The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Camera Salesman
Yes, after much consideration and verification from reputed websites on camera reviews, we decided that the Canon PowerShot A570IS
Next, of course is to go over to our regular shopping haunt, the Sungei Wang Plaza in Jalan Bukit Bintang. It is a great location to shop for digital cameras, besides mobile phones, fashion, souvenirs and a host of you-name-it-they-have-it sort of stuffs – all under one roof, which makes it ever so popular both to locals and tourists despite being one of the oldest shopping complex in town. 
There are numerous camera shops to check out a bargain and leading brands like Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, Pentax are sold in all the shops. In fact most of our cameras were bought there in Sungei Wang Plaza.
The first shop offered us RM860 cash term for the Canon PowerShot A570IS
He didn’t seem too interested in our business neither did we feel we have struck a good bargain yet so we moved on. 
We were contemplating to approach this 2nd shop when I was stoned for a moment in my stride. 
One of the shop assistants who was a middle aged man wearing a jacket with Canon logo (probably the boss or supervisor as the rest were young chaps) was literally shouting angrily at a group of customers “Buy already don’t ask-lah! STUPID!” 
His atrocious outburst made me backed off from his shop. Whew! I think whoever witnessed the scene would be scared away. 
From his outburst, I assumed the customers bargained with him only to tell him in the end that they were just checking price as they had already bought elsewhere. If so, the customers were really very “stupid” to say so and to have wasted his time. 
Any sales person would be annoyed by such shoppers. Nevertheless, that was no justification for his hostile outburst. 
Potential customers would be frightened off – just like me. Whatever the reasons, I’ve written off that shop (Jaya Kamera). So in actual fact both parties, the shop owner and the customer were equally stupid! 
Moving on, we passed a few more shops before I decided on Foto Shangri-La. It occupied half a shop lot at the lower ground floor of Sungei Wang Plaza but important thing was the sales person inside looked quite pleasant and approachable. After testing out the Canon PowerShot A570IS
As we prepared to leave he offered “RM850 for cash payment”. Obviously he sensed our interest and didn’t want to lose the sale, especially with the keen competitions around Sungei Wang Plaza. That was a good deal but we told him we would come back later. 
To further satisfy ourselves we checked out a couple more shops but none could beat Foto Shangri-La’s offer. In fact there was this shop called Bintang Maju at Low Yat Plaza who priced the Canon PowerShot A570IS way above Canon’s recommended selling price. The sales person was only eager to push the model he wanted to sell. It was apparent that they were trying to clear stocks of that model. Worse still, when I highlighted that A630 did not come with IS, he brushed aside that IS function and said it could be done by adjusting the aperture. 
Ha! whom he thought he was talking to, cooking up a cock and bull story. When I asked for the best price for the Canon PowerShot A570IS
So we just thanked him and walked out……..with no intention of patronizing their shop again.
When we were done for the day, we happily back tracked to Foto Shangri-La to buy the Canon PowerShot A570IS. We were happy dealing with that sales person called James. He might not be chatty but he was pleasant and straightforward. For sure we will go back to them for future purchases. 
Good sales people build customer relationship and retention, making them a valuable asset to any business. 
Foto Shangri-La is an established company who has been in the photography business for decades. They have branches in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.
After we bought the Canon PowerShot A570IS
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 9:25 pm and is filed under General.
