Bare Faced Cheek

A clever camera con almost backfired for a customer at our shop. 

We run a 30-day exchange period, so that if an item is bought as a gift or is found to be unsuitable it can be refunded or exchanged. 

With many branches nationwide however a crafty person might always use the latest equipment and just pay for consumables.
Often my colleagues suspect certain people who return items such as video cameras within 30 days of buying the equipment for a holiday.
About a six weeks ago I sold a Canon DC10 DVD camcorder to a man who was off to the States on holiday. 

He returned it just within the 30 days claiming that recorded films were of low quality compared to his previous hi-8 analogue camera.
We discussed the relative merits of recording on mini-DVD and mini-DV tape. 

For instance the fact that a mini-DV tape can store 22gb of information in one hour versus 1.4gb on mini-DVD. 

He decided to use his credit add some money and purchase a Panasonic 3-CCD tape machine.
However, a few days later he returned and swopped the camera for a telescope plus partial refund.
On Monday he returned with six mini-DVDs which he had shot during his holiday using the Canon camcorder. 

Unfortunately he did not realise that before it is possible to play them or download to a computer the discs need finalising in the camera.
Would it be possible he wondered to power up a camera so that he could stand at the counter and finalise his discs! 

After reminding him that the 30-day exchange is not a holiday hire agreement we allowed him the use of a camera.
Perhaps we should have given him the chance to buy back the camcorder so that he could record discs on his next vacation.

The customer is always right

Clearly there is a bit more to this than I first thought. 

This site will cover everything from incidents which happen during my day-job for a well known large UK photo retailer to my lecture notes from courses in digital photography. 

Here's an example of something which happened at work recently: A customer came in for a Pentax 360 flashgun (£199). 

There was a long queue, a common occurrence in our shop. 

When it was his turn he told me the item had been put aside earlier in the day. 

I knew there was a flash in the drawer so took it out, put in batteries and tested it. 

At the same time explaining that I always did this when selling an item to be sure it worked. He gave me £100 in vouchers and £100 in cash and I began to put the sale through the till. "Now then," he said, "Before you finish that let me tell you about your firm's appalling customer service." 

"Earlier today I phoned, but was on the phone for three minutes unanswered before ringing off. 

"I tried again and the wait was six minutes before I gave up. 

"At the third attempt I got through after two minutes!" 

"As you can see we only have three assistants on duty today and there's a big queue," I told him, "It has been suggested that we have an answerphone but the problem is that we would never have the time to make a response," I added. 

During this conversation phones were ringing all the time in the background. 

Rather than finish off his sale I picked up one of these phones. 

It was a customer wanting something put aside. 

I hurried off to find it leaving Mr Angry seething. 

When I returned he demanded I finished off his sale. 

"Sorry," I said, "I have to finish dealing with this caller now." 

"You think you've taught me a lesson, don't you," he shouted, "Well, you have made a big mistake, by the end of the week I'll see that you are out of a job, I have your name, this will go further." 

Seething with anger I finished off his sale despite being tempted to tell him to sling his hook. Sometimes I am sure I am not cut-out for the retail life.....