Comments on: A Bad Service Experience at Tall’s Camera

By: Weekend Perusing: One Polaroid A Day | Your Photo Tips

Weekend Perusing: One Polaroid A Day | Your Photo Tips — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:05:32 +0000

[...] shops need to rethink their business models and Thomas Hawk seems to agree. You can of course read his take on the story. I’ll add that I’ve had a couple of run ins with camera shop employees who [...]

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:29:36 +0000

Lets start with some basic economics. Buying in bulk reduces price. Large retailers online or not can buy multiples the volume of a smaller store. Often times B&H will sell products at the COST of a smaller store. This is not by any means an excuse for poor customer service and product knowledge.

It is simply not possible for small camera stores to get close to that price point on everything.

Sadly stores are stuck in a continuous loop. Poor sales created by lower prices online creates a drive to decrease store expenses. Superior sales people are replaced by cheap sales people. Cheap sales people reinforce the desire for customers to shop online. And loop.

It needs to be understood that no camera shop outside mega retailers can match those price points on most items.

What happens in 5-10 years when your local shop is gone and you want to get your hands on the new “X” camera? No local retailer means no local testing.

I’m not here to defend all local shops. I’ll be the first to turn out the door if I’m not being treated well. There is a place for these shops and a purpose for them. Also remember that these are humans we deal with. Are you always the best you can be at work?

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:35:48 +0000

Try Foto-Hall in Placentia, CA for good price, excellent service, friendly help at any level of customer expertise and none of the problems often found in the chain stores.

By: Michael from WI

Michael from WI — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:05:00 +0000

I went to my local camera store to buy a remote cable release. Like the kind the old film cameras used. I had built an adapter to use the cable on my P&S; at the time. For 30 minutes the store owner tried to not sell me the $10 cable. Claimed my camera had a electronic remote cable. Told me he could get in by the end of the week. That mechanical release won't work.
I told him there was no electronic release, only computer control over USB and I didn't want to take my desktop computer out in a thunderstorm to take pictures. I have an adapter for the cable. Please ring up my sale. Back and forth we went. I finally agreed to not return the cable if it didn't work.

It worked. But it hasn't really stormed here since.

I went back after a couple of years. Service has improved some what but is much better if you shoot film.

By: Danno

Danno — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:15:00 +0000

I’ve been living in Boston for 5 years and still can’t find a decent camera store that is both competitive and knowledgeable. Calumet comes close, but it’s easier and cheaper to buy online.

Before I moved to Boston, I lived in Portland, OR, and Pro Photo Supply was always top rate. They’ve improved themselves during the digital revolution, and I still make a point to visit when I’m in town visiting family.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:52:00 +0000

My experience with my local camera store has been completely on par with yours. In fact, I think it is worse. Their supposed better service is a joke. They have a bad selection, poor organization and aren’t really that interesting in answering your questions. I had one experience where I had some questions about my D80 and the clerk at the store had the nerve to tell me that he doesn’t answer questions about consumer grade bodies and he only used Pro bodies.

Needless to say my effort to support my local store is pretty much done.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:57:00 +0000

Amen to it all for the local stores *except* Pictureline in Salt Lake City. All the other home grown and national chains in Utah are pretty much as described here, limited inventory and none of the service that should make them desireable. Pictureline on the other hand is fair in their pricing, not always lowest but far better than most others, and their service has been great. I have always been quickly helped, shown all the options I want to try out, and even once had them open the doors when I arrived 5 minutes after closing to allow me to find and make my purchase.

Pictureline “gets” it.

By: Christelle

Christelle — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:55:00 +0000

Well, I’ll leave a very positive comment for once. I live in Manchester,England,and there is this little shop called Wildings, where I have been for quite a while. It’s lovely to see they recognise me when I go there, and their service is impecable. lately, I wanted to by a 40D. of course I made my research on line, but I popped at the shop (they let you try the camera, but i did not need that as I’d held the beast already..) and asked for the price. In fact, the 40D was at £629, which was lined up with the lowest prices on the internet – and remember, on the internet you get delivery waiting time+ shipping costs+ if you ever had to return it, it’s a lot of time wasted going to the post office, make sure it’s well packaged and delivery time again.
i wanted a Tamron 28-75mm 2.8, and they did not have it, they tell me to try the next local shop (Jacobs)who had it (again got it straight away)and i paid £240 again, lined up with the lowest prices on the internet. It was a supperb experience: all straightforward, very helpful, knowledgeable,and safe in the knowledge that if something was going wrong I could go back to the shop with a mere 10min walk from home and get it sorted quickly.
these shops are very aware of the competition, and they have adapted themselves to the market. They understand that you might want to buy on the internet for price reason, and adopted a customer care strategy.
It is the third camera I bought there. I bought a canon S3Is last year (great little bridge by the way) and it failed after a day. when back to the shop and they changed the camera instantly…
these shops are quite small, and they don’t store that much, however, they study their market well, and get the cameras and equipment you are most likely to want… And they definitelty know what they are talking about, and they don’t look down at you because you have another opinion.

So I hope this happy story cheers you up….

By: Zara

Zara — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:01:00 +0000

Samy's Camera here in Culver City, CA (formerly in Venice, CA) is pretty good. I know that Samy's gets pretty poor online reviews, but my experiences with them have been pleasant and helpful.

Having read Thomas's post, I checked my receipt for my most recent purchases, a Nikon D40 as a gift for a friend and a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens for myself. On the D40, Samy's charged me in-store $20 more than their online price and the online prices of B&H; and Amazon. I also paid tax, so buying from either B&H; or Amazon would have saved me about $50, about 10%.

On the lens, though, Samy's charged me $30 less than their online price and the online prices of B&H; and Amazon. I did pay tax, so the lens would have ended up $60 cheaper online.

But, like Violet Beauregard, I wanted both the camera and lens now, so I essentially paid the extra money for "instant shipping." Overall, though, Samy's does not seem to be gouging, like some other stores do.

By: Pilotship

Pilotship — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:20:00 +0000

Unfortunately I have to agree entirely with Thomas. And, unfortunately, I have to disagree about Pro Photo in Portland. It is an amazing thing. I was just having these thoughts last week, when I just happened to purchase a new Canon 40D here in Portland.

After months of research, and browsing online I decided to head out to Pro Photo to check things out in person, and more importantly, get some advice. I excitedly rode over an hour on the train down to the "toy store" to look around, and possibly buy a camera. Despite the fact that there were only a few people inside, and many staff, it took more than fifteen minutes to get even an acknowledgement of my presence. And then I could not get anyone to move from the consignment, or Nikon section, to the Canon, much less talk about comparisons. When I started talking to the gentleman firmly placed behind the Canons, I could barely get him to talk with me about the cameras!

The next day I returned out of desperation, frustration, and under a time crunch, I returned to buy my camera, only because of the special Canon weekend taking place. Even then I waited over a half hour to get acknowledgement, and wasted ten trying to chat with the Canon rep, who was also little help. A week earlier I had a wonderful talk with the Nikon rep who was at a chain store. If my mind was not made up, or if I had more cash for a D300, I may have changed camps. But, I Love my 40D!!

I am off to B&H; until the camera stores can pull their collective heads from their a**-es.