I walked into Samys excited to see a ""full service"" camera store in Pasadena. You can almost always get better prices on the web, but I'm willing to pay that extra ""brick & mortar"" premium for hands-on advice, and of course the immediate gratification of walking out the door with my new stuff! But I will never go to Samys again. You walk in and there is an immediate air of intimidation. The people behind the counter are rude, and not willingly helpful. They have the same arrogant disinterest that I imagine you would find behind the counter of a gun shop! And the knowledge of some of these guys is definitely questionable. I'm making the leap from film to digital and I asked a simple question about 1.6 crop factor, and they guy was either too inconvenienced by such a lame question, or simply didn't care, or didn't know the answer, I'm not sure which. They also have that sales tactic of quoting a price that is ridiculously high, and then ""seeing what they can do"". I find this old-school sales strategy inherently dishonest and a waste of my time. Just put a fair price on the item and let me know what it is, instead of seeing how much you can squeeze out of me! So when they quoted a price for a lens that was 20% higher than what I had seen on the web, I knew this place was wrong. 20% premium AND lousy customer service? come on! So I walked out with a 30.00 lens hood. (I needed it,) but when I got home it was cracked! So the next day I brought it back, with the receipt and explained the situation to some thug behind the counter who was mean-mugging me the whole time. He didn't say anything, turned around opened a drawer, grabbed a new lens hood and TOSSED the box on the counter in-front of me, ""THWAP!"" Well shoot, at least they made the exchange! I was expecting them to accuse me of breaking the thing! In all fairness, there was one guy who WAS helpful and very nice. But that is 1 out of 4 guys total that I dealt with. NOT RECOMMENDED.
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