Tonight, Friday, 15 minutes before the store closed I called Canoga Camera and talked with Chris. I placed a Canon order and the customer service was great. Some places put the answering machine on 30 minutes before closing, not at Canoga Camera. Chris took his time to get my order done and within a minute or so I received an email with all the correct order information.

Ty

www.tyholland.com

I second them. If I don't buy local, they are my first (and last) call. Always do the job right.

Excellent shop with knowledgeable employees and provide great service when buying mail order.

Excellent shop for sure. They're the first place I go online.

Canoga is excellent to deal with.

luckily they are my local store, or maybe unluckily as I am in there way too often. Great people, I've always had good service there.

NIce store, but post is not really Canon related.

Rather than creating a new thread, I am deciding to bump this one!

Just got my 24-70 f/2.8L in the mail from Canoga, what a great experience! Not only is this a great lens, but the Canoga staff personally called me to confirm the order, and also took a few minutes (while the computer processed the order) to ask me about my interests in photography.

Really great people, and they acknowledged how FM has been very praising of them, so I thought I would throw some more praise their way.

Do not hesitate to order from them!

Esquire08 wrote:
Rather than creating a new thread, I am deciding to bump this one!

Just got my 24-70 f/2.8L in the mail from Canoga, what a great experience! Not only is this a great lens, but the Canoga staff personally called me to confirm the order, and also took a few minutes (while the computer processed the order) to ask me about my interests in photography.

Really great people, and they acknowledged how FM has been very praising of them, so I thought I would throw some more praise their way.

Do not hesitate to order from them!

I second this, with my experience with them.

Absolutely perfect.

Ty Holland wrote:
Tonight, Friday, 15 minutes before the store closed I called Canoga Camera and talked with Chris. I placed a Canon order and the customer service was great. Some places put the answering machine on 30 minutes before closing, not at Canoga Camera. Chris took his time to get my order done and within a minute or so I received an email with all the correct order information.

Ty

www.tyholland.com


Same great service I got from them when I ordered my 1D.

RobertLynn wrote:
Esquire08 wrote:
Rather than creating a new thread, I am deciding to bump this one!

Just got my 24-70 f/2.8L in the mail from Canoga, what a great experience! Not only is this a great lens, but the Canoga staff personally called me to confirm the order, and also took a few minutes (while the computer processed the order) to ask me about my interests in photography.

Really great people, and they acknowledged how FM has been very praising of them, so I thought I would throw some more praise their way.

Do not hesitate to order from them!

I second this, with my experience with them.

Absolutely perfect.

And my lens is BRAND new...UW10xx

Esquire08 wrote:
RobertLynn wrote:
Esquire08 wrote:
Rather than creating a new thread, I am deciding to bump this one!

Just got my 24-70 f/2.8L in the mail from Canoga, what a great experience! Not only is this a great lens, but the Canoga staff personally called me to confirm the order, and also took a few minutes (while the computer processed the order) to ask me about my interests in photography.

Really great people, and they acknowledged how FM has been very praising of them, so I thought I would throw some more praise their way.

Do not hesitate to order from them!

I second this, with my experience with them.

Absolutely perfect.

And my lens is BRAND new...UW10xx


So was mine bud.

It's almost unheard of...2 people getting the same lens, and it not needing calibration! Who would have thunk it!

A quote from their "Return Goods Policy":

No full refund (if any) on.....larger transactions of $5,000 or more......

What does that really mean in case of super telephoto lens purchases which are all (except 300 f/2.8) over $5k ?

PetKal wrote:
A quote from their "Return Goods Policy":

No full refund (if any) on.....larger transactions of $5,000 or more......

What does that really mean in case of super telephoto lens purchases which are all (except 300 f/2.8) over $5k ?

It would be interesting to find out directly from the shop. They probably picked an arbitrary number.

However, it means they don't want to mess around with people trying to "rent" by paying shipping charges. They are stuck with returned inventory which adds to their cost.

Their in-store staff are really helpful, too.

I bought my 24-70 2.8L from Canoga last year and the lens has been perfect out of the box from day one. BTW, the lens date code was from the month before I bought the lens. Fresh stock is good.

I have been purchasing Canon equipment from Canoga Camera for nearly 35 years.

Their service has always been outstanding. Their prices are always competitive.

Canoga's management and staff are very focused upon keeping their customers happy. Look at resellerratings.com. Canoga's stellar ratings are very well deserved.

I've only used them once, yet I found their customer service to be phenomenal. Not just great, but way better than I've experienced anywhere else.

Five stars, two thumbs up, and everything else for Canoga.

PetKal wrote:
A quote from their "Return Goods Policy":

No full refund (if any) on.....larger transactions of $5,000 or more......

What does that really mean in case of super telephoto lens purchases which are all (except 300 f/2.8) over $5k ?

It means absolutely nothing in the world of consumer protection.

You see, when you purchase something, it technically does not fall within any store policies until you have had a reasonable amount of time to inspect it and ensure it is of merchantable quality (meaning it works as advertised).

This is the case for anything--be it a video game or even a car; people just don't know this. If you purchased a game from a Big Box retailer, and it doesn't work in your Xbox360, you do NOT have to exchange it for an identical game; you can return it for a full refund. Likewise, if you purchased a car and it fell apart as you drove it off the car dealership, you get your money back. The return policies are there to deter you from asserting you rights under the UCC and Magnuson-Moss laws.

That being said...Canoga is amazing and there is no need to contemplate what I just said!

Esquire08 wrote:
You see, when you purchase something, it technically does not fall within any store policies until you have had a reasonable amount of time to inspect it and ensure it is of merchantable quality (meaning it works as advertised).

This is the case for anything--be it a video game or even a car; people just don't know this. If you purchased a game from a Big Box retailer, and it doesn't work in your Xbox360, you do NOT have to exchange it for an identical game; you can return it for a full refund. Likewise, if you purchased a car and it fell apart as you drove it off the car dealership, you get your money back. The return policies are there to deter you from asserting you rights under the UCC and Magnuson-Moss laws.

How do you explain restocking fees in this case? And does your statement require that the product NOT function in the manner described? I'm not the kind of guy that buys things on a whim and returns them, I'm just curious. TIA for any insight.

TrojanHorse wrote:
Esquire08 wrote:
You see, when you purchase something, it technically does not fall within any store policies until you have had a reasonable amount of time to inspect it and ensure it is of merchantable quality (meaning it works as advertised).

This is the case for anything--be it a video game or even a car; people just don't know this. If you purchased a game from a Big Box retailer, and it doesn't work in your Xbox360, you do NOT have to exchange it for an identical game; you can return it for a full refund. Likewise, if you purchased a car and it fell apart as you drove it off the car dealership, you get your money back. The return policies are there to deter you from asserting you rights under the UCC and Magnuson-Moss laws.

How do you explain restocking fees in this case? And does your statement require that the product NOT function in the manner described? I'm not the kind of guy that buys things on a whim and returns them, I'm just curious. TIA for any insight.

Restocking fees, or any fees for that matter, are a part of your contract with the seller. You do not enter that contract until you have had that reasonable time to inspect the goods. So lets say you purchase a laptop and it runs horribly right out of the box. Under the UCC, you have no obligation to exchange the product for an identical item; you can simply return it and get ALL of your money back. There is absolutely no requirement for you to comply with seller's return-policy terms when you are still in the inspection stage. That stage might be short (a day) or could be longer (a week or two) depending on the circumstances.

It does pretty much require a defective or non-functioning product. If the lens were soft, maybe you can make an argument that the lens is not merchantable (who would buy a soft lens?). If it just didn't live up to the hype (note: hype, not consistently observed results) you expected (a 50 f/1.2L razor sharp wide open), your argument gets progressively harder.

Think of it like a test drive. You get a chance to review the product and ensure it is what you want and functions the way described.

There are deterministic binary traits of equipment which seldom cause trouble in the merchandise return proces.....e.g., the camera either powers up, or it doesn't..... the lens either autofocuses or it doesn't.

However, one may have a problem assessing let alone demonstrating intermittent (random) and analogue type of defects, such as "on rare occasions the camera locks up" or "the lens is unduly soft". Therefore, IMO it is much better to deal with a reputable/excellent company which has a reasonably liberal return policy & procedure, than go elsewhere and place too much a priori reliance on, practically speaking, abstract protection of consumer laws.

Had two major problems there, now we drive to Hollywood. If they went out of business, I'd be happy.

E

Since I started this posting almost a year ago, Canoga Camera continues to have great service.

Ty

www.tyholland.com

I have been shopping with canoga for some time now, and have had nothing but great experiences with them. I imagine that if you are a regular customer, and had a problem with an item, it wouldnt take much to get a pleasing end result.

The staff is very knowledgeable, and super nice. Something most businesses lack today.

johnny