***** Shop assistants

Lensmeister · May 29, 2005

:x

Thursday was a bit of a mare. I woke up with the kinda migraine that would knock out a horse. But being the brave little soldier I am off I went to work at an ungodly hour!

I got to work and decided that a walk and a half days leave would be better. So I did.

I was hoping to spy a good cheap Canon Digital ...........

I went into one shop and they were helpful and told me all I wanted to know.

the next shop ...... OMG what a total A****** !

Fir4st he told me that the Canon were the worst camera makers, that the Canon EOS 300D was a overpriced compact, then he tried to get me to buy a Nikon. I explained a third time that I had 4 Canon EF fit lenses and that I wanted a Canon SLR.

Did this make hi take note?

The hell it did !

he went in to full on muppet mode ! He told me that Nikon was the prefered camera for the Professional. I politely explained that wasn't quiet true as I had covered some big games at Wembley Stadium in the past and 98% of the pros used Canon EOS 1 or variations there of. This took the wind a little out of his sails.

But he rallied with a ... "well.... this is a good camera" .. and showed me a Rollei compact !

Ok so if I were an unsuspection "punter" I might had fallen for his sales patter ... but I didn't.

So how many others have had similar experiences =like this ...... oh and the migraine left me two days later .... and I took photos wit hthe migraine too .... dedication huh ?

Meysha · May 29, 2005

Can I choose E - All of the above.

I had exactly the same experience this morning! First shop I went into had both the 350D and D70 and I said I wanted to have a look at them. I asked a bunch of questions about them and then the prices. (They were horrendously expensive) So I asked why are they so expensive and such a big difference between them. The guy managed to pull some crap from his ass about being professional cameras. Then he said that he would definately buy the D70 because it's image quality was miles and miles better than the Canon and that everyone shoots nikon and Canon is only for babies. WTF!!

So I went to another camera store - the official big kodak shop we have here. There's one dumb ***** in there who helped serve me about 4 months ago and she was sooo stupid back then - I just figured she'd just started the job, coz she had to ask for help on every question I asked. But nothing had changed this time! Seriously lady just open your ears and you will learn!! Mind you the guy that helped me after her was very nice and knowlegeable.

There is a shop at home I pretty much now just refuse to go in because their sales staff are sooo stupid! It's a big electrical store so they have cameras, computers, software, stereos, and whitegoods. But they don't know anything about the products, they're rude and dumb and idiots and there's never enough staff.....Grrrr... I need a thesaurus. :grumpy:

Oh wow. I feel a lot better now. Thanks!

Meysha · May 29, 2005

You should've picked up the Rollei and given him a whack over the head with it and yelled "Listen to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ..... "Listen to meeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Then run around like a crazy man praising the canon and nikon gods and how this stupid d*ck head has blasphemed against you and your followers. Then pick up a tripod and use it as an antenna to try and tune in to the latest images being transfered by the great canon and nikon gods for your next war instructions against these twerps!

Lensmeister · May 29, 2005

Meysha said:
You should've picked up the Rollei and given him a whack over the head with it and yelled "Listen to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ..... "Listen to meeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Then run around like a crazy man praising the canon and nikon gods and how this stupid d*ck head has blasphemed against you and your followers. Then pick up a tripod and use it as an antenna to try and tune in to the latest images being transfered by the great canon and nikon gods for your next war instructions against these twerps!

Now Meysha ... I gave you the wrong impression of me .... I wouldn't hit him with a Rollei ........ a Leica maybe .... or hasslblad !

But ... you raised a good point ... why do shop employ people with NO idea about cameras ...... I walked in to one shop asked for a roll of Fuji 1600 ASA 35 mm film 36 Exposure ... I was given a Kodak 100asa akttachrome 24 exposures ..... nice little girl about 16 ... and I leanrt a lot about her sex life whilst waiting too ! ..... she didn't seem to mind who heard

Artemis · May 29, 2005

Meysha said:
You should've picked up the Rollei and given him a whack over the head with it and yelled "Listen to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ..... "Listen to meeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Then run around like a crazy man praising the canon and nikon gods and how this stupid d*ck head has blasphemed against you and your followers. Then pick up a tripod and use it as an antenna to try and tune in to the latest images being transfered by the great canon and nikon gods for your next war instructions against these twerps!

I concur.

hehe...I had a kinda similar expeirence, found a Soft Focus cokin filter in the clearance bucket thing, it was in jessops, so I went up the guy.

"...eh...Hello?"
"Hello"
"Umm...how much is this?"
"Now this, is a cokin Soft Focus filter, it defracts light as it hits to spread it across a wide spectrum, and then this effect will soften the image, and thus giving it a soft focus effect"
"ahh.....price?"
"hold on *presses buttons* £12.99"
"Ill think about it"
He then keeps it behind the desk....mm..

But generally Parks Cameras and Jessops are my fav...infact...if your ever in uk GO TO PARKS CAMERAS...they are aboslutely fantastic people! and they are so nice/helpfull...

Artemis · May 29, 2005

Lensmeister said:
Now Meysha ... I gave you the wrong impression of me .... I wouldn't hit him with a Rollei ........ a Leica maybe .... or hasslblad !

But ... you raised a good point ... why do shop employ people with NO idea about cameras ...... I walked in to one shop asked for a roll of Fuji 1600 ASA 35 mm film 36 Exposure ... I was given a Kodak 100asa akttachrome 24 exposures ..... nice little girl about 16 ... and I leanrt a lot about her sex life whilst waiting too ! ..... she didn't seem to mind who heard

Blessed man...blessed man :er:

Lensmeister · May 29, 2005

Park Camera ... Burgess Hill right ?

As I live in Croydon I could hit that shop one day .......

Oh yes .. the experience I had ... in central London !

tempra · May 29, 2005

err, you guys go to shops - real ones?? I've only ever done that once when I got my EOS100 & 35-80 lens, camera is good, but the lens was absolutely terrible - mind you, I made a profit on it on ebay - and he got my little powershot working again for nothing.

Since then I have made a point of not going into camera shops - I might stand outside and drool on the windows, but I don't go in.

fadingaway1986 · May 29, 2005

I had a similiar experience a while ago when I was looking for Ilford B&W film. I went into a Kodak Express shop. (working in a lab myself - I check out their equipment if I can see it, noticing they had the same printer as us). Anyway - she came to help me, I asked if they had any ilford film (all I could see was Kodak), and she said no. the proceeded to tell me that traditional black and white film was a waste of time, and their Kodak TN400 (or whatever its called, i forget) is better because it is C-41 process, and buying the other stuff is a waste of time because no where develops it.

I said I work in a lab, and could send it away to Kodak. Which she said was crap and Kodak scratch your negs etc. Then I said I could take it to a big photographic shop - and she said that they are crap too.

Then she suggested that they could do it. And their machines are much better than the likes of Kmart as their machines are digital. To which I replied that we have exactly the same machine as she does. She went blank and gave in. She just wouldnt take it that I didnt want to buy kodak film. I just said, no sorry, I would like to try traditional out anyway. And left.

Phew.

Meanwhile when I bought my 300D recently - I got great service.

tr0gd0o0r · May 29, 2005

I've got nothing but great service from the people at my local camera shop (exluding the contact sheet and one time he told a friend she could reroll 120 film onto a 126 reel.) But they do at least know about their camera stuff.

LizM · May 29, 2005

I've found the "Oh you poor uncultured slob" glare down the bridge of my nose with a muttered "uh huh?" takes the wind out of most of their sails. If that doesn't work, I advise them what I want no more than 3 times. If I don't have the product in my hand at that point I leave...or turn around and ask the other salesperson (the knowledgeable salesperson ALWAYS seems to be helping someone else) to help you when they finish with their current customer.

Of course, one of my favorite passtimes is to contradict everything the idiot salesman tells whatever customer they are "helping" at the moment too. My small revenge for having to deal with their stupidity...plus it saves the non-camera literate from being snookered.

Unimaxium · May 29, 2005

I've had mostly good experience with the guys in the camera shops I go to (except for one time when the salesman didn't seem to understand when I was looking for negative sleeves that hold 6 strips of 6 frames (all they had were ones that hold 7 strips of 5 frames, which means they only hold 35 instead of 36), but that wasn't much of an incident anyway). Although my luck with salespeople might be because I know where in town to go for what kinds of supplies or service. For example, I go to the place that specializes in processing to get my film processed, and used I go to the place with the best film stock to buy my film until they went out of business a few months ago (now I just go to Ritz Camera for that, because the guys there are knowledgable enough and they're near to my home). But I mostly don't go to the processing place for film, except for really good stuff like Velvia because I can see that they keep it in a refrigerator at all times until they sell it to me. And I NEVER go to Ritz Camera anymore for processing because they have a habit of ALWAYS scratiching my slide film. So basically it helps to know who knows about what, and to become familiar with the people working in the shops. If they know you as a loyal customer (as at least two shops in town do for me), then they will probably be more willing to give you their honest opinion than try to push something for the best profit. And you might be able to get to talk to the knowledgable guy in the store more often if they're familiar with you.

Artemis · May 30, 2005

Lensmeister said:
Park Camera ... Burgess Hill right ?

As I live in Croydon I could hit that shop one day .......

Oh yes .. the experience I had ... in central London !

Yep I believe so, gotto give it a try matey!

Xmetal · May 30, 2005

I've been to 2 camera stores recently and they both had superb service and weren't biased towards a particular brand, I was more than happy about how both shops were more than eager to price-match aswell.

SonicAdvDX · May 30, 2005

I just give up. Online stores are way easier, especially when put next to dealing with the Amerikan Ignoramuses that work at my local Lakeside Camera. T_T* I though that the point of working at a camera shop was to know a smidge about what you're selling. Obviously, I got the wrong idea. Either way, it's usually way easier just to buy them online... Now, if I could just get my dad to trust eBay... *ponders the possibilities*