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.

I, too, fail to see why this thread has gone so awry. OK, The original
subject was valid and dealt with. As a moderator on a broadband site
myself I do see the need for mods on a site such as this and
understand their sometimes "less than popular" situation. The
infighting is most distressing and unnecessary.

Venice, Beth, Erik and others, while we may not see eye-to-eye you do
have my respect.

and this is what I come back to?! What's happening here?

Hey guys, I don't like authority any more than any other
anti-establishment type you know (and if I'm the only one you know,
let me tell you, we don't like authority). I hate to take orders, or
be told that what I'm doing is wrong. I'm not wild about the idea
that there are people with the ability to silence me, or that I could
log on one day and find myself no longer welcome on a site that has
provided me with hours of diversion, not to mention support and
friendship from some remarkable people.

But if you thought that wasn't all a possibility long before the
advent of moderators, you are sadly deluded. When we created PFB
profiles, we agreed to certain terms of service. We agreed not to use
offensive language, threaten other users, or be otherwise offensive.
Most importantly, we recognized that this site's content was up to the
discretion of its owners and moderators. The fact that we didn't have
fancy little tags next to certain people's names denoting them as such
didn't mean that Greg couldn't yank your post if he chose to, and as I
recall he sometimes did. The only difference now is that there are
more folks looking around to make sure the tos is being upheld.

I don't like it all that much myself, since people like me tend to
view the addition of authority figures as an alarming trend, but until
Venice, Leanne, Erik, and Beth start marching in lockstep while Greg
lectures about the revolution, I think we're safe. And I think that
the mods were chosen specifically because they are unlikely to do
that. I guess what I mean is that I don't like the idea of mods, but
I do like our mods, very much. I liked them before they became mods,
and I don't yet see a reason to stop doing so. They're our friends,
not some Gestapo force bent on stifling our freedoms. I love this
site, and I'm willing to stick around and see what comes of this
newest iteration. If it sucks, I'll let them know, as is my right,
and the right of every poster here.

I dunno about the eggshells thing, but I think people are confused.
We're told we must be respectful of others, and that's fine-of course
we should. But then we have Mr. Helpful and the mods basically making
fun of a member who chose to leave. To me that is unprofessional.
We're told to respect the mods and when we are told a topic or line of
conversation is inappropriate and asked to move on, that's fine, again
it's the respect thing. Then Beth shows up and basically says I don't
care that people were upset by the word or that a mod asked that we
move on. I am the admin and I'll talk about whatever I want. I found
that disrespectful. I think people feel they are getting mixed
messages and are confused about it. That's just my 2 cents however.
I'll throw another 2 cents in before I stop and say I am very
offended by people that use the r-word in their letters. It's
inappropriate and offensive, and even if it wasn't so upsetting, it's
no more appropriate in a business letter than any of the common swear
words. I was raped 12 years ago, in my own home by someone who up
until then was a friend of mine. No one, and I mean no one knows how
that feels unless they've been through it themselves. To use it in any
other way than to describe the act it is, diminishes the feelings of
us survivors. Such a word should never ever become an accepted "figure
of speech"

I've said all I needed to. I am going to copy this post into my blog
in case anyone would like to comment.

I sure don't. If anything, having moderators has only helped me --
being of Irish temper descent, I have been known to call the
occasional OP an idiot, a moron, maybe a dickhead. Lovely words, all
of them. But with this new "feature," I do feel like I need to
respond more like an adult, and either chill before responding, or
don't respond at all. I'm not successful every time, of course, but
my behavior has improved (although for the most part, I behaved pretty
well).

I don't call it "walking on eggshells." I call it, "Knowing I won't
get away with name calling or rude postings." And it's a big
difference.

Because if I were walking on eggshells, I'd be afraid to disagree with
someone without kissing their ass somehow at the same time. And I
didn't do that with the person who has unreasonable complaints about
her mattress company. ;)

I think things are fine. People, push the envelope if you need to
find out where the limits are. Show reason, but don't let fear break
your spirit! Don't make me challenge you all to a duel!

I have said what I feel in my blog, but I just want to say that the
moderators have my support and respect.

.

...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.

"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.