My niece, Debbie V., recently broke her Canon Camera. She describes her experience with her Canon camera repair as follows. Can you find the things she did right and the things she did wrong?

"I recently re-inserted my memory card in my camera after uploading pictures to my computer. For some reason, I got an error that the camera couldn't read my card. I wasn't sure what was wrong so I spent some time online trying to figure out how I might fix it myself. I attempted to clear the error by using a different card, but ended up just wasting money on another card I didn't need to buy after all. Reformatting both the cards didn't help either.

I've read that sometimes the pins inside the memory card slot can get bent or pushed in which can cause this error. It was difficult to see but I looked inside the card slot in some strong light and could see one of the tiny pins was bent. I still wanted to save money and not have to get it repaired, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. From what I heard, camera repair can be expensive. I looked for more information on Google and found that the entire reader had to be replaced, not just a straightening of the pin. In an attempt to straighten it out myself, I just got frustrated and worried I would end up damaging the camera even more.

Because I had bought my camera a while ago, I thought it was still under Canon's manufacturer warranty. I called Canon directly to find out what I should do and was told that the repair wouldn't be covered under warranty because of the nature of the repair and it was something that I had caused, even though it was an accident. The customer service woman quoted me $210 for the repair. It wasn't until recently that I found out that even if it was under warranty, some local camera repair shops can do it at the same price, at the same quality, yet faster than the manufacturer. Still, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much, but I didn't want to have to buy a whole new camera, which would be more expensive than the repair.

I looked up Phoenix camera repair shops on the internet and found one with a good reputation. I checked their BBB score and decided to use them. I sent it in to them. I called once and they told me it was ready to pickup; they were very helpful and friendly. It was a really fast repair and turned out to be extremely worth my money. I got it back 5 days later. I didn't send my lens because they didn't need it for the repair but I did get my camera cleaned along with the repair cost. It almost looked like a new camera-- they cleaned every little nook and cranny. They also updated the software, which I'm not completely sure what that means, but it seemed like my camera was a little bit faster when I started using it again. I'm glad I decided to fork over the cost of the repair because it was much more affordable compared to replacing it."