Start 2008 the Right Way . . . Buy Smart
On the DPReview discussion forums this week there was a hot thread about the variety and number of fly-by-night online digital camera dealers. One of the posters, Don Wiss, has done a terrific amount of cycling around New York City/Brooklin taking photos of the street addresses of dozens of online merchants. Some of the storefronts are shockingly awful. Dozens of online merchants are traced back to mailbox stores. Some of them trace back to false addresses. The general feeling among many of the respondents to the Don's post was simply that they'd rather see low prices on merchandise than merchants plowing money into nicer looking storefronts. Well boys, it doesn't work that way!
A well kept store demonstrates how much a storekeeper wants to present his customers with a pleasant place to shop. The effort that goes into a well kept store is also often reflected in the storekeeper's bookkeeping and, most important, his customer service. Most often too, the best kept stores are populated by owners and staff who are generally better informed. Smart, energetic and informed people generally want to work in a pleasant environment. Exceptions may exist, but those are the rules.
Any half-witted schmuck can create a snappy looking web site that leaves visitors with the impression that they're dealing with a serious business. The fact remains though that online purchasing can be a snake pit. The BBB and dozens of other consumer protection organizations are overloaded with screeching complaints from literally tens of thousands of customers who have been ripped off by horrible online merchants.
The best thing about shopping for quality & service rather than price alone is that it may force people necessarily into formal business relationships with brick & mortar local merchants. I think that's the best relationship to create if we want to ensure the best possible service and support from knowledgeable dealers. Some online merchants are safe, obviously, because they're big enough to carry the weight and overhead of exceedingly expensive online operations. Almost all the other online players are either kibitzers or outright thieves. Buyer beware.
We frequently hear complaints from ripped off consumers about the difficulty of checking out the quality and/or honesty of online merchants. My response is simply that absence of good quality information about any online merchant should be a big red flag in the first place. Don't deal with such a merchant. The better the ridiculously low priced deal, the lousier the merchant - another rule which applies 95% of the time. Figuring out which of the remaining 5% are legitimate deals is too much of a headache for most people, and the personal time consumed by people trying to figure out which witch is which is often worth more than any possible saving on a purchase. Buyer beware.
A well kept store demonstrates how much a storekeeper wants to present his customers with a pleasant place to shop. The effort that goes into a well kept store is also often reflected in the storekeeper's bookkeeping and, most important, his customer service. Most often too, the best kept stores are populated by owners and staff who are generally better informed. Smart, energetic and informed people generally want to work in a pleasant environment. Exceptions may exist, but those are the rules.
Any half-witted schmuck can create a snappy looking web site that leaves visitors with the impression that they're dealing with a serious business. The fact remains though that online purchasing can be a snake pit. The BBB and dozens of other consumer protection organizations are overloaded with screeching complaints from literally tens of thousands of customers who have been ripped off by horrible online merchants.
The best thing about shopping for quality & service rather than price alone is that it may force people necessarily into formal business relationships with brick & mortar local merchants. I think that's the best relationship to create if we want to ensure the best possible service and support from knowledgeable dealers. Some online merchants are safe, obviously, because they're big enough to carry the weight and overhead of exceedingly expensive online operations. Almost all the other online players are either kibitzers or outright thieves. Buyer beware.
We frequently hear complaints from ripped off consumers about the difficulty of checking out the quality and/or honesty of online merchants. My response is simply that absence of good quality information about any online merchant should be a big red flag in the first place. Don't deal with such a merchant. The better the ridiculously low priced deal, the lousier the merchant - another rule which applies 95% of the time. Figuring out which of the remaining 5% are legitimate deals is too much of a headache for most people, and the personal time consumed by people trying to figure out which witch is which is often worth more than any possible saving on a purchase. Buyer beware.
Labels: consumer alert, digital camera, digital photography, online purchasing, ripoffs
posted by Howard Carson, Managing Editor @ 5:12 PM
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