Arrogant dealer.......

[pico]

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Years ago I had to have a new bank account. I went to the bank and asked for a new account. The clerk asked me if I would put my salary on it. I said no. Only that I would put money on it on non predictable occasions but not monthly.

 

Then he said he would not give me a bank account.

 

I asked for the manager. He explained that it wasn't done because there would be no regular income on the account.

 

I asked him: " How do you no if I put € 100,- or €100.000,- per occasion on the account? " He said he didn't . He appologised for his thinking and gave me an account with three zero's at the end.

 

I got the account but never set foot in that bank again and never put any money in the account!

 

Great story!

 

I went online to my mortgage company and using their auto-magic form screens put in for a 3.2% loan on the balance of my mortgage. I pay $1,100 a month now.

 

It came back with an estimate of $175 a month for 15 year loan and promised that a human being would call me soon to confirm details. All she could say after preliminary polite trites was, "Sir wouldn't rather buy a new car or something instead?"

 

Denied!

 

So Ef 'em. I'll write a check to close the mortgage. Not another M9 this yearl

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[SJP]

If any at all would be in doubt about who’s the owner of the jogging shoes.

Who is this slob that Bill Gates has to talk to?

[AlanG]

When I was young I worked in a camera store. One of the first things I was told was put a camera in their hands and be enthusiastic about it. I generally tried to sell the best and most expensive models because those were the ones I had the most confidence in and felt most enthusiastic about. Many of our customers were happy to walk out with a Leica or a Nikon when they originally were thinking of something less expensive.

 

Here are some pictures of Ferrari owners at the local dealership. I think it is interesting that these people care much more about how their car looks than how they look. (The man in the sweat clothes is a friend of mine and he had to go wax his new Ferrari at the dealership even though he hadn't officially even taken delivery of it yet.) I don't think the salesman judges you by how you look.

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[pop]

If any at all would be in doubt about who’s the owner of the jogging shoes.

 

What - he's not even wearing his own shoes?

[paulja]

my now partner in real estate was driving a rusted out 1978 subaru station wagon with 4 million miles on it when a broker friend introduced us in 1995,,i ask my friend "are you sure he has money" and was told he had just spent 2 million "no bank"on a couple pieces of property ,,wow,,,,...our first deal he lent me 500k on a little more than a handshake...needless to say i dont judge by looks or by car....paul

[AlanG]

a rusted out 1978 subaru station wagon with 4 million miles on it when a broker friend introduced us in 1995,

 

I'm sure it was beat up and one shouldn't judge by appearances, but if he drove that car 40 hours a week for 17 years, he would need to keep up an average speed of 113 MPH. So it was also a very fast Subaru wagon.

 

Try that with a Ferrari!

 

Now this guy has done more than a million miles on a bicycle:

 

http://miles4melanoma.com/freddiehoffman/

[fotografr]

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I think in many cases we have only ourselves to blame for these situations. When my Leica dealer got his first X1 in stock, he called me and I went to the store to see it. When I arrived, a sales assistant was on duty, so I told him I wanted to test the X1 by shooting a few frames on my SD card, then looking at the images on my laptop. He obliged, but while I was looking at the images, the manager came in and looked at us in shock. "Oh no, you didn't use that camera, did you?" he asked. I told him I'd tried it out, and he moaned that it would probably make the camera hard to sell because most Leica buyers only want to purchase cameras that are untouched. I told him to relax and just ring it up for me, which was a great relief to him.

 

And that was only for an X1.

[jdlaing]

I just finished replacing a set of stolen equipment and chose Dale Photo Video and, sight unseen, they couldn't have been nicer to deal with and helpful as well. Those folks don't know me from Adam and I was treated like I had been a customer for years. After the theft Leica Germany treated me the same way and I got several emails regarding serial numbers and reports. Kudos.

 

I guess for every bad experience there is a ray of sunshine or two........

[ravinj]

Interesting thread.

 

I have been to B&H 3 times and it has been like a country fair with lots of crowd and I felt totally lost. To be fair to them, they do have assistants on every floor who would ask if I needed help. The problem was long lines on every counter. So I left without buying anything. I do buy from B&H - online only and their return policy is excellent, so no complaints.

 

Also had good experience with Tamarkin. I bought the X1 from them and at another time I needed some information M lenses. I spoke to Stan Tamarkin's son and he patiently explained to me the nuances of summicron versus elmarit verus summilux.

 

I buy mostly online and often from total strangers, just based on their feedback - M9, 50MM Summilux ASPH were purchased from GETDPI and FredMiranda respectively. These turned out to be pristine samples.

 

Amazon is pretty good too - once I returned a pretty pricey lens back to them. There was nothing wrong with the lens, I just wasn't satisfied with it. It was a no haggle return and they paid return shipping too. Now that is customer service.

 

Smaller outfits like popflash.com are good too, at least in my dealings with them.

 

Moral of the story is that you don't have to necessarily tolerate the establishments where you do not get good customer service. I vote with my $$$s it is as simple as that.

[jaques]

I went into this old fine antique and (truly) vintage clothing store once here in my hometown of Adelaide... fantastic store... the lady who ran it for many years was well known as a very rude old battleaxe...

 

she walked over- looked me up and down- and hissed, "there is nothing in here for YOU!".... quite the experience:rolleyes:

 

A few years later I was selling some wonderful vintage dresses at a market stall- up walked the same old hideous Battleaxe. She looked at an amazing old 1940's prom dress I had- I wanted $150... very reasonable price... she offered $10... I said 'No thanks'. She said "you will never get more than $20 for that old dress"... I said "whatever- the price is $150;)" and she walked off in a great huff.

 

20 minutes later she walked up again and paid the full price without a word but with a nasty withering scowl on her face...

 

I dropped into her shop when I walked past a week later and saw the dress on a rack priced at $500. She scowled down her nose at me...

 

It turns out she was right all along- I really never would have bought anything off her... nasty old cow. Wonderful shop she had though...

[lumini]

I have never had a problem with arrogance in Leica dealers but did observe on one occasion how appearance can alter the purchasing experience. I was a customer of Reg at High Street Radio in Croydon for many years in the 1990s before I moved, and he sold me, a Leica novice, lenses for my M6 that I now know are classics so I have very fond memories of his shop. However, on one occasion I was pleading poverty over some purchase, I cannot now recall what it was but it may have been the second-hand Mamiya 6, and the haggling was prolonged.

 

Reg suddenly became concerned and asked me if I had driven and was I in danger of getting a parking ticket? I said that I had and was probably getting a little close to the time limit. He went to the window and asked where I was parked so I rather evasively said a few spaces away. Red or green car, he asked. Green, I said.

 

'Ah, the Mercedes. Now, sir, you were saying that you couldn't afford this...'.

 

I bought whatever it was as negotiations had obviously come to an end.

 

Geoff

[azzo]

.... :D

[Vlad]

I just filed my business tax at my CPA office located at NYC, next to the office is a Leica dealership...... I figure after the CPA visit I will stop by the store, and introduce my wife to Leica, she hates BH....... She said it's toy store for me (I agree). We were standing at Leica section for good 10 minutes no one stoped by, it was 2 pm Tuesday, the store was virtually empty. Someone finally stopped by, I asked to see the Leica m9. The sales person said its a hand made German cmera that is $7000. He never took the Leica out of the shelf...... My wife and I looked at each other and walked out. She knew it was about 7k, she was impressed by how it looked at the shelf...... But she was not impressed by the sales reason. That night she got a Santos 100 from Cartier boutique at 5th ave after trying it on, it was double the Leica M9.

Maybe to BH next time

 

My guess would be Willoughby's. The Leica boutique is prominently displayed right on Fifth Ave.

 

The sales staff doesn't give a rat's about its customers. You can walk in, stand around the shelves in the boutique for 20, 30 minutes and not a single soul will care. The gentleman who is the "Leica specialist"... I forget his name... he's unpleasant to deal with as well. I did give them business previously as I live near, but will not bother again.

 

Dale Photo and Art at the Pro Shop are a delight to work with.

[Paulus]

My guess would be Willoughby's. The Leica boutique is prominently displayed right on Fifth Ave.

 

The sales staff doesn't give a rat's about its customers. You can walk in, stand around the shelves in the boutique for 20, 30 minutes and not a single soul will care. The gentleman who is the "Leica specialist"... I forget his name... he's unpleasant to deal with as well. I did give them business previously as I live near, but will not bother again.

 

Dale Photo and Art at the Pro Shop are a delight to work with.

 

I rather travel 300 kilometers than give business to an unpleasant dealer! Not only the instrument to buy must be great, but also the enjoyment of buying it. I remember all my good buys because I have enjoyed them very much! The older I get, the more I like to live up to this standard and I like it.

[albireo_double]

I really can recommend LeicaShop.com (official store)They will deliever worldwide! Another one is Leica München!

 

Leica Shop in Vienna are my dealer and I can confirm that they are very good - great service, very helpful.

 

But I know the feeling described by the OP, I once had a similar experience at Greys of Westminster, the Nikon dealer in London, when I was a student in the early 1990s, and with an Eastern European accent for the worse of it (the guy just didn't realize that I was doing my MBA at the best business school in Europe...). Interestingly enough, no bank except Natwest would open a bank account for us students at that time (no regular income). Of course, fast forward a few years and most of us were consultants, investment bankers, senior managers...and Natwest private banking had the accounts of almost the entire class.

[Lord Fluff]

I'm scruffy - always have been. I can smarten up when I need to, but shopping is rarely such an occasion.

 

Two places I can thoroughly recommend for their customer attitude are Richard Caplan Photographic (London) and West London Porsche. In the case of the latter i often turn up in my partner's 2CV - i still get treated as a valid customer. I don't have the riches that many of their customers do I'm sure, but I've always been treated with the utmost respect at both. I don't need to be fawned over, but I do appreciate my queries and interest being taken seriously, regardless of my outer appearance on that day.

 

For the snooty sales person - there is a moment in the TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous where they go to buy some art - the assistant treats them like they don't deserve to own any of the pieces, to which she is told "lose the attitude love, you work in a shop...."

[Archiver]

 

For the snooty sales person - there is a moment in the TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous where they go to buy some art - the assistant treats them like they don't deserve to own any of the pieces, to which she is told "lose the attitude love, you work in a shop...."

 

Yes!!! Great episode and series. I believe they are getting together to do a special sometime soon.

 

Regarding the new Leica section at Michael's Cameras in Melbourne: I was surprised to see that almost every lens was represented in their cabinets. Everything from the 21mm Summilux to the new Noctilux, I think. They also had a number of binoculars and spotting scopes, black and chrome M9-Ps, grey and black X1s and various bags and cases.

[tom0511]

I would immediatly look for another photo store. Stupid salesperson who acts like this.

The store where I buy my stuff doesnt make any difference between a Leica and a cheapy plastic used camera for 30 bugs.

I would however never pay the double price of a Leica for a leather bag. But well, its/was her money.

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Hallo,

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[zlatkob]

I walked away and never set foot in the store again. There are plenty of nice dealers!

And there is always the Internet, with nice shops like Amazon who don't take an attitude.

[Sandokan]

Take your money where they are happy to relieve you of it.

 

If they are rude, then hit them where it hurts. Show them the money and then haggle for a good discount and pay with AmEx which takes a further 4% off their profits . At worst, you can spend an hour enjoying yourself winding them up and wasting their time.