Poor Customer Service from Canon Makati

I would like to express my disappointment over the poor customer service of Canon in Paseo De Magallanes in Makati. A few weeks ago, our Selphy CP780 printer suddenly stopped working. We have been using it for more than a year already and had no problems with it. Suddenly, it just stopped working, a few months after its warranty has expired. Hubby went to the Canon service center. They received it and got hubby’s contact information saying they’d just contact us once they find out what’s wrong. After two days, we got a text saying “Good day MR. BERTO. This is MJ from Canon. We would like to inform you that your CP-780SLVR with reference #XXXX is now on quotation amounting to Php 6,760. If you wish to proceed with the repair, feel free to call us at 8849000 Mon-Fri 8:30am-5:30pm. Thank you and have a great day.” Hubby called the number they gave, expecting a detailed explanation about printer’s problem, probably an enumeration of the parts that needed to be replaced. We didn’t expect what he heard next. When he asked what EXACTLY was wrong with the unit, the girl on the other line couldn’t explain it, opting to cop out with the standard excuse nowadays, “call center lang po kasi kami, yan lang yung binigay na info ng company”. She then proceeded to inform us that if we want, they are offering to sell us a brand new CP800 unit, which currently sells for P7,800, for only P6,760 (same as the repair cost)! Is this a marketing ploy? We understand that there are cases when repair costs can be expensive, and they can run up to the cost of a brand new unit. We understand that. What we don’t understand is why they can’t explain to us exactly what is wrong with our unit, what exactly are the things they need to do/parts they need to replace to run up a bill that would cost us P6,760. Instead immediately push us into buying a new unit at a discounted price. Hubby kept on telling the girl that he doesn’t want a new unit, he just wants to have our unit repaired. The text we received said that “if you wish to proceed with the repair, call”, so we called but instead of a repair diagnosis and recommendation, we get a sales pitch. A detailed diagnosis is a standard operating procedure in the customer service industry, hubby should know, he’s been in that industry for years! If the call center agent couldn’t answer the technical stuff regarding the repairs, she wouldn’t even connect us to someone who could. That’s why we found it so frustrating!

Our family has been using the Canon brand for so long. We have digicams, DSLRs and printers. We have been urging friends who were planning to buy gadgets to choose Canon because their service centers are accessible. And then we get THIS kind of service??? Argh!