Camera Store idiots...

I see this sort of thing happen a lot in stores staffed by low paid teenagers. There will be four people lolly gagging around, and maybe one employee helping customers (it often seems that the only competent employee will be a 20'ish woman who is the sort-of a mother/manager type).

The other thing I hate are stores that have computer systems that force employees to enter all sorts of data into a register or terminal just to complete a sale. Sometimes the employees can't handle the intricacies of this and your time is wasted while they fetch help. This is an example of marketers and bean counters screwing around with our time and getting into our business for their own convenience with little thought given to how the customer perceives this interference. Radio Shack comes to mind here.
 
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my local store is great they've been in business for 60 years and have five locations. I'd love to work there-they're all photographers and know their stuff. I work at two department stores selling cameras and sadly am considered THE camera guy (I'm not very good at all which is why its sad!) I am passionate and care about what I do though so I think thats what helps.
 
My local store, Camera House on in Maroochydore, sunshine coast are the biggest bunch of douchebags and crooks I have ever met in my life.

I have probably spent about $5000 in gear there in the last 1.5 years. My father has bought his gear there. I go in to get e6 stuff developed (they send it to someone else) but it comes back nice. I won't get 35mm developed there, the film staff have absolutely a) no regard for film and b)no idea about film. They honestly don't know the difference between velvia 100 and tmax 100. The last time I took them my 35mm negs, they left them on the drying rack out in the open overnight and then the next morning when I came to pick them up, the guy just strode over, picked up the negs like you'd pick up a hamburger and while rolling them up on top of a counter, actually LEANED on the side of the counter, squashing the film between him the wood as he rolled it.

It doesn't end there either. The sales staff are actually sleazy and to be honest quite stupid. Considering I've spent quite a bit there, I feel that I have at least some of a right to be able to do things like pop a card in a camera before I buy it/handle a camera I'm considering/ask them for information on upcoming cameras/lenses etc. The first sign of trouble they gave me, I went in to buy a canon 70-200 f4L that day. They had one in stock, and wanted 1499 for it. The night earlier I had seen one for 1199 in a Brisbane chain store. I told Camera House that I wanted it for that price seeing as though the other store had it for that price. They dropped the price to 1250 and wouldn't budge lower. I ended up going to brisbane and the nice people there actually gave me the lens for $1050.

The next incident I can think of was when I was very seriously looking at a new 5d. I turned up at Camera house, asked a little about it, explained that I was looking to buy in a few days and asked if I could pop a memory card into the demo model they had to examine the images at home. Their reply, in their own words:

"You can touch that camera if you give me your credit card and let me charge $3500 for it."

I could understand that attitude if I constantly went in there and tried everything, but never bought. But considering how much money they've made off me - it's just rude and pathetic.

So, now I go to Brisbane for everything.
 
There are very few camera stores anywhere near me.

The local one morphed into a wedding studio, and then morphed again into a luxury leather goods store. The last thing I asked for was a 49mm lens cap about five years ago, and I'm still waiting!

Luckily all along they have kept the minilab out back and can still develop my C41 film. But for how much longer?
 
Do you really need to train them to not do that. This is what you get for min wage I guess.

A fw years back i went in a local frame store. The sales person just went to the rear to take a cell phone booty call. I could hear most of it. After 3 minutes we left and lost $300 in business. Never been back.

One local food store refused to man the registers. you know the drill, 10 registers, 1 manned, 50 people in line.
i just left the full cart and walked out. Can you imagine having to put all that food back? There was no frozen or meat to spoil. After a month or so the customers cured them.
 
David Murphy said:
The other thing I hate are stores that have computer systems that force employees to enter all sorts of data into a register or terminal just to complete a sale.
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I have to do that at work. Any sale over £100 and it flashes it up. I hate it, my colleagues hate it, the customers hate it. Blooming ridiculous it is.
 
I hope that my sole remaining locally owned camera store isn't are so far down the slope that it's beyond help. Independent camera and photography retailers are a bit old-school. There is one left in the center of Austin where there once were four.

We as consumers have instant expectations - which doesn't dovetail too well with the old "high street" concept of retailing where one customer is served at a time and most goods are behind glass. Even the film is behind the counter at my local independent camera retailer.

The big box stores have taken their toll. I was once in a Costco discount store where they had a pallet full of Nikon D80's with the kit lens. It was all completely self-serve and then you needed to wait in line at the centralized check out. What struck me as odd, was that the time my local independent would have been fortunate to receive 10 of the above kits from Nikon and that Costco was selling them for only a bit above wholesale by the gross.

I'll miss both my locally owned bicycle shop and photography store if they ever close. Neither are an in and out type of errand, but both employ staff that are more knowledgeable than one finds at the corporate chain stores.
 
there could have been no reason for all three to leave.
If there was a fire they should have told the customers.
If there was a blood puddle to wash up, two can do that, and one can stay to help out customers.
Ex-customers, actually.

You are right, it's annoying, you did the right thing.
 
endustry said:
What bugs me is the pervasiveness of all of these membership cards for different shops that don't even actually seem to pay any dividends...
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Really annoying indeed. The constant barrage of 'are you already in our customer database?' questions. Kills the whole shopping experience..

But even worse are the customer cards that you first need to cough up money for in order to attain the 'privilege' to be entered in the customer database..

I'm afraid it'll only go downhill from here..
 
Luckily there are some good ones in the NOVA area. Two I know of are Penn's, at least in the Springfield, VA area. They are very good and know their business. Dominion in Falls Church, VA are great too. In fact, maybe a little better than Penns.
 
I cheerfully always volunteer completely erroneous information, often verging on insane.

When you have to electronically sign those little credit card terminals, I never sign my real name. Lately, I've been using "Fred Mertz". I've used names like "Haystacks Calhoun" and "Master Bates".

Not once has anyone looked or verified the name I used.


pvdhaar said:
Really annoying indeed. The constant barrage of 'are you already in our customer database?' questions. Kills the whole shopping experience..

But even worse are the customer cards that you first need to cough up money for in order to attain the 'privilege' to be entered in the customer database..

I'm afraid it'll only go downhill from here..
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One thing I have learned in my life is that there are two sides to every story. For every moan about the service at store X there may be two or ten praises. Every situation is different.
There may have been valid reasons for the situation that occured in the original post. Maybe one of the girls was going to replenish the float and the other girls was in training and followed her. Maybe they incorrectly assumed that the one employee on the floor was helping the customer. How long did he wait before he left? The manager tried to rectify the situation with an apology and was insulted for his effort.
I play the devil's advocate here because I have been on the receiving end of a couple of internet forum smears agains the store I work at.
A customer bought equipment worth about $7000 and used it for a month. Then he called in to say he was not happy with it and he couldn't get it to work right. He came back to the store and we went over a few procedures and techniques to help him get up and running, and exchanged some components for some others that may have been more suitable for his needs.
After another week he contacted me to say that he still wasn't happy and wanted to return it all for a full refund. I explained to him that this couldn't happen, that he could exchange the equipment at full value for something else or he could have a refund less a restocking fee. (Unlike some stores, mine will not take back equipment any old time and resell it as new to the next customer.) He then says it's a technical problem with the equipment and wants it fixed, so I then explained the warranty policy which states that the equipment has to be returned to the manufacturer for evaluation, and that we would be happy to do that on his behalf at no extra charge (even though it is the owner's responibility to ship equipment to the manufacturer.)
Well the customer blew his top and the next day I received an ultimatum by email saying he wanted his money refunded to his credit card by noon that day or else...
Later I come across a post on a forum related to this type of product where this gentleman presents completely inaccurate information about this situation and makes very unkind remarks about the store and myself. Of course no one questions his story and everyone jumps on the band wagon saying the store was wrong, he should sue them, give me the name of that guy and I'll call him up and tell him off, let's spread the word and make sure no one ever shops there again, etc.
Luckily I saw all this unfolding right before my eyes and I was able to jump in, identify myself as the ignorant jerk who screwed the customer, and explain my side of the story. Tunes changed pretty fast after that, my reputation was salvaged, the poster was mildly chastised and the moderator removed the entire post.
So to make a long story short, what was my point? I don't think it's really fair to slag off stores, or anything or anyone who's reputaion may be damaged, on an internet forum where they may not be able to defend themselves. Especially since we are only getting one side of the story.
I appreciate that the original poster of this thread did not name any names in his telling. I agree he did get some bad service there but think he may have over reacted a little. This rant was not directed at him specifically or anyone else who has replied with their tales of woe in retail. I guess it's more of a general reminder not to make assumptions without all the information.
 
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My local minilab is the other side of a busy road.

So I take my film to the cafe where the minilab people go to have coffee.

Later the negatives and CD are dropped off at the cafe.

We sort out payment later.

Great customer service. Real small town way of doing business.
 
Fred, you met me at Andy's about 7 or 8 months ago but I'm not sure you remember.

I wasn't as fervent a collector as you, but I was pretty well known at the pawn shops. That one on lower Third Avenue, oh my god. The guy had an upstairs suite of rooms and a few big safes. He'd let me look around.

THOUSANDS of rare cameras, with original tags on them. Some brand new, or dripping with rare lenses and attachments. Some going back to the 1930's. (This was in the 70's and early 1980's). He never wanted to sell, you had to pry one from his hands.

A girl once came in and wanted a trade for some piece of junk. "I only have a Rollei to trade" she said, and pulled out a pristine wide angle Rollei.

"Only a Rollei".

My father owned a small camera store in the Bronx in the early 1950's. Weegee was a big customer, would come in to buy film.

One day he walked in and my father showed him the newest thing.....the first Polaroid.

I was an infant. Weegee held me in his lap, with cigar in his mouth, and my father snapped a photo. I still have it.

Weegee used to give my father a copy (with his stamp and slug) of any photo he took that he liked. My father threw them in a box.

My mother didn't like them because they were mostly horrible dead people or fires. They got a little smell of mildew in the 1970's (my parents were then living on LI), and she tossed the whole box in the garbage, hundreds of prints.

It could have funded their retirement. I was beside myself when I found out. Even then, I knew they were extremely valuable.
 
M. Valdemar said:
Weegee used to give my father a copy (with his stamp and slug) of any photo he took that he liked. My father threw them in a box.

My mother didn't like them because they were mostly horrible dead people or fires...and she tossed the whole box in the garbage, hundreds of prints.
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Holy crap!

Nice story, a great personal photographic history - and an unfortunate end.
 
M. Valdemar said:
My father owned a small camera store in the Bronx in the early 1950's. Weegee was a big customer, would come in to buy film.

One day he walked in and my father showed him the newest thing.....the first Polaroid.

I was an infant. Weegee held me in his lap, with cigar in his mouth, and my father snapped a photo. I still have it.

Weegee used to give my father a copy (with his stamp and slug) of any photo he took that he liked. My father threw them in a box.
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OMG, a true brush with greatness! I'm jealous! :)

Two books I remember very well from when I started getting into photography were Weegee's People and Weegee's World.
 
LOL, Americans and your service! you should try living in France, I've seen the waiter go for a cig break whilst my food sat on the counter going cold! I got up to get it and got an earful from the waiter when he came back. LOL. At the time I was pissed, and I'm sure I'd have been pissed too if I were in your shoes, but I'd have probably taken the film and then not gone back, a long way to go for nothing :(
 
M. Valdemar said:
THOUSANDS of rare cameras, with original tags on them. Some brand new, or dripping with rare lenses and attachments.
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There's a store in my city, about ten minutes away.

nico has been there and knows it too.

The guy has many rangefinder cameras: but not for sale.

I think nico tried to buy a Yashica GSN (or similar) and the guy wouldn't sell it.
 
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