Jessops are clueless!

There is one very knowledgeeable chap who works in the Cambridge store. Definately knows his stuff when talking about Nikon gear.

I got some excellent service when I popped in the other day.. it was only for a £2.50 Camcorder kit, but the sales chap, Max who must have just been out of school, couldn't have been more helpful.
 
Bachs said:
I'm shocked...you actually found a Jessops that had stock? :eek:
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Well, I don't know if they had actual stock -- it was just on display.
 
The Jessops local to me in Crawley depend on who you get. Most of them are very good and there are two or three who clearly have a real passion for photography.
 
In my experience if you treat people decently, and a polite you get that sort of reaction back.

I get the impression some folks wander into Jessops just because they are bored, take the **** then moan on the internet later.
 
I would laugh if it was a joke, but even if you were exaggerating it is still entirely believable.

While I wouldn't expect every store member to know as much as Canon Bob, they'd at least know:
a) the basics
b) how to work the camera at a basic level

Just shows the reasons we're going down the drain really.

If the staff were amazing people would feel a lot more compelled to spend a bit more, but crap staff equate to a negative sales experience.
 
puddleduck said:
In my experience if you treat people decently, and a polite you get that sort of reaction back.

I get the impression some folks wander into Jessops just because they are bored, take the **** then moan on the internet later.
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couldn't have said it better myself !
 
mrgas said:
couldn't have said it better myself !
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I'm sure this happens a lot.
My own personal experience?
I have visited Jessops stores 4 times, each time to buy a specific item.
All 4 times, they didn't have the item in stock and all 4 times, they couldn't tell me when it would be in stock.

2 of the 4 times, they ordered the items for me and took my contact details to ring me when the items came in store.

Both times, they never got back to me and I eventually bought the items elsewhere.

3 of the 4 times, I asked questions about the items I wanted to purchase and each time, they talked utter c$$p.

Spotting a pattern here?
 
Bachs said:
I'm sure this happens a lot.
My own personal experience?
I have visited Jessops stores 4 times, each time to buy a specific item.
All 4 times, they didn't have the item in stock and all 4 times, they couldn't tell me when it would be in stock.

2 of the 4 times, they ordered the items for me and took my contact details to ring me when the items came in store.

Both times, they never got back to me and I eventually bought the items elsewhere.

3 of the 4 times, I asked questions about the items I wanted to purchase and each time, they talked utter c$$p.

Spotting a pattern here?
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Yeah, you need to find a better Jessops store ;)
 
Bachs said:
I'm sure this happens a lot.
My own personal experience?
I have visited Jessops stores 4 times, each time to buy a specific item.
All 4 times, they didn't have the item in stock and all 4 times, they couldn't tell me when it would be in stock.

2 of the 4 times, they ordered the items for me and took my contact details to ring me when the items came in store.

Both times, they never got back to me and I eventually bought the items elsewhere.

3 of the 4 times, I asked questions about the items I wanted to purchase and each time, they talked utter c$$p.

Spotting a pattern here?
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to be fair i suppose it all depends how good your local Jessops is , theres good and bad same as anything

luckily i've had nothing but first class service from them
 
:LOL: It was two different stores..Aberdeen and Dundee.
If it didn't fit on a tractor they didn't know what to do with it :nuts:
 
It annoys me when I know more about what I'm looking to buy than the sales assistants. That typically goes for all electricals. Even if I'm unsure to start with, I research what I'm looking for.

The only time I've felt that a sales person knew their stuff recently was at Comet in Crawley when buying my TV. Then he ruined it by trying to sell me a £100 HDMI cable and £150 of surge protector :D
 
Im going to have to sort of stand up for these large retailers.

I have the misfortune of working for a Currys store, However look at it from their view (more currys than jessops)

We have a limited number of staff who need to be trained to be experts (as customers like yourselves expect... and rightfully) in everysingle area. Particularly in smaller stores where you cant have area specific staff.
We get paid minimum Wage, with a pretty ropey bonus system, we have more targets than you would believe, which if we dont meet they now will get rid of us within 2 months if we dont meet the target the following months.
The majority of staff will be experts in a few areas. Whilst i might know my fair share about SLR's and TV's i wouldnt be an expert in Whitegoods. However i do my best to help.

Jessops will be in a similar position, your never going to get alot of decent staff if you dont pay them right. There is only a small number of people in the country who would be experts in this field and want to work for minimum wage.

Ontop of which you get customers coming in and blaming a poor system or a select number of sales people on the whole store.

All of these stores have people that know their stuff and those that dont. But if you came in and no-one would serve you as they didnt have any experts in this area you would be equally displeased im sure. At least they let you try out the camera and lens, despite the miss-informed member of staff believing the TC wouldnt AF. Admittedly im not sure why a person working in a camera specific shop wouldn't know how to fit a lens correctly, but maybe she was new. At least you got what you wanted from the shop, now you can buy it online at a big reduction.
 
When I bought my 40d a while back I got home and realized that it would not change aperture in manual mode.

I took it back and when I explained to the girl what was wrong, she had a fiddle with the camera for a few mins and then said, "its ok though you can just shoot in AV and alter exposure compensation using this dial here..."

I must have stood for a good 10seconds with my mouth open before blurting out "are you f****** serious?"

I was just so shocked that she thought I might just say "Oh, O.K. then" and walk out again.

After embarrassing the myself the replacement has been spot on though to be fair.
 
In defence of Jessops, my local store is pretty good actually. There's a few people who seem to have a bit of knowledge about film and have always been helpful enough. I've not bought much from there but have had some questions in the past about which would be the better film to use and the guys there have been very good.
 
dunganick said:
Im going to have to sort of stand up for these large retailers.

I have the misfortune of working for a Currys store, However look at it from their view (more currys than jessops)

We have a limited number of staff who need to be trained to be experts (as customers like yourselves expect... and rightfully) in everysingle area. Particularly in smaller stores where you cant have area specific staff.
We get paid minimum Wage, with a pretty ropey bonus system, we have more targets than you would believe, which if we dont meet they now will get rid of us within 2 months if we dont meet the target the following months.
The majority of staff will be experts in a few areas. Whilst i might know my fair share about SLR's and TV's i wouldnt be an expert in Whitegoods. However i do my best to help.

Jessops will be in a similar position, your never going to get alot of decent staff if you dont pay them right. There is only a small number of people in the country who would be experts in this field and want to work for minimum wage.

Ontop of which you get customers coming in and blaming a poor system or a select number of sales people on the whole store.

All of these stores have people that know their stuff and those that dont. But if you came in and no-one would serve you as they didnt have any experts in this area you would be equally displeased im sure. At least they let you try out the camera and lens, despite the miss-informed member of staff believing the TC wouldnt AF. Admittedly im not sure why a person working in a camera specific shop wouldn't know how to fit a lens correctly, but maybe she was new. At least you got what you wanted from the shop, now you can buy it online at a big reduction.
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with all due respect and 10 years of retail behind me, the wages reflect the difficulties of the job.
shop staff do not have a particularly difficult or hazardous occupation, anyone is capable of it.
To get that wage up you have 3 choices, get into London and go flagship store or go to a superstore as a product area specialist, your final option is to head into management.

one of the main problems with retail has always been attitude, too many people drift in and see the job as beneath them, this is especially true of students (not all before you start getting uppity), who are generally focussed on the mega bucks that they will get after graduation and joining their dream jobs.:LOL: and see customers as an intrusion into their hectic social lives :bang:

customer service and product knowledge are key.
leap in and help customers, if you don't know the answer, don't lie.. go and find out, build a relationship with your customer, create trust and respect and you will have a happy client base that return time after time.
 
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Hyster said:
When I bought my 40d a while back I got home and realized that it would not change aperture in manual mode.

I took it back and when I explained to the girl what was wrong, she had a fiddle with the camera for a few mins and then said, "its ok though you can just shoot in AV and alter exposure compensation using this dial here..."

I must have stood for a good 10seconds with my mouth open before blurting out "are you f****** serious?"

I was just so shocked that she thought I might just say "Oh, O.K. then" and walk out again.

After embarrassing the myself the replacement has been spot on though to be fair.
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Haha, what a bint!
 
andrew748 said:
customer service and product knowledge are key.
leap in and help customers, if you don't know the answer, don't lie.. go and find out, build a relationship with your customer, create trust and respect and you will have a happy client base that return time after time.
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I agree, However this is basically the basis for this thread. The lass in the shop found out as best she could.

I have to disagree with the minimum wage thing though. imho working in sales is a much harder job these days than people believe, even going back 2 years ago it was dead easy compared to now. Certainly in my work experience the wage earned by those people (product designers) was not for a job that was more proportionally difficult.

Just my take on it.
 
So someone goes into Jessops to "have a play" with some kit, decides, for whatever reason, not to buy it, and Jessops are left with a piece of equipment that they should then sell as secondhand?

The words "Eat it", "cake" and "having your" come to mind.

Having said that, when I went into my local Jessops to find out more about a Canon g10, they looked it up on the Warehouse Express website.....
 
This is going to be the norm in most Jessop stores from now on,they will be employing the type of person who would have worked at Woolworths ect.
Nothing wrong with getting a part time shop job,I have one myself,but they are now only looking for flexable people to work daft 12 hour contracts and not people who know anything about photography.I was surplus to requirments (after 17 yrs) at the Middlesbrough branch in last years assistant manager cull, and now the lab specialist and the only full time sales advisor will be going in August with a paultry pay off,leaving 3 staff who only know how to print on auto.It's all very sad,staff screwed,customers screwed....it may as well be a branch of Click now :bang:
 
jerry12953 said:
So someone goes into Jessops to "have a play" with some kit, decides, for whatever reason, not to buy it, and Jessops are left with a piece of equipment that they should then sell as secondhand?

The words "Eat it", "cake" and "having your" come to mind.
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The key word there is "should", unfortunately display stuff is still sold as new, which, it has to be said, is fairly common amongst hight street retailers.
 
I used to work in Jessops a long time ago, but got out when the going was good. Sure the staff have declined in knowledge over the last 5 years or more, possibly longer, but to tell you the truth, the worse single thing about working in retail, and i can vouch for just about every sales person, are the customers!
They're all 'professionals' yet invariably do not know how to change their lenses, and expect the high street to match some dodgy website in Hong Kong. Doubt if you'd drop the price of your house because the one down the road is cheaper. There is a god and one day he will come and get all you moaning minnies. Real pro's go to Calumet.
 
talktalk said:
There is a god and one day he will come and get all you moaning minnies. Real pro's go to Calumet.
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Nice attitude talktalk......you're going to go a long way and make loads of friends on this forum......not! :nono:


:popcorn:
 
jerry12953 said:
So someone goes into Jessops to "have a play" with some kit, decides, for whatever reason, not to buy it, and Jessops are left with a piece of equipment that they should then sell as secondhand?

The words "Eat it", "cake" and "having your" come to mind.

Having said that, when I went into my local Jessops to find out more about a Canon g10, they looked it up on the Warehouse Express website.....
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So you have never test drive a Car ?
 
iv had a pretty good exsperence of jessops of late, however i do know what you mean, and i agree with Chaz Photos pc world are rubbish, i only went there for the best deal. i feel sorry for the people who have to go to pc world for help like health checks and such total waste of money most of the time
 
Think of the wages they would have to pay to get real experianced and knowledgeable people . Would you take a job at Jessops as a sales person if you knew your stuff ?
 
I have to say most of my experiences have been great. There was one instance where I took 2 films in to be processed and told them that I had pushed the ISOs on both. Nevertheless I got a blank look, and 'Okay' and I should have noted this, because when developed the negs and the prints were completely ruined and useless.

Another instance is going in there to get my other half a reflector. Asking the assisstant who walked up to me bold as brass asking if I was okay and needed any help, I replied 'Yes we weould like to buy a large reflector' To which he replied, 'whats that?'

Otherwise I have had good experiences!
 
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