Camera repair bill: $323
I'm taking a quick pause from my series about our Olympic National Park trip last weekend to update on an issue from a few weeks ago. Recall that earlier this summer I dropped one of my camera lenses and it broke. I sent it in for repairs 3½ weeks ago. Today I called them back to check status. I was surprised I hadn't heard from them. I know from delivery tracking they received my lens 17 days ago. Why hadn't they emailed or called me with even a confirmation of receipt?
The good news was the agent on the phone quickly confirmed they had my lens and had already diagnosed it. They were waiting for my authorization to proceed. With them not emailing or calling me for going on 3 weeks I was concerned they'd lost it. The not-so-good news is when I pressed about why they never bothered to contact me, the agent hemmed and hawed about how a) sometimes their computer "glitches" when trying to send email, and b) with Coronavirus there aren't enough people in the shop to check up on these things. 🙄
Whatever. At least now we can move forward.
More good news/bad news: The bill for repairs and return shipping will be $323. Actually that's both good news and bad news. It's good news because it could have been worse. If the lens were unrepairable buying a new one would cost $1,000. Even buying a used one would cost more than this repair. A quick check on eBay shows auctions ranging from $400 to over $700. But it's also bad news because $323 is still a lot of money. And while $323 is less than the cost of a new lens, what I get for it is not a new lens. I get back a 7 year old, previous-gen lens that's been broken and repaired.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/110945.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
The good news was the agent on the phone quickly confirmed they had my lens and had already diagnosed it. They were waiting for my authorization to proceed. With them not emailing or calling me for going on 3 weeks I was concerned they'd lost it. The not-so-good news is when I pressed about why they never bothered to contact me, the agent hemmed and hawed about how a) sometimes their computer "glitches" when trying to send email, and b) with Coronavirus there aren't enough people in the shop to check up on these things. 🙄
Whatever. At least now we can move forward.
More good news/bad news: The bill for repairs and return shipping will be $323. Actually that's both good news and bad news. It's good news because it could have been worse. If the lens were unrepairable buying a new one would cost $1,000. Even buying a used one would cost more than this repair. A quick check on eBay shows auctions ranging from $400 to over $700. But it's also bad news because $323 is still a lot of money. And while $323 is less than the cost of a new lens, what I get for it is not a new lens. I get back a 7 year old, previous-gen lens that's been broken and repaired.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/110945.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]