I'm currently extremely frustrated with Canon overall, and specifically in regards to my strobes not communicating wirelessly.
About three weeks ago I spent over two hours talking to a Canon support agent because my EL-1 and the 600s are no longer communicating wirelessly, even though the green link lights are on. In those two hours, we did everything conceivable. Verified that channels, IDs, and even groups were all properly set. We reset them all to factory new specs and tried again, etc.
This problem first presented when I was doing an End of Life shoot for a hospice patient and family. Thankfully, I had remote triggers in my bag. Yes, this was a nursing home environment and I've read the discussions of stray RF signals that could cause issues, but they've worked in my home before and I even tried them again in wide open spaces, totally away from any possible interference.
Then before sending them to Canon I talked to another support agent at CPS and did some basic troubleshooting to no avail. So, I shipped all three to Canon. Over the last almost two weeks I've called a couple of times when I'd get an updated email. I was extremely clear that if the issue is resolved I want to know exactly how it was done so!!!
Well, late this Friday afternoon I got a separate email for each strobe that they had shipped back to me. I called CPS to see what was discovered. All he could tell me was what he saw, which said the units had been cleaned and reset to factory defaults and nothing else!! He escalated a call to a call center supervisor named Tyre who said he would diffidently have someone, possibly the tech that worked on them, call me Monday. I said that would be nice but I'm not holding my breath!!!
I'm aware of a professional wedding photographer who is preparing a class action lawsuit against Canon regarding the failure of their wireless strobes and all the issues others are experiencing.
When I bought my R5 about a year ago I nearly jumped ship from Canon to either Sony or Olympus platforms. I've become frustrated with Canon support overall since COVID. When you used to call them the person was at a center and could pick up the exact piece of equipment you were calling about to assist you with more advanced issues. Now, all you get is someone at home who's trying to look up the same crap you probably already spent hours yourself trying to resolve an issue!
Canon, your support used to be the creme of the crop across almost any industry. Now, you are just barely adequate! If I'm not satisfied Monday with your response I'm done!
Scott Wright, CPS Gold Member (enough equipment to be platinum)
