Jessops

Went into nottingham today and visited the new jessops shop with pentax camera on shoulder just browsing and a sales assistant proud as punch started showing me a small empty area saying this is the new pentax section took them long enough to start selling pentax again. One advantage should be will able to handle them instead of being locked in a cabinet things looking up for pentax or are jessops finding it hard in this climate

Bit of both I should think.

The K-x really gave Pentax a boost from what I can gather and got the brand noticed .. especially all the different colours. Now they have carried it on with the K-r and the K-5 is getting people talking what with its excellent ISO performance, Fantastic DR and stained sensor.

Hopefully it will carry on.

Having just retired (i know will soon stop rubbing it in)I received a Jessops gift card from my work colleagues.

Looked on the web site, the lens I thought of is not listed, looked for printer ink, not listed, looked for the paper required .... not listed.

Rang Jessops, I can not use the card for online purchase, only local shop pickup is available, asked about price match +£30 for same lens. Guess what not available. They also said they have no plans to increase the Pentax range ...

They should look at the whole of there operation if they want people to use them, and make sure that if they offer gift cards then they can be used in all situations.

Rant over

No you have a good rant CoDa, that's why i will not set foot inside there shops, that and the extortionate prices they charge, right that's my rant over, time for my Valium and a beer.

I do think the high street camera trade has taken a big hit from the internet. Jessops could have stood their ground, trained their staff to be camera experts rather than salespeople and used that expertise to fight off the competition. Sadly, they didn't.

There are some very peculiar ideas regarding value of used gear in independent stores too. A brief browse today saw the usual lunatic prices. Now, I'll pay a few quid more to support a local shop/get a warranty/be able to inspect the goods, but I draw the line at paying twice or even four times as much!

Don't bother with jessops!

Apart from the Liecester shop, they are staffed by 'salespeople' who know nothing about the products they stock, the prices are a joke, the after sales service is non existent and the range of equipment stocked is extremely limited.
The company bought out so many independent shops just to get onto the stock market and are now paying the price for doing so, hence the recent closure of so many of their stores.

They will only stock DSLR's from companies who are prepared (or can afford) to pay their high prices for shelf space, ie: Canon, Nikon and Sony, anyone looking for other brands are not catered for at all! They have absolutely NO interest in catering for the 'Photographer'

The 'Happy snapper's store.
The worst thing to happen to photography shops in the UK!

Colin's experience is a perfect example of their 'customer service'

Best avoided in my opinion!!!!

A classic example of a company destroying all competition then the public losing interest in that niche market store.

Businesses need competition to keep going... Rivals compliment each other...

As for trained staff, I wouldn't even call them sales people. How can you sell anything without any product knowledge???

Companies do not buy shelf space stores, this is a fallacy. What camera store is NOT going to stock the top 3 brands??? Canon, Nikon & Sony... we also do not know what credit terms those three companies are giving Jessops, seem to recall Pentax stopped dealing with Jessops due to their poor credit history at the time...