Canon warranty for second hand purchases

Despite swearing off Canon with the TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE of the Canon S100, I'm back for more pain. Why? I want to be able to record 1080p and take better photographs that my iPhone 5S can muster.

So I followed Singapore's Clubsnap advice with buying a second-hand Canon S120 for 450SGD, by ensuring I didn't just have the warranty card, but the original receipt from Challenger too.

In an ideal world, the Canon's serial number printed at the bottom would be enough. No fiddly bits of paper to worry about.

Canon S120 serial number

Then when signing up for the warranty, the awfully implemented form at https://warranty.canon.com.sg/ said my serial number was invalid.

Er, what? So I jump through the five or six hoops to fill in a tiny form to Contact Canon support in Singapore, to get this reply:

Thank you for contacting Canon Contact Centre. My name is Michael and I will be more than happy to assist you.

As I understand it, you had purchased 2nd hand camera and would like to register online warranty however it's failed. If there has been any misunderstanding, please do let me know.

We regret to inform you as your product already been registered online warranty for the previous owner, this is reason why you currently unable to register online warranty again and show invalid serial number.

We would like to apologize as we unable to change the ownership name, or else the warranty period will be terminate and unable to register the online warranty to get back the warranty period.

Once again, we would like to truly apologize for any inconvenience caused.

I hope the above information helps to address your concern. Do keep the case ID 255932 for reference.

We look forward to serving you again.

So if I understand this, a new owner invalidates the warranty? This is what I wrote back to the customer service representative Michael, and he replied:

I would like to advise you still may carry in your product for servicing under the warranty period between 4th January 2014 until 3rd April 2015 without any service charge. 

So basically, I can still get warranty service as I understand it, but not if I update the ownership details of the second-hand Canon camera I bought. Completely daft Canon.

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