At Least They Say Good-Bye

I haven't been everywhere. I suppose, if it comes down to it, that I haven't even been most places. But so far, I'm nominating Switzerland (maybe I should say Geneva) as having the worst customer service on the planet, except for the fact that they often say "hello" when you arrive and "good-bye" when you leave.

There are exceptions; every once in a while someone does something right. But it's rare.

Today was a typical example. I have been looking for a bag or backpack for camera stuff. I went to the biggest camera shop in town, called Photo Hall, to check it out and to ask about the price of a little adapter guy that magnifies an image by 2x.

Now, I can preface my story by saying that this: when I first purchased my camera, I was looking at online prices in Switzerland to try to shop wisely. I know that it's more here than in the US, but it wasn't too much of a difference. So I went into the aforementioned Photo Hall and told a guy what I was going to buy. I showed him the prices I could get it for in Zurich, and said that if he'd match the price, I would like to buy it from him.

He took my sheet, opened up his price list, wrote down the list price next to each of the prices on my sheet, did the total and handed it back to me, without saying a word.

"That's it?" I asked, "you won't move at all?". He just shook his head. I laughed, congratulated him on losing a sale but maintaining his honor, hoped almost sincerely that he would be able to make his rent payment out of his extra stored-up honor at the end of the month, and found the door.

So, my expectations weren't too high today.

First of all, the lens adapter thing (called a teleconverter). I went in and asked for the price, just out of curiosity. He looked at me suspiciously:

"For which lens?"

"Huh?" I was a bit surprised... I didn't think that there were multiple versions of it for different lenses. But I told him the lens I wanted to use it with.

"It doesn't work with that one," he said, "that lens only works with this teleconverter." And he pointed to another one (1.7x instead of 2x) that they happened to have in stock.

"Uh, no," I replied, "it works quite well with the 2x. I've seen the pictures."

"With autofocus? No, I don't think so".

I just shook my head. "What's the price, monsieur?"

Now, I can understand that, in technical issues, "the customer is always right" is a dangerous mantra to live by. But "the customer deserves a sliver of respect" may serve these guys well. In this case, I don't know if he was lying or just ill-informed, but he was most certainly wrong. I pity the people who go to this shop for advice without having done their own homework.

The good news, for me, is that they did have the backpack I have been wondering about in stock. I had a chance to try it on, see how the construction was, and check out how things would fit inside. Then I took a look at the price:

$540

Yes, you're reading that right. It's for a backpack... a backpack I can buy online for $150 or $160 pretty easily in the US or Canada.

I thought about asking for a discount, but decided I'd had enough fun for one day. Maybe I'll go back and inquire about it next week.

"Good-bye!"