ripped off by repair

I'd love to know how the subject went from the canon repair to sexual
assault.. yea im too lazy to read all the comments

How on earth did this happen? Why is there such a terrible
misunderstanding about the reason for needing moderators? And, above
all, why in the world would anyone suddenly be afraid to speak their
mind? Could someone please explain to me what is going on.

I don't understand how this got so blown out of proportion, and for
the life of me, I can't understand how the regular commenters ever got
the impression that they had to walk on eggshells. That's not the way
I understood it at all. I just assumed everyone realized who the new
rules were meant for. Why are you all taking it so personally? If
we're going to fight amongst ourselves, then the trolls have won.
Congratulations.

It's 4:00 a.m., I can't sleep, and after making the mistake of looking
at this letter, I may never sleep again.

...describing a sexual assault is NOT the only appropriate way to use
the word "rape".

Dictionary.com says it can also be used to describe:
* an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation;
violation.
* the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
* to plunder (a place); despoil.
* to seize, take, or carry off by force.
* the residue of grapes, after the juice has been extracted, used as a
filter in making vinegar.
* a plant, Brassica napus, of the mustard family, whose leaves are
used for food for hogs, sheep, etc., and whose seeds yield rape oil.

Not to say it was the best word to use - obviously, it was highly
irritating for the community. It is entirely possible the letter
writer didn't mean to say that the company had sexually assaulted him,
but rather that the company had abused or violated him - which it is
his perogative to believe.

As everyone already knows, the title of this letter got changed. We
apologize for having to do that, but certain words are just a bit too
loaded to be thrown around casually, even if written in a moment of
anger.

What we didn't want to do, though, was delete this letter entirely.
Other than the unfortunate choice in words, the rest of the complaint
is legitimate, and I'm happy to hear that it was resolved. It is also
commendable that Mark apologized for the term that he used. I have no
doubt that he regretted his choice in words.

However, I don't want anyone to think that those of who were angered
by the title to think that you weren't justified in being upset. You
certainly were. Jeffrey has a very good blog entry that he wrote about
the usage of the word "rape" in complaint letters. I agree with him
completely. As bad as any consumer complaint may be, it is still not
anywhere near comparable to being raped. A rape is a despicable,
heinous crime that most people can only hope to never have to
experience in their lifetime. It is not poor customer service.

So I apologize to Mark if some of the comments here were upsetting to
him, but I still feel that those who made them had a right to do so.
But what's been said has already been said on the subject, so I would
appreciate if any further comments on this letter be about Mark's
complaint, and not about the "rape" usage. As far as I'm concerned,
that issue has been dealt with already.

Well since Mark was nice enough to come back and tell us they didn't
charge him this ONE TIME free... I think we should expect a "Thank
You" note written in a more civil manner to Cannon after dissing them
in such a foul, uncouth manner in a public forum, and causing US to
read it!!

Good job.

Bend over. Let someone forcibly assault you.

Then decide whether you want to use the word "rape" in such a manner
ever again.

I hope your entire post gets deleted by site moderators.

poor choice or words on my part to be sure...

Going forward I will perform said cleaning, using the best tools I can
find.

Thank you for your response. Most people who get upset by someone
pointing this out. You didn't, which is great.

Thanks for being one of the good folks here.

And good luck with your cleaning.

I'm glad you agree it was a poor choice of words and hope next time
you'll be a little more careful.

I, too, was offended by the image brought about by this OP's choice of
terms. Kudos to him for owning it and hopefully more will learn to
follow his example of accepting constructive criticism!

If you were told by someone at Canon the repair would be free then
they will likely take care of it.
Cleanings are normally NEVER free. It's like changing an air filter
in your car or an oil change. Granted the price may be higher, but I
am sure the cleaning is done by a skilled technician, not an oil
change mechanic.
If I recall this cleaning is a requirement on all SLR digital camera,
regardless of the brand...
Sounds like it is general maint to me.

I have to raise a question, if you were a repair tech for them, then
why didn't you just clean it yourself, especially if its that easy and
quick to do, rather then pay to ship it etc... ? Something smells
fishy about your story... Just my thoughts.

As an aside, prices are going up for service because the prices of the
products are going down. When companies make cheap products, quality
companies like Canon, have to compete thus making up for the price
difference somewhere normally in repair. This is industry-wide in the
electronic market.