Too True To Be Good

Watching the photographic trade in action is somewhat akin to going to a Ringling Brothers circus. There are a number of rings in operation and a number of levels of presentation.

Lots of acts are going on at the same time - amongst them are jugglers, girls in spangled tights, high flyers, and dancing elephants. I myself function as a sad clown - as I get older I tend to need less and less greasepaint make-up to get the clown face right...

One of the constants of the business is the presence of  barkers. They used to stand outside the sideshow and draw the Rubes in with a megaphone and line of promises - promises that were ...nearly...fulfilled for the mere price of 25¢...a single quarter...why step right up...

Nowadays they loom out of the computer. I have been directed to look at one today by a customer's desire to have us match their price on a desirable compact camera. The advertisement that glows warmly on the monitor is for a price far below the Australian wholesale price. Promises are made and assurances are given and anyone reading the site would think that all was well. Anyone who did not read the words carefully...

The contact details are a postal box. The price offered is under real cost. The "local warranty" is undefined...but the price tells me that it will not be the manufacturer's own warranty - it will be an on-line promise. The testimonials are written with ever-so-slightly-different-than Australian English usage...

The only thing the thing doesn't do is pause, hiss slightly, and greet me with " Hello, I am from Microsoft and we have detected..."

P.T. Barnum would have been proud. Whether he would order a camera from them is another thing.

Step right up...

Note: I did some net exploration. We, our local real store competitors, our Melbourne real store competitors, and our Sydney real store competitors are all well within shot-fall of each other with the price on the item. We all get it from the Australian distributor and we all know we can rely upon that distributor to back up warranty claims. I own one of the items, I love it, and I can sell it with confidence.

Uncle Dick