I woke up at 5 am this morning, so I could have an early photo shooting session. By the time I got to my planned location it was already 7 am. After one hour and thirty minutes of walking and admiring the view through my lens, I was done for the day (merely done). The sun became too strong and I was getting tired. So I sat down, on a bench by the sea, and began to write this piece.
Last week I bought a new camera, a DSLR. It’s an entry level, to get used with it and must admit it was love at first sight. Four months ago I was not interested in photography business, nor had I any clue about it. I merely took pictures with my phone and old camera, nothing impressive. Then, as a Christmas present, U.B. got me a bridge camera (looks like a DSLR, but much lighter and smaller). I was thrilled, so thrilled I think I shoot like 2000 photos with it so far. I became hooked, started to read about photography, watched YouTube videos, began a photography blog- you got the point. Seeing my passion, U.B. suggested to buy this camera I have today, but I was telling him we need to wait a bit, as It’s over the budget, etc. Not listening to my ramblings, he began searching and analysing. That’s what he does when he wants to buy something. Searching for the best price and best quality. Paying attention to all details and searching for reviews. Thanks God he’s like that, as I would have ended up with some crap cheap lenses for the price of expensive ones otherwise.
Last Saturday, armed with optimism and 670 dollars, we went to buy a Canon t5i Rebel (fell in love with the name) as it was on sales. They had a last one on stock so we felt lucky. I was thrilled. Couldn’t wait to get home and try it.
Getting home, I unboxed it and guess what? There was no manual inside, no CD with the editing program and the worst of all, the lens weren’t STM (last generation ones), as advertised on the Web, but IS III (produced in 2009 and removed from the market by Canon- you can’t find them anywhere else now). I was outraged. One moment I was on top of the world, second down at the bottom. Couldn’t believe it. It was our fault in the lens business as we didn’t check it in the shop and confront them, then and there. But where was the cd- that was my biggest concern. The package had been opened before. We needed to go back and address the issues.
Back in the shop I went straight to the guy that sold me the camera and told him my problem. He said that he bought same camera for his wife and didn’t have a cd. But I’m no fool and showed him what the box said. The manager came over and U.B. mentioned the lens thing and showed them the website (thanks God he checked it like a billion times,on the weeks before).As a piece of info, the Canon EF-S 18-55 mm IS STM lens are last generation and cost alone around 249 dollars on Amazon. You got my point. They realized their mistake and asked if we want our money back or a voucher. We both agreed to get our money back and just go and buy it from another shop. And we did, in the same day. Arrived home around 4 pm (after 5 hours of hassle), but happy at last. We paid less for it, in the second shop and it had a everything, STM lens, Cd with editing program, manual, plus a dvd tutorial for landscape and portrait photography.
Funny part in all this is that I don’t have a CD-ROM drive on my laptop so basically I was fighting here for the idea, not for the actual CD. But I won, because advertising might be the soul of the sales, but false one might destroy it as well. On the plus side, U.B. converted the program from CD on his laptop and transferred to mine. Easy peasy, for someone with his skills.
So here I am today, after 5 days of being the proud owner of a wonderful camera, am still learning and experimenting with photography, but on a different level, making my first steps towards pro level.
Have you ever encountered false advertising? If so, did you confront it?
And while I was writing this piece, a song I used to listen as a child came to my mind. Used to loved it, had a vinyl with the band, but later on I discovered that they weren’t the real voices behind this song. Talking about false advertising and false identity let’s listen to Milli Vanilli.