Would You Like Some Wine With Your Camera?

One of the worst parts of my job is when people bring in their broken cameras for repair. Seldom do they expect the steep repair costs they will find. They usually reel back in horror when we tell them the camera is often more expensive to fix than to buy another one brand new. One of the ways we combat this, of course, is our version of the ubiquitous extended warranty retail stores try to foist on you. Our claim to fame is that our policy fixes the camera no matter what you do to it, as long as you sweep up the pieces and bring them to us.

People find many amazing ways to break their cameras, and with the large number of inherently fragile (and expensive to repair) digital cameras being sold, we have had some interesting cases. We had a camera that was dropped from the back of a motorcycle driving down 89. It was then hit by a couple of trucks. Then there was the woman who managed to break her camera three times within the first few months she owned it (yes, we kept replacing it.)

On Wednesday I had a gentleman return with a camera for the second time. A few months ago, according to his story, the camera was "knocked into the toilet". Since it was covered under our plan, we took care of it. This had become one of our favorite sales pitches when trying to convince customers that our policy covers stupid things you do to your camera. But wait, there's more. Without the slightest bit of embarrassment or apology, he calmly informed me Wednesday that this time he managed to drop the camera into a glass of wine. I was barely able to keep my jaw from dropping and calmly filled out the paperwork, as if we received wine-soaked cameras every day. As I finished filling out the forms, I began to wonder if I had heard correctly, so when I came to the part on the form where we describe what happened to the camera, I said, "so you spilled some wine on it?" He replied in a confident voice, "No, No, I dropped it right into the glass." If I did something like that, I would quietly creep into the store and confess my idiocy in hushed tones. So we bundled up the sticky little camera and sent it off to the repair department, where no doubt the techs will have a good laugh.