A Hardly Normal story

[chrisk]

Soooo...since i have recently moved work into the city i have had the opportunity to wander into alot of camera stores that i wouldn't normally go to. my experience with brick and mortar camera stores has been depressing, frustrating and infuriating at the same time. what i found, (i know this is nothing new to most of you), is a bunch of snooty pricks who charge you thru the nose for the benefit of their ill informed, obnoxious opinions. about as low as you can get right ? nope.

i wanted to buy an s100 and to cut a long story short, i had a bit of time to kill on the way home and went to caringbah to check out if jb had any. nope, nothing. so i went to HN upstairs, (passing great big HUGE signs saying they have a price guarantee), and whaddya know they have one there ! great !

the joint is dead. i mean DEAD. 10 staff in there and zero customers. Z-E-R-O. GREAT ! this is gonna be quick and easy ! so then i see the salesman and that's when the alarm bells start ringing....

alarm bell #1:
he's sitting on his fat ass on the computer, sees me, doesn't acknowledge me. so i walk up to him...
"excuse me mate."
"yes ?" (still looking and typing at the computer)

alarm bell #2:
"i wanted to take a look at an s100 pls."
"nikon ?"
"no, canon"
"you mean the sx100 ?"
"no, s100."
"theres no such camera."
"so whats the one sitting right over there in the cabinet."
"s95"
"look again mate."
"oh yeah, it must be new."
"can you pull it out for me."

he pulls it out and i wanted to check the size of it next to a g12 and J1.

alarm bell #3:
"can you pull out those other 2 cameras so i can check the size difference."
"ahhh, no, i can only pull one out at a time."

i look at him dumbfounded.

"its quiet, so i can do it this time"
he does it begrudgingly.

alarm bell #4:
"just wanted to double check that this shoots RAW."
"why do you want to shoot raw ?"
"mate, dont tell me how to use a camera, do you know or not ?"
"i'll have to check". but he doesn't do anything.
"so...can you check."
he begrudgingly looks it up and it does.

alarm bell #5:
"great, i'll take one. how much can you do it for ?"
"its 549"
"thanks, yeah i know thats the ticketed price, can you do it for a better price ?"
"no, thats the price. its only a new camera.
"DCW has it for 469 and digidirect have it for 479, so you can price match that."
"no, the price is still 549"
"i thought you price matched ?"
"yeah if we can."
"lol, you're taking the piss now right ? there's a great big fuckin sign out the front of the shop saying price match guarantee."
"yeah, but thats not internet prices."
"its not an internet price mate, these are also brick and mortar stores."
"dcw is grey and only online."
"no, they have stores in the major capitals"
"where in sydney ?"
"canterbury"
"yeah, we still cant match that price, its 549."

alarm bell #6

"hold up here, whats the point of having that sign up the front ?"
"well thats only for matching our competitors"

i'm almost speechless...

"your competitors ? like who ?"
"jbhifi, myer, good guys."
"so DCW arent competitors of yours ?"
"no"
"and you;re seriously not going to price match ?"
"no"
"ok, im going to ask you one more time to match the price and honour your advertising, are you going to do it or not ?"
"no, i cant do it, its a brand new camera."
"righto, mate, go away and get me a manager now."
"you can talk to whoever you want, but the price is still 549."

now honestly, well before this point i would have just walked away. i was thinking i should give my business to the store with the cheapoest advertised price and give them the sale. but hell no man. these bastards needed to be held to account ! it became my afternoons petty mission ! but seriously, one more alarm bell and it was gonna get very ugly for this little prick when just at that moment a younger kid walks up to the counter, hes around 25 i'd say.

"hi, can i help ?"
i relay him the story about the price match.
"do you have a brochure or something ?"
"no, but i'll bring up their website on my phone."
"ok, perfect, no problem."

so that was the end of that. in the meantime knobjockey had disappeared.

some may say that the first alarm bell was walking into hardly normal to begin with...and you'd be right.

thank you for allowing me this recall of my experience. it was quite cathartic.

[Reschsmooth]

Sorry Chris, are we supposed to be surprise?

To really take the piss, I would have done what you did to the point of buying and then said "thanks mate, but I will buy from DCW".

[Matt. K]

Perhaps the first guy was just a bored customer who saw an opportunity to have some fun??
Seriously though....how much did you end up paying?

[chrisk]

469.

[Wink]

That's funny. Another good reason to buy grey IMO.
Bricks and mortar stores... Pfft! What's the point when behind all the bricks and mortar is shit like this?

(PS: I know all stores aren't like that)

I must say you've got a good memory. I would've forgotten most of that conversation. Lol.

[gstark]

Chris,

I feel for you.

I too would have taken them to task. The sign about price matching, if not honoured, would surely come under the umbrella of misleading advertising, and be illegal.

I would still be inclined to call the store, speak with the store manager, and vent some further anger, so that this pitiful prick of a salesperson understands just who pays his wages.

[Reschsmooth]

I would still be inclined to call the store, speak with the store manager, and vent some further anger, so that this pitiful prick of a salesperson understands just who pays his wages.

Gary, you are implying a level of care that probably does not exist at any level of a local HN store. I could be wrong, but I don't think these are franchisees, so everyone is an employee with the expected level of care.

[chrisk]

Wink, I wrote that only a couple of hours after it happened. Wasn't too hard to remember the gist of it. i did forget to write about the part where I asked them about an eye fi card and got directed to computers...that's an entirely different discussion.

Part of my frustration, apart from the bad service, is the constant and incessant whining from retailers about online and how they are doing it tough but they are pathetically ill equipped to deal with the corrective actions they must take to survive. You have Harvey complaining about the application of the gst as if that was a core reason for the success of online. What a joke. The fact is the people they employ have no regard for customers or indeed the success of the business they work in.

Now I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs, especially in these difficult times. But right now retailers are dying a death of a thousand cuts. Better off to address the infection of the pisspoor service provided to people which may be short term pain but surely long term gain. If I was the owner of a business and I saw someone I employed doing what this little pissant did, I'd fire him on the spot cos ultimately it's my livelihood he is affecting.

[aim54x]

Sounds like you met the worst possible sort of sales person...and you disturbed him whilst he was "chillin"

I guess this will probably make you think twice about stepping into a HN again. I totally agree with dropping service standards to be a key reason that a lot of us are headed online, it is often the last straw for even those of us who are willing to give a store a chance.

[stubbsy]

Chris

I couldn't agree more with your comments on why examples like this highlight the malaise of the majority of bricks and mortar stores - especially the big chains. Trouble is they don't get it and, as you say, Gerry Harvey is a prime example. To think we are buying online solely because of the GST shows just how clueless these businesses are. They've had it good for so long they've become fat and indolent on their massive profits and low customer service. Now they think that's the norm everywhere and can't be arsed checking the savvier online competition who have 21st century business models.

Of course not ALL bricks and mortar guys are like this thankfully - I can't but praise the service I've had at ECW at Drummoyne for example, but they're specialists and camera nuts. Makes a big difference when you actually use what you're selling

[chrisk]

just as a side note. i picked up an eye fi card today and it works flawlessly...and much quicker than i originally thought it would. using it from s100 ----> ipad/iphone. highly recommended !

[gstark]

i picked up an eye fi card today

From where? Are you able to see who is importing them?

[chrisk]

d-d photographics. as far as i know they are the only aussie seller. (apart from ebay).

[surenj]

i picked up an eye fi card today and it works flawlessly...and much quicker than i originally thought it would. using it from s100 ----> ipad/iphone. highly recommended !

This is a great idea for a party where you have a monitor setup to display images as they are being taken!

[chrisk]

It takes about 10 seconds to connect to the iPad and then around 5 seconds an image to upload. These are full res jpegs from the s100.

[photomarcs]

Hahahahaha!!!! Love this story man, the alarm bells definitely point out distress and defiance of "quality service."

I have to say; grey doesn't look so bad when you hear about stories of B&M stores with clueless staff - and the industry wonders why there is a decline in the australian retail market! It's not the industry that's dying, it's the quality staff members that make the difference.

For instance, the apple store. Horrible restrictions against what they could do with my repair of my 13" MacBook Pro, however the staff members remained professional sourcing ways or alternatives that I could follow route to ensure a smoother and better experience with my repairs.

I feel for ya mate, you as a consumer shouldn't have to face substandard service like this, the only problem is - that fine line of "quality service" and "restrictions of staff members" have now been blurred by inadequate staff members.

In any case, I am happy to search for quality service. As a sales consultant/specialist/money grabber/beggar of figures/man behind the counter, I have to say it always angers me when service isn't of standard, makes the rest of us "good sales personnel" look like lazy disorients.