Blackmagic Forum

OK, so recently the usb-c port on my pocket 4K stopped working. I spoke to customer care about this and they said that I have to send it in for repair. That's fine and expected. The thing is that to send it from Canada to the US they said that I have to send it via an International Shipping Broker to satisfy a load of crazy bureaucracy and forms that need to be filled out. The Broker quote I got was almost as much as the repair and massively time-consuming. Is this really the only way to get a BM camera fixed in Canada?

I've decided to just get a Cfast card as they're on sale right now and is cheaper than sending the camera in to get fixed. The downside is that I won't be able to do any firmware updates. This is totally crazy.

Can anyone else speak to this situation? Another local camera op said that he just sent his to the US via Fedex to get fixed a while ago, no Broker needed. What has changed between then and now?

Tollan wrote:…
Can anyone else speak to this situation? Another local camera op said that he just sent his to the US via Fedex to get fixed a while ago, no Broker needed. What has changed between then and now?

Your shipper, such as FedEx, can clarify. What is important is the shipping form must include the reason for shipping which on this situation is going to be “warranty repair” or “camera repair” as applicable. This let’s both US Customs and Canada Customs know on the shipment back to you that the camera was shipped for a repair. If they don’t include this reason Canada Customs might charge you duty.

The receiving shipper such as FedEx in Canada will help you identify a Canadian broker when the equipment is returned to Canada. You don’t need a Canadian broker now when you are sending the equipment, but it’s essential the shipper identify it’s a repair shipment.

Where did you buy the camera? If you bought it secondhand I guess you're out of luck, but if you bought it from one of BMD's resellers they should be able to handle the return for you.

I've bought two new BMD cameras from resellers; both of them came with problems out of the box and had to be sent back. One of them was repairable and the reseller took care of all the paperwork. The other one wasn't repairable and the reseller exchanged it.