bennison@algol.DEC (Victor Bennison - DTN 381-2156) (01/18/86)
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Photographic Equipment Mail Order Company Survey
Plus some tips on shopping from the mail order firms.
Here are the latest results of the survey. You may send me your experiences
anytime you want and I will keep the survey up to date. Whenever there is
enough new data to warrant it I will repost the survey results. If you aren't
able to get through to me directly, then go ahead and post to net.rec.photo.
Name of Mail | Experience was:
Order Company | No problems | Minor hassles | Major hassles | Avoid |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
47th Street | 6 | 5 | 4 | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
AAA | | | | 1 |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Abe's (Maine) | | | 1 | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Adorama | 8 | 3 | 1 | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
B&H | 8 | 1 | 1 | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Calumet | 2 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Cambridge | | | 2 | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Camera World | 1 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Executive | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Focus (Honest Abe's) | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Foto-cell | | 1 | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Freestyle | 1 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Garden | 3 | | | 1 |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Labelle (= La-Mere?) | 2 | 1 | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
New York Camera | | 1 | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Olden | 4 | 1 | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Porter's | 2 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Special Effects | 1 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Spiratone | 3 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Sunshine | 1 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Wall Street | 1 | | | |
------------------------+-------------+---------------+---------------+-------+
Here are the rough meanings of the categories again:
No problems: Got what you ordered, in reasonable time, at expected price,
no unpleasant surprises.
Minor hassles: Minor delays, unpleasant saleperson, hard to get through
to toll free line; probably not enough to keep you from
ordering from them again.
Major hassles: Major problems occurred, but you were satisfied enough with
with the way they were resolved that you might consider
ordering from them again when you cool off.
Avoid: Major problems occurred that either were not satisfactorily
corrected or that you feel were significant enough to begin
with that you wouldn't consider ordering from them again
under any circumstances.
Here are some tips for shopping via the mail order firms:
1. ORDER BY CREDIT CARD ONLY. Don't pay the credit card bill until you have
received the goods in satisfactory condition. To avoid interest charges,
when you pay the rest of the credit card bill, include a note explaining
the contested charge.
2. ASK WHAT THE SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES WILL BE. Most stores no longer
just charge you the freight, but also include a sizable handling charge.
3. ASK IF THE ITEM CARRIES A U.S. WARRANTY. New York stores (but not others)
now have to tell you whether what they are selling you carries a U.S.
warranty. Grey market material does not carry a U.S. warranty and is
sold at a significantly lower price. International warranties may be
worthless, but you may not feel you need the warranty protection. The
advertized price is frequently the grey market price.
4. DON'T AGREE TO BUY ANYTHING YOU HADN'T PLANNED TO BUY WHEN YOU CALLED.
Things like skylight filters, cases, etc., are usually just as cheap at
your local camera store. Don't buy anything on the phone salesman's
recommendations. They are not there to help you.
5. WHEN YOU GET YOUR EQUIPMENT, TEST IT IMMEDIATELY. If it is defective, call
the mail order company immediately and arrange for returning it. See #1
above. Most stores give you rather short period for returning defective
equipment, so waste a roll of film and get it developed at a one day
service place.
6. ASK IF THE ITEM IS IN STOCK. There appears, however, to be no reason to
believe their answer.
7. Call around and get the best price with the desired warranty, including
shipping and handling. Add 10 or 15 per cent for nuisance. Then call
around to your local stores and see if they can come close. Very
frequently they will.
8. Low end items, like small autofocus cameras, are frequently just as cheap,
if not cheaper when you consider the shipping and handling, in the local
discount department stores.
Respond directly to:
Vick Bennison
...decvax!decwrl!rhea!tools!bennisonbriand@tekig4.UUCP (Brian Diehm) (01/21/86)
> Don't buy anything on the phone salesman's recommendations. They are not > there to help you. This may be true of most mail-order places, but I feel it is very unfair to Calumet Camera in Illinois. Not only have I called them many times on their 1-800 toll free line for just information, they have not pressed for an order immediately beyond "Do you wish to order that item?" Not only that, but they always carry the US Warranty. -Brian Diehm Tektronix, Inc.
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (01/24/86)
> This may be true of most mail-order places, but I feel it is very unfair > to Calumet Camera in Illinois. Not only have I called them many times on > their 1-800 toll free line for just information, they have not pressed for > an order immediately beyond "Do you wish to order that item?" Not only > that, but they always carry the US Warranty. I can also confirm this. Calumet also carries a lot of products that are hard to find elsewhere, e.g., Vericolor Commercial Film (VCS). They also have some very nice low-end view cameras, as well as extremely high-priced, high-quality ones. On the other hand, Calumet is a different category of mail-order dealer: they are a genuine professional photography dealer (rather than one that just uses "professional" in their name to impress customers), since they carry mostly equipment and supplies used by professional photographers. They tend to be more expensive than the "discount" dealers in New York, and carry a different type of inventory altogether -- you can get things from them that you can't get from the New York discount stores, but on things that are available from both, the Calumet price is often much higher; e.g., I bought a digital spot meter for $130 from 47th Street Photo which was $199 from Calumet, a couple of months ago. On the other hand, I must admit that I first selected the meter I wanted from the Calumet catalog, because they, unlike FSSP, gave complete, detailed specifications on all the available meters in the catalog. The catalog (which you have to pay for unless you buy something from them, or they think you will) is valuable for that reason alone. If you buy from them often, they also give you a free subscription to a "photographic journal" (I think it's called "Journal of American Photography" or something) which is sort of a mixture of Calumet ads, fairly useful articles, and occasional photographic criticism. They advertise in the professional magazines, as well as some of the "serious amateur" ones like Outdoor Photography. -- UUCP: Ofc: jer@peora.UUCP Home: jer@jerpc.CCC.UUCP CCC DNS: peora, pesnta US Mail: MS 795; CONCURRENT Computer Corp. SDC; (A Perkin-Elmer Company) 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642 LOTD(2)=a "A people without history is not redeemed from time, For history is a pattern of timeless moments." --TSE