Most of the sellers of SLR cameras and accessories are honest people who earn their living with dignity. However, we can always run into some evil and ruthless soul who, blinded by quick and dishonest profit, would be willing to resort to any method in order to sneak a sale.
In other cases what we find is no longer a lying seller but a flagrant lack of photographic knowledge.
If you were planning to visit a store soon to buy your next SLR camera , I recommend you be careful. Make sure none of these things happen to you:
- If you go in asking for a camera and it turns out that the seller does not have it available, he will try to convince you that this is a very bad brand and that you try to get another one . Curiously, it will recommend a brand and model that it does have in the store.
- If, among 10 different camera models, you ask the seller to recommend one that is worth it to you as an amateur/beginner, he will suggest the camera with the highest profit margin.
- If it is a small store of these that sell cameras at "bargain" prices, the seller will keep secret the fact that the camera is from a Vietnam distributor and that it lacks an international guarantee valid in Spain or in the country where you are .
- Some vendors (particularly from bazaars) advertise in their shop windows offers that do not really exist , but that they use as a bait. For example: Nikon D7000 camera with 2 VR lenses + backpack + I don't know what + I don't know how much for 590 euros!!! As soon as you enter to ask about that model, they tell you: "Mecachis, I just sold the last unit but for a little more I can offer you this other one" or they answer: "I don't recommend it, friend, it's a defective model, why not do you look at this other one?».
- In some stores they sell you converter lenses as if they were objectives . An objective normally does not fall below 180 euros, while the conversion lenses can be found at 20 euros. They take advantage of the buyer's inexperience to make him believe that they are selling him a target for 30 or 40, which would be IMPOSSIBLE.
- In some stores and hypermarkets, some employees in charge of the photography area do not know what diaphragm , ISO, RAW, etc. means. When the colleague from the photography section is sick or goes on vacation, the boss sends the guy from the iron and vacuum cleaner section to fill in for him.
- Some outlet stores, discount shopping, etc., advertise discounts on inflated store prices . For example, they take a camera that really costs 600 euros and advertise it as an 800-euro camera, which they sell to you for 600 euros, supposedly making you save 200 euros. Which is a lie.
- Some sites sell you refurbished cameras , cameras that have previously been sold, returned, examined, repaired, corrected, repackaged, and put back up for sale for a lower price. So far so good except for the fact that they don't tell you and they sell it to you as a brand new camera. You cannot easily verify this, but you can avoid stores and make your purchases only at trusted sites (Amazon, Fnac, etc.)
I'm sure I'm leaving things out, but this has been a small sample of the misdeeds that are committed every day in the businesses that sell cameras and photography accessories. So you know, arm yourself with caution. You don't have to be suspicious, but you don't have to be totally confident either. Don't make your buying decisions solely based on what a salesperson tells you. Gather various opinions, contrast them, compare, visit pages and read blogs, ask, investigate.
Only then will you be sure that you are making the best purchase.
As always, I hope this article has been useful to you. Please share it with the community.
BDF MAX
