Hi folks,

This is to inform you about some rules that might come handy before you buy any canon product from Digitec. On 09/05/2009, I gave my 50D Canon DSLR back to Digitec for repair. It came back on after 1 month (thanks to Digitec delivered to my home address). But, wait; it's not repaired at all. Next day, 16/06/2009 I gave my camera back to Digitec with the problem description again.

Then the story enters a simple, single, and most importantly, endless loop. Every week I call Digitec. They promise to contact the repair section and I get a nice formal email saying it's not repaired and I should contact Sertronics (Canon representative in Swiss). Then I call Sertronics and they inform me they are waiting for parts to come. Now, the not-so-funny part is I can not blame any one, I can not catch anyone, I can not held anybody responsible with the warrantee card I have saying “please give me a repaired/replaced camera”. Read the replies I got, I guarantee you will be amused. (This is not Digitec/Canon guarantee, you WILL be amused).

Sertronics: We are waiting for a part. If you are not happy with our service / or want replacement contact Digitec. Fair enough, huh?

Digitec: We are just vendor, contact Sertronics. Want a replacement? The product has to come back 3 times un-repaired, and then we can talk about a replacement. (Let’s do the math: it's already May to August - and the 2nd version of repair-drama is far from being over) I am not sure whether in this mortal world I will be lucky to enough to survive the 4th replacement by Digitec/Sertronics. And I am suspicious this might be a hidden deal (between Sertronics and Digitec) to force me to buy a new-age camera. (Already 60D is in market)

Canon: Sertronics is our face in Swiss. Talk to them.

So that's the nice loop I am talking about, till date I am in that loop (for 11 weeks on-a-row). It’s almost 3 months and being an electronics engineer, I know if a “consumer product” like my DSLR is not getting fixed in 3 months, there is something fishy about it. Unfortunately, there is not much I can do about it (like informing police etc.) and Digitec probably does not care (they have tens of thousands of customer).

Moral time: Be careful, check every damn function of the camera in Digitec while buying it. And more important, be lucky, do not get a bad one, do not enter this loop :-)

Thanks,
Anirban