I want to buy a 20 D in a shop

This is my predicament,For a long time now I wanted to buy a Pentax K 20 D from a shop in the North East of England.As I am worried it being my first Dslr I phoned up a Pro pentax dealer in the aforementioned NorthEast ,too cut a long story short the supplier didnt even have a K 20 D in stock and said he would have to ring his other shop to see if he had one there .What a shambles??, Is this really good enough???.

Actually there is a shortage of bodies across the UK right now - "awaiting new shipments" according to LCE. I dont quite know why but they have reorganised distribution recently which may have something to do with it.

Try your local Jessops - their prices for the 20D are now comparable with the Pro centres.

Do Jessops give you a 2 year warranty like SRS?

I would suggest you call SRS and ask them to ship it to you. If you say you are a member of the forum, its free shipping, and it should take 2 days....

It is Pentax that give the 2 year warranty, not SRS.

Hi all,

The 2 year warranty is if the camera is bought from a Pentax Pro Centre. Jessops are not a Pro dealer so it would only have the 1 year. I have plenty of bodies in stock!!

Chris

If there was ever proof that the north-south divide was at Watford then this is it

Does this warranty apply to any Pentax item bought from you Chris?

Wouldn't like to put a kit on Ebay so that I can use my 10% paypal discount would you?
Only 1 day left until it expires.

Hold on ,do you guys think that it is strange for a PRO CENTRE not to have a 20 D body in stock. I personally think it is disgusting and the store in question's PRO CENTRE status should be dropped immediately.This is my experience for trying to buy a 20 D, I went too Jessops first of all they did not sell the 20 D in store,so I went to Jacobs,they did sell the 20 D with kit lens but I wanted the 16-45 lens and so they quoted me a wait time of around 3 weeks as they would have to order it directly from pentax,I told them I wouldnt bother as I can order an item off tinternet and get it within two working days easily.I then rang the supposed PRO CENTRE. the rep told me he didnt have one in store and would have to check his other shop to find out if he had one available.To me it is no wonder that the likes of Canon and Nikon are taking the lions share of sales as Pentax dont seem to have a clue about selling there product.They need a serious kick up the butt,what is the point of producing a decent product if you cant sell it??? ,and this is coming from someone who has absolutely no knowledge of buisness whatsoever.

Having looked at the Pentax website I see the label of 'Pro Centre' does not apply to 2-3 dealers nationwide, to quite a few it seems.. I have visited a few and some have not had extensive stocks of Pentax gear...

I presume yoda is a mackem or a smoggy (the Pentax Pro centres are in Sunderland and Middlesbrough), and I can't vouch for either shop... Bass and Bligh in Harrogate is also a Pro Centre, but it;s a small shop and I thought it specialised in Leica gear....so I would guess that a lot of the shops don't hold the same stock levels as SRS and CameraWorld.....

I can't judge either shop on their stock levels, I guess a lot would depend on what their customers ask for and I can be sure that the shoppers, already having gone to Jessops will have either Canon or Nikon in mind, and won''t ask for Pentax....

The answer is to give SRS a call...

I wonder how one becomes a Pro Centre. I would have expected it to require some investment in staff training and holding minimum stocks both of which are a considerable expense to the dealer.

I assume that's the problem.

Pentax can't sack all but 3 Pro Centres as then they have no credible dealer base but they also lose credibility if the Pro Centres don't hold stock.

If Pentax were rich they could let dealers hold consignment stock which they pay for when they sell. But I can't see Pentax being keen on that.

Mike

See this thread, my comment then the reply from Mike at Pentax (I don't think he's there any more though...).

Dan

Have you tried Park Cameras?

I know that they are in Kent, but many shops will only get the K20D in to special order.
It is a great camera shop, and they are extremely helpful.
Might well be your best bet.

Nope. West Sussex
(Burgess Hill to be precise)
Matt