- Report: #256151
Complaint Review: Kodak & United Camera Repair - Bensenville Illinois
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Kodak & United Camera Repair
kodak.com Bensenville, Illinois, U.S.A.
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Kodak & United Camera Repair Warranty Rip-off pawned off to 3rd party entity to relieve Kodak corporation of warranty repairs for their product Bensenville Illinois
I purchased a Kodak V603 camera in June of 2006 for my girlfriends birthday present. The purchase price was over $200 at that time. The camera worked great for almost a full year, and then stopped turning on. The camera would not power up, regardless of any troubleshooting Kodak attempted to assist us with. At this time, we were instructed to pack up the camera and send it to their authorized repair shop "United Camera and Bionocular repair" in Bensenville Illinois. I located our purchase receipt from Curcuit City, and packed it up with the letter as instructed and sent the camera to them on June 18th 2007 with the repair order from Kodak.
On friday June 22nd 2007, I recieved an email from United Camera Repair stating that they would not fix the camera due to the warranty being voided from "impact damage". They explained the location of the "knick" on the case. I couldn't believe it. I know for a fact that this camera has never been dropped, nor neglected. The painted black case of the camera has lots of scratches and wear marks on the corners from normal use over the course of a year. At one location on the side of the camera, the case has a small 1 mm indentation at the hard corner. Im talking, you really have to look for it to see it. Based on its location on the case, it would be impossible for it to get this precise and miniscule gouge from a fall.
I immediatly called United Camera Repair, where they stated that they had a final say in the validity of the warranty, and that they deemed it an impact damage and that they would not fix it under Kodaks warranty. They said they would negotiate the repair price from $145 as stated in the email to @ $120 to make the necessary repairs. Since this is nearly the same price of the camera now as it has depreciated, I told them to never mind and send it back to me.
I then followed up with a phone call to Kodak support, obviously located overseas, where again I was told that United Camera has a final say since they are the authorized repair center.
I would be willing to bet very good money that United Cameras warranty repairs are performed for Kodak at a very reduced price to what they recieve for private sector repairs due to the volume of cameras Kodak has shipped to them. It would seem like a pretty lucrative business plan to get in bed with Kodak, be an authorized repair center, and when the cameras come in, invalidate the warranty in an attempt to make additional monies. This is nearly a scam.
Beyond this point, I find it hard to believe that Kodak truely doesn't stand behind their product in any fashion. The warranty is pointless. They allow an outside company, a third party entity, evaluate repair and ship their product in direct relation to the customer. Wow. Kodak, great job at washing your hands of any liability for the product you sell and pawning your customer service and warranty operations off to somebody else to do your dirty work. Its pretty apparent that the customers don't matter to Kodak, as they allow third party entities to sell, service, and deal with their customer service operations while Kodak hides behind their bottom line.
This is the first and last Kodak product I buy, and I welcome all those who are in the market for, or have had experiences with Kodak products to evaluate or comment the validity of their warranty.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Jacob
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.
On friday June 22nd 2007, I recieved an email from United Camera Repair stating that they would not fix the camera due to the warranty being voided from "impact damage". They explained the location of the "knick" on the case. I couldn't believe it. I know for a fact that this camera has never been dropped, nor neglected. The painted black case of the camera has lots of scratches and wear marks on the corners from normal use over the course of a year. At one location on the side of the camera, the case has a small 1 mm indentation at the hard corner. Im talking, you really have to look for it to see it. Based on its location on the case, it would be impossible for it to get this precise and miniscule gouge from a fall.
I immediatly called United Camera Repair, where they stated that they had a final say in the validity of the warranty, and that they deemed it an impact damage and that they would not fix it under Kodaks warranty. They said they would negotiate the repair price from $145 as stated in the email to @ $120 to make the necessary repairs. Since this is nearly the same price of the camera now as it has depreciated, I told them to never mind and send it back to me.
I then followed up with a phone call to Kodak support, obviously located overseas, where again I was told that United Camera has a final say since they are the authorized repair center.
I would be willing to bet very good money that United Cameras warranty repairs are performed for Kodak at a very reduced price to what they recieve for private sector repairs due to the volume of cameras Kodak has shipped to them. It would seem like a pretty lucrative business plan to get in bed with Kodak, be an authorized repair center, and when the cameras come in, invalidate the warranty in an attempt to make additional monies. This is nearly a scam.
Beyond this point, I find it hard to believe that Kodak truely doesn't stand behind their product in any fashion. The warranty is pointless. They allow an outside company, a third party entity, evaluate repair and ship their product in direct relation to the customer. Wow. Kodak, great job at washing your hands of any liability for the product you sell and pawning your customer service and warranty operations off to somebody else to do your dirty work. Its pretty apparent that the customers don't matter to Kodak, as they allow third party entities to sell, service, and deal with their customer service operations while Kodak hides behind their bottom line.
This is the first and last Kodak product I buy, and I welcome all those who are in the market for, or have had experiences with Kodak products to evaluate or comment the validity of their warranty.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Jacob
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.
5 Updates & Rebuttals
Mike
Gahanna,Ohio,
United States of America
More of the same ...
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, March 18, 2010
My experience with Kodak is very much the same. Warranty voided for the littlest things. A child drops the camera from 2-3 ft on carpet and it doesn't work any more and Kodak won't honor the warranty? There is NO reason that a camera costing over $100 should be this fragile. I have used film and digital camera's in a semi-professional manner and I can't imagine anyone making serious use of a camera where it doesn't go through at least one minor trauma every month or so. If gear was as sensitive as these little Kodak's, pro's would have to buy the things by the case and replace them every couple of weeks at least. Certainly, circuit boards are fragile and can be broken, but my Nikon FA, loaded with electronics for its day, could take a fall off of a 10ft high wall onto concrete and I am still able to pick it up and go back to shooting. jDespite heavy use doing international travel, in the hands of at least two different teenagers working for highschool yearbooks and a school newspaper, and journaling several years of youth ministry, my Nikon FA, F, and FM are still clicking away after at least 27 years of use. Each has gone through multiple traumatic events, such as a running student hitting the camera, sending it flying to bash into a metal fire door, or falling 6 or more feet to some sort of stone surface (like a castle wall), and I have never had to have any of them serviced. While I don't expect this type of durability from a point and shoot digital, other than direct impact to the screen, they should be far more hardy than these Kodak's are and more precisely engineered so that those grains of sand can't get in so easily as to damage the camera so readily and extensively. I have used both Fuji and Nikon digitals and gotten far better performance/durability than any of the 3 Kodak's which have lived *very* short lives - as little as 3 weeks, in the hands of my family. No more Kodak's for us. They are permanently banned. I don't know what is better for durability than these Kodak's for point and shoot, but having the most recent one die a couple of weeks ago, I will be doing the research in the very near future.
Kit Sullivan
Orlando,Florida,
U.S.A.
I had a good experience with them...
#3Consumer Comment
Sat, August 02, 2008
Contrary to the above post, I have used 'United Camera' for a warranty repair and was extremely satisfied. I bought my daughter a Kodak digital camera for Christmas, and in October of the following year, she dropped it and cracked the LCD screen, rendering the camera all but useless. I sent the camera to "United Camera' for repair, but I did not have the recipet or warranty card. And considering that it was definitely damaged by an impact, I thought for sure they would sock me with a hefty repair bill. To my surprise, it was repaired at NO CHARGE and sent back to me within 4 weeks. All the scratches and marks on the case were gone(except for a big one), so thier cosmetic abilities were impressive too. It has worked flawlessly ever since then!
Kit Sullivan
Orlando,Florida,
U.S.A.
I had a good experience with them...
#4Consumer Comment
Sat, August 02, 2008
Contrary to the above post, I have used 'United Camera' for a warranty repair and was extremely satisfied. I bought my daughter a Kodak digital camera for Christmas, and in October of the following year, she dropped it and cracked the LCD screen, rendering the camera all but useless. I sent the camera to "United Camera' for repair, but I did not have the recipet or warranty card. And considering that it was definitely damaged by an impact, I thought for sure they would sock me with a hefty repair bill. To my surprise, it was repaired at NO CHARGE and sent back to me within 4 weeks. All the scratches and marks on the case were gone(except for a big one), so thier cosmetic abilities were impressive too. It has worked flawlessly ever since then!
Kit Sullivan
Orlando,Florida,
U.S.A.
I had a good experience with them...
#5Consumer Comment
Sat, August 02, 2008
Contrary to the above post, I have used 'United Camera' for a warranty repair and was extremely satisfied. I bought my daughter a Kodak digital camera for Christmas, and in October of the following year, she dropped it and cracked the LCD screen, rendering the camera all but useless. I sent the camera to "United Camera' for repair, but I did not have the recipet or warranty card. And considering that it was definitely damaged by an impact, I thought for sure they would sock me with a hefty repair bill. To my surprise, it was repaired at NO CHARGE and sent back to me within 4 weeks. All the scratches and marks on the case were gone(except for a big one), so thier cosmetic abilities were impressive too. It has worked flawlessly ever since then!
Kit Sullivan
Orlando,Florida,
U.S.A.
I had a good experience with them...
#6Consumer Comment
Sat, August 02, 2008
Contrary to the above post, I have used 'United Camera' for a warranty repair and was extremely satisfied. I bought my daughter a Kodak digital camera for Christmas, and in October of the following year, she dropped it and cracked the LCD screen, rendering the camera all but useless. I sent the camera to "United Camera' for repair, but I did not have the recipet or warranty card. And considering that it was definitely damaged by an impact, I thought for sure they would sock me with a hefty repair bill. To my surprise, it was repaired at NO CHARGE and sent back to me within 4 weeks. All the scratches and marks on the case were gone(except for a big one), so thier cosmetic abilities were impressive too. It has worked flawlessly ever since then!
