Some companies have terrible customer service (United Airlines, for example). Others have pretty decent service. In a short span of time, my Canon digital camera and Garmin cycling computer both needed some repair. (Bad karma?) How would they rate in the customer service department...
The CCD on the camera just stopped working for some reason. Our gear gets a lot of abuse, but I can honestly say this just stopped working in the middle of taking some photos. Canon has a 1 year warranty and wouldn't you know it, our camera was one year and 2 weeks old. I feared the worst when I went to their web site, but I was pleasantly surprised. For starters, I could do everything on their website which meant I didn't have to waste any time waiting on hold for the customer service department. But even better, I punched in all of our camera info (including date of purchase) and the site promptly told me that the repair would be covered under the warranty. I like that they have a little fudge factor in their "1 year". I mailed the camera back to them (in Virgina) and they got it back to me a week and a half later.
Next up was my Garmin Edge 705 cycling computer. Some of the rubber on it had worn away and needed to be repaired so water wouldn't get inside. Unlike Canon, I had to get on the phone and wait for a while to talk to one of their people. Garmin makes things pretty easy (on themselves, mostly) by setting a flat repair cost for each thing they sell. So whether I cracked my Garmin or the battery died, I'd generally be paying the same thing. When I told them the simple repair that needed to be done, they said it was small enough that they could discount their usual repair fee. They discounted it by 50%. Nice. One week after I dropped it in the mail, I had the refurbished unit on my doorstep.
I've bought several things from both Canon and Garmin and I'll continue to buy more. I like the it when the toys I buy are well supported.
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