Canon Thailand Head Office Scam?

[rylemano]

A strange thing happened to my friend.

She bought a brand new DSLR Canon 1000D at Fotofile MBK in Bangkok last month. 4 days later, during a trip to Cambodia, the camera dies. Symptoms: printer light flashes and the camera won't turn on. She returns the camera to the Fotofile shop as soon as she gets back in Bangkok, 10 days later. The Fotofile shop staff explain that exchanges are only accepted within 7 days of purchase. Since it's already too late for an exchange (and also because she doesn't stand her ground!), she is invited to send her brand new camera for repair at the Canon Customer Center which is located next door.

The Canon Customer Center gladly accepted the camera and sent it off for repair at the Canon Service Center in Bangkok, promising to fix the camera within 2-3 weeks. A few days days later, the Canon Repair Center claims informs us the camera is broken because there was water inside!!!! The warranty does not (of course) cover water and she will have to pay for the repairs. This new camera purchase is turning like a nightmare.

For the 10 days she had the camera, my friend did not take it anywhere near water. Is it possible the Thailand Canon Service Center is making up frivolous stories about this camera, just to make an extra buck? Is it possible she was sold a damaged camera as new by Fotofile? This is all very strange. I know for sure my friend would not be stupid enough take the camera close to water.

Anyway, I'm going to the Canon Service Center and talk to the technician to understand his version of the story.

Has anyone been in a similar strange & crazy situation?

[katana]

I dealt with the Canon Service centre in BKK several years ago and got good service from them on that occasion.

Wonder if they meant condensation in the camera, due to water from hot humid air condensing on the cooled camera that had been in an air conditioned room, or they thought it had been dropped in water?

[Mario2008]

Not sure about Thai law, but nomaly if you have warrenty the burden of proof to proof this is a case that is not covered under the warrenty rests by the company. They have to proof it was water and thus not covered. I would just contact costumer service at Canon headquarters in Thailand if they persist.

[goldfinger]

sure it was from condensating.If the camera is in the hotel room at about 17 celsius, and he took it out the next morning , this will happen

had the same problem a few years before

[rylemano]

Thanks all for your contribution. I'm hoping someone from Canon is reading this message.

So yesterday we talked to Mr. Sarayuth of the Canon Service Center in downtown Bangkok. He explained to us that somehow humidity / water got inside the camera. He even said that sweating or rain could have infiltrated the camera! I've owned a total of 6 Canon cameras in many extreme conditions, but without ever experiencing that kind of problem.

So I asked to see the camera as well as the damaged component. Mr. Sarayuth showed me the PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly) - see attached picture - that sits around the battery area. As you can see, there's a tiny area around the chip (black square) that is damaged / corroded.

If it was condensation problem, I'd think the whole PCBA would be contaminated with corrosion, not only an area around the chip. The same goes for water. If water leaked into the camera, the liquid would spread inside the whole camera and corrode the whole PCBA. Am I making any sense?

One theory: I'm thinking this defect is a result of a slow corrosive substance that was dropped onto the PCBA during the manufacturing process. The camera passed all tests before leaving factory, was found 1 week later on the shelves of a photo shop, then sold 1 week later. At that point the camera was still working, but not for much longer because the corrosive action of the substance was almost completed.

The saddest part is that Mr. Sarayuth wants us to pay for the repair! About 3000 bahts. At some point, he even suggested a "discount". I'm very patient with Thai people, but this non-sense is stretching my patience to its limits. This is a new camera that broke after 4 days....//SNIP//.

I'm a QA manufacturing engineer myself, but I'm not specialized in PCBA.

Do we have a QA Engineer specialized in PCBA reading this forum? I'd love to hear your expert opinion on this matter. Thanks for your help and comments.

Edited June 12, 2010 by astral
To avoid potential legal action - Astral

[astral]

We must be very careful what we say here.

The law of defamation in Thailand is very strong.

There is no proof that the water causing the damage got in at the manufacturing stage.

It may have been during shipping, or at the distributor or shop, or even caused by the owner in the

short time that he/she owned it, or the battery leaked and was then replaced, or......

All of which are pure speculation.

I would suggest that the owner pays the repair cost, minus the discount...........

A good and sad warning to us all to fully inspect and test a new camera.

PS Only the top of range cameras are "weather proofed".

[davee58]

I would suggest that the owner pays the repair cost, minus the discount...........

A good and sad warning to us all to fully inspect and test a new camera.

PS Only the top of range cameras are "weather proofed".

It is not fair that the owner is expected to pay the repair bill for a NEW camera.

A full inspection and test of the new camera (as you suggest) would not have shown this fault, it could only have been found by professionally dissembling the camera and physical examination of all the components, which would have caused any warranty cover to be void.

Assuming that the given facts are true, then the owner should definitely stand her ground, and attempt to get the case escalated within Canon Thailand, or the parent company.

Canon will obviously be keen to maintain their high reputation for quality and customer care, especially in a case where a four day old camera has failed due to corrosion. The local manager needs to ensure that other stock is not in a similar state.

I am surprised that this case was not settled immediately.

[rylemano]

I am also very surprised by Canon Thailand, especially after reading my ex colleagues' email. He's working as a manufacturing Quality Engineer for a fortune 500 company in Silicon Valley. His take is that it has nothing to do with water, but is clearly a manufacturing issue.

"From the pictures I saw, there are 2 possibilities

1) This could be a issue of reworking the chip part and typically when the rework happens then "No clean" process is used where the flux used to rework is "No clean" meaning it's not meant to be washed. Excess of flux after rework can cause white residue which somewhat looks like the picture you have send. This flux is typically benign but there are instances where excess flux can cause chip short.

2) Excess flux was not cleaned properly or cleaned with water which will cause this kind of issue which can cause white residue as shown.

The reason I am putting emphasis on rework is because no white residue is seen anywhere else on the PCBA.

I hope this helps...

Regards

Pankaj "

I hope this will convince the Repair Manager at Thailand Canon. Otherwise I'll ask to talk to a Japanese Engineer.

[angiud]

I must admit I would have paid the 3000 baht.

You are really stubborn!

It is a compliment!

[LivinLOS]

I had a similar thing with a Sony phone..

Phone was always a pain in the arse from new, but it stopped working and put it in for repair.. There was a huge long story where the 'sony service center' had the phone for months doing an in house repair that didnt work before sending to Sony so that it was now out of warranty. Took ages to even make them see that I gave it to sony while still under warranty and what the local service center did was their problem.

Anyway it came back and they claimed water damage.. inside the phone and on the battery are 2 water damage sensors that change from white to pink if wet, and these were not triggered. I argued when they were triggered on another phone, it was my problem, if they couldnt prove it, it was theirs.. It went back to bangkok and was again refused and this time, the 2 water marks were pink !! They had made them wet to cover themselves. I had even taken pics of it and had the center write they were undamaged on an earlier receipt..

They did finally fix the phone.. It worked for a month or two before screwing up and this time out of warranty.

Me I would pay the 3000 baht.