Last Wednesday's Camera Shopping Misadventure

The camera I've been using has a pretty noticeable scratch.  I had previously been told by a cmara repair place that just replacing the lens would cost more than getting a new camera.

Last Wednesday I went camera shopping because the thought of taking a camera with a bad scratch travelling was bothering me.  It pretty much had to be the same brand because I couldn't afford new batteries.  So I went to Uptown and visited Future Shop (no luck there) plus two stores that require more detail: Wal-Mart and Best Buy (in the latter case finding staff wanting to help me in the camera department has been an issue in the past).

At Best Buy a sales lady asked me if she could help me so I showed her the camera I needed.  After repeating the model name she made the most disgusted "Yeah" I'd ever heard (as if anyone who uses that particular model is a barbarian) and walked off.  I'd have been really offended if I hadn't felt like I'd met the reincarnation of Basil Fawlty.

During the course of hunting down an extra camera I was nearly fooled by a newer but almost identical looking camera that's 12.1 megapixels vs. mine which has 14. Luckily I noticed the difference in time as the batteries are different.

I did find one left at Wal-Mart. The sales guy was nice enough to recommend that I first doublecheck the camera repair issue with a nearby camera shop.  They confirmed the lens cost issue (and then lost interest in talking to me once they decided I wasn't going to buy anything that day) but I did appreciate the Wal-Mart guy's recommendation because had he been right I might have been able to save a lot of money.  And thus I felt right about getting the camera there.  It was the last one since my camera's been phased out so it took a little effort to get the camera out, but I got a 10% discount probably because it was the display model. I used it today during a daytrip that I'll discussed tomorrow.

Oh, I did re-visit Best Buy and told Customer Service about "Ms. Fawlty".  The people at the counter though were young and probably not used to dealing with that sort of thing so I don't know if they'd actually pass the info along.  I'll still shop there for DVDs and blu-rays but and the computer department was once pretty helpful to me. It's only when I visit the camera department there that I seem to run into challenges with staff there.