What's the best way to deal with this?

I was a Photographic store manager for more than twenty years and people were ringing up all the time enquiring about the stock, and asking us to save it for them until they came in to collect it, more often than not we never saw hide or hair of them again, so I told my staff to sell the merchandise to the first person to come with the cash, debit/credit card in his/her hot little hand because a bird in the hand etc.
People used to phone and ask what price we were selling an item for to compare prices and after we checked our price list and quoted a price they travelled often more than 100 miles needlesly because we thought it was just a price enquiry and didn't know where they were ringing from, and they hadn't asked if we had the item in stock.
 
Annoying, but chin up, there's nothing you can do.

Take it on the chin and move on, no point in wasting time even thinking about it and getting yourself wound up.
 
I have to say I find it very odd that somebody would do a 350 mile round trip to purchase something which could have been sent to him by courier in less than 24 hours. Given how long the round trip will have taken, the OP hasn't saved a worthwhile amount of time. And it will have cost a small fortune in fuel. In my experience with camera stores the price is the same whether you pay by card or cash.

I buy a lot of kit from quite a well-known camera store in my locality and on a couple of occasions I've checked stock and have driven over there only to find that their system is not up to date and the thing I want is not available. They have always been apologetic and have offered to do me a deal if there is anything else I need to purchase that day. I think in this case the most the OP can expect is something along those lines, but if no apology materialised then I would be inclined to leave a bad review and most likely take my custom elsewhere.
 
Lindsay D said:
I have to say I find it very odd that somebody would do a 350 mile round trip to purchase something which could have been sent to him by courier in less than 24 hours. Given how long the round trip will have taken, the OP hasn't saved a worthwhile amount of time. And it will have cost a small fortune in fuel. In my experience with camera stores the price is the same whether you pay by card or cash.

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Thats not really any of your business though is it and if you bothered to read all his posts he has said on numerous occasions he wanted to pay with cash. Have you tried doing that over the phone.

The OP was upset and had a bit of a rant just like many people do here. Why is it that everybody suddenly becomes the expert at what should have been done in hind sight in order for a member of staff to do their job properly.
 
ecoleman said:
Thats not really any of your business though is it and if you bothered to read all his posts he has said on numerous occasions he wanted to pay with cash. Have you tried doing that over the phone.

The OP was upset and had a bit of a rant just like many people do here. Why is it that everybody suddenly becomes the expert at what should have been done in hind sight in order for a member of staff to do their job properly.
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Elliot, the OP put his situation to a public forum and invited our comments. He asked what we would have done under the circumstances. I personally would not have driven 350 miles, cash or otherwise, to collect something which was not already paid for (because mistakes by store staff are all too common unfortunately) and that has been raised in some of the replies, which I'm sure the OP will understand. As I also said, I would expect the store to make sufficient apology. I find your reply a little brusque to be honest.
 
Lindsay D said:
Elliot, the OP put his situation to a public forum and invited our comments. He asked what we would have done under the circumstances. I personally would not have driven 350 miles, cash or otherwise, to collect something which was not already paid for (because mistakes by store staff are all too common unfortunately) and that has been raised in some of the replies, which I'm sure the OP will understand. As I also said, I would expect the store to make sufficient apology. I find your reply a little brusque to be honest.
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When the op asked what the best course of action should be i don't think he was looking for advise on the viability of him driving 350 miles to collect his lens.
 
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