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  #1  
Old 31st May 2012, 02:54 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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Default the joys of buying secondhand

do you remember when you just walked in to your local camera shop and picked a camera you wanted to buy, gave over the money and walked out it was that simple .
well not anymore first you have to look on a web sites and have no idea of the condition of the camera other than exe++ or mint- whatever all this means, at lest you would hope the basics have been tested ie it works or it don't work .
time is valuable but postage cost more ,when you buy one camera that is not working properly ,that's bad luck but when you swap it for another one, and when you receive it that does not work properly ever, well what do you do, send it back this exercise in buying cameras has cost me 3 rolls of film , 3 trips to the post office and 3 post payments .
who gained out of all this, ffordes photographic, I am there unpaid camera tester... and the post office cost me £30 pounds, ilford, film cemicals ect cost £15 pounds...
and all I wanted to do is buy a camera how hard can it be to buy a nikon f3 that works, very hard it seems.....
to be fare ffordes have given me a refund of the camera price so they can be trusted with your money but as a company that trades on the Internet
they must be honest with there description and care if the cameras they are selling work or not .
ffordes can only sell film cameras to the likes of us if they carry on like this they won,t last, which is a shame .
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Old 31st May 2012, 04:12 PM
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photomi7ch photomi7ch is offline
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I have found that companies seem to offer a second rate service to customers who buy using their web sites. It is a shame.
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Old 31st May 2012, 04:19 PM
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It is a shame and I have a feeling that good service is getting harder and harder to come by.
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Old 31st May 2012, 04:23 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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Sorry to read of your poor experience Paul. Mine is the complete reverse for I have bought and sold through Ffordes many dozens of times over the last 15 years or more and cannot recollect a single occasion when I have had to return any equipment to them because it was badly described, generally the reverse has been the case and the condition has been understated. I guess with the volume of transactions that they are involved with something will inevitably go awry on occasion.

I do feel though that if they (or any other dealer) send you something that is not as described then they should refund the full cost including P&P so that you are not out of pocket.

Distance selling regulations come to mind but I don't think that they apply to second-hand goods.
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Old 31st May 2012, 05:25 PM
DaveP DaveP is offline
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I thought distance selling regs apply to anything (barring food, sealed CDs etc). The regs state that most goods can be returned for any reason in the first 7 days and the retailer must pay for postage. Returns after 7 days are covered by the sale of goods and services act, that states goods must be as described and fit for purpose. If you need to return goods under this peice of legislation then the seller should refund the postage unless their origial T&Cs state otherwise (and this is a perfectly legit clause).

Also worth remembering a lot of retailers these days (photo or otherwise) will try and shirk their statutory obligations by claiming anything going wrong outside of their self-definied warranty period is out of their hands.

My own experiences with Ffordes are generally good, but I did once have a ridiculous episode with a mamiya 645 back. I bought one from them and it was faulty, didn't wind on properly. They replaced it with one that did work but was in much worse condition (didn't inspire confidence) and hence lower value than what I paid. I returned this one too, and the secobd replacement they sent was my original back - complete with the fault I sent it back for in the first place! At this point I gave up and got my money back.

More recently they sold me a grafmatic that had bent septums and wouldn't cycle. A 30 second inspection at their end would have picked this up before they sold it.

On the other hand they still turn up some odd bargains, despite their prices on large format gear rocketting after MVX closed down. I recently picked up a late-ish multicoated 90mm super angulon 5.6 for a ton fifty, just because of barely visible coating marks and some of the external lettering wearing off.
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Old 31st May 2012, 06:16 PM
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I've only made two purchases from them. The first was a wall mount for and enlarger which was fine. The second was a contax camera which was so obviously faulty that a complete idiot would have seen the fault straight away. The sales person (I made purchase over phone) even claimed they had the camera in hand as we spoke.

someone had taken the camera apart and reassembled it incorrectly so that the mirror was crooked and puttiing a lens on it the aperture readouts were obviously wrong. This should have been obvious with the most basic of checks which I spotted as soon as I opened the package. Obviously no one had even looked at the camera or their repair man told them it was working. Either way I wasn't impressed. Haven't and won't use them again.

Yes, good old fashioned shops were so much better and much nicer to browse around. There was a really good one in exeter absolutely stuffed to the rafters with old enlargers and all sorts of kit. Now its empty and not worth visiting unless necessary for repairs.
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Old 31st May 2012, 06:20 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Any company can be excused the odd mistake but repeating it can be costly. On another forum Ffordes had a thread devoted to it which is ressurrected every so often. So one mistake/altercation with a customer can be costly.

It may be that it works on a shoestring in terms of staff and hasn't got the resources to properly test all products so takes chances but if it inadvertently sells a "lemon" surely basic commonsense tells it that it has to take the time to ensure that the mistake isn't repeated with the same customer.


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Old 31st May 2012, 06:26 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Any company can be excused the odd mistake but repeating it can be costly. On another forum Ffordes had a thread devoted to it which is ressurrected every so often. So one mistake/altercation with a customer can be costly.

It may be that it works on a shoestring in terms of staff and hasn't got the resources to properly test all products so takes chances but if it inadvertently sells a "lemon" surely basic commonsense tells it that it has to take the time to ensure that the mistake isn't repeated with the same customer.


Mike
It is not a "shoestring" outfit, I visited them a couple of weeks ago to drop off a large 10x8 camera whilst in the area and think I saw around 6 staff although I wasn't counting. I was impressed with how clean and well ordered it all looked , at least from the counter; certainly very busy.
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Old 31st May 2012, 06:50 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Dave this makes its mistakes sound worse. Most mail order outfits these days can be excused for paring staff to the bone to survive but if it is reasonably resourced on the selling counter staff side then I wonder why it doesn't consider devoting more time to product checks before despatch.

Presumably if its over the counter sales are buoyant as would seem to be the case from your description then stuff being sold direct to customers has to be fit for purpose so why not mail order stuff?

Maybe our two friends here are the exceptions to the rule and were just very unlucky.

That can of course happen and certainly nearly all the respondents to the other dissatisfied customer on another forum were positive in relaying their customer experiences with Ffordes

Mike
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Old 31st May 2012, 07:07 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Dave this makes its mistakes sound worse. Most mail order outfits these days can be excused for paring staff to the bone to survive but if it is reasonably resourced on the selling counter staff side then I wonder why it doesn't consider devoting more time to product checks before despatch.

Presumably if its over the counter sales are buoyant as would seem to be the case from your description then stuff being sold direct to customers has to be fit for purpose so why not mail order stuff?

Maybe our two friends here are the exceptions to the rule and were just very unlucky.

That can of course happen and certainly nearly all the respondents to the other dissatisfied customer on another forum were positive in relaying their customer experiences with Ffordes

Mike
Given its location I surmise over the counter sales are a very small proportion of the total. I have made my position clear with regard to this company based on many years of use, I haven’t kept count but I would guess that I have made in excess of 100 transactions with them, possibly double that number. My experience is that they are always quick, good natured and efficient; one of the better photographic companies that I deal with on a regular basis. I cannot recollect ever having to return an item of equipment to them. With their volume of turnover I would be amazed if there weren’t occasional problems, misunderstandings or mistakes, we are all prone to that and I would expect them to correct any such problems for which they were responsible promptly.
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