Even prettier pics :)
Back on the 10th I wrote about our new camera purchase, the Olympus Stylus Tough-8000. When I purchased the camera I really hadn’t done any research on it, or its rivals. I just trusted the salesperson. Michele was nice enough to include a link to some comparison reviews in her comment on that post. That review, and subsequent ones I read, were not all that impressed with the Olympus picture quality. It is an OK camera, and it definitely seems to be tough as the name implies, but the Canon PowerShot D10 12.1 MP Waterproof Digital Camera scored much higher. I took a few sample pics with the Olympus and in truth I was underwhelmed. For these reasons I decided to go back to the store yesterday morning to exchange it for the Canon.
I won’t go into a huge amount of detail on the exchange but let’s just say that my trying to be environmentally conscious and having recycled a small piece of the cardboard packaging on the original camera caused the store clerks a bit of strife. So much so that they wanted to charge me a 20% restocking fee, even though I was going to turn around and buy an equally expensive camera from them! Needless to say this was definitely NOT going to happen, and after dealing with a clerk, assistant manager and finally the big boss, we walked out of there with a new camera without paying any stupid penalty for the missing piece of cardboard. Crazy that they would even consider trying that!
Good for you! The consumer is the one who’s going to make the difference in our economy. It’s time WE start telling these businesses from department stores to car dealers to real estate brokers…. we’re not paying that anymore! I hope you told them that IF you had to pay the restocking fee you’d buy your replacement camera elsewhere and not from one of their company stores.
That’s exactly what I told them. All they had to do was pull my name up in their computer to see how much money I have spent with them in the past, and I did remind them of that number (it is a lot)! The boss said it was not worth the fight, and I agree, for them, it wasn’t. Just giving me that hassle though is enough to spoil my image of them.
And you know what? The next person to receive the camera will NEVER notice that the cardboard is missing. You have to wonder why people are so intent on expending so much energy on negativity and creating a feel-bad atmosphere. Just imagine if they had said, “Hey, there’s a piece of cardboard missing, but it’s no biggie. Sure we can exchange cameras for you.” Wouldn’t that have felt better for everyone?
You can’t go wrong with a Canon* – it was worth the fight. Just think – with the “blink detection” feature, you’ll never again get a photo of a fish with its eyes shut! LOL
Same advice applies – spare battery, and CDs/DVDs plus an external hard-drive for image back-up.
Happy snapping.
(*I’ll admit that I’m biased, having used Canon cameras for 30+ years!)
Yes, the fight over the bit of packing material was silly. They could have handled it much better. Oh well.
I also have had great success with Canons. This is just another lesson for me to do my research before handing over my money! I even went ahead and bought a second battery from this store too, so they were actually further ahead after the whole deal was done.
By the way, you have some great shots on your blog!!!
Thank you!
My friend has a digital SLR Canon, and loves it, except for the weight. He’s VERY into photography, and is still learning the capacities of his digial camera. He just revisited some of the pictures he took on a Western trip the first year he had it, and was surprised at how much more he knew about how to use it. Some of those pictures, which are beautiful, no longer meet his revised criteria!