In camera
Our recent search to buy a new digital camera has been ironic. Camera means 'dark chamber' in Latin, and that was certainly what it felt like trying to find a non-shyster dealer online.
Buying new electronic products is stressful enough: are we making the right choice? is there something we are missing? what's the fine print? are there questions we should be asking or features we should be looking for that we aren't?? And so the angst continues...
But we eventually chose a camera, and placed our order with *RUSH ORDER* shipping to get to us before we leave on our road trip on Wednesday. The next morning we received two urgent e-mails to call the company to 'confirm our shipping address'. So we called, confirmed the address, but then had a rude and pushy salesman who tried so hard to sell us upgrades that he made us doubt whether the camera we had ordered would be any good (would the battery last for longer than 15 minutes? What if all the menus were in Japanese?) Finally, feeling that we were dealing with unethical people - we canceled the order. Possibly we should have just said "no thank you, no thank you", and just taken the deal - but we lost our nerve.
So now we've changed our minds, ordered a different camera, and gone with a higher-priced option... but at least now if we have questions there is a store with a name to protect which we can bring go to.
Now we're just holding thumbs that it arrives in time for the big road trip!
Buying new electronic products is stressful enough: are we making the right choice? is there something we are missing? what's the fine print? are there questions we should be asking or features we should be looking for that we aren't?? And so the angst continues...
But we eventually chose a camera, and placed our order with *RUSH ORDER* shipping to get to us before we leave on our road trip on Wednesday. The next morning we received two urgent e-mails to call the company to 'confirm our shipping address'. So we called, confirmed the address, but then had a rude and pushy salesman who tried so hard to sell us upgrades that he made us doubt whether the camera we had ordered would be any good (would the battery last for longer than 15 minutes? What if all the menus were in Japanese?) Finally, feeling that we were dealing with unethical people - we canceled the order. Possibly we should have just said "no thank you, no thank you", and just taken the deal - but we lost our nerve.
So now we've changed our minds, ordered a different camera, and gone with a higher-priced option... but at least now if we have questions there is a store with a name to protect which we can bring go to.
Now we're just holding thumbs that it arrives in time for the big road trip!
posted by Bronwyn at 9:19 am
1 Comments:
Aah! The joy of shopping for a digital camera! For years, I own a old-fashioned camera, which means you need to purchase film and develop the pictures before I can see any results of my photographic skills. Well, for the record, I had a roll of 12-exposure film and it took me TWO years to finish!!! Needless to say, after thinking about and searching for the "perfect" camera for a long time, I finally purchased one from Costco. I highly recommend looking at Costco's online and in-store selections. You get a pretty good deal too.
Next time you go shopping for an electronic gadget, try looking at Costco first.
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