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.

is that when a mod warns posters that a coversation is heading in a
bad direction and to drop the subject we don't have to listen? I can
guarantee you that the only reason nobody else spoke up about the
subject is because everyone around here is walking on egg shells so as
to not get in trouble. No one wants to stir the pot. Otherwise this
exact letter would be in the number 1 spot. And it would not be
pretty.

As I told Chris, until you have experienced what victims of rape have
experienced you will not understand why this word being used so
lightly makes me want to say and do things that I would normally not.
And I am carefully thinking out what I type to you for the purpose of
not flying off the handle and being offensive.

As far as the word being derogatory or not... I never once said that
there weren't alternative meanings. But that does not make it okay to
use. Ass isn't a bad word. Does that mean I should use it? Does
that mean that people won't be offended by it? NO. And why would
that be... because people see it as a derogatory term. For examply...
If I said that I thought that the poster was being an ass in some of
his comments, that could mean many things. I could be referring to a
long-eared, slow, patient, sure-footed domesticated mammal, Equus
asinus, related to the horse or I could be saying it to refer to their
posters stubborness. OR they could take the most common
interpretation of the word and think that I was calling them stupid or
foolish. Which one do you think they would take?

Oh, by they way I was referring to him being stubborn because after he
APOLOGIZED for using the word and I simply said I don't accept it, he
told me to get over it.

On one last note, if there are going to be moderators they should be
impartial to certain things. You and Mr. Helpful bantering in a
sarcastic way about Chris leaving. UNPROFESSIONAL and not what I
would expect of either of you. You have each other's e-mail address,
why don't you talk about it there? And yes you did upset quite a few
people with that. But SURPRISE! People are afraid to say anthing to
anyone because they are trying to stick through his moderating bull.
Which BTW, I was all for mods until I realized that certain people can
express their opinons more freely without amercement then others.

Now, before I say something that I know I SHOULDN'T say because I
don't wish to OFFEND anyone I'm walking away from this conversation
with you.

feel free to say anything you like.

and that goes for anyone else.

If you don't cuss, and you don't call people names, and you don't
insult them, you can say anything you please. That rule doesn't apply
just to me, it applies to EVERYONE. So Erik suggested we get off the
"rape" topic - ok. Why did he do that? Because so many people found
the term offensive, and because the OP agreed to have it changed, and
because now it's gone and it'd be cool to focus on the subject of the
letter. I think those are all good suggestions on Erik's part.

But I didn't want to focus on that - I read some comments about the
word "rape", and I wanted to address the use of the word "rape" and
it's definitions. And in doing so, I did not insult you, curse at
you, or call you names.

And not that it's anyone's business, but I have experienced rape first
hand. That doesn't mean I get to make a personal claim as to what the
word means. It means a lot of things, and people use it, every day.
When they use it, they are not repeating the violence I experienced in
the past, they are simply using a word. Ass is profanity. Rape is
not profanity. It's the word assigned to a bad thing that happens to
people, IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS.

As for my comments below - so I am supposed to be completely
impartial, detached, and emotionless...but everyone else is allowed to
be human, to get angry and to lash out and be snarky? Everyone else
is allowed to discuss their positions, to defend themselves as long as
they remain within the TOS...but not me? Well, I'm sorry, folks - it
doesn't work that way. I'm a human being and I have feelings, too.
And the bottom line is, I'm getting tired of being accused of
censorship and being elluded to as some kind of fearsome dictator,
because it's simply NOT TRUE.

EVERYONE ON THIS SITE IS FREE TO EXPRESS THEIR OPINIONS.

Let me prove my point. Your opinion is still here, despite the fact
that you disagreed with me! Why? Because you *didn't* cuss (well,
you did, but within the confines of making an example), you *didn't*
call me names, you *didn't* threaten my life, and you *didn't* make
judgements about my intelligence or lifestyle. The same reason my
opinion is still here! I know it's shocking, but it's true...we were
both held to the same standard!

And what are people "afraid" of, exactly? Listen, just because I'm a
site admin doesn't mean I'm a god, nor did I *EVER* claim that it did!
Just because Erik's a site mod doesn't mean he has the final say on
every conversation! PFB isn't Mr. Helpful's personal universe!! He
doesn't sit around randomly deleting comments and sending warnings and
shutting down accounts because he doesn't like nicknames that start
with the letter "Z" today - so why would anyone react that way? And
if they're feeling that way, why the heck isn't anyone SAYING ANYTHING
TO US?? We live on feedback, too!

On PFB, you are free to say whatever you want to within the three
comment guidelines and the TOS. Don't cuss. Don't name-call. Don't
make judgements about people's lives (you must be a total pig!!!).
Don't threaten people's lives. You can be as angry and snarky and
witty and intelligent as you want to be...as you ever were. And you
know what? So can I.

I think that's about as clear as I can possibly be.

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.

"rape their customers"

Lovely. Absolutely lovely.

Mark, you may be upset, but sexual assault is not the right image for
a business letter, y'know.

Of course, since you were a repair tech, isn't this something you
could do yourself? I'm no camera expert, but a bottle of cleaner, a
soft cloth, maybe a brush... these can be purchased at a camera store
for what, under $10?

Which, of course, backs up your point. But if it was something that
you could do in 10 minutes for less than $10, why even bother with
Canon? Claims of "free" or no, I can't imagine mailing my camera away
if I could just do it myself.

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.