In 2008 I replaced my broken Canon Powershot S70 with a G10, which entered these pages in a blaze of publicity, here, here, and here.
The G10’s lens sadly failed whilst on Leagag on 25 September 2011.
That was replaced with the G12, which expired recently after just a shade over two years’ hard use.
I’m a sucker for punishment, so I chose the devil I knew, and ordered a G16, the latest in this series, to replace the G12, in which the lens had disintegrated internally.
Meanwhile, Sue has gone through a G9 (still functional but she scratched the lens) and is now on the G15, which was an option for me, but it would be too confusing for us to have identical cameras.
The G16 has a new sensor, and Wi-fi, so the box contents have shrunk greatly from S70/G10 days – there are no CDs, all instructions being on-line, and no leads other than the battery charger’s, which unfortunately is rather bulky.
I ordered the camera from a company called Simply Electronics, for a remarkably good price. They took my money but nothing happened. Queries were acknowledged and received standard, unhelpful, replies. Internet research revealed that I wasn’t the only person having problems, and I regretted not doing this research before I placed the order.
‘You need nerves of steel to deal with this company’ seemed to be the consensus.
I’d paid by credit card, so referred the problem – failure to deliver in the time scale indicated – to my bank’s Retailer Disputes Team, who were helpful.
Then, unexpectedly, the camera arrived, three weeks later than the advertised delivery time. A pleasant surprise! Not quite the end of the story, though, as the box didn’t contain a warranty card. However, I’m assured by Canon that this won’t be needed if the camera does fail within twelve months. I hope I don’t have to test that assurance.
I haven’t used the camera yet, as I’m finding my waterproof Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT4 to be a good performer in the showery weather.
We are still waiting for our ‘Good Customers’ award from Canon!
5 comments:
Don't you just hate it when its not delivered within 2 days. I bet the camera came from China or Malaysia.
Anyway you have it now and the images should be fantastic.
Happy New Year to you both.
Nice kit and I'm sure you'll get a lot of great photos from it.
AH... Simply ******g Electronics.
I bought a phone from them.
They took the money.
Weeks later, NO phone.
I cancelled the order, and got it elsewhere.
It took 7+ weeks for the refund to come through (which eventually it did).
They are either a bunch of Charlatans, or really bloody crap at business.
I always buy my cameras second hand from reputable sources [A Certain Mr A. Rayner].
Still going strong Al :-)
Thanks everyone, I clearly missed a trick with Mr A Rayner's 2nd hand camera operation, though I suppose 'nerves of steel' did save me a few bob. I won't be using Simply ******g Electronics again, though, and my reason for publishing this post was as much by way of a reminder that on-line vendors should be checked out thoroughly before use as about the new camera, which I'm sure will just be a further incremental development from the G9 and G10 versions mentioned above.
I never had any doubts Andrew.
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