Casio's customer service

For my birthday 2 years ago, my brother gave me a really nice camera: a Casio Exilim. I had a few months last fall where the only camera I was using was the SLR, mostly because it's so good at taking pictures like this:

So after a season of neglect, I went to get my Casio out to take with us on an afternoon out. And the battery was dead. Not just dead, but un-chargeable. I consulted Teh Interwebs, who told me that this was the result of a problem with the particular batteries that come with the cameras. OH BOTHER.

I went on Amazon and bought a replacement (non-Casio, as I was feeling skittish) battery. Which I charged, took a few pictures with, and left in the camera for about 6 weeks. When I went to take the camera on the Ladies' Guild outing a few weeks ago, I checked the camera for charge before I left the house. No juice.

I opened the battery cover and flipped the little switch that's supposed to eject the battery. And flipped it again. The battery stayed put. DOUBLE BOTHER. After an intervention with tweezers, a paperclip, and lots of bad words, I got the battery out. It had swollen in the camera and gotten stuck.

I emailed the Amazon e-seller who was extremely gracious and refunded my £ (and I sent back the battery so they could make a claim with their supplier), and then I emailed Casio UK in a last-ditch effort to get a new battery for my camera (as I was going to stay away from the non-branded ones and Casio don't sell the NP-20 batteries on their website). They took my camera's serial number and the battery number, and emailed back within 48 hours with the promise of a new (free!) battery. Which arrived today and is charging happily upstairs.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm (a) impressed with Casio's speedy customer service and battery replacement skills, (b) marginally annoyed that I had to go through the Amazon rigmarole rather than just contacting Casio in the first place, and (c) vaguely irritated that Casio made such a crappy battery for what is otherwise an awesome camera. So if anyone else out there has an Exilim from 2007 with a dead battery, email Casio and they'll hook you up.

A final update, which is long overdue: my dad's now-finished needlepoint (it's not quite done in this picture), made from a photograph he took. I think I will still have to claim this as the Best Christmas Present Idea Ever. And I like the needlepoint even better than the original picture.