After a year of trying to deal with the people at CompUSA and GE Warranty Management Inc’s 800 numbers, I decided to take it up again with the management of the store I originally bought the Minolta dImage Z1 camera and extended service warranty from.

A retail manager there, Mr. Wessel, yesterday promised to contact the district manager and get this taken care of.

Today, I received a call from Mr. Wessel telling me it would be handled, and to come out to the store.

I went out to the Lynnwood store, found out my original camera had been lost. Apparently when they closed the Bellevue store, which is where I was directed to take it in for repair, much inventory got lost. It isn’t clear if it was sold in a clearance sale or stolen, but at any rate, it’s lost.

So they allowed me to pick out a new camera. Konica and Minolta had merged and there wasn’t really an equivalent camera in the Konica / Minolta line, so I chose a Cannon PowerShot S2, which is shaped like the Z1, uses AA batteries and SD memory like the Z1, and has overall similar functionality.

The Cannon does have a slightly better imaging chip (5 megapixels verses 3.2), and the software seems more capable, but the user interface is completely different so it’s going to take me a little while to learn how to use. But shortly I’ll be able to create some fresh material for you folks.

I want to again thank Mr. Robert Wessel at the Lynnwood store for resolving a long term problem and restoring my faith in CompUSA. I do wish they’d get some people at the customer service end of their toll-free lines that were as helpful, but as long as I’ve got someone locally that I know will deal with any issues, I’m happy!