Ever Had a Bad Experience at a Local Camera Shop?
Of course you have! Just read an interesting post over at Thomas Hawk which references and original story at PhiloKing.com outlining some horrible local camera store experiences. I share these sentiments exactly. Currently, local camera shops for me are only used as an absolute last resort.
Although I generally refrain from posting posts bitching about anything, this subject should be addressed so local camera stores can get with the times.
Why is it that local camera stores can’t realize that to compete with online retailers they need to shine in customer service? So prices are a bit higher… I can deal with that IF customer service is great. Check out the posts here and here and if you have any experiences to share, let me know in the comments.
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Well of course its all anecdotal but my store in Montreal, Lozeau, which is a vestigial institution in Montreal that’s been around since the 30s I believe offers great service for the amateur and the hardcore pro alike with employees who know what they are talking about. But then this isn’t a Shopping Mall Camera store either. I wouldn’t trade this store for an online store for anything.
there are two popular local shops in town and i’ve spent a little bit of $$ at both. i got a used d200 body, a lens, and a nice tripod at place A and a sb600 and some other small things at place b.
place A every time i go in there the staff is courteous and extremely helpful as pretty much all of them are advanced amateurs or semi-pro (they get paid for gigs, heh). they’re usually about 10% over somewhere like B&H but i get it now and i get decent help. AND if you say you can get item X and place Y online for cheaper they’ll usually meet you somewhere to their side of the middle. which is pretty reasonable since you can deal with them locally if anything goes wrong.
place B the few times i’ve been there the clerks look at me like every question out of my mouth is some incredulous crap that they can’t believe anyone is uttering. not saying i’m a pro and have expert knowledge on everything but that’s why you ask questions. still, i kinda get this photography “thing” a little and looking surprised at questions isn’t exactly good customer service.
the sb600 was the last thing i’ll buy at place B. i’ll still make bigger purchases at place A because i can probably haggle close to internet prices. but for most things online is the way to go.
I asked my local camera shop about meeting me somewhere in the middle on pricing vs. B&H. They adamantly said they didn’t do that. He then said, “You have to ask yourself, ‘Why?’ B&H can sell for cheaper?” He also said that everything you buy here is out of the factory and not pre-owned. I told him that B&H lists products as either new or preowned, but he said you couldn’t trust that. He relayed the story of a customer who said they bought a new 5D from B&H–that had a CF card in it. “Canon doesn’t include cards with their cameras,” he said…
Hmmmm…
Anyway, I asked him how he felt he could compete in the market by pricing way over what B&H prices for items. Basically he said since Hawaii is a tourist mecca, he gets a lot of traffic from tourists who either forget their lens or cameras, or break it while here.
For me, I only get things I need immediately from them, and usually only minor (under $200) purchases. Everything else is from B&H!
well.. i`m using local shops only to get copies out of tapes.i have some analoge cameras
Oh yes! Imagine my horror when I found a local camera shop were using my photos to sell their digital photo frames? I was fuming. Then it took 5 months to have a lens repaired, although that wasn’t their fault.
I blogged about it here: http://inphotos.org/olearys-camera-world-make-me-angry/
Unfortunately for them, a search for their name brings up my post on the first page of Google.
It’ll be a long time before I darken their doors again.
Try being a women and going into a camera store. If my husband is with me, the salespeople always asks him if he needs help while completely ignoring me. To his credit, my husband usually says, “I don’t know anything about cameras. My wife is the photographer.” This is why if I usually do all my research before I go to any camera store and I just tell them exactly what I want – no discussion necessary.
I went to Berger Brothers to pick up a small tripod for my coolpix5000. I was willing to pay the price they listed on their website, which was about 15 dollars more than adorama- I was told they dont honor thier web prices at the store. Then the girl who was helping me asked me- “why do I even need a tripod for that camera”!
Alrighty; I’m going to tell a different story. I use B&H, Adorama and Huppins and spend about ten to twenty thousand dollars a year on equipment. I get the odd bad story from working with them and to be honest it’s way more than with my local stores.
I use Photographx http://www.photographxunlimited.com/ , Digital Labrador http://www.digitallabrador.com/ and Crick in Kansas City and THEY ROCK. They remember my name, organize events that interest me, help me when things go wrong and work to facilitate me making a living. Sometimes I have to use the internet to save money and sometimes I have to get these guys to save my butt.
Sure we can all find a bad story but if we assist in driving these people out of business it will be way more difficult for us to survive. Slap them on the back when they get it right and let them know when they miss the mark.
About half of my camera store experiences fall into one of two categories:
1)The staff are extremely arrogant and act like they have a chip on their shoulder. Like they are frustrated with their station in life selling to consumers and soccer moms who they feel are “below” them. I HATE this, because even if I’ve done my research beforehand on what I need and go to the local store KNOWING I could get it cheaper online, they still act this way towards me and I end up flustered like I’m back in high school.
2)The staff have NO knowledge of photography or photography equipment whatsoever. One local shop has been in business for something like 50 years I believe, so I decide to go support the local guy. The salesman I get is the SON of the OWNER(and a member of the original family that started the business), and 5 minutes into our discussion, I realize he knows less than I do about photography, and this is when I had just started with a hand-me-down film SLR and was looking into going digital. He was simply a salesman, and a horrible one at that.
Luckily I found one local shop that is superb. They can, and I have seen them, deal with anyone from the grandmother coming in to get some 4×6’s of the grandkids printed to a seasoned pro looking for great equipment and services. They treat them both in the same manner, with respect and knowledgable advice. They know their inventory and they can help you find anything you need. It definitely restored my faith in the local guys(and gals).
I have to agree with DAVE ID about Lozeau in Montreal. Great customer service. I’ve bought almost all my gear from them.
Why is it that all the good ships in my city have closed down and we are left with the WORST shop as the only photo store. That just makes the remaining store treat customers that much more poorly. That store is, BTW, Bernie’s Photo in Pittsburgh, PA. STAY AWAY from them and the “darkroom” service next door!!!!!
I agree with DaveID and Ray about Lozeau, they are absolutely great. I’m a girl and tend to feel strangely out-of-place every time I go in a camera store, but they made me feel quite at ease there. I do all my shopping and renting over there until this one time I needed a lens that lozeau rented out already, so I had to look for that equipment elsewhere.
Bad experience:
I called this other store, the clerk’s attitude was slightly arrogant (probably because I was used to lozeau’s courteous service, but it was bearable). Equipment was available so I asked about the price. Took me 5 minutes to make the clerk understand that I want it for the week-end AND the following monday, and then it took the clerk an extra 5 minutes to calculate how much it costs in total. And then I was told that the equipment is to be picked up after 5 PM on friday and is to be returned on Tuesday before 9 AM (pretty early in any standard), and I asked when they open…they told me 8:30 AM… (doesn’t make sense if you ask me). My boyfriend went to pick it up on the same day, and they told him to return the lens on tuesday before NOON.
On tuesday, I went there slightly early at 8:25 AM, people are already inside and prepared, so I knocked and asked to drop off my lens and leave, and was told to come back in 5 minutes. I came back 5 minutes later, the clerk working in rental department was chatting someone else up and totally ignored my presence, and when he finally came around, without checking anything he told me that the lens was due on the previous day (he was being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk, I don’t get it…doesn’t he want to keep his job?), I defended myself, and he shrugged and told me to leave the lens there. The entire time he was talking to me, he was not even looking at my general direction.
I’m not going back there again…
Recently during a visit to my local camera store I asked the attendant for some Cokin filters…
He said: “They are over there, but we’re getting rid of that inventory”
When I went “there” it was a mess!! Could not make heads of tails as to what was what and when I tried to get some help I was totally ignored by all the people working there.
Took my business to the web…