Canon's "Worldwide" Warranty

I just got off the phone with a Brian at customer service approximately 3pm EDT, Aug. 17, 2005. The call was diverted to him by the corp. office when I told them I was phoning from overseas. He confirmed that Canon would not repair or replace my 60-day-old E0S 20D Digital camera under the guarantee and warranty. It seems there is some internal policy that does not allow Canon to honor their promises once a camera leaves US soil.
Last week, that is, less than two months of using the camera, our photographer saw that there was a major problem with it. A dark stripe appears on every frame almost every time. We are a film company. We do feature, documentary and commercial films. We bought this camera for a feature now in production. We were to use the camera for quality pics for PR. When the camera malfuctioned, we contacted Canon and took said camera to official Canon service center here in Tallinn. They said that it is true, the camera does have a serious factory defect but they want $900 to repair.
Canon USA said our alternative is to send the camera to the US for the free, (and promised by sales contract) repairs. The camera was purchased by my wife and shipped to her at our Virginia Beach, Va., USA address.

This warranty statement is pasted from www.canonusa.com:

Q. What is Canon's EOS camera warranty?

A. All models distributed by Canon USA have a 1 year parts & labor warranty which is valid worldwide.

Notice the last word, WORLDWIDE. The implication is that warranty is the same, everywhere in the world, no asterisks or notes saying otherwise. I tried to find a page on Canons site to complain to the warranty dept. or customer service. There is no such contact address. Furthermore, there is no contact address that gives a name.

I am writing to alert you to the problems I have had with a Canon PowerShot A70 digital camera that I bought at the start of 2004. For the first 6 months I did not use it much but on my holiday in early June I took about 200 photos over 10 days after which, and for no apparent reason, the camera died on me.
I sent it to Canon (UK) for repair in mid-June. After a gap of 7 weeks, during which I tried several times without success to e-mail and phone Canon to find out if they had received the camera and when it would be repaired or replaced, it was returned with no explanation for the delay or any apology. I immediately tried the camera out but after taking two photographs successfully, it again died. I therefore returned it to Canon (UK) asking that they either send me a refund or a replacement without further extended delay.

To date (now over 10 weeks since I originally sent it for repair) I have heard nothing more from Canon. Although it would be nice, having paid nearly 250, to have a product which worked, I realise that with such technology things may go wrong. However, what I do not find acceptable and what I would like to alert others to is the almost arrogant disregard Canon (UK) has shown towards me, and will presumably therefore show to other customers who have bought their products, and the abysmal level of support you are likely to receive under their standard one-year guarantee.