At 12:54 AM 2/12/99 +1300, Kevin wrote:
Horrendous sales experience snipped...
>I know there are still shops where you can find well informed, courteous
>people, but the numbers seem to be dwindling.
Yeah, this is increasingly the case. Please don't go shop there anymore.
This is only one more reason to go with a top-notch mail-order company like
B&H. Not only is their pricing excellent, their service is as well. You
can do almost all of your "research" online these days and maybe the only
thing you can't do is "handle" your potential purchase.
Nikon has a showroom in Rockfeller center in New York City where you can go
and see a lot of their stuff. I could easily see a future where a
manufacturer does most of their sales over the internet/mail order and has
showrooms in major cities where customers can handle/rent the products to
evaluate them. Car manufacturers are thinking about the same thing.
In a city as large as Los Angeles, there is really maybe only 3-4 retail
camera stores worth shopping at. Photo.net has reccomendations and usually
they're spot on. If you're in a much smaller metro area, I'd wager there's
not more than 1-2 stores worth your time and money. Pretty sad, eh?
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Retail complains that mail-order eats
into their business. But if they don't provide adequate service- the only
differentiator that a brick-and-mortar business can offer a customer-
(usually competing on price with a mail order company is difficult) then
why go there at all?
I'm sorry about your experience. Please dont go back there and let them
know why you wont spend another dime there. I'd want to know if I was that
store...but maybe it's not worth it?
Gen
