So last month, I drove Mermaid to do her usual day-off routine. I'll pick her up from her place, get food, do some grocery or errands. One of the errands then was dropping her Canon G9 for service. It had a cracked screen and an odd black spot on focus. The people at Investline (the one across the road from Center Point) took a look at her camera and not long after they (Mermaid & counter ppl at Investline) did the whole fill up the form with your particulars etc to send the G9 for service.
Mermaid took her SD card out, kept it and handed her G9 to the lady over the counter. The lady placed the G9 into a bag and gave Mermaid the invoice. We left Investline after browsing around for a bit looking at camera gears.
Fast forward today. It's been a month. Mermaid went to collect her G9. Typical of her, she opened the battery slot first. I mean you have to check if the battery is in before turning the camera on right? And when your battery isn't there surely you'll ask the counter person about it. That is when they decide to tell Mermaid that they DO NOT take the batteries of any camera that are being sent for service. They NEVER do.
Mermaid called me up to reconfirm about the battery. Of course I told her it was only her SD not the battery that she took out. Plus I don't recall them saying anything about removing the battery. Our conversation took place over the phone while she was in Investline. She was well annoyed and frustfrated. I repeated what exactly went on that day and I do not recall Mermaid having taken the battery out or told to do so. The old man at Investline (which I assumed is the owner) kept repeating they do not take batteries and his staffs are well aware of that.
If so, why weren't we told about it?
The old man called the service center which of course replied the same thing. He also offered to sell Mermaid an imitation battery for RM50. What the hell? She lost a genuine battery.
That day on our way to Investline, I brought up about my bad experience previously with the store (later in the post) but since she was attended to fine week before (she walked in to ask about G9 servicing) she went on with the idea. Anyways, in the end they went on denying. Mermaid left heartbroken, crossed the road to Center Point and right into Yong Photos. She told me she bitched big time while buying herself a new battery there. It's unfortunate that this happened to her although it is just a battery, it's still money. You wouldn't buy a new batt unless you need an extra or your batt gone flat. And please, nothing beats genuine items.
My experience with Investline:
Years back, I noticed they had a mouth drooling collection of film cameras. We're talking about Hasselblads kind here people. Since they had them in store, I figured the owner must be someone who seriously appreciate cameras and the art of photography. I had a Minolta x700 film camera and was on the lookout for another digital camera. I spoke to the owner and guess what? He snubbed me. He flatly snubbed me and went into his office. Even the staff there weren't very helpful. I was doing a comparison between D80 and Rebel Xti but was left dumbfounded. Little did they know I had around 7k in hard cash for my camera then in my bag. Haha! So I went to Digital Fotomat in Center Point and got my D80 from them for a very good cash value. Along with 3 lenses, a bag and other goodies.
To Investline, first you lost me. Now you lost another possible client. Haven't you know, photographers may not always be rich but we'll definitely spend whatever we have to upgrade our kit. Silly!
****
This post is merely meant to warn others to be more careful the next time you send something for service. Make sure you jot down the detail of every item that was sent along to be serviced on the Invoice. So that the store has a copy of it too. I haven't experienced any "servicing need" for my camera(s) so I don't really know what should go or not go with it. And of course, I never liked Investline since I was snubbed for no reason.
Mermaid took her SD card out, kept it and handed her G9 to the lady over the counter. The lady placed the G9 into a bag and gave Mermaid the invoice. We left Investline after browsing around for a bit looking at camera gears.
Fast forward today. It's been a month. Mermaid went to collect her G9. Typical of her, she opened the battery slot first. I mean you have to check if the battery is in before turning the camera on right? And when your battery isn't there surely you'll ask the counter person about it. That is when they decide to tell Mermaid that they DO NOT take the batteries of any camera that are being sent for service. They NEVER do.
Mermaid called me up to reconfirm about the battery. Of course I told her it was only her SD not the battery that she took out. Plus I don't recall them saying anything about removing the battery. Our conversation took place over the phone while she was in Investline. She was well annoyed and frustfrated. I repeated what exactly went on that day and I do not recall Mermaid having taken the battery out or told to do so. The old man at Investline (which I assumed is the owner) kept repeating they do not take batteries and his staffs are well aware of that.
If so, why weren't we told about it?
The old man called the service center which of course replied the same thing. He also offered to sell Mermaid an imitation battery for RM50. What the hell? She lost a genuine battery.
That day on our way to Investline, I brought up about my bad experience previously with the store (later in the post) but since she was attended to fine week before (she walked in to ask about G9 servicing) she went on with the idea. Anyways, in the end they went on denying. Mermaid left heartbroken, crossed the road to Center Point and right into Yong Photos. She told me she bitched big time while buying herself a new battery there. It's unfortunate that this happened to her although it is just a battery, it's still money. You wouldn't buy a new batt unless you need an extra or your batt gone flat. And please, nothing beats genuine items.
My experience with Investline:
Years back, I noticed they had a mouth drooling collection of film cameras. We're talking about Hasselblads kind here people. Since they had them in store, I figured the owner must be someone who seriously appreciate cameras and the art of photography. I had a Minolta x700 film camera and was on the lookout for another digital camera. I spoke to the owner and guess what? He snubbed me. He flatly snubbed me and went into his office. Even the staff there weren't very helpful. I was doing a comparison between D80 and Rebel Xti but was left dumbfounded. Little did they know I had around 7k in hard cash for my camera then in my bag. Haha! So I went to Digital Fotomat in Center Point and got my D80 from them for a very good cash value. Along with 3 lenses, a bag and other goodies.
To Investline, first you lost me. Now you lost another possible client. Haven't you know, photographers may not always be rich but we'll definitely spend whatever we have to upgrade our kit. Silly!
****
This post is merely meant to warn others to be more careful the next time you send something for service. Make sure you jot down the detail of every item that was sent along to be serviced on the Invoice. So that the store has a copy of it too. I haven't experienced any "servicing need" for my camera(s) so I don't really know what should go or not go with it. And of course, I never liked Investline since I was snubbed for no reason.
man that sucks! like charlene, i've never been there either. george blogged about fotomat recently on his blog too, about his bad experience there, and sadly, i had the same treatment. these salespeople ah.. they should never judge a book by its cover!
ReplyDeleteHonestly I was only given a nice treatment when I said (wanted to be taken seriously) I'm paying cash, not credit card. That's when the boss kinda gave the sales person a nod. I guess that is the nod to treat me nice! :(
ReplyDeleteYou know I bought my Rebel XT there, the first thing they asked me was are you paying cash or using credit card... I didn't think much of it then but now that I read this post.. I think the only reason they gave me good treatment was because I was paying cash. I did get lots of discounts and other freebies because I paid with cash. Though the camera bag was a bit of a disappointment. All the zippers were falling apart.
ReplyDeleteThe dude at Digital Fotomat gives insane discounts regardless of your payment option.
When I am upgrading to full frame I would definitely go to Digital Fotomat.