[OT?] Canon tech support

It's typical of nearly all makers of mass-market electronics.

Hello Everett,

That's the kind of answer I got in almost all such cases, various manufacturers. Either an email response that was clearly cut and pasted from some FAQ they keep at the "support" desk or you could hear them thumb or click through some docs during a phone call, resulting in the same kind of bland answer. For software the first thing they say is "re-install the whole chebang". Glad they do not design cars.

If something is seriously wrong with home or office electronics you are pretty much on your own :-(

That was somewhat part of my questions as well in that the last response I received was ambiguous in that it said they'd given all the response they can. That could mean I was given all they know (very little, canned) or it's all their allowed to give (strange attitude toward customers).

Hello Everett,

They probably outsource the support function and this limits the capability of that section. IOW, they get what they pay for. Only once have I experienced a support rep overseas who was very smart and actually understood my problem. But I bet she was just doing this job to get herself through college, not to stay there.

If you really want an answer there is only one method that has worked remarkably well in my experience. Find out who the CEO is and how to get a message directly to him. That usually does it. A stark example was when I replaced a toilet here in the house (unusual model with back discharge). The company was unable to ship one without defects. So, I spent 15 minutes on Google, then wrote to their CEO's personal email address that I had found in some ceramic manufacturer's convention proceedings. Boy did that rattle the cage. In total they had to send six (!) toilets until one worked. I bet they lost some four digit amount just on freight charges. But, now it works, problem solved.