Shopping for Leica Ms / camera store etiquette.

If I'm thinking of the same place Peter_N is, the ex-manager is alive and well at another store in Boston - or so I've heard via the grapevine...
 
I am with Magus on this one. I hate poor customer service. Customer sevice is the most important thing to me when I purchase anything, especailly a big ticket item. I'd chalk your experience up to someone who is mixing the collector world with the user world, and has no idea of customer service (or the need to sell something when you are a salesperson). So many salespeople today do not know how to sell, which combines friendliness and inquisitiveness with the ability to make the customer feel part of a bigger world (in this case, Leica photography and ownership). Make the customer feel special-how hard is that?

I am lucky: I bought my MP new from a local dealer who was also a friend and fellow Leica nut, and he was more than happy to let me put a roll of film through it before I bought it-which I did not but appreciated anyway. But he is an exception, I think. You'll do a lot better dealing with a number of RFF folks when it comes to getting your Leica kit together.

By all means, when you get your Leica, bring it back to this guy and show him how much you like your camera. Best of all, get an M3 or M2 and an M4 and tell him you decided to try both types of film rewind. Heh, heh, heh...
 
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When I was a kid I lived in a town called Hull, in the north of England. There were a few music shops there. In one of them, the salesmen were suited and snooty, and wouldn't let spotty upstart kids touch the stock. In the other one, the salesmen were all musicians, really knew their stuff - and would talk to you all day, giving advice. Even when I bought my first Gibson down in London, one particular salesman was still friendly and commended me on my choice.
It was maybe five years later that I bought a Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120, from 1964, from him, when he finally had his own store. When my band got a record advance, it was wasn't a huge amount, maybe $5,000, we spent all of it there. ANd around 10 years ago, when I was back in town, from my home in London, I bought a 1952 Fender Telecaster from him.

Any salesman who thinks he can afford to ignore a potential customer is not really a salesman.
 
Damnation, I have been to so many camera shops that has a-hole's working in them, what is it with some places? Back in Washington state there is this place called Robi's or something like that in Tacoma. There is this bald SOB in there that couldnt clean my canon 20D's sensor right after bringing it back to him on a 3rd time he said he couldnt clean it any better. I bought a visible dust sensor brush and it cleaned the sensor better and everything then he did for cheaper and I can use it for cheaper and whenever I want without leaving my camera with some nut.
 
To make things worse a year and a half later I found myself in that shop again and he was bragging about how their scanner is so good and how it makes a 40 meg scan and costs 120 dollars a scan, and I told him that I get pro scans bigger and better then that done in china for 80 cents each. Luckily I talked to another guy in there, an nice older man who sold me my 50 elmar redscale for 90 dollars. Great deal. Other then that I would never ever go back to that place again. Even the guy who sold me my lens suggested I should to to Glazers in seattle. Glazers is great, love that place, I went in there twice to fondle the leicas (m7, mp, m8) and lenses, even stuck a few lenses on my bessa to see how they fit with me etc etc and the Mark guy in there was nice and patient and in the end helped me buy a screw to m mount adapter and showed me how to use it and screw lenses on and whatever without any fuss.
 
I've used a round rewind knob on a Kiev (Contax II derivative). It's a tiny bit slower than using a fold out rewind knob on later cameras. But not a huge issue. I developed a variation of the technique described above ... I'd hold the camera in one hand and the rewind knob in the other and turn both in opposite directions at once. That sped up the rewind process.
 
I spent 20 minutes in my local vintage camera shop. I wanted to get a few obscure pieces. I pretty much got what I was looking for. The man and woman in there probably don't know my name but they'll never forget my face. Whether I spend £1 or £100, if they have it in that shop, I'll buy it there rather than anywhere else.

That's only because the people in there are so friendly and always greet me with a smile.

Compare that to the other 3 or more camera shops in swindon that are all money-grabbing.

Same as Paul-T I guess. I refuse to enter one of the music/instrument shops in swindon because they are so rude.
 
Well from the camera sales man's point of view, there have been more than a few customers I have wanted to smack and several that I have told to leave the store. Of course, there is really no excuse for being rude from either side. I question whether the sales men in question even want to sell cameras!!

Have I asked for a camera back before. Yea I have a couple times because they had no idea how to even put a lens on, but were trying to jam it on as hard as they could so it was either grab the thing quick or end up with a destroyed 5D and lens. Sometimes you just can't help it.

You try to be nice to the customers and show them, but you'd be amazed how many customers walk in with a chip on their shoulders and automatically assume I don't know a thing and they know everything. I take great delight in proving they know nothing. Not because I am an ass, but because they are! ;) If they are polite to me then I will spend all day helping them.

I don't know everything about every camera, but I try my best to find an answer if I don't know. I don't just make stuff up to make a sale.

Now for my story about a watch shop ;) I was in the mall one day and happened to have about $1000 cash in my pocket. I wasn't using for some reason, I had just failed to go to the bank as I was supposed to! I noticed the nice watches in one store and asked to see one. The salesman looked at me and said no you can't see it, you can't afford this watch. He then turned around and went to the other customers that were there. I kindly walked over to him, pulled out my $1000 and set it on the counter in front of him and the customers and said well, I guess I will just go elsewhere for my purchase. You should have seen the look on the customers faces who had heard all of this!

The guy tried to apologize to me but I just walked out saying something to the effect of I don't deal with rude a**holes. I had no intention of buying a watch anyways, but just the way he treated me, I wasn't going to let that slide!
 
So as I was typing all of that. A customer just walked in and said I have a camera I want to give to you. I don't use it and want you to find it a good home. I told the gentleman we would buy the camera but he said no thank you, he didn't want any money.

It's a Nikon F with 50 f1.4 and prism finder.

Someone pinch me!
 
JNewell said:
If I'm thinking of the same place Peter_N is, the ex-manager is alive and well at another store in Boston - or so I've heard via the grapevine...
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Except that he didn't go there as manager, he bought the store with a partner. He's the Boss now! :)
 
peter_n said:
Except that he didn't go there as manager, he bought the store with a partner. He's the Boss now! :)
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Ah, good for him. Funny you should mention that - I was on the phone with the man himself half an hour ago looking for an eyepiece correction lens for a Leica[non-RF reference deleted] SL2 (no luck). I remember old EPL...now THERE was a camera dealer.
 
I have also seen some snob-leica-sellers, who first of all check you out from head to toe to see if you are worthy of their camera, and dont let you even touch them because they think you might not have enough money or experience to deserve on. just ignore them and get your cameras from people who treat leicas as cameras and customers as people.
 
bd the guy has never even taken a photo with a leica before, he just prefers to "fondle" them in his storeroom, the guy sounds like a super freak ;)
 
lubitel said:
I have also seen some snob-leica-sellers, who first of all check you out from head to toe to see if you are worthy of their camera...
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I wear my nice clothes to funerals, and basically live in rumpled jeans and a collection of identical twelve-dollar T-shirts, so I know the type. They usually hand me a five-dollar note and expect me to wash and squeegee the shop windows.


Made fifteen bucks one day, out looking for a fast M-mount fifty. Thank goodness my Rolex is waterproof.
 
Is this shop in N ville perchance? I have hade some similar experiences there. Where did the guy with the beard (blond) go to in Boston? I am looking for a well stocked Leica dealer in bos...
 
Yes it is, at least that's the shop we're talking about. Mike has bought (with a partner) EP Levine at 23 Drydock Ave in Boston.
 
caffeineshutter said:
It's been great reading all your reactions, comments, and anecdotes about camera retail.

Incidentally, this owner/salesman runs the aforementioned shop in a very moneyed suburb of the Boston metro area. For kicks, I Googled his name and shop. The results I got were almost exclusively M8 owners gushing over his "great" demeanor and "lightnin' fast" (which I read as "boot licking") service. I can't help but think this guy knows his clientele well enough to be able to cherry pick the well-heeled dilettante photogs when they come through the door.
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You've already answered your own question. This person looked at you and bet that you were just "kicking tires" and weren't going to spend a dime. Young guy with no money. This is by no means an excuse for his behavior, but if he has as many well healed clients as you think he does he could care less about you. Exercise your right and go to another dealer. I wouldn't even waste my time worrying about this shop, who the owner is, or what the name of the camera shop is! Truth be told the majority of us don't buy our equipment from these dealers anyway. I'll go out on a limb and say that most of us buy online / gray market/ or from our own classifieds. We all at one time or another have bought a piece or two from a dealer but the majority of the equipment wasn't acquired this way. Look at the demographics of Leica owners if they have such a thing and half of us would probably receive the same treatment as "caffeineshutter".

Now if you've got some spare $$$ I've got a RF with your name on it :D
 
No, it's not that one...

No, it's not that one...

I've never purchased anything substantial at his old shop (and never had a problem there, FWIW), but Mike seems like a nice guy. I wish him well at the helm of Levine's. BTW: I've never bought 'big ticket' at Levine's, either, but I've been a long-time customer there, and Cole and the rest of the sales/counter folk are good people.


peter_n said:
If the town begins with "N" that dealership recently lost a very long-serving manager who ran the camera sales desk. He is a great bloke and also a Leica user and I'm sure he took most of his clientele with him.

The owner is out to lunch.
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