In 2003 I bought a Canon A80 4mp camera. Paid a rather princely sum compared to today's prices. I've always liked it, it takes AA batteries, has a flip out and twist screen so you can view the image if you hold it over your head or if you are trying to compose a shot in front of the camera which is really handy, even if it is the size of a postage stamp, also has a view finder, CompactFlash mem card. My brother also bought the identical camera about a year later. It served me well until about a year ago when the image started streaking & distorting and it basically died.
I tossed it in the shelf and bought a new Canon Powershot A1100IS. Recently my brothers camera died in the same manner. He started to look for a replacement and ran across a little blurb about the imager problems Canon had on various models of their products which led him to the Canon site and a tech bulletin. There was a manufacturing defect with the imagers supplied to Canon on a number of models.
Mind you the cameras are 7 years old at this point.
Canon customer service answered the phone on the second ring.
Canon sent a pre-paid shipping label via email for each camera.
They repaired both of them. Mine had had a dented top cover where I had dropped it, they also replaced the top cover.
They returned them each via FedEx.
Total out of pocket expense, ZERO!
13 days from contacting & door to door turn around.
Lets face it, anything electronic more than 5 years old is old technology. Who keeps a cell phone for more than 2-3 years? For them to do this for ZERO out of pocket expense for the customer is arguably above and beyond any expectations. In addition, they emailed and mailed a hard copy of receipt, repair status & return shipping with tracking information.