Jessops

[Pops]

It appears that Jessops are in a bit of financial bother.
Investors are abandoning them because of low sales and shop closures may be considered

[Ian]

Re: Jessops

It appears that Jessops are in a bit of financial bother.
Investors are abandoning them because of low sales and shop closures may be considered

I wonder if anyone here is a shareholder?

I've had Warehouse Express on to me wishing to make a comment on the market situation in the light of Jessops' difficulties (basically to blow their own trumpet as the Warehouse Express business is booming according to them).

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Jessops

I wonder if anyone here is a shareholder?

Ian

[Jim]

[Stephen]

Re: Jessops

Hi Jim and welcome to the forum. It sounds like we need a few more LCE branches oop north. I checked and the only one is in Manchester

[peter]

[Jim]

Re: Jessops

Hi Stephen.

I checked and the only one is in Manchester

But even then you don't know how you'll get on with the manager.
I think part of the trouble is the guys in the shops won't talk turkey unless they believe you're serious, but how can you *be* serious when you can't tell what his final price is?
I just flat out told my local manager the situation, I wanted the gear, and would prefer to buy from a local shop, but his price had to be pretty D close to the web price.
He's a sensible guy and agreed.
Now he gets all my business.(But I still shop around for prices first!)
Jim

[Archangel]

Re: Jessops

I didn't have so good experience with Jessops while I was in UK.
Things in the stores appear to be of very basic type and any specific equipment someone might want, need to be ordered afterwards.

My personal experience has as follows:
I wanted a compact camera that it was featured in their brochure, but didn't exist in the store. They told me that it can be ordered and have it in approximately 3-5 working days.
So I ordered the camera and the asked me for a deposit of around 50 BP.
I gave the deposit and was waiting for someone to contact me to go and pick the camera. One week passed and no answer. I called them and they told me that the camera I ordered was not in the specific warehouse and they had to bring it from another warehouse further and that might take 2-3 additional days. After 3-4 days of no answer I called them and they told me that the people in the warehouse missed to put my camera in the last shipment they got and to wait another 3-5 days for the next shipment.
After 5 days I went down to the store personally and they told me that the 2nd shipment had arrived but by mistake the order was misplaced and missed it to include it in the shipment and to wait another 3-5 days.

I told them right there, that I want to cancel my order and that it is not professional such a big chain to give such cheap excuses. I told them they should have told me in the first place that they don't have the camera or that they cannot supply me the camera that existed in their brochures, so I could find my own way of getting it possibly through another store.
The accept instantly to cancel my order, but they didn't want to give me my deposit back. They told me to buy something else from the store that they had.
I told them, that I didn't need anything else, but still they didn't want to give me my deposit back. I asked to talk to the manager and a young girl appeared telling me all kinds of excuses of their policy and such things.
I told them that their policy was talking also about satisfied customers and that if a customer is not satisfied with a product he/she can ask for refund. That was a sticker sticked in front of all cashiers.
The gilr start doubting their own stickers for satisfying customers and she said she cannot return to me the deposit.
Then I really got angry and told them that I'm not leaving the store if I don't get the deposit back.
They told me that in this case I must talk to Jessops headquarter offices and told them to call the deadquarters in front of me and give the handset to speak.
Finally I spoke to someone there and he was giving me the same excuses.
I started talking about police and lawyers and finally the guy from the headquarters told them to give me my deposit back.

Finally after approximately more than a month including weekends and so much hassle I got my deposit back and went straight to Curry's were they had the camera and bought it instantly.

If they behave to all customers the same way they did to me, then no wonder why they go out of bussiness.


George

[bigbob]

Re: Jessops

Appears my experiance with Jessops is not different from most , my nearest one is Bluewater Shopping Center and another in Maidstone , i've used both in the past and allways been disapointed with both service and availability of goods .
The staff appear to be only interested in selling mass produced camera gear and have no knowledge of photography at all , this is only my experiance and different stores may have different levels of staff training .
In fact if i need to visit a camera store i would drive 80 miles south to Park cameras in Burgess Hill , or 80 miles north to Digital Depot in Stevenage , both have great stores and staff who know what you're talking about .
And it gets me out of the housework on a weekend morning

B..

[Pops]

Re: Jessops

Well done for sticking it out re the deposit George. Their heavy handed tactics would have intimidated many people into sheepishly accepting their word and supposed policy.

[Patrick]

Demoralising is the word that comes to mind.

[ash]

Re: Jessops

Yeah, would not surprise me, have not been able to get a catalogue for ages.
Past purchases have been great though, pricematching the cheapest on the net.
Although I have purchased from warehouse express before, there pricematch isnt worth a fart in a crowded lift!
I got emailed back with excuses, and finally when I thought I had the perfect pricematch for them to beat, guees what, they did not reply
So guees what again, they lost out on a hefty purchase. And this was a recent purchase by the way.

I think jessops is a good shop, just needs a kick up the asssss, people who no what there on about runnin the shops, and a better strategy!
cheers
Ash.