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

They have closed down Jessops Cannock branch and the Walsall branch isn't even worth a mention its so small. Jacobs in Birmingham has packed up as well so we are now without any decent camera shop within about 20 miles

Realspeed
 
Justin1971 said:
Just out of curiosity, did you get a full refund?
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Of course!

Even though we had the debate about online being a different company to stores etc...
 
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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On the other hand I went into Jessops in the Trafford Centre, which you would assume would be one of their flagship stores and noticed they had a 5Diii box in the cabinet under the main display but no camera out on display. Im am very close to buying one (and at this point may have as I forgot my car insurance was due to be paid for the coming year and had the money) so asked if I could have a play with it with a couple of lenses. "We can't take it out of the box and we don't have a display one". I explained I was looking to upgrade from a 5D2 and was very interested to which his response was "not much between the 5D2 and 5D3 to be honest, just better ISO and a new badge".

I looked him in the eyes and just said "wow", turned and walked out of the store. IMO it's not wonder they're in trouble...
 
Got to admire his honesty, to be honest! You can't expect him to take a brand new one out of the box for a random drop in customer to fondle if they don't have a display model - THAT's why they're in trouble, NOT because they give honest opinion based advice!
 
Nod said:
Got to admire his honesty, to be honest! You can't expect him to take a brand new one out of the box for a random drop in customer to fondle if they don't have a display model - THAT's why they're in trouble, NOT because they give honest opinion based advice!
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Honesty about the camera? Not at all, there are MASSIVE differences between the two. I work in retail and we don't get given 'a display model' we use the stock we have. As to why he would have shown it me, if he twisted my arm I may have spend £3000 in his shop
 
What happens to the stock that you use to show people? I do hope you don't re-box it and sell it as brand new?!

If you already know the differences between the 2 models, why bother checking on them? OK, you probably want to feel if there are any handling differences - try another retailer and see if they have a display model! :) ;)
 
Nod said:
What happens to the stock that you use to show people? I do hope you don't re-box it and sell it as brand new?!

If you already know the differences between the 2 models, why bother checking on them? OK, you probably want to feel if there are any handling differences - try another retailer and see if they have a display model! :) ;)
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We sell it as ex display as 99% of retailers do :thinking: As far as knowing the spec, it's very different seeing it in real life. I wanted to see how the 61 AF points worked as I currently only have 9, I wanted to see how fast they were compared to the relatively slow ones on the 5D2, I wanted to feel the different body shape as I knew they'd changed it... and so on. Really not an unreasonable request considering they had a 600D, 650D, 60D, 7D and 5D2 on display. And go to another retailer to have a look at it - genius marketing strategy. Surely if I was to do that I'd buy it there and they'd lose a £3k sale?!
 
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As opposed to having to knock x% off their only(?) stock item? There have been cases of punters having a box opened specially for them, then demanding a discount since, despite themselves being the only ones to have ever handled the camera, it was now ex-display! Maybe you should have asked to see a manager and explained that if the body suited you, you would be buying that copy there and then - works wonders, the thought of an immediate sale!
 
They employ sales staff. I would expect any of my staff to treat every customer as a potential buyer. In the Trafford Centre, a hive for many affluent people - how many do you think may have walked in, took a brief look to see if they had a 5D3, thought they didn't have it and walked back out? I only noticed it tucked away at the bottom by chance. As for the stock being the only one, as far as I am aware the 5D3 is readily available (especially considering Jessops have a decent relationship with Canon) and it is common practice in retail to only have one unit in store and sell from it. We have many laptops and TV's in our store that we don't have back up stock of but get it delivered to the customer.
 
I quite aggree that it would be nice if they had display models of everything they sell but we all know of their recent troubles and I would be surprised if they could afford to keep paying for display copies! It's unfortunate that they lost a sale and a potential customer but someone will walk in and but their copy as a brand new one without handling it first. I know I didn't handle my D700 when it came from them a few years ago - I had already had a fondle and play with a friend's.

I hope you manage to find somewhere else that can let you handle one, although IMO, you need an extended test drive to see how 61 AF points all work and how the thing feels in the hand - I know I did with the D700! :)
 
Glad you've managed to have a proper test drive. :)
 
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