Letter to Samy's

You want to know the truth? No matter who you are, there is someone or something much bigger than you, stronger than you, nimbler than you, and you got to pick and choose your battles. Most of the time it's not worth it. Earlier this week it was Fedex. And the answer by the way, is that no, the Palace was not closed, my key contacts and many others were on vacation and neglected to inform us. Because the palace is so grand, the Fedex rep in France didn't quite know which cake shaped door to leave it at. Long story short, that shit finally got there.

Today, I'm treating you to a letter to Samy's Camera. Don't go there. Read the reviews on the interweb for yourself.

*****

December 26, 2008

Re: Thanks!

Hey Samy's Camera,

You ever read the book, Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus? One of the main points in the book is that women listen by hearing while men listen by skipping over the hearing and understanding and they go straight into problem solving. From my own census of the place, it seems to me that Samy's is run by problem solving men and that's a good thing because there are a lot of problems out there.

I appreciate Samy's and the myriad products and services that it provides to countless photographers in Southern California. My patronage at your establishment is purposely limited for several reasons of my own and this evening's interaction made all of them perfectly clear.

I purchased a Canon SD790IS for $250. Nice camera. When I got home, by sheer coincidence, a pesky pop-up ad for Best Buy connected me to another page for the same camera, on sale for $179.99. Hard to believe I know.

Rules are in place for many reasons, and even if I don't agree with the rules, I respect them. You'll never ever see me park my Porsche in a loading zone. Never. I understand Samy's return policy as it is noted in the store, but not as it pertains to price matching. On my immediate return to the store, I asked the gentleman helping me one simple question - Does Samy's offer price matching? And I further stated, "if not, I understand, I will leave." That was my question. In Mars-Venus Speak, I came in with a question and I wanted to be heard, understood and answered, but what I got was a good dose of problem solving.

The gentleman was not happy about my query as he told me that that price, shown on the web page print out is well below cost. A simple yes or no would have done the trick. I am thankful that I'm a business person, so I used my special business person hearing and I understood this statement to mean "no". I requested my receipt so that I could leave. The gentleman did not hand it back, but took it away to confer with others and returned stating that he would honor this price, but only in this instance. Problem solved right? And he added further, "If all customers were like you, there would be no Samy's." No, problem created.

I am not out to ruin an independent business over $70.00, and I regret that I even bothered with this. I was simply seeking clarification on Samy's position re price matching. I gave the gentleman several opportunities to state Samy's position on price matching. He chose instead, to not answer my question with any clarity and offered a price reduction in resentment, and then returned his resentment to me as an insult. Whoops, there goes that Mars again.

Let's be clear about something - in this new era in which all old modes of doing business are swiftly rendered useless, it is statements like this to customers like me that will put Samy's out of business.

Call me if you want your $70 back, I'll personally hand deliver it. You could use some of it to buy the book.

All the Best,

Yirko