Canon camera repair

Props to the Canon repair center in Virginia. I recently shipped a broken DSLR to them. Within an hour of receiving it, they sent email with a quote. (Deduced from the timestamp on their email and the Fedex delivery notification.) I responded that evening with the online payment (and rebuffed their attempt to upsell by declining an upgrade.) The camera was fixed and shipped the very next day. Quick and efficient service. Good show!

Olympus not very helpful to their customers

I have an old Olympus VN-960 digital voice recorder. Wanting to use it after quite some time, I dusted it off, popped new batteries into it, and went online to download the latest drivers so that I could copy the recorded files onto my computer. Unlike every other company in the world that makes hardware, Olympus will not let you download the software without paying $20 for the privilege of doing so. The only reason that I can think of for doing so is to try and shakedown the customer whenever they can. Shame on Olympus for not making the drivers freely available online!

It is telling that the internet is closer for me than a CD with software stacked in one corner of the room.