Following on from my post about getting a new lens for myself, and then again about the Jessops price matching scheme, I can confirm that their price matching scheme has ended. Completely. Well, almost…
On Christmas Eve, I decided I had enough funds to buy myself the Canon 70-200mm f4 L lens and I popped down to my nearest Jessops. When I asked about the lens, they didn’t have any in stock, and stupidly I didn’t ask how much it was, or anything about the price matching scheme. They pointed me in the direction of another Jessops which had a few in stock, and I headed over there.
When I got there, the guy found the lens and I asked the price. It was £609! Bearing in mind it shows £488 in the "most up to date" Jessops catalogue. I told the guy that the Jessops catalogue shows £488, but he informed me that it was well out of date. I asked about the price matching and he confirmed it was defiantly off. Not happy, and I walked out empty handed.
On Boxing day, I decided to try my local Jessops (touch wood, they haven’t let me down yet). I called them in the morning and asked if they had the lens. Yep they did. Next, the price, which was again £609. I asked about price matching, and he put me on hold. After a short while, he came back and said that he can only price match to Warehouse Express. He informed me their price was £445, so I wasn’t complaining.
A couple of hours later I drove to Jessops and spoke to the same guy and he agreed on that price. Lucky or what? I over-heard him telling the (very nice) girl that served me to enter on the till "previously agreed price match". Previously agreed? As in 2 hours ago? Is it simply because I’m such a great customer? I’d hope so!…
Expect another update very soon about how damn good this lens is…
[...] Following from my post about the Jessops price matching scheme, here’s the post I promised about my new lens. The Canon 70-200mm f4 L. [...]
No, it’s because you spent so much bloody money with them!
The price matching has always been down to the choice of the individual shop and even the manager’s discression.
I got great matching at Fareham (I know one of the pro-shooters in there and we have spent ages discussing the merits of MF over digital) whilst Hedge End point blank refused.
True true.
I haven’t ever been into the Jessops in Fareham to be honest. I shouldn’t really, I’ll probably buy something which is £100+
How’d you do the quote-y thing!?
JESSOPS! Never again will i buy anything from them. I have in the last 18 months purchased 2 cameras ( a Canon powershot a95 and a Canon DSLR 400D) along with a printer and varioous other items. I also recommended them to family and friends.
But not anymore in fact i go out of my way to inform anyone who will listen not to shop at jessops. The reason? After buying the above ( the 400D) a week before christmas i also asked about a 70-200mm F4 L lense and was told “yes we have one its £609.99 WHAT! how much?
I asked the girl to check the price as it was £164.99 OVER priced. The reply was sorry thats the price and we no longer offer Price Match. No wonder Jessops stopped that it must have cost them a lot of money. I contacted Jessops head office to see if there had been some sort of error in the pricing Nope thats the price and if you want one you will have to pay that.
Now its one thing to be a little more expensive but look at the figures they are more than 35% more expensive than other retailers.
So i have placed my first order with Warehouse Express and for a cost of £570 i have the 70-400mm F4 L lens, a Hoya 67mm PRO1 Circ polor (worth about a hundred quid), and a remote shutter release. And enough left for a few pints!
So heres hoping Warehouse Express deliver soon. As for Jessops “who”
I know, tell me about it. I think I was lucky enough to grab this at its discounted price right near the ending of their price matching scheme, but I don’t think I’ll be buying from them again. They have been very good for me, but now the price matching has ended, their prices are just stupidly over-priced, a great shame really.
Whatever my next purchase, I think I’ll either be using Warehouse Express (like you said) or abc-digital-cameras.co.uk who look like they’ve got quite some potential. A nice website, low prices, and a very quick support team from what I’ve seen already.
Let me know how you get on with Warehouse Express if you can, I’ll be interested in knowing. Also, enjoy your new lens when it comes, it really is awesome!
Just to let people know,
Warehouse Express was very good. i got the lens etc within a couple of days or ordering it. I will use them again. I had to smile when walking past my local Jessops, what was on display for £609.99 yip the lens i had just been using that i got from Warehouse Express for £445! Seems to be a good lens BTW
Anyway so much for jessops. You want to shop with them go outside and start throwing tenners down the street because thats what it like in my view.
Hi again Andy,
Thanks for the update! And great news, glad to hear WExpress didn’t let you down and you are enjoying your new lens (still impressed by it, used it a bit today – see my homepage).
I’ll be using WExpress from now on I think. I can’t see Jessops-online lasting too much longer if their prices continue to remain sky-high.
Thanks again!
The problem is that people know the Jessops name as they have a high street presence. They’ve used Jessops shops and think ooh, Jessops online. It’s people in the know that will go to places like WHE. I don’t think Jessops will have any problem for the forseeable future.
Yes, I know that there’s enough information on the ‘net easily locatable through Google that says Jessops are crap, but people still use IE6 too. FFS. Some people will not accept the help that they are being offered.
Well i did a search on share price for Jessops via Google very interesting. Seems thay have took a hit of recent.
I think tbh more people will realise there are over priced on most things to say the least and after stopping price match things can only get worse for them in my view unless they sort out the prices.
But we will see.
Andy, I certainly hope so! To me Jessops are like Halfrauds. They are such a big company that they don’t care if a person only buys there once. The sooner that the great unwashed realised that Jessops are way too over priced, the better for all of us!
Jessops pricing is way of base I have gone out of my way to see if they will engage in a reasonable price negotitaion but they just e-mailed to say sorry that I am not happy with the service but no help with pricing. They are way off base on lenses menory cards tripods cases etc by around 20-40%. they won’t even match other hight street shops let alone web retailers.I have bought most of my equipment from them in the past but this apparently matters not a pixel! Digital users are WEB aware and shop around for prices (if you can use photo shop google is a easy!) I certainly won’t be buying any shares! or Products! unless they re-align Pricing Jessops if you read this I will be spending about £1,400 this week and its not with you!
Try Warehouse Express, i have spent 1.5 k or so with them and they have been very good on both price and service. Highly recommend them, jessops are crap enough said!
Reading through this, two comments particularly stuck out :
1) it depends on who your are, the manager is, and possibly what way the wind is blowing. I probably agree that’s thae case
2) Jessops are crxx. That I disagree with as far as my experience goes.
I had great experience with price matching to the point they’ve had my money every time I’ve asked. They’ve been helpful while I’ve swapped lenses hunting for a ‘good’ copy. And the blasted EFS17-85 IS dust sucker I bought was exchanged for my first L lens with not a quibble.
I guess not every store and every employee is that helpful, but while I’m getting that kind of service I will go back again and again… lucky me, unlucky bank account..