Jessops staff - "You don't know what you are doing do you."

Lynton

Lynton

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Lynton (yes really!)
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I know Jessops get beaten up all the time on here and occasionally there is a decent person in a branch however just thought I'd share my experience at the Norwich one today.

Late Sunday evening / maybe early Monday morning I via their express 1 hour online services to pick up three prints on Monday - though for various reasins couldn't get there until today.

First point to note - These were B&W conversions using Niksoft silver Efex Pro as the conversion tool.


This is roughly the conversation after explaining what I had come to collect, with the young Sales Assistant...

Me: Erm sorry but they all have a magenta cast over them.
SA: Er what?
Me: They have a magenta colour cast.
SA: Oh right ok.
Me: Sorry but not happy. OK I'll explain it in simple terms, the black and white looks a bit purple.
SA: Did you make them black and white yourself
Me: Yes why?
SA: Well depending on the camera you have yuo can set it to Black and White mode and it removes all the colour yuo have left some in.
Me: Yes but that is a crap way of doing it, as I would lose all the data should I want a Colour print later. By the way I used industry leading software for the conversion, and you cannot leave any colour in it.
SA: Oh but there is colour in it.
Me: Yes, which if I haven't done it, you must have, well ok, not you but Jessops.
SA: Do you have the file with you?
Me: No but I sent it in via the interweb
SA: But we don't print them here, they get printed and sent to store.
Me: Not the one hour service...

So after 5 mins, they found the JPEG sent to them....

Me: Here, take this photo and go put it next to the monitor, which looks to be calibrated and backlit. Tell me what you see.
SA: Well the print does look purpleish...

:annoyed::bonk::bang:


Me: Yes. Now can you get me someone who will be able to resolve the problem. And be resolution I mean refund.


_____________


I know I struck unlucky, but her whole attitude of "you were stupid, we printed what was sent, sucks!"
 
Is your new title a recent addition
 
Had it for a while... though I fail to see the awkwardness of me here...

I was not happy.
It was apparently my fault.
I was merely trying to help educate her, as I believe colour casts can be quite common.
For her to accuse me of screwing it up, before checking.. well that is "open season"

:shrug:

If I am honest, yes I gave her a hard time. Do I regret it? No not one bit. She should have checked out a few things before telling me i didn't fully destaurate it. Obviously a retail girl with no interest in what she is doing... if it were me, the hiring manager, I would go for the one who is a bit into what they are selling and is keen to learn the benefits of x over y and why a is better than b.

In a way I feel a bit sorry for her, as evidently her "training / learning / customer experience learning programme" fell woefully short of the mark, but that's not really my problem. The store manager should be onto such things and deal with accordingly...

And that is where Jessops on the whole are failing as a company. There is evidentally a lack of training / product knowledge / given to the guys...

Personally, I would love the job of going into there and turning it round in 6 months. It could be done, easily. And yes, there are random individuals who are great as they are into photography and will offer genuine unbiased advice..

Few and far between though
 
Very common mistake this. You need to make sure they print it as a B&W image rather than a colour and/or send a Gray scale image.
 
Trouble is better training and better quality staff cost more and as we see from here, many people will never by from a shop as cheaper online. U can't blame jessops as if they invested that money would they see a return?
 
POAH said:
Very common mistake this. You need to make sure they print it as a B&W image rather than a colour and/or send a Gray scale image.
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Erm i did send a fully B&W. :shrug:
 
cambsno said:
Trouble is better training and better quality staff cost more and as we see from here, many people will never by from a shop as cheaper online. U can't blame jessops as if they invested that money would they see a return?
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Of course I can blame Jessops for having badly trained, rude incompetent employees.

She probably had more "training" yesterday in her 10 mins with me, than she has all year.
 
One sales assistant told me to go on wex's website as they are cheaper and I'd get a better deal lol that's honesty for you
 
cambsno said:
Trouble is better training and better quality staff cost more and as we see from here, many people will never by from a shop as cheaper online. U can't blame jessops as if they invested that money would they see a return?
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probably not, they will still be used as a 'showroom' for the online stores with the added bonus [for the browser] that the staff might be able to answer some questions too. Mind you, some simple customer service training never goes amiss, it doesn't have to be expensive or backed by technical knowledge. ;)



A little story from a few years ago - those that know me here away from the forum will know that we own a small garage business, franchised to a brand. Several years ago, as the internet was really starting to take off, What Car magazine ran an article telling people in much detail how to use their local dealer to see the cars they liked, then how and where to look on the internet to get the best deals and buy over the net. This in itself doesn't sound too bad and is pretty much the way of the world now - except back then, the magazine were also calling round the dealers, begging them to advertise with them - I probably don't need to go into too much detail about Yves Geza response or the letter he wrote to the editor :lol:
 
Looks like you argued with them until you were Black and Blue Purple, in the face :D
 
There's a cracking red head in my local Jessops. She could argue with me all day long...
 
odd jim said:
There's a cracking red head in my local Jessops. She could argue with me all day long...
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I notice you don't say where you live :lol:

Generalising I know but last time I went in asking for advice it seemed the staff knew more about the extra warranty and finance options they wanted to sell me rather than the camera itself. Maybe that's where Jessops have been concentrating their training?
 
I once needed some prints made very quickly, and took a CD of fully edited files to my local Boots.

When I went to collect them, the grass on all of the shots was a kind of luminous lime colour, which was not how it appeared on my PC screen at home.

I pointed this out to the lady behind the counter, who refused to accept the reason for this could have been anything except my fault. I explained how they had been edited on a fully calibrated screen, but to no avail.

I gave up in the end, and sent them to DSCL where I normally get my prints done. I obviously couldnt have them as quickly as I wanted, but guess what? They looked perfect.

It's not just Jessops ;0)
 
nigpd said:
We need a location :D
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Ah, she might be on here and it would embarrass her!


Delta Skies said:
I notice you don't say where you live :lol:

Generalising I know but last time I went in asking for advice it seemed the staff knew more about the extra warranty and finance options they wanted to sell me rather than the camera itself. Maybe that's where Jessops have been concentrating their training?
Click to expand...
 
odd jim said:
There's a cracking red head in my local Jessops. She could argue with me all day long...
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Are you sure that she is a red head? It's not Jessops mucking it up again is it :)
 
My recent experience with in-store staff at Jessops couldn't have been bettered, only a significant saving and the fact that I could pick it up that day rather than several days later sent me to Comet for the actual purchase!

DSG also get a lot of bad comments but again, my experience was excellent. Not only did they price match Jessop's order on line, collect in store price but they also had an accessory kit (case, 4GB SD card, 3x Screen protectors and an HDMI lead) for just £30. Nobody tried to sell me an extended warranty!
 
I'm glad to see the twins haven't affected your "life style" (or user title) :D
 
next time just use a decent lab - its your own fault for choosing to use a store we know full well is mostly staffed by chimps and halfwits :lol:
 
big soft moose said:
next time just use a decent lab - its your own fault for choosing to use a store we know full well is mostly staffed by chimps and halfwits :lol:
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Generally i do or print at home. However awaiting ink and i needed them quickly. Also the postage posts of 3 prints makes them rather pricey.
 
Yv said:
Just wait until he is 3 or 4 weeks into sleep deprivation, I would hate to be working in ANY retail outlet he goes near :eek: :lol:
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But it could make for a great tp meet: Spend a day following two minutes behind Lynton - shooting the carnage and crushed souls would be awesome! :D
 
Yv said:
Just wait until he is 3 or 4 weeks into sleep deprivation, I would hate to be working in ANY retail outlet he goes near :eek: :lol:
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Now THAT is a scary thought :eek: :D
 
Just want to add that I had a VERY positive experience with Jessops recently, they arn't all bad.

On an off chance while I was over in Bristol, I popped into the jessops store there, just to have a quick go on the D800. I wasn't impressed and was showing my other half the 5D MK3 I was planning to buy instead. One of their sales chaps over heard and offered to mount a lens or two on it, to which I said that would be great.

In the end I was there over an hour an a half, chatting with a chap who's name i can't remember. Turns out he was the only trained Canon Pro "rep" in the south west. He was a working wedding photographer and really knew his stuff, and we had a long discussion about Nikon vs Canon for wedding photography. We had the whole Canon lens cabinet open, which was very well stocked. I must have played with at least 20 different lenses, inc the 85mm 1.2 and a 17mm tilt shift. He knew a lot by each lens and clearly had experience using them in a professional setting. He wasn't just spurting out facts from the brochure.

At one point i even said I felt bad that I was taking up his time from other customers. He said it was nice to talk to someone who actually knew what they were going on about and could see this was genuinely useful to me.

I didn't even buy anything on the day. But it was a very positive and useful experience, and it surprised me a bit considering my previous experiences with jessops.
 
I resisted going digital for years but one batch of prints drove me to give up. I wasn't happy with the original batch and so returned them only to have equally bad replacements, I tried again with the same result including a snotty remark about keeping my negatives clean... :bang:

I assumed at the time that the nose dive in quality was because they were somehow cutting costs.
 
iamchrisphoto said:
Just want to add that I had a VERY positive experience with Jessops recently, they arn't all bad.

On an off chance while I was over in Bristol, I popped into the jessops store there, just to have a quick go on the D800. I wasn't impressed and was showing my other half the 5D MK3 I was planning to buy instead. One of their sales chaps over heard and offered to mount a lens or two on it, to which I said that would be great.

In the end I was there over an hour an a half, chatting with a chap who's name i can't remember. Turns out he was the only trained Canon Pro "rep" in the south west. He was a working wedding photographer and really knew his stuff, and we had a long discussion about Nikon vs Canon for wedding photography. We had the whole Canon lens cabinet open, which was very well stocked. I must have played with at least 20 different lenses, inc the 85mm 1.2 and a 17mm tilt shift. He knew a lot by each lens and clearly had experience using them in a professional setting. He wasn't just spurting out facts from the brochure.

At one point i even said I felt bad that I was taking up his time from other customers. He said it was nice to talk to someone who actually knew what they were going on about and could see this was genuinely useful to me.

I didn't even buy anything on the day. But it was a very positive and useful experience, and it surprised me a bit considering my previous experiences with jessops.
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I quite agree, occasionally you can strike pure gold... and there are probably many people in Jessops countrywide who know their stuff. I am just unlucky in Norwich, and if I screwed up, and yes it was sent as sRGB, I would be the first to say."oops my fault", but when I get some young person telling me (yes telling me not suggesting) that I didn't know how to convert to B&W... then as far as I am concerned that is "Open Season" and therefore considered fair game and I will not let the matter go... "Have you heard of Niksoft Silver Efex?".. "um no..." "SO why am I the one in the wrong when you don't understand how I converted it... and it was most certainly not in camera.." fwits.
 
Lynton said:
I quite agree, occasionally you can strike pure gold... and there are probably many people in Jessops countrywide who know their stuff. I am just unlucky in Norwich, and if I screwed up, and yes it was sent as sRGB, I would be the first to say."oops my fault", but when I get some young person telling me (yes telling me not suggesting) that I didn't know how to convert to B&W... then as far as I am concerned that is "Open Season" and therefore considered fair game and I will not let the matter go... "Have you heard of Niksoft Silver Efex?".. "um no..." "SO why am I the one in the wrong when you don't understand how I converted it... and it was most certainly not in camera.." fwits.
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the trouble with jessops is that they don't really train their staff in anything to do with photography (other than sales patter) , so when you do strike gold its because you'ver found someone who was already intersterd in photography before they got the job.

The other 90% of their staff could be working in halford, phones 4 u, or DFS for all it matters to them, its just a shop and they have no clue what they are doing other than a very basic understanding that you point the glass end at the subject
 
I'll expand slightly on my recent Jessops experience. Having spent a while in bed after my brain op, and perusing WDC and other mags with reviews of assorted cameras, I wasn't much the wiser, although I did know basically what I wanted - a fixed lens compact or bridge that would give me as much of my current lens range as possible without the weight of a full DSLR kit!

Wndering out of my dentist's surgery, I noticed that Jessops had moved since I had gone into hospital, so I popped in to ask their advice (the Exeter branch seems to have a good bunch of staff who actually seem to know about cameras, lenses etc, rather than a bunch of box shifting slackjaws!). The gentleman who came out from behind the D&P counter was asked the question and he spent about 1/2 an hour talking me through the options, ending up with me deciding on the Fujifilm HS30. He even suggested that I should go home and look at their website where the order online, collect instore price was lower than the instore price. This I did, but while I was on the Jessops site (and had placed my order for collection), I noticed that I would have to wait a few days until I could pick the thing up. Since I was already online, I decided to see if Comet stocked what I was after so I visited their site. Sure enough, there it was, a few quid more expensive than the Jessops best price but still well within budget and, as a bonus, Comet had the genuine Fuji accessory kit (SD card, case, pack of screen protectors and an HDMI lead) for just £30 (a lot less than just the LowPro case I had chosen for the kit.) I could collect that one later that morning. It was a deal! When the chap (Mike) from Comet 'phoned me to tell me it was ready for collection, the caller ID said his number was either witheld or unavailable, so he got my unsolicited calls answer of "What do you want?" in rather a brusque tone! Once he's explained that he was just phoning to tell me my kit was waiting to be picked up, of course, I apologised profusely and, as we chatted, I mentioned that Jessops were a little cheaper on the order online, collect in store deal than Comet were. He replied saying that he was sure that Comet could pricematch a high street price. Another result!

I have since popped into Jessops to apologise to the chap I had originally spoken to, who said he quite understood that any price advantage on the online/collection was negated by having to wait so long for them to take a box, case and card off the shelf and that the Comet deal was indeed far better than they could do!

I really HATE using Jessops as a showroom then not buying from them - it's just not fair in my eyes but, they do have dedicated display cameras so don't have to unbox new kit, devaluing it in the eyes of some customers, but I have since bought a couple of extra SD cards (a twin pack of 4GB Ultra Sandisks for £25) and a few other bits of kit to assuage my conscience a little!
 
Yv said:
Just wait until he is 3 or 4 weeks into sleep deprivation, I would hate to be working in ANY retail outlet he goes near :eek: :lol:
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Nah, he's not the one that has to feed them every few hours. Unless of course he has fully functioning breasts lol
 
Yv said:
thread cleaned, behave yourselves please.
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My post dissappeared with your cleaning chore. I hope I didn't upset anyone, was all tongue in cheek.

The point I was trying to make was with High Street labs it seems that you can go in to a store in one town and get crap results, but may get better/good results from the same store in another town/city.
Where I live I use to have proofs done by Asda and they were good compared to Tesco, but have read that others from different parts preferred Tesco over Asda.

Apologies if my post was taken the wrong way by anyone.:love:
 
On the Huh said:
My post dissappeared with your cleaning chore. I hope I didn't upset anyone, was all tongue in cheek.

The point I was trying to make was with High Street labs it seems that you can go in to a store in one town and get crap results, but may get better/good results from the same store in another town/city.
Where I live I use to have proofs done by Asda and they were good compared to Tesco, but have read that others from different parts preferred Tesco over Asda.

Apologies if my post was taken the wrong way by anyone.:love:
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you didn't, it just made no sense without the other bits ;)
 
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