Good Customer Service, Bad Customer Service?

A Self Portrait I made at a Strobist meet I hosted in March

Hey there everyone. I wanted to get an update out here on the Blog. I've been saying a lot on Facebook that I'll be writing a blog about this or that soon... so I guess I should probably start keeping with those promises. haha


So let me tell you how I picked up a new Canon 430ex II today for $75


Canon 430ex II flash for $75 (Taken with 340ex II on camera)

It all started last night when I got a call from my buddy Gerald Gonzales telling me that the Best Buy store in Burbank had a Canon 430ex II for sale in the case with the "Opened box items, Returned can't be sold as new, etc." He was told that the only thing wrong was it did not include the Cold Shoe Plastic stand with tripod mount. (very cheap item to replace)

So the $299 flash was now $149.

Bad Customer Service
The catch was (this is the problem Gerald had) they have had a theft problem in these cases at our local best buy lately so they have replaced the locks. Now only the Photo Department Manager has the one and only key to this lock. Saturday night he had gone home early with the keys and turned out would not be in today until 1pm.

When I arrived at the store around 11:45am I went to check out the flash and it was still there and I let the employee's, a couple of college looking guys, know that I was interested in getting it. The one employee, I'm going to call him "Rude Employee #1" told me that the manager who had the key had gone out to lunch and would be back in about 15-30 minutes. I let them know I'd be back.

15-30 Mins later: I come back in the store and still no Manager. I decide to browse around the camera department and check out another case of camera gear. "Rude Employee #1" comes up to me and tells me very bluntly. "Please don't buy that flash" after my questioning him on this I find out he is planning to buy it himself later that day. I speak to him about pre-ordering the new Canon 7D camera and he's less than helpful in that regard. He then announced that with his tech discount he would get $400 off the 7D. (From past dealings with friends who work for best buy, they receive merchandise at store cost. So that gives you an idea of what the mark-up on a SLR is these days)

A very polite and helpful female employee "Helpful Girl" comes up after coming back from her lunch breaks (I think she was an assistant manager of photo department) she finds out what it is we are interested in. She again explains the issue with the key but does assure me that the manager should be coming in around 1pm. She also tells me "We're very sorry for the trouble. We'll try and make it up to you. Maybe we can take like $50 off the price here."

At this point I'm irritated about the key issue, but I'm willing to let it go if they will reduce the price. Then comes the worst part. "Rude Employee #1" says to me as I am leaving "I am going to buy that flash before you come back. It won't be here."

My wife and I decided to take off and come back at 1pm, but as I was getting in my car it dawned on me that I should talk to a store manager. So I called up the Store Manager, a very young and friendly guy named John, and spoke with him. Upon telling him everything that went down he was in dis-belief that one of his employee's would say something like this. He took down my name and number and was going to go take care of "Rude Employee #1" and speak with the photo manager as soon as he got in and would give me a call when I could come in.

Good Customer Service
To speed the story up, after a couple of hours, a phone call and coming back into the store greeting the Store Manager in person I was directed back to the photo department where I met with the Photo Manager, a middle aged suit wearing gentlemen named "David" who was very polite. He apologized for all of the trouble and told the employee checking me out to take 50% off.


In Conclusion
So although it was a big hassle, I did feel great about getting a $299 flash for $75.

I can tell you that I have gotten some moderately bad customer service at Best Buy before, but I've never had an experience like this. It really put a Sour Taste in my mouth regarding the employee's of Best Buy Burbank, with the exception of having to deal personally with Upper Management. I have a Best Buy credit card and routinely use it for good 0% Interest offers, so I may just drive the extra 10 miles to the Glendale / Las Feliz store from now on.


How is the Flash?
That flash is great. It is my first official E-TTL (Evaluative Through The Lens) flash. I have been using a Canon 540ez (A-TTL: Advanced Through The Lens, pre-digital days) Flash since the beginning of 2009. I'm really enjoying the more natural white balance that that 340ex II gives with it's built in sensor. It is very small and light. I was looking for a good small unit to pack in my already overfilled bag for shooting concerts. I will occasionally strap a speedlite on with a Manfrotto Super Clamp while I'm shooting shows to get a nice balanced or artistic off camera lighting. My 540ez is a great flash, but it's very large and takes up a lot of space.

I'm also enjoying that the 340ex II can be controlled directly from the menu system of my camera. It makes life a lot easier than using the silly Custom Fn settings that you need the manual open to decode the settings.

I actually prefer to use Nikon Strobes for doing off-camera lighting, but the ability to us TTL and control the speedlite off camera with TTL using remote mode (New Feature added with the Canon 7d that I'm about to Pre-Order) it makes Canon's line of flashes much more usable and a better investment. Hey for $75 I couldn't go wrong.


Question for everybody
It would be great if any of you have a similar story about bad customer service that turned out well, or great deals you got on camera gear etc. I would love to hear all about it. Let us know!