Yes, I am still smarting from being duped! Me, who had researched for weeks to know the exact model, specs and price. Here I am licking my wounds at paying 20% more than the market price for an entry level SLR camera which not even the one I wanted in the first place. How did this happen!!!
I had been looking at an SLR camera to upgrade from my years of point and shoot and as its my birthday it makes the perfect gift for my husband to get me. After the weeks of research and comparing notes with my professional photographer friends, it was a tie between the Nikon D 5000 and Canon 500D and with the money in my bank, I just had to order at the toss of a coin.
Surprisingly, there are quite a few online camera stores in Jakarta with offline brick and mortar stores and the best and cheapest is jpckemang.com. The staff too is knowledgeable and helpful. If you know the camera model and specs and it is available at their store they will deliver to you for a small fee. I called JPC Kemang and was disappointed to learn that the soonest that they could deliver was tomorrow as their delivery guy had already left. Friday lunch hour usually stretches on account of Friday prayers, so this was the perfect opportunity to zip down to Mal Ambassador and buy the camera.
The third camera shop had all desired camera models in ready stock and the price was right. The sales person was wonderful, very engaging, knowledgeable and helpful. He demonstrated the features of the Nikon camera that I was interested in and took test shots. Then he suggested that I also have a look at the Sony SLR which was a better value for money and took better pictures. Me – a hardnosed shopper walked out of the shop as I had not noticed that camera on any of the reviews. Another shop did not have the Nikon, so we went back to the previous shop.
What a great salesman, he sweet talked me into purchasing the Sony SLR, the one that I had not researched or planned to get. He also sold me an additional UV filter, affixed a lcd screen protector, fixed the neck strap and we were done. I walked out of the shop feeling great, with my very first DSLR, dreaming of all the fabulous pictures I would take.
This feeling of euphoria lasted only till I sat at my computer to learn about my new purchase. My bubble of happiness burst and here I am externalizing the pain in print. I did call the store and speak to the salesperson, who got all huffy and said that it was completely my decision to buy at that price and he IS right. Why do I keep learning these expensive lessons again and again and be so dumb as to not get it the first time?
