“I bought a 2nd hand Canon digital camera including battery charger from the Wells Street shop. When I got it home and made a few test shots the battery level indicator went down rapidly so I removed the battery to charge it up. At that point I discovered the battery was not a Canon one but third party. I charged it up but was not happy so took the camera back within 7 days. The assistant could not see the problem as the camera was now charged up. I asked for a refund as I was not happy that it had a 3rd party battery. He said, "We do not do returns." I queried this saying even if the customer is dissatisfied? I said had I known the battery was not a Canon one I would not have bought the camera plus if I ever sold the camera on the value would be diminished. He refused and referred me to their terms and conditions. I mentioned that I had bought dozens of cameras from this shop from when they first opened and had never been treated like this. Another, older member of staff took a Canon battery from another camera in the window as there were no spares in the parts box and swapped them over. I was actually relieved but later reflected that the 3rd party battery now would be passed on to another unsuspecting customer. I checked the online terms and conditions and they specify that the onus is on the customer to check the product hence no refund. So it seems I needed to open the camera up and remove the battery at the time. I have never needed to do this before. Back home I thought I'd better check the battery charger and sure enough the power cord is a cheap 3rd party one. The point is Camera World charge around 50% more for cameras than general electronics retailers such as Cash Converters and CEX, who also offer longer warranty periods. I have always happily paid more because I trusted CameraWorld and have bought from them for over 25 years. Never again. Their nearest specialist competitor, Park Cameras, state in the description if a 2nd hand product has 3rd party components. I'll go to them in future.”
“The people at CameraWorld have decided that not going through the trouble of dealing with returns and refunds is worth the potential loss of future business. Even though they state on their website that they offer a 14 day return period, they simply ignore return requests. It would be one thing if they responded and perhaps gave you a reason as to why they won't accept a specific return, but instead they simply ignore your emails. And when I called, they guy I spoke to asked me a couple of random questions while literally pretending to type something on a keyboard. Rather embarrassing.”
“Ordered a tripod and some accessories online, received exactly what I ordered, delivered next day. Price was excellent, speed of delivery was excellent. Thank you!
What's not to like? I'll be back again :-)”
“This is for the Camera World in Wells Street, London W1.
It's hard to be anything but brutally honest about this mini camera store.
I walk in. I walk to the counter and give a little background- say 15 seconds- about who I am , was sponsored by Canon, and that I have some 2nd hand collectable equipment to show them.
Man behind the counter: " Could you hurry up. I'm busy. I don't have time to chat!" (Yes I added the exclamation mark. He was beyond terse. But simply a rude offensively toned worker behind the diminutive counter.
My bag was on the counter. I looked behind me: There was not one customer. Only one in the shop being served by a colleague of his.Me: " Are you serious?"
"We've only got two staff on today".
My thoughts: " Is this man for real?".
My.85 year old Stepfather begins- I stress begins- to unwrap the bubble wrap on the first camera. Not even a 1/3rd unwrapped this is God's honest truth, the salesman says: "No. Not interested. Not in good enough condition" He hadn't even seen the item. His knowledge was so great that he couldn't even put the lens cap back on. A lens cap for pity sake! And he buys and sells camera's?
I looked at my stepfather and said: " I don't want to spend another second in here. And so we left.
His ENTIRE attitude was not just rude but repellent. We BOTH felt the same.
His shop may be shrinking, and stock as limited as it gets, but his behaviour has moved me to write this review.
As a well known international photojournalist after 35 years I know my stuff. Other camera stores. Other helpful assistants.
It is no wonder the shop's stock is so small. I'm going to ask a colleague to pay a visit later this week. He too is well known.
For me they were an unhelpful rude staff. As for his knowledge of Rolleiflex's? When you can't put a lenscap on you have to wonder!
Never again. My advice is go to Jessops down the road. Or to the lovely Camera Museum nearby. Polite. V. Knowledgeable. And a sale completed. Let's see how they treat the next mystery shopper...”
“UPDATE to my previous review
Abby has kindly contacted me after seeing the review and she aknowledged the situation. She has been very pleasant, hence the rating improvement to 3*.
She has taken it upon herself to support me further with my purchase and to discuss with their sales team to make improvements. I have already purchased my camera somewhere else, but this has given me some confidence to perhaps try to buy my future equipment from them again.”
“This review is aimed at the customer service/sales team at Cameraworld. Such a disappointment. I was interested in purchasing a new camera from their website and use the finance option that they are advertising on their website. As I was unable to select this on their website, I decided to email their sales team and enquiry about the application process.
Lewis responded to me as follows: "Unfortunately, we are unable to offer finance through the website at the moment. We can still arrange finance but it is a little more complicated."
This obviously didn't answer my question and didn't provide me with any guidance on what to do, so I asked: "And what this more complicated process would involve, if I may ask?" - just to get the following back, which of course didn't provide me with any support: "To be honest it's not a lot more complicated but it's done with a finance provider outside of the Cameraworld website so the process is a bit detatched."
CAN YOU SEE HOW SILLY THIS IS? I said to try again, and to maybe further clarify to this Lewis that I am keen to make a purchase and that I need guidance on where to go and what to do: "So how can I apply for finance if I would like to proceed to order any items? How do I get the information about the APR rates, the monthly payments or the offers? Where do I apply and how do I know if I get approved? Would you please guide me? There is no information about this on the website" - just to get the following response: "I have just checked and unfortunately, we are unable to offer any finance at this time. Apologies for the inconvenience."
FOR WHAT IN HELL ARE YOU PAYING THIS GUY? Why do you allow him to correspond with your customers? He is clearly not interested in selling the product and clearly, he is not doing any effort to assist. All this conversation seemed as he was too bothered to check the finance option for me in the first instance and made me lose a couple of days, waiting for nothing.
When you are looking to spend more than £2000 on an item, you would expect a bit more skilful people handling the enquiries. I'll never consider buying from them ever again.
Please don't waste your time. Is not worth it.”
“Called the store to enquire about a product availability, the staff reserved the item and upon arrival to the store the staff were very helpful and friendly
Would use again”
