Camcorder Servicing

[rico]

I've had my Canon camcorder for a good few years now, must be about 3/4years old. Still records fine but s up when i rewind. Basically rewinds too fast and eats the tape.

Currently i'm manually rewinding the tapes with a pencil and a pen then downloading to my computer. Works but obviously isn't ideal.

Any suggestions on the best place to get it serviced in the Bicester/Oxford area? Or mail-order servicing? It's obviously out of warranty so don't fancy spending hundreds getting it fixed.

If its gonna cost a lot i won't bother and carry on manually rewinding until ive got a proper job then i'll splash out on a new one

[rico]

Anyone?

[anonymous-user]

As with all of these things, take it back to where you bought it.

The sale of goods act specifies that there's a contract between the vendor and the purchaser and that the goods have to last for a "reasonable life".

If the retailer won't do anything about it (and most of them are ignorant of the law on this point and will send you to the manufacturer - wrong), find a repair company and get them to inspect it first. Get a report stating that it's a fault with the camera / manufacturing and not down to user error and you'll then be able to take the retailer to the small claims court to recoup the repair costs if necessary. Most of the time the small claims forms faxed to the head office and cc'd to Which? or Watchdog will get it sorted.

[zetec]

What would be classed as reasonable life though??

[simpo two]

In reality I think that after your warranty has expired, you're on your own. That's why warranties have expiry dates.

Think of a car - reasonable life 10 years - the garage won't fix everything free of charge for 10 years.

[anonymous-user]

Which Magazine - November 2003 said:

How long is reasonable? One of the ambiguities of the Sale of Goods Act is the definition of a 'reasonable' length of time. The act doesn't define how long products should last, because different products have different life spans. And even two identical products can have varyin life spans, depending on how much they're used. For a rouh guide, though, we asked manufacturers for estimated product life spans on six appliances. They said that all the products should last at least five years and some, like TVs, much longer. So, if you're claiming within the six-year period legally allowed, you could well have good cause for a claim. Washing machine: 5 to 10 years Tumble drier: 5 to 10 years Dishwasher: 5 to 10 years VCR: 6 to 9 years Fridge: 7 to 10 years TV: 8 to 10 years

Their recommendations are basically get a report from a repairer (£30 or so) saying what's gone wrong. They should be able to tell you if it's acceptable wear and tear, user error, or if it's a fault with the goods.
If anyone wants the full text of the report then drop me an email.

Warranties are irrelevant. If you take you car into the garage 3 weeks after buying having been hammering around the track non-stop, they're not going to replace your brake pads under warranty. But in the same way, if they realise a manufacturing fault might cause a premature failure they'll do the work years after your warranty expired.

>> Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 2nd July 14:16

[rico]

I bought it from a shop in Chiswick all those years ago. Doubt they're still there! :s

I popped into a local camera shop and they said it would cost about £140 to repair after i told them what was wrong.

For £299 i can have a brand new camcorder thats a few models up from the one i've got.

Due to the fact im skint means that not a lot is going to happen in the near future... but i will pop by that shop the next time i'm in Chiswick.

[trevorw]

How about getting something like this for now...www.hama.co.uk/product.asp?productid=997§ionid=155, beats doing it by hand and only £49.