Warning to Washington, D.C.-area photographers

[Mike Buckley]

I'd far rather just hear the truth (albeit with a bit of diplomacy!)

Everyone would.

If I had to attribute my success in more than 30 years of sales to just one thing, it would be to openly telling the truth, not just telling the truth. So few people tell the truth and even fewer people openly do so that openly telling the truth was my most important competitive advantage. It's so darned easy to win and keep business operating that way that it's nothing short of silly that so few people recognize how easy it can be.

[rpcrowe]

Mike,

What an awful situation.

I had almost the same problem with a guy who charged a low ball price for converting my old D60 (not the newer 60D - confusing isn't it) to full time infra red. This guy took way longer than the promised turn around time. Finally, after some nasty correspondence, I received my camera. It works fine so I have not complained about nor identified him by name. OTOH... I will never recommend him either.

I never send my camera equipment to be repaired at or through a retailer. Instead, I send it or take it directly to a Canon Service Center. I don't know about the other Canon Service Centers but, I have nothing but praise for the Canon Service Center in Irvine, CA. The usual turnaround time for a piece of gear, once it arrives at Irvine is one week delivered to my door. Obviously, they have a stock of Canon parts in house...

I would assume that there are Nikon Service Centers located around the USA as there are Canon Service Centers.

BTW: I would contact both the Better Business Bureau and the District Attorney for the area in which your errant retailer is located...

[Colin Southern]

Colin, don't' get me started on the shades of gray that get passed off as the 'truth' in customer service these days!

Why not - could be fun!

Unfortunately, I've become quite cynical and like you would much rather hear the truth, a sincere apology, and a plan on how to move forward rather than a bunch of lame excuses and technically 'true' statements that are misleading at best (which seems much more common).

I've become very cynical also -- I think the older I get, the less tolerant I'm getting towards people who treat me like a fool. That's why I'd rather deal with a knowledgeable technician than some ignorant gift-of-the-gab salesman.

Here in NZ we deal with Canon NZ -- I haven't found them to be dishonest in any way, but they do have this thing called "the system" - and once you're in it, it moves at their speed and you enter it on their terms and conditions ... which can be almost as frustrating. At least they're consistent.

[Mike Buckley]

I just now received a phone call from Randy at Strauss Photo explaining that my camera equipment has been retrieved from the technician and that they will return it to me along with the refund of my diagnostic fee any time I want to pick it up on Wednesday. He also apologized for the way he handled the situation yesterday when I visited him at the facility.

As much as I appreciate all of that, I still have to consider that this is the first time the company has reached out to me of their own accord since attempting to obtain my approval to proceed with the repair on October 12. In other words, the only time they have reached out to me during that time is less than 24 hours before I had promised to get the police involved.

[Colin Southern]

I just now received a phone call from Randy at Strauss Photo explaining that my camera equipment has been retrieved from the technician and that they will return it to me along with the refund of my diagnostic fee any time I want to pick it up on Wednesday. He also apologized for the way he handled the situation yesterday when I visited him at the facility.

As much as I appreciate all of that, I still have to consider that this is the first time the company has reached out to me of their own accord since attempting to obtain my approval to proceed with the repair on October 12. In other words, the only time they have reached out to me during that time is less than 24 hours before I had promised to get the police involved.

Obviously they have "issues"; whether they're financial issues, management issues, both - whatever - if it were me, I may (or may not) be sympathetic to their plight, but at the end of the day, I'd have to do what's best for me - just as they'll be doing what they feel is best for them.

From what you've said, if it were me, I'd be giving them a wide berth in future.

[Mike Buckley]

Indeed, Colin.

I will take my 12-24 zoom with me and a spare battery for two reasons -- to determine as reasonably as is possible that the camera is being returned to me in the same condition that I gave it to them and, in the process, to photograph their reception area. I will post a photo of it here, as it is an absolutely unbelievable scene.

[Colin Southern]

Indeed, Colin.

I will take my 12-24 zoom with me and a spare battery for two reasons -- to determine as reasonably as is possible that the camera is being returned to me in the same condition that I gave it to them and, in the process, to photograph their reception area. I will post a photo of it here, as it is an absolutely unbelievable scene.

From all that you've said, I suspect that they won't last in business much longer.

[Mike Buckley]

From all that you've said, I suspect that they won't last in business much longer.

When I was younger, I used to think the same thing about many businesses that ultimately lasted for decades. I'm pretty much convinced now that their ability to last has almost everything to do with how well the company is capitalized and how much of it is capitalized with cash infusion as opposed to debt.

Keep in mind that I am a retail customer with very little business to offer and that they may conduct their business operations very differently for accounts that are more meaningful. On the other hand, they lost an account a few years ago that was the largest chain of photography retailers in the area.

[Colin Southern]

When I was younger, I used to think the same thing about many businesses that ultimately lasted for decades. I'm pretty much convinced now that their ability to last has almost everything to do with how well the company is capitalized and how much of it is capitalized with cash infusion as opposed to debt.

Keep in mind that I am a retail customer with very little business to offer and that they may conduct their business operations very differently for accounts that are more meaningful. On the other hand, they lost an account a few years ago that was the largest chain of photography retailers in the area.

For me, I believe that it comes down to whether or not they know how to run a business as a business. Many make the mistake of thinking that because they know how to do the technical work of a business (eg repair cameras) that they'll succeed in running a business that does that technical work (ie running a camera repair business), and yet the two are poles apart.

They might (or might not!) be good at fixing cameras, but they also need to be good at selling, marketing, accounting, budgeting, people skills etc. Under perform in ANY of those areas and the business will flounder and probably fail (95% do in the first 5 years). I've been running my business for over 20 years now - and looking back now, I was my own worst enemy for many years. I didn't sink, but I was wearing SCUBA gear for a long time. Older and wiser I can almost laugh at my earlier incompetence - I'm one of the lucky ones in that I eventually learned from my mistakes; many don't seem to get past that part for whatever reason. The way many end up with a little money in their pockets is to start with a lot of money and watch it waste away. These days when I hear of opportunities to invest in "great idea" companies I generally run a mile because I now know how real the downside usually is (the side the creators seeking start-up capital seem to repress in their minds).

[Mike Buckley]

A few statements from the company's website:

20,000 square-foot facility houses a 55 person staff

I've been to their facility. The building it is in may be 20,000 square feet but the portion that it leases surely is far less. As for the 55-person staff being housed in it, more often than not I have been told that only one person has been in the building.

The company receives over 125 items daily

That would explain all of the boxes piled nearly from floor to ceiling in the reception area, but nothing else.

An extensive parts inventory assures that repair delays are kept to a minimum. If a part is not in stock, SPTS has on-line capability via computer modem to check immediate availability.

That, I suppose, explains why I have been waiting for nearly two months and they still have not received the parts required to make my repairs.

Customer service personnel use a state-of-the-art computer tracking system which provides up to the minute status on every product in service

That I believe. For two months, the status of my repair probably indicated "dead on arrival" in their state-of-the-art tracking system.

[Colin Southern]

A few statements from the company's website:

20,000 square-foot facility houses a 55 person staff

I've been to their facility. The building it is in may be 20,000 square feet but the portion that it leases surely is far less. As for the 55-person staff being housed in it, more often than not I have been told that only one person has been in the building.

The company receives over 125 items daily

That would explain all of the boxes piled nearly from floor to ceiling in the reception area, but nothing else.

An extensive parts inventory assures that repair delays are kept to a minimum. If a part is not in stock, SPTS has on-line capability via computer modem to check immediate availability.

That, I suppose, explains why I have been waiting for nearly two months and they still have not received the parts required to make my repairs.

Customer service personnel use a state-of-the-art computer tracking system which provides up to the minute status on every product in service

That I believe. For two months, the status of my repair probably indicated "dead on arrival" in their state-of-the-art tracking system.

Run Forrest - RUN. RUN LIKE THE WIND!

[Mike Buckley]

I retrieved my camera and grip today along with full reimbursement of the diagnostic fee.

The camera is not in the same condition as when I released it to Strauss Photo because the multi-selector, command and sub-command dials are not functioning as well. The repair was to bring that the multi-selector dial back to full operating condition, so hopefully the changes are a deteriorating condition caused by salt corrosion that will be easily fixed. If the camera had been repaired immediately, perhaps the condition would not have deteriorated.

When Randy asked me to sign indicating that I had picked up the equipment, I added to the document that the camera was in far worse condition now than when Strauss Photo took possession of it. I asked him to acknowledge that fact with his signature. He refused to sign so I did the same.

My camera is now in the hands of the repair manager at the local brick-and-mortar store of Calumet and will be on its way to Nikon tomorrow if not today.

I mentioned earlier in the thread that the reception room of Strauss Photo was stacked nearly from floor to ceiling with boxes. You can tell from this photo that I took today that I was not exaggerating.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Mike, this story was quite unfortunate (yet intriguing). I'm sorry to hear about this experience. The photo of the "storage facility" was insane. Keeping in mind that, aside from your initial post and final post, I only skimmed the rest of this thread; I may have missed some details in the replies, but I'd like to offer the following suggestions to you and others:

Use http://www.bbb.org to get info on companies.

Have a look at the "F" rating and other details about Strauss: http://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eas...ngton-dc-17712

Mike, I encourage you to file a complaint with BBB about your experience.

On a slightly related note, having done some research on photo equipment theft / protection not long ago, I came upon the following two sites which I recommend to anyone that owns valuable equipment. I am about to register some of my gear on at least one of these sites, maybe both. Lenstag was created by a guy that worked at Google and is totally legit. Immobilize is well known, and in addition to gear registration services, they sell some nice security products. Basically, registering your gear at these sites will make it more difficult for thieves to get away with selling your equipment, and make it more likely that it will be returned to you.

https://www.lenstag.com/

https://www.immobilize.net/view.php

Hope this helps.

[ShaneS]

Glad to hear you got your camera back Mike. Fingers crossed the repair transaction goes smoothly with the new vendor and you have your camera back in working order quickly.

[Colin Southern]

Mike, I encourage you to file a complaint with BBB about your experience.

Me too, but to be honest, from what I've read, they don't seem to do a lot.

Have a read of Sonic Cameras" (who make these guys seem like saints in comparison" - BBB is often mentioned, but nothing seemed to happen.

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Sonic_Cameras

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for the interest in BBB, but they have absolutely no power over a company that has no interest in cooperating. As a perfect example, one reason Strauss Photo has such a low BBB rating is that they failed to cooperate with BBB four times.

Ironically, BBB's power has probably been eroded due to the Internet. That's because reasonable companies (note that Strauss Photo is not a reasonable company) are more fearful of bad publicity on the Internet than anything the BBB can throw at them. If a company isn't fearful of Internet threads such as this one, they couldn't care less about the BBB.

The company that I recently spent 9 years working for was founded 20 years ago, has been owned by the same person and been at the same location the entire time. It has a stellar reputation in the industry. Yet BBB has never heard of them and does not have the business in its database. That's probably because no complaint has ever been filed with BBB against the company. In the nine years I was with the company, I'm certain that there would have been no justifiable reason for a complaint to have been filed.

I do like the idea of the two websites Matt brought to our attention that make it easy to keep track of possessions. I handle that issue by maintaining up-to-date photographs of all household possessions. The photos are stored onsite and two offsite locations including a safe deposit box. Information about each item is embedded in the metadata.

Ummmm, my collection of broken glass, which is soon to be expanded thanks to Shane, isn't included in that inventory.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Me too, but to be honest, from what I've read, they don't seem to do a lot.

Thanks for the interest in BBB, but they have absolutely no power over a company that has no interest in cooperating. As a perfect example, one reason Strauss Photo has such a low BBB rating is that they failed to cooperate with BBB four times.

I felt compelled to reply about this. I partially agree: It's true, BBB probably doesn't have a lot of power in certain cases, and if a company will not cooperate, nothing will happen

Ironically, BBB's power has probably been eroded due to the Internet. That's because reasonable companies (note that Strauss Photo is not a reasonable company) are more fearful of bad publicity on the Internet than anything the BBB can throw at them. If a company isn't fearful of Internet threads such as this one, they couldn't care less about the BBB.

In an unusual move for me, I will have to disagree with you. The majority of BBB's power is precisely in the ratings themselves. IMO, it is irrelevant whether or not the business cares or does not care about the BBB and their ratings, because the fact remains that the ratings are there for all to see. In other words, if Strauss doesn't give a crap, their rating reflects that. And therefore, anyone that looks them up on BBB's site will see that, and therein lies the power to help people avoid these type of crooks.

To clarify, I guess my point is more focused on the fact that the ratings can help the general public be aware of this type of thing so fewer people get screwed; I am not suggesting that bad companies will change their ways due to it. Personally, if I am certain that a company is terrible and is doing bad things to many people, I would take the time to write up a complaint (or a review of some sort, etc) to steer potential victims away.

[Colin Southern]

To clarify, I guess my point is more focused on the fact that the ratings can help the general public be aware of this type of thing so fewer people get screwed; I am not suggesting that bad companies will change their ways due to it. Personally, if I am certain that a company is terrible and is doing bad things to many people, I would take the time to write up a complaint (or a review of some sort, etc) to steer potential victims away.

But I guess the 6 Billion dollar question is "do any significant number of people ever look up things like BBB ratings?"

[Mike Buckley]

But I guess the 6 Billion dollar question is "do any significant number of people ever look up things like BBB ratings?"

That's a little less than one U.S. dollar for every person on the planet.

I have never used BBB. If I had seen that Strauss Photo had had such a bad rating, I surely would have thought in the context of my previous successes with the company that something was awry with the rating, not the company. I would have been wrong but that's what I would have thought.

[FlyingSquirrel]

But I guess the 6 Billion dollar question is "do any significant number of people ever look up things like BBB ratings?"

Probably not a significant number, but the few who do will likely stay out of trouble


edit .. Mike, your reply did not help my case much, lol. But I see what you are saying.