Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've pretty much given up on my local source of photo gear--except for transparency processing, for the simple reason that it couldn't care less about my business. Case in point: I wanted a Domke strap. I could have ordered it through the mail from B&H, paid the postage, and still come out ahead. Instead, as I have always done, I went over to Massey's and asked him to get me one. No problem, the owner says. A week later I drop by and ask about the strap. "What strap?" he asks. He'd forgotten to order it. I wait another week until I need to drop some film off. "Strap?" he says. I then get some song and dance about an order on hold until some women makes up her mind about a $5000 darkroom setup. It's now been nearly a month . . . and I'm still waiting. I buy nearly all my gear used, but I've spent way more than I needed to on things like a tripod head and Gossen Digital F, buying them from him, because I want to support the only quasi-serious shop in town. Not any more. There's absolutely no value added in patronizing the local shop--and a great deal of expense supporting indifferent service. By the way, this is the local Leica dealer--who refers to my M3 and M4P as "that old Leica stuff" and who expressed doubt upon first view of the 75/1.4 that it was a "genuine" Leica lens. Go figure. CHandos At 10:01 AM 9/29/1999 -0500, you wrote: >It's the same here, with people walking into camera stores to handle the >hardware, then they go home and order it from B+H and Camera World of >Oregon. And we wonder why there are so many amateurs who don't know squat >about photography. Chandos Michael Brown Assoc. Prof., History and American Studies College of William and Mary http://www.wm.edu/CAS/ASP/faculty/brown