claims with technicalities, then it is pretty clear what you think of your customers.
If you want to work for that kind of company, knock yourself out; but, don't expect sympathy from or try to assign the blame to the Kodak customers who have had bad experiences.
http://www.smorty71.com/2006/06/sirius-warranty-service-sucks.html
The point of my post, which you failed to address, is that I sent the camera in to repair a button and you/Kodak don't want to fix it because you/they claim there is water damage (which there wasn't) somewhere else in the camera.
If you have a phone system that discourages support calls and then deny valid claims with technicalities, then it is pretty clear what you think of your customers.
If you want to work for that kind of company, knock yourself out; but, don't expect sympathy from or try to assign the blame to the Kodak customers who have had bad experiences.
posted by sMoRTy71 : 7:09 AM
sMoRTy71 : 7:09 AM Well I've got a Kodak C530 that's less than a year old and the battery cover hatch has a stress crack in it. I took it to RITZ in St. Pete FL, as they sell Kodak and they do repairs, but the rude clerk there said they don't do warranty, and I haven't had luck finding a list of service centers on Kodak's website either. I hope I don't get the "scam" treatment in getting this thing fixed, either. The same rude clerk at RITZ said "Oh - your 1-year old camera has a scatch on the finish - that show's its been abused and Kodak is going to void your warranty, anyway!" I guess I'll wait to see if his profecy is true. I'll post again with my results after I find out where I'm supposed to send/take this camera.
- D. Raven
- D. Raven
posted by Dale : 8:51 AM
Dale : 8:51 AMblog comments powered by Disqus
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It has been difficult to find authourized service depots using the Kodak websites and I certainly hope I don't have the same problems you had.