**Warning ** Inter Discount** Warning**

Complaints Corner
81
Good one devil's advocate, I'd do the same. Read lots of online reviews of the product and order at a shop with great customer service like digitec.ch. You can call them, mail them, go to the shop and they won't just be friendly when they sell you something. Pretty much everyone I know avoids Interdiscount, I think it's only the tech-challenged in Switzerland who go there.

82
I bought a nice white plastic kettle from them as well as a nice white plastic toaster.

83
Same here when I was living in Germany last time. It goes to one depot who decide the fault is too advanced for them to fix and then it gets sent elsewhere. It all takes time.

84
In answer to all your questions , the camera was not dropped , did not get wet, and the lens was not forced back in. Just after taking a picture whilst pressing the off button , an error message came up on screen , saying lens error .. restart camera.. the lens had jammed. A camera of this price range and of this quality is not made for pro use i agree, but was not purchased for pro use either, it was and is a snap camera..

85
Hmm. A certain manufacturer of cellular telephones, (SAMSUNG), shows the same type of behavior.

"What do you mean you expect us to honor our 2 year warranty? It's your own fault that the phone broke after 22 months ..."

Meta-complaint...

86
The problem is they do not know what has caused the lens error until they take the camera apart. They have to decide beforehand whether it was caused by the user or not and the safest option for them is to assume the user caused the problem. I have read that the plastic gears inside the camera can be the source of the problem in which case it is the manufacturer's fault but they can not know that and give a cost estimate beforehand. This fault would put me off buying another retractable lens camera from Canon although I am very pleased with my G9. I will keep that one running until it falls apart and fix any "lens error" myself since it is out of guarantee.

87
I'll agree with the post RE interdiscount as a place to be avoided. For small simple goods and say cables its fine but for the higher end things... Anyway, this is not very useful to karlnmik's problem.

The real issue here is that you, the purchaser have a contract with interdiscount and they quite simply are in breech of this. The camera is barely 1 year old. Personally I think their behaviour and this situation is outragous...

Speculations as to how the OP uses his camera and whether or not it was his fault or not are not really useful. Interdiscount have done a dishonerable thing (IMHO) and the OP has warned others of this behaviour. Sadly, I was not suprised to hear this as I know of other interdiscount stories.

Anyway, I hope Karlnmik manages to kick some butt and get this sorted.

88
That's what happens when you shop at a DISCOUNT electronics store. That's on you, man.

89
For someone working in communications, your communications skills are shown to be sorely lacking in this post. Read the thread title, the OP is trying to warn other members of the blatant disregard for consumer protection laws, contracts laws and good customer service shown by interdiscount. The law applies to discount stores as much as any other.

90
I don't see it as the fault of Interdiscount. It is Canon who have the responsibility to fix their faulty cameras -- not Interdiscount. All Interdiscount can do is pass faulty cameras on to Canon and if Canon cheat the customer then there is not a lot that Interdiscount can do about it. If there is a moral to be learned from this story it is to not buy a retractable lens camera carrying the Canon brand name.

91
Well in order to further clarify. I have been using canon products for over 20 years, and have NEVER EVER had a fault with any of them. SO i gues im doing alright.

But the point here is the inter discount predicted what canon s response would be before it happend, and Interdiscount are absolving themselves of all and any responsibility and expecting the consumer to pay for that absolution on top of everything else. It should nt make any difference where you buy your product from ,if its a high street chain , then they should accept responsibilty and take it up on behalf of the consumer with the manufacturers.

92
I'm really sorry that you have a problem with your camera.

In the early days of the digital camera, I bought an Olympus with a retractable lens. After some admittedly rough use, the lens door would not open anymore. So I brought it back to the seller, a professional shop.

They told me that it was probably my fault, so warranty does not apply. To send it back to Olympus, would cost about Fr.10 postage, and Olympus would charge me Fr.40 (I can't remember the exact amount) to have a look and give me a quote. So they asked if I really want to do this. I said yes thinking that the whole thing won't cost more than Fr.200. Of course, turns out that it costs more than a new camera, especially at that time when prices were dropping so fast.

Anyway, I can't really blame the shop nor Olympus because if it is my fault, then I should foot the bill, no? From interdiscount's point of view, if Canon comes back and says that it was the user's fault, they would have incurred cost. Not trying to defend Interdiscount here, but they seem to be taking the same view as the professional shop I went to, except in a more aggressive manner to you.

As much as I don't like the service of most shops in Switzerland, the main question here is, how is the fault for the damage determined? Can Canon prove that it was your fault?

Unfortunately this seems to be the practice and this is how it is in Switzerland... . I think in a more developed consumer world, this is a problem which should be solved between the retailer and the manufacturer.

Slightly off-topic, my worst experience with service here was when I brought my Swatch to get a new battery - it is the kind with the battery exposed at the back. The guy unscrewed the battery, looked around his drawer and found out that he in fact did not have the battery in stock. So he screwed back my old battery, and asked me for Fr.12 for the "work" he has done... .

93
Do you have any real gurantee to start with..? It sounds like not or you would not be in the present situation.

I have just this weekend repaired my Canon S40 with the memory card error 50. This is the second repair - the first was the sliding lens cap.

Canon QC has gone out of the window, judging by the various complaints I've seen on the web.

94
It strikes me that the retailers should offer "accidental damage" insurance for all Canon retractable lens cameras but I wonder if any insurer would want to cover this.

95
IMO, the biggest issue here is the attitude of the inter discount employees. This is absolutely unacceptable and even if there was -let's say- some right to store's side they lost it completely after their behaviour on the first two visits to the store by Karlnmik.

I thought the customer has "always" right, and that at least he has SOME rights in these commercial jungle.

96
Why should they ? Accidental damage can be, if not already, covered under household insurance.

A lot of these problems seem to arise out of manufacturing error or simply design flaw - both are in the jurisdiction of the manufacturer.

97
Why should they do this .. it is surely canon who is responsible for manufacturing a good product ?

98
Hmm... maybe if there has been many cases of the same failure on that camera, Canon should do a product recall (and paid for by their product recall insurance). But then it would be a big admission of fault on their part.

99
There was a class action suit filed in the US about this very problem but it failed.

100
Can you please post a link for us? Thanks.