Warning! Nikon Canada Will Void Warranty Without Proof

I wanted to inform people about my recent experience with Nikon Canada's Customer Service. Sadly it was nowhere near what I thought Nikon would be.

Some back story into the situation before I explain what happened. I'm a photographer that babies his gear. I never have a lens cap off, the cameras and lenses are cleaned regularly, they are never outside of a bag unless I am using them and when travelling I usually end up double bagging my gear inside of two different camera bags (Lens case and then a camera bag holding the lens cases), inside of a carry on piece of luggage that doesn't leave my side.
Anyway, you have probably got the message that I wouldn't let my camera fall or face an impact or be bumped, especially not misused and abused.

Recently in March of 2015, I was on a vacation at the Grand Canyon taking photos and my top LCD panel cracked. How this happened, only god knows, it cracked between the time I put it in my camera bag, in the car on my lap, and the time I took it out of the camera bag 15 minutes later from my lap. This rules out any kind of impact damage causing the crack.
To get to Nikon's Customer Service. I sent in a service request to Nikon and was told this would not cover warranty (even though the warranty is 2 years against manufacturers flaws, which I could easily argue that this was) They then decided that it would be fair to charge me 300$ in repairs. I declined this because I felt that it is impossible for me to be told that because I dropped it, or misused my camera that it would not cover warranty.

Nikon then proceeded to tell me that I must have had my camera subjected to temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius, which in case you were not aware of the temperatures at the grand canyon in March hovers between 15 degrees and -5 Degrees. On that day it was no colder than -3 Degrees. After they backpedaled from that they said that the warranty should have been honored. After this bout of communication I sent in my camera for repair. After sending it in for repair two weeks ago (delayed due to the camera needing to be in use for various reasons) I was told that they would no longer honor the warranty.
After calling customer service they refused to believe a customer and were not listening to the situation, the customer service representative then hung up the phone and refused to let us speak to a supervisor. Upon calling another department to circumnavigate the representative that would not let us proceed to talk to people who are able to help with the situation we were finally in touch with a manager. While on the phone with the manager, they were again refusing to believe that the damage could not have been caused by impact. Even with the proof we could supply, the supervisor was insisting that if it did not leave the Nikon facility with a crack on the LCD panel, then they are not held accountable. This is a ploy to get out of their warranty which they refuse to honor. After going through this conversation in circles a few times once more I was disgusted at the amount of uncaring and disregard for me, a loyal customer of Nikon since I picked up my first camera. I expected Nikon to honor their customers and honor warranties that they have. They then changed their tune to try and say that it is not their fault if it was caused by ice build up, because instead of it being subjected to below 20 degrees, it is now not covered by the warranty if the camera is in an environment with temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius.

I had hoped that Nikon would respect their users and value our loyalty to them, however I have found otherwise. I will never be bringing another item in for a servicing at Nikon Canada, instead I will be bringing it to another repair center which I know will be honorable and not give me the run around and try to get out of whatever "warranty" they say.
Has a situation like this ever happened to anyone else?


Since I wrote this letter Nikon has continued to give me no proof of the "Impact Damage" and they also refuse to answer questions that directly regard my camera. 

Take this as a warning if you are in Canada and have a problem with your camera in the early years. Nikon doesn't want to hear your story, and they will void their "Warranty" by citing whatever they want to get out of it. 

Geez....

I would call Professional services in US and speak to someone else, doesn't sound right 

That's too bad, but I have had only good CS from Nikon. Maybe just a Canadier thing?

Just wondering, is Nikon Canada a gray camera? How come you went through them if it happened at the Grand canyon? Are you a Canada resident? I've dealt with Nikon a few time's in the U.S. and been more than satisfied with them.