... What?

[the_std]

I sell cameras at an electronics store. A large part of my job is educating customers on the differences between cameras and what the features actually do. I don't like letting a customer walk away with a camera they don't understand, because that generally means at least one return trip for them with questions and/or complaints. I try to nip it in the bud, but there's only so much I can do.

Yesterday, a customer approached me as I was finishing up with another customer. SC tried to butt in as I was explaining our return policy to the customer before her, but I told her I'd be with her in a minute. A whole minute and thirty seconds later, the previous customer leaves and SC plops her stuff down on the counter in front of me.

SC: Finally! I can't believe how long it takes to get service here!
Me: Sorry about that m'am. How can I help you?
SC: You people sold me a camera that doesn't work! I can't take pictures at all!
Me: Oh dear, well, can I take a look at the camera and see what's going wrong?
SC: Now hold on a minute missy, I haven't told you what the problem is yet! You're moving too fast! You've gotta listen to me!
Me: Okay, so what is the problem?
SC: The window is just black. I can't see nothin' when I look in it.
Me: You mean the viewfinder? Okay, that could be a big problem. What type of camera did you buy?
SC: This damn Canon piece of bull. It's useless to me. Useless!
Me: Alrighty... Well, can I take a look at the camera?

So she pulls the camera box out of the bag and hands it to me. It is a Canon model that doesn't have a viewfinder (like 90% of the cameras today), so I'm slightly puzzled.

Me: M'am, this camera doesn't have a viewfinder. Do you mean the screen on the back isn't showing anything?
SC: No! The stupid extending viewfinder doesn't work! I can't see anything!
Me: Uhm, this camera has no extending viewfinder. Can you show me how you're trying to take pictures?
SC: Are you dumb? Like this, obviously!

She turns the camera on, the lens extends out and she holds it up to her eye. Yeah, that's right, she's trying to look through the lens.

Me: Well... In fact, you've got the camera backwards. The piece you're looking through is actually the part that takes pictures. If you turn the camera around, you should be able to see everything on the screen on the back.

SC turns the camera around and gasps, then begins to smile.

SC: Well, this is MUCH better! Look at that picture! Oh my, it's just beautiful! But this was your fault. You should tell people how to use a camera before you let them walk away with them! I'm going to be calling your manager!

And with that, she grabs her bag and walks out of my department, leaving me to try to pull my brain out of my nose with a pair of pliers.

[Elspeth]

um what just happened?

Cameras are a new thing right? How did she not blind herself? and if she can't work a camera, how in the hell is she possibly operating a car!?!?!?!?

Now I have to find my brain again. I had just found it after the free tv thread. Here brain, I have some nice soccer and beer for you. *walks off calling for her brain*

[Exaspera]

She's never used any kind of camera before this one?!

[AyreBiskits]

LOL!!! i wonder if she got any good close-ups of her eye? :p

[underemployeed]

WOW, um, WOW.... wait, what? Seriously? can I get an age check? I'm really hoping this is someones grandparent who has NO idea about this new fangled technology and "back in my day we just called the local portraitist who would come with his paints and we made a day of standing outside sweating as he made the image of the family on some canvas"...." AND THATS HOW IT SHOULD BE TODAY DAMN IT I WALKED UP HILL BOTH WAYS TO SCHOOL WITH NO SHOES!!!!!!"

Or is this a person who should have been of reasonably sound mind, and figured out IDK how to aim the camera? I mean sure some of them have TONS of options but all a basic point and shoot. Accidentally put an Exs camera into debug mode screwing around with it once.

[Caffienated_Caramel]

:roll: I find that classic!

At least she wasn't demanding free stuff.

[Android Kaeli]

Come on now. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work a camera, even the newer ones today. Hell, my mom knows how to use our digital camera, granted she doesn't know all the nifty features with it but she does know how to turn it on and take a picture.

[ZedOmega]

You should tell people how to use a camera before you let them walk away with them! I'm going to be calling your manager!

What I would give to be in the department for that conversation.

SC: Your employee never showed me how to use this camera!
Manager: What do you mean?
SC: She should've told me I was holding it backwards the whole time!
Manager: ...heh-heh... HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[dbuzman]

I'll bet the manual has pictures showing what the front of the camera looks like. Of course, being an SC she doesn't know how to read.

[EvilEmpryss]

Mind-boggling.

Better yet, though, is the fact that none of her friends or family apparently thought to correct her picture-taking technique. Nobody buys a fancy new camera without showing it to *someone*, especially if they think there's a problem with it. So, either she has nothing but cavemen for friends & family, or they set her up.

I'd like to hope it was a set-up, but I don't think her response supports that. :cry:

[LillFilly]

Wow. I'd expect there to be a hidden camera around somehwere!!! :lol:

[Saphire089]

You should tell people how to use a camera before you let them walk away with them! I'm going to be calling your manager!.

With that kind of logic, I guess we should be making sure people know how to turn on a computer before they bring it home, too?:rolleyes:

[Anakah]

That woman as a moron and a bitch if she really complains about her own stupidity. You were nice and helpful. I hate people who do that. Did you pre-warn your manager about her being a stupid cow who just wants to make someone else take the fall or her stupidness?

[Ironclad Alibi]

With that kind of logic, I guess we should be making sure people know how to turn on a computer before they bring it home, too?:rolleyes:

Do computer sales people know how to do that? :devil:

When I first looked at PC computers, some 30 years ago, I couldn't get any of the sales people to tell me how to use one, or even what the difference was between an 8088, 8086 or 80286 computer. A PC ended up being the third computer I bought, after a TI99/4A and an Apple //e. Everything I know about them has been self taught.

[PepperElf]

SC: Are you dumb? Like this, obviously!

what's sad is that it never occurred to her to apologize to you for calling you dumb.
especially when you went out of your way to help her without treating her like she was stupid

:punch:

Do computer sales people know how to do that?
i've met some who probably couldn't.
but that's for another post =p

[Flying Grype]

When I first looked at PC computers, some 30 years ago, I couldn't get any of the sales people to tell me how to use one, or even what the difference was between an 8088, 8086 or 80286 computer. A PC ended up being the third computer I bought, after a TI99/4A and an Apple //e. Everything I know about them has been self taught.

We had the //e, that was our first computer. Dad got it for business but we played games on it. Not only dedicated games, either -- I taught myself how to use an integrated office suite by playing Mad Libs with pfs write and pfs file. Fill the database entry and the words pop into the right places in the story. :D

I knew a few of the differences between computers -- such as, the IIgs had more colours on the screen than our //e. :P Hey, I was eight, that's what I cared about.

[jjc927]

Seriously, how did she not know anything about using this camera? Surely she's seen SOMEONE doing it the right way.

[jjllbb]

holy crap she's an idiot. And she blames you because she knows how stupid she made herself look.

[the lawsmeister]

LOL!!! i wonder if she got any good close-ups of her eye? :p

LOL I remember one of the finalists on funniest home videos when I was a kid was of an elderly couple trying to use their new video camera. It consisted of several minutes of close ups of the husband's eye with the comments like
Press the pause
I can't see the pause
(at no point was it called the pause button, just "the pause")
look in it properly. You should see the pause
I am, I can't see anything.

Can't remember if they won or not.

[XCashier]

I'll bet the manual has pictures showing what the front of the camera looks like. Of course, being an SC she doesn't know how bother to read.
FTFY.

Digital cameras look enough like film cameras that it should be blatantly obvious which part is the lens. Shame on her for not thinking things through, and double shame for putting the blame on you. I hope your manager backs you up.

[the_std]

I did warn my manager during my shift today, and his reaction was his patented Eyebrow Raise and an "oooooookaaaaay...", followed by assurances that she was just a stupid cow and that I did nothing wrong, especially since I never actually sold her the camera in the first place, so couldn't have made sure that she knew how to use it before she left.

Also, this woman was, at most, late thirties. Way too young to use the old-timer excuse. That made it all the more surreal.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Read
The
Fornicating
Manual

Hell! Most of the gorram things are pictograms so people who can not read English (or read at all for that matter) can figure at least the basics of how to put in the batteries, the memory card and what button to press.

Damn but people are stupid.

[ravevolution]

Uhm there is sucha thing as a owners manual. . . I think she should read it:lol:

[dalesys]

Uhm there is sucha thing as a owners manual. . . I think she should read it:lol:
"They" made her read an owner's manual once in school...

It was gross! And scary!

So she'll never read another one.


Personal Health class FTW.:muya:

[Marmalady]

I have said it before, but I think it bears repeating - every time something is made idiot-proof, they invent a better idiot.

[protege]

Uhm there is sucha thing as a owners manual. . . I think she should be smacked upside the head with it :lol:

Fixed that for you :D

Seriously though, she's just another person who really shouldn't be allowed to own anything more complex than a Bic pen :p

[XCashier]

Seriously though, she's just another person who really shouldn't be allowed to own anything more complex than a Bic pen :p
A Bic pen? You're being generous. Don't you know you could stab someone with those things?! I'd suggest giving her a chew toy and putting her back in her cage. :p

[Ironclad Alibi]

A Bic pen? You're being generous. Don't you know you could stab someone with those things?! I'd suggest giving her a chew toy and putting her back in her cage. :p

You don't have to worry about her stabbing someone. Even if she did manage to get the cap off, she would just stab herself.

[protege]

Even if she did manage to get the cap off, she would just stab herself.

...and the problem takes care of itself. Darwin would be proud :D

[He who Attends]

God i think i smell blood, i really don't know whether to laugh or cry, i don't think i could have held my tongue after that last part XD

[NiennasMaid]

Heh. My parish priest, who is a close friend of mine, took a group out to the desert to go camping. I, as always, had my trusty Canon SX110 with me, because i LOVE it, and it takes amazing photos for a point-and-click. He was so impressed by my photos that he decided to get a new digital camera, and asked me what kind he should buy. I sent him a two-page email about how to weigh the pros and cons of each camera, and find one that would let him do what he wanted without confusing him with extra settings (he's ok with tech, but not great).

He went out and bought the same kind of camera I have. *headdesk*

Now, what I love best about my camera is the amount of flexibility it has in the manual setting. But that's going to just confuse someone who's used to a full-automatic point-and-click.

Sigh. A good camera is pointless if you don't know how to use it...

[DGoddessChardonnay]

She's never used any kind of camera before this one?!

My guess is she even had trouble using a View Master as a kid. :doh:

*falls out of chair and onto the deck still laughing at the OP*:roll: