What on earth has happened to Jessops

Mangelwurzel said:
I popped into my local Jessops to buy an SB900 last week. The girl serving me had no idea what a flashgun was and i had to point the model out in the display cabinet.
Her colleague poked fun at her because apparently her dad is a pro wedding photographer that uses an SB900 :D
I'm sure it wasn't the girls fault, and i didn't mind. Maybe Jessops don't have the resources to train like alot of companies these days.
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I went into a Jessops (Not the Leamington Spa branch) [The staff are ok there] on December 31st for a SB-900. I told the guy (spotty youf) who approached me what I wanted and asked him if they 'price-matched'? He looked at me with an immediate expression of triumph on his face and said '"Only if you can find it cheaper (than Jessops price, which was full list) at another store within a quarter of a mile from this shop" (Knowing full well, as I did, that there was not another photographic retailer within a quarter of a mile radius)

I just turned around and left the shop,( not because I could not get a discount, I had not really expected to, even though I asked) as I just will not be treated and spoken to like an idiot by some inadaquately trained 'oik' who watched me leave thinking that he had 'won' something!

Before the middle of January, I had my SB-900 AND my new D700 and 24-70 F2.8 and Jessops did not see a penny of that money which I will freely admit, slightly childishly, gave me some small satisfaction. So, a message to Jessops :-

Stop treating your walk-in customers like they are stupid, invariably they are not. If you are to have ANY chance of survival, you need to be delivering good customer service and trying to get back some customer loyalty, and you need to be doing BOTH of these things NOW!

Remember, the person who walks in to buy a filter today may come in next week to buy a DSLR! Let your customers remember their buying experiences in your shops with pleasure, not annoyance! Annoyed customers generally do NOT come back!

YES, customers WILL pay a little bit more for good service, now exactly WHICH part of that does Jessops senior management not understand? :bang:

In fairness, I should say that not all of Jessops shops deliver bad customer service, but just too many of them :suspect: do imho.


Let us not forget though, it is a little unfair to blame it all on the kids behind the counter! They clearly appear to be poorly trained, I bet a lot of them are part-time, I would put money on them being poorly paid and consequently far from being highly motivated! I bet that all branches work at rock-bottom minimum staffing levels which means customers have to wait in queue's to receive quite often, more poor service!

What does this lot add up to? Yes, you guessed it, LOUSY SENIOR MANAGEMENT!
 
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another vote for Leamington Branch
 
Well, I've told the story before, but I had £600 in Jessops vouchers to replace my 40D that broke it's shutter after a year, but it came with 3 years free repair/replace warrenty.

I upgarded to a 50D. The first 50D that came out wasn't sealed so I asked for a sealed box, which he duly presented, as I didn't want a shop soiled/used one. I didn't check the contents, it was sealed.

Got it to work and there was a 4Gb Jessops CF card with about 20 shots of the inside of the shop on it.

I phoned the shop: "Hello - I've just bought the 50D and it's used"
Shop: "Can't have been used sir, it was a brand new sealed box. How do you know it's used"
Me: "I think the 4Gb card and 20 odd shots of the inside of the shop is a giveaway..."

Obviously we went around in circles from there as they didn't have another to swap out...

So I bought my 40D from them on the first day at full original price, bought my 50D there, but won't be going back again.

Luckily I have Kerso, or my local camera shops T4 cameras and Great western who are great.
 
interestingly, i've never had a problem with Jessops in Southampton or Winchester... i've had more problems with London Camera Exchange in Southampton not having ANY of what I was after.

Jessops is just handy really.
 
the exeter branch is the only of three high street shops that sell wet printing and devloping stuff which is handy when I need a bit of paper quick

tbh its full of people (customers) with compacts they cant use or slrs they cant use so when someone who actually knows stuff walks in how are the staff meant to tell?
I work in a shop and I know how bloody irritating customers are, I mean I have actually tried to set them on fire with my mind and this is WITH a lappy with tp and an editing backlog to keep me entertained
 
artona said:
no apologies needed Andrew:)

We are fortunate in this area in that we have a fantastic camera shop - Comley Camera of Cleethorpes. Its just a bit of a drive for me rather than the two minute walk from our studio.

stew
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I'll second Comley Camera Stew for customer service...have you tried Ravenscroft down Grimsby Road? I've had some great service from them recently.

Where abouts is your studio?
 
Hi Verb

We have two in that area, one out near Caistor and a small one in the Grimsby town center

stew
 
Both Ravenscroft and Comely cameras are first class I know the owners David and Mark, they know their stuff and will go out of their way for customers.

Nice guys
 
good rumours on the jessops front

expect them to be de listed soon. they have a plan and it's quite audacious.
time will tell, but if we as consumers make them aware of their failing in customer service, it can only help.
 
andrew748 said:
good rumours on the jessops front

expect them to be de listed soon. they have a plan and it's quite audacious.
time will tell, but if we as consumers make them aware of their failing in customer service, it can only help.
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Basically HSBC have now taken a 47% stake in the company, in lieu of £34 million of the £54 million Jessops owe them and which they were in real danger of waving bye-bye to....
 
Thats all very well but I wonder what their plan is to actually trade profitably, continuing as they are wont work, they've actually got to change something!
 
If you ask anyone who works in retail, the thing that staff hate the most is you lot, the customer! You always want stuff for nothing but unboxed, yesterday, with more free stuff thrown in, maybe price-matching some dodgy Hong Kong based website run by crooks. Some 'wedding photographer' wants kit but doesnt know the difference between this widget and that widget, but still thinks he's a professional, because some idiot is prepared to pay them £50 to do his wedding, so he must be a pro then. Anyone own their own homes. Maybe I can pop round and buy it but of course you have to knock 30% off the price. Thought not.
 
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