Saturday, April 19, 2008

Thanks Canon Canada - Excellent Customer Service

I was so amazed by the customer service of Canon Canada. My SLR's sensor needed cleaning as small shadowy spots were annoyingly appearing in my pictures. So I contacted Canon last Thursday, they said to just bring it over in their main office in Mississauga where they will clean the camera for free! That's right... for free! My camera is already 3 years old so already way past its warranty. But no warranty was needed even though it's a service that I would have happily paid for. I was pleasantly surprised because it wasn't really due to any fault from the camera's design or manufacture but just what you'd expect from regular use.

The next day, I had my dad drop my camera over their office on his way to do some errand. When he came back... lo and behold... another surprise... Canon said that they would ship my camera once it has been cleaned. It's free again! (Notice a pattern? I love free stuff. hehe.) Within two days, I received my camera back well packaged, complete with all the little things that I also sent over with it such as the body strap and the neck strap. So not only was the cleaning free, they had prompt and reliable customer service. These little things make people feel happy about being a Canon user.

I tested the camera. Everything worked perfectly... nothing was broken. There were also no more shadowy dots. Now it's ready for my trip this July.

(I'm really happy with the excellent Canon service. However, I can't say the same for Omega's replacement parts department. I've been contacting them and have been receiving constant assurances that the extension links for the watch that I bough would be delivered soon. It's been already 3 weeks since they first promised to deliver them.)

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Earth Hour 2008 - Nelly Furtado, etc.

Last March 29, 2008, Toronto observed the Earth Hour from 8-9pm. The city turned off its lights for an hour and a welcome guest, never seen in Toronto, showed up... the stars. Anyway, there was a big free acoustic concert-party downtown at the Nathan Phillips Square. The main attraction: Nelly Furtado. In observance of Earth Hour, her opening song was "Turn Off the Lights". Other performers included Fefe Dobson and Philosopher Kings. Below are the pictures. Videos are to follow. (in black, Nelly; in red: Fefe; in brown: Philosopher Kings)