An amusing ocurrance and admission...

The wife is a long time Canon user and is thinking of upgrading her camera to a newer one, so as we were near our local Jessops she decided to pop in to have a hands-on feel of the new EOS 40D and the outgoing 30D to compare them versus her existing 350D.

Now we all know that Jessops are mostly just box shifters and not neccessarily 100% knowledgeable about the kit they sell, but I thought a basic understanding of photography was a requirement - especially as they bill themselves as "Number 1 in photography"...

(A brief digression - As we were going in, I noticed a big Pentax flag hanging above the door and adverts for the K10D prominently in the window and I thought "hello, they're pointing out they sell Pentax kit big time. Wonder what they stock?". I enquired and they had the K10D and K100D in kit form, but that was it!)

Anyway. We were served by a young chap and my wife compared the 400D, the 30D and the 40D bodies, before deciding that the 30D or 40D were very tempting, especially as at the moment Jessops actually have the cheapest price for the 40D. In fact, she was prepared to buy the 40D there and then - a nice sale for the store. But she just wanted to make sure she was picking the right camera...

So she asked the question "What's the difference between the 30D and the 40D?"

The reply came back "The lens is bigger, so you get more light..."

We looked at each other and said "No, what is the difference between the 30D and the 40D BODY?"

The salesman looked at us as if we didn't know the first thing about cameras, and patronisingly took the camera out of my wife's hands and started gesturing to the lens as if he is talking to a pair of idiots... "The LENS. It lets in More light. You get better photographs because of that"

I stifled back a loud laugh (the wife was too stunned to say anything) and said "No, the lens has nothing to do with what we are asking. What are the differences between the two camera bodies?"

Salesman very sarcastically replies "I'll print you out a list shall I?"

The wife recovers here senses and says "No thanks, we'll shop elsewhere" and we leave the store, where both of us fall about laughing.

We do a bit more shopping, and then decide that on reflection let's pop back to Jessops and talk to the store manager. We get back in, ask for the manager, another youth comes over and we explain what had transpired. He obviously can't really be bothered, but we run through the above and he gives us the excuse that the salesman who served us was "new and not fully trained" and here comes the amusing admission...

He says to us "We're not experts, and we don't know about the things we sell".

So, you need to be an expert to know the difference between a camera body and a lens, do you?

When we point out that had the salesman not treated us like idiots we'd have left the store having purchased a brand new 40D and that they'd lost our custom because of this, he just shrugged and gave us the phone number for head office.

Oh dear.

that's why the price was so low.
hire any idiot that'll take a min wage, no benifit, just shy of full time hours dead end job, to service your customers and bank on the odds that the customers are dumber than your sales reps....seems to work for big box chain stores....

Any pro shops in your area? Probably cost a little more, but they'll treat ya better!

Unfortunately no pro shops in our area at all. The nearest decent camera stores to us are CameraWorld and Jacobs in central London.

Still, at least she's had a chance to fondle the bodies now, so she can at least make a judgement on size and weight in hand before buying elsewhere.

I just loved the admission from the Jessops manager that they know nothing about the kit they sell. Perhaps a little too honest?

Srsmocrosystems also sell Canon. Watford isn't too far from London - maybe worth the trip?

Dave, did you let your wife handle the K10D as well?
What does she think of that compared to the Canon offerings?

SRS as mentioned above (you could eyeball some cool Pentax gear while you're there) or Campkins in Cambridge have also been very good to me and often match Jessops prices.

Bit of a run from London, but not too bad and worth it for the decent service.

I'd always wondered where PC World poached their sales staff from...

You can laugh but you dont know how true that is (or was), a long time ago when CD writers first appeared on the market I heard of a guy who went into PC World and asked for a pen to write on CD's, the assistant in his worldly wisdom smiled and said "oh no sir, you need a CD Writer for that"

Although the last time I had need for PC world the staff were quite knowledgable though sadly I cant say the same for that famous camera chain

She's handled my K10D, liked the features but didn't like the ergonomics, and when you add on her large investment in canon fit lenses she'd have to spend a hell of a lot of money to change systems.

They're part of the same sales group (DSG Retail Ltd). Which explains a lot...

Thanks to Gwyn & Mongoose for the recommendation of SRS. They are a good bunch of folks - I got my Metz 58AF-1 from them.

I'll suggest the wife gives them a call and see what they can do

When did that happen? Jessops went public a year or so ago. DSG is the new name for Dixons, which does embrace PC World in its sweaty grip.

G

It didn't. Jessops is not part of DSG International plc.

As well as the excellent SRS in Watford (easily reached from central London on the Metropolitan line - the town centre not so easily reached once you step off the train though )... the only places I buy from in central London are Cameraworld and the branch of London Camera Exchange at the Strand. Yes LCE are another chain store, but the staff at the Strand certainly know the difference between body and lens, and have always given me good service.

If I am ever again persuaded to spend more than £5 in a branch of Jessops, someone will have to let the Pope know a miracle has occurred.

Ah, OK. My mistake. Mea culpa.

I seem to recall them showing up as part of DSG on a companies house search a while back...