Jim_Miller
New member
Greetings to all my fellow DVX100A lovers (and you pioneer DVX100 owners, as well). One thing that I feel we can accomplish here is to share both our good experiences with dealers, along with the "pain in the arse" companies. As long as we stick to the plain facts, without embellishment (which, I grant you, is hard to do when a dealer is blowing you off), there should be no problems.
I, for one, made a big mistake buying from Broadway Camera. The person I initially spoke with claimed he was intimitely knowledgeable with the AG-DVX100A. Yet he claimed it shipped with only a "wee tiny" battery that would only have enough juice for a few minutes worth of demos. However, like many of you, I was thrilled to see it came with a beefy 5400mAh battery (cool!). He also claimed that the charger that ships with the camera "takes forever" and I absolutely had to have the rapid charger. I timed it today and their charger beats the stock charger by a matter of a few minutes--nothing dramatic.
I also ended up with the wrong "rapid charger" and a dinky 90 minute battery, which I had to mail back to them before they would send me the correct parts. I will say this, however: The customer service person who took my call after I received the correct charger and another skimpy battery sent me an "upgraded" battery. I'm supposed to send back the 90-minute one, but you know, the post office often loses small items like that. So....well, let's just say I hope it does not get lost.
Further, everything is sent as a package. So if, for example, I wanted my money back on the supposedly upgraded charger and battery, I would likely not have a leg to stand on, since those charges are not broken out separately.
All-in-all, I would rate my sales experience as a lesson learned: Buy from the dealer that gets "thumbs up" from all you fine people on the newsgroup. I was dealing (and still am) with my sweet collie, who had surgery and is now on chemotherapy, so I figured it was not worth the hassle over a couple hundred bucks. Out of a possible five stars, I would rate Broadway as a two at best. The sales person was so much more interested in selling me extended warranties and expensive filters (the same ones available on eBay for cheap).
Anyone else have tales to tell? What a shame that we have to end up doing this. It would be so much better if camera dealers adopted the same set of rules that all music retailers adhere to, which is, you cannot advertise any products for less than a certain dollar amount. That levels the playing field, so you end up buying from people you trust, since store A and Store B will be within a few bucks of each other. Sweetwater Sound (www.sweetwater.com) now ships almost everything free via FedEx Ground (and sometimes faster) and they have what is unquestionably the most knowledgeable sales team in the biz. No, I'm not pimping for them (though I do write a column now for them, mostly guitar-related, and that came about because I was blown away by the company's integrity and the knowledgeable sales staff -- I don't get stuff free or at ridiculous prices). I am happy to pay more for a satisfying sales experience, and I'm sure I am not alone.
Why these camera companies keep pulling their silly little head games is beyond me. I guess a single sale is more important than building a professional relationship, and frankly, that sucks.
Best regards from Florida,
Jim
jim_miller@mindspring.com
I, for one, made a big mistake buying from Broadway Camera. The person I initially spoke with claimed he was intimitely knowledgeable with the AG-DVX100A. Yet he claimed it shipped with only a "wee tiny" battery that would only have enough juice for a few minutes worth of demos. However, like many of you, I was thrilled to see it came with a beefy 5400mAh battery (cool!). He also claimed that the charger that ships with the camera "takes forever" and I absolutely had to have the rapid charger. I timed it today and their charger beats the stock charger by a matter of a few minutes--nothing dramatic.
I also ended up with the wrong "rapid charger" and a dinky 90 minute battery, which I had to mail back to them before they would send me the correct parts. I will say this, however: The customer service person who took my call after I received the correct charger and another skimpy battery sent me an "upgraded" battery. I'm supposed to send back the 90-minute one, but you know, the post office often loses small items like that. So....well, let's just say I hope it does not get lost.
Further, everything is sent as a package. So if, for example, I wanted my money back on the supposedly upgraded charger and battery, I would likely not have a leg to stand on, since those charges are not broken out separately.
All-in-all, I would rate my sales experience as a lesson learned: Buy from the dealer that gets "thumbs up" from all you fine people on the newsgroup. I was dealing (and still am) with my sweet collie, who had surgery and is now on chemotherapy, so I figured it was not worth the hassle over a couple hundred bucks. Out of a possible five stars, I would rate Broadway as a two at best. The sales person was so much more interested in selling me extended warranties and expensive filters (the same ones available on eBay for cheap).
Anyone else have tales to tell? What a shame that we have to end up doing this. It would be so much better if camera dealers adopted the same set of rules that all music retailers adhere to, which is, you cannot advertise any products for less than a certain dollar amount. That levels the playing field, so you end up buying from people you trust, since store A and Store B will be within a few bucks of each other. Sweetwater Sound (www.sweetwater.com) now ships almost everything free via FedEx Ground (and sometimes faster) and they have what is unquestionably the most knowledgeable sales team in the biz. No, I'm not pimping for them (though I do write a column now for them, mostly guitar-related, and that came about because I was blown away by the company's integrity and the knowledgeable sales staff -- I don't get stuff free or at ridiculous prices). I am happy to pay more for a satisfying sales experience, and I'm sure I am not alone.
Why these camera companies keep pulling their silly little head games is beyond me. I guess a single sale is more important than building a professional relationship, and frankly, that sucks.
Best regards from Florida,
Jim
jim_miller@mindspring.com