ow! And not in a good way. Took our Canon 60D & EFS 18-135 mm lens to Dodd for possible cleaning & repair. When they returned the quote for the body it was $887 - more than I could get a new Canon 60 D. I called to see if they were willing to negotiate the price. They were disinterested, said no, that's what the repair people quoted because of all the things they had to replace, etc., & that's it. They charged $185 to repair the lens, which we agreed to as that's less than I could find a new one for. Oddly enough Canon had refurbished 60D bodies on their web site for considerably less than Dodd's quote. I felt we had been led to believe that Dodd was doing the repair but apparently not. We had to pay $40 or maybe $80. just to have them evaluate it so it's sounding like a bit of a scam to me now. That's not the real issue. We asked them to return the camera body to us as it was working to some degree, & I would have had it cleaned & kept it as a back-up. Meantime I purchased a new body for under $500.00, saving myself over $400.
When I got the camera body back, the view screen was sprung & would not close properly. I called Dodd 4/11 & spoke to a young woman who was equally disinterested (could be the same one from before?) She said I'd have to bring the camera back & they'd have to send it for repair. I asked if they would be expecting to charge me for that. She said, uh, I'll have to check & call you back. After 24+ hours passed I called them back. Whitney came to the phone & acknowledged she was the one who spoke with me yesterday. Get this - she said "I spoke to our repair service (wonder why she didn't call me back to tell me that) & they said when you decided you weren't going to have us repair the camera they said they didn't even touch it". REALLY? How'd they decide on all those things they needed to replace for almost $900 then? I said "then it must have been damaged in transit". She said no, because they are extremely well packed & lectured me on the process. Ever had a well packed item damaged folks? Still no information regarding if they would charge me - again - to have it sent or the viewer door repaired. I said, that's not right - she immediately said "well you can talk to my manager tomorrow". I asked who the manager was & for the spelling of the manager's name, then I said I felt she insinuated It was already damaged & I really didn't appreciate being called a liar. If it had been damaged when the got it it would have been noted on the paperwork as everything else was, & she said "If you keep speaking to me like that I'll hang up on you". WHAAAT?? I said, oh, you do that honey. She did!!! One way to get rid of an unpleasant call - not my job!
Spoke with manager Ryan on Wed aft. Long story short as psbl. he ultimately said we need to contact the repair department & get more info. He did explain the process & some of their work is contracted out. He said they probably do not open the camera until they get the go-ahead from the owner to do the repair work & the quote I got (although quite high) was probably not going to be any lower even when they looked into the camera. (What if it just needed cleaning?)
So 4pm Wed., Ryan called back. He spoke with their repair folks & they told him the camera was shipped from them to Canon. They described to him how they pack the camera for shipping - bubble wrapped & padded with paper in a box. He said they & Canon didn't handle the camera because we weren't going to pay to have it "fixed". He said possibly it was corrosion that set in because the camera was immersed in water. I explained to him (again) that the camera was not "immersed" in water, but had been dropped momentarily into a puddle. That happened in July, we brought the camera to them in February, & if it hadn't corroded by then it was unlikely it happened in the time they had it. Because it had been exposed to water we thought it should be cleaned & checked to see if any repair was necessary. Ryan had told me earlier that the $887 quote we got was without anyone actually checking to see what, if anything, needed to be done. I asked even though it was shipped from Cincinnati to Cleveland to Virginia & back again, nothing could have happened in transit? No reply. When I said, "what next", Ryan said there was nothing else he could do for me because his store was not going to be spending money "out of pocket" to repair a camera that was already otherwise damaged (!!!) which is still actually an unknown. That's kind of like an insurance company saying they won't pay to have your home repaired after a fire because it already had a hole in the roof!!! I only wanted them to repair what was damaged while the camera was in their possession.
One other thing I noticed is that there are 2 negative reviews among a handful on Yelp about Dodd that for some reason Yelp has listed at the bottom of the page as "Not Recommended" but I suggest you read them and decide. read more