PC World And Camera Knowledge

This has to be a British thing, Carlos68

If this were the USA you would get "service" even in a nickle and dime store, here we queue, queue and queue, and if you are lucky you receive service I gave when I was a sales assistant thirty five years ago.

I do not CARE what the margins are, that is the retailers problem and the wage the staffs and unions, so stop bleeting or move to another job. Once someone said no matter what the job you do always aim to be the very best at what you do. MY mother was a toilet cleaner, remember the days when large stores toilets were manned, and it was spotless, rarely did she receive any thanks from customers but she was proud of the "service" she gave.

IEARN my money, hard earnt, and I therefore expect a reasonable level of service, I don't say be rude or off with staff but I expect a main dealer who sells me a car to know all about it, and a general "garage" to have a darn good idea.

So I do expect staff in a shop to know.

When, many moons ago I worked in menswear then drapery, then carpeting and lafer for Rumbelows we were EXPECTED to know ALL of our stock.

No the customer was not always right BUT they were paying OUR wages and STILL are.
 
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Jeremy, why do you feel the need to capitalise certain words? It really isn`t necessary......(y)
 
to be fair, as a nation we have sleep walked into this one

We have let the "superstores/supermarkets" provide crap service at a discount price, and people equate... cheap price = best. That's the same for computers, food, spectacles, cameras, dry cleaning and most other things

We have allowed our professions to deskill, and skilled jobs creep - we now have "teaching assistants" "nurses who jobs doctors used to" "Dispensing assistants" doing the role of a Optician

When I was a Kid, we used to respect teachers, doctors, policemen.. now they cant even earn your respect - we have culturally changed

I went to a shop in a retail park that only sold envelopes and paper - and asked if they did coloured window envelopes, the assistant did not know what a window envelope was!!!

The way I see this is it is an issue from both sides. Big business purposefully has de-skilled the workforce, and lowered service levels, at the same time we have become reluctant to pay for skilled work

If you want a butcher to prepare a "special cut of meat" specialist advice about what lens will work on what camera, a mechanic that actually knows his stuff then unfortunately you have to firstly find such a person, you then have to pay what is now considered to be a premium too
 
fracster said:
Jeremy, why do you feel the need to capitalise certain words? It really isn`t necessary......(y)
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In speech you can emphasise words, how then do you suggest you do it here, italic, bold underline, what.
 
Richard King said:
to be fair, as a nation we have sleep walked into this one

We have let the "superstores/supermarkets" provide crap service at a discount price, and people equate... cheap price = best. That's the same for computers, food, spectacles, cameras, dry cleaning and most other things

We have allowed our professions to deskill, and skilled jobs creep - we now have "teaching assistants" "nurses who jobs doctors used to" "Dispensing assistants" doing the role of a Optician

When I was a Kid, we used to respect teachers, doctors, policemen.. now they cant even earn your respect - we have culturally changed

I went to a shop in a retail park that only sold envelopes and paper - and asked if they did coloured window envelopes, the assistant did not know what a window envelope was!!!

The way I see this is it is an issue from both sides. Big business purposefully has de-skilled the workforce, and lowered service levels, at the same time we have become reluctant to pay for skilled work

If you want a butcher to prepare a "special cut of meat" specialist advice about what lens will work on what camera, a mechanic that actually knows his stuff then unfortunately you have to firstly find such a person, you then have to pay what is now considered to be a premium too
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100%
 
Carlos68 said:
Curious, do you ask for a discount when you go to the supermarket as everything you buy is on display and a fair bit has probably been handled by other customers before you purchase it ?

There really is some shocking posts on this thread, having worked in retail for 25+ years i know how hard it can be for staff, the wages are crap and the pressure you are under to get a sale is normally immense, especially in the large retail chains where targets are the only thing.

Then you have to deal with a number of obnoxious customers who go out of there way to be as awkward and condescending as possible (judging by some of the posts in here, there are a few here).

As mentioned in one of the previous posts people expect to get fantastic service and internet prices otherwise its a case of try it out in the shop and order online :bang: and you wonder why there are no decent independants offering the service anymore :(

Also having worked in electrical retail i can assure you the margins that stores works on are incredibly low so offering discounts isn't an option most of the time.
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To be fair, I've never bought a bag of apples that costs £600 ;)

As I said I don't tend to go looking for advice in major high st. electricals shops as I've found that staff knowledge is a little too broad. And also for the record, I'd never treat any shop worker with condescention unless they fired the first salvo. I've done enough public facing work to know that acting like a **** doesn't help anyone, and that cuts both ways. (y)
 
JSER said:
In speech you can emphasise words, how then do you suggest you do it here, italic, bold underline, what.
Click to expand...

Punctuation. Anyway, it does NOT matter really.......:)
 
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