Guilt-free Shinyness
I’ve been wanting a video camera for some time – as has R. We have B’s creche concert coming up among other things, besides which we just have so many cool moments that it’s a shame to lose them. So it was with R’s backing that I went looking for shiny things although I didn’t need to do much work – she did the research and found exactly the right camera in my opinion. It’s a beautiful little thing – so shiny and new. It smells new too 
It’s a panasonic NSG200 I think. I might have the designation wrong. But it rocks – I’ll find a link.
Half the fun (sometimes more) of shiny things is in the acquisition, and in this case it was exceptional. We wandered about MegaMart in Chadstone for ages, trying to get someone to help us out. Service there seems to be non-existant – not just that the servicey type people aren’t available, it’s that they tell you no, they can’t help, then wander off. If you manage to sight one in the first place that is. I got a bit bored and wandered over to an Xbox demo running a spiderman game, which was fun enough to distract me for a few minutes. However what really lifted the rodent* was the fact that while I was away in the next aisle (but still visible) R tried to get the attention of three useless drones pretending to be service staff but they ignored her or brushed her off. However when I came over someone finally addressed us and asked what we needed help with. Bah – not a good start.
This fellow made us wait for ages while he disappeared to track down a price for us, then came back and faffed about without really being able to answer any of my questions. We had to work on him to get the same offer Ted’s Cameras were pushing, and I started filling out a form to join the myer card thingy which would give us a discount. R meanwhile called JB while the little mustachio’d git was elsewhere, and checked prices. She told the young man on the phone (Chris, his name was) that I was filling out forms and right away he says ‘Tell him to stop!” From there he was hooked, and R did a superb job of buttering him up and squeezing deals out of him, then we tag teamed him for extras and freebies and got some promises. I left MegaMart without bothering to catch up with mustache man, as after the 40 minutes of mine he’d managed to waste I didn’t particularly feel I owed him – and we jetted to JB-Hifi in the city.
We got the camera for 100 bucks cheaper, plus 5 free tapes and a free crumpler (very nice) case for it, and a heavy reduction on a 256 MB SD card and an extra extended life battery. They put us through for approval for 6 months interest free – and it came back approved for more than we’d asked for so we added a little tiny Cannon Ixus II which I’ve lusted after for ages, another sd card for it and 2 dvds – League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Van Helsing. Plus I managed to squeeze another free case out of him and a discount on the card >:)
Best of all we walked away without paying a cent. The weird thing was that I found it very difficult to assimilate the concept of guilt-free spendage – usually when I splurge on shiny things (especially when it involves some kind of credit) it leads to ruin and downfall – and all the while I know in the back of my mind I shouldn’t be doing it However we can definitely fit this into the budget, we have more than ample justification for it with taking footage of B etc, and R reassured me multiple times (because I kept asking for confirmation hehe) that it was all good and not a stupid typical Toby purchase.
I love shiny things. Now we have a fun video camera and a funky little tiny digital camera – which does just about everything my big Powershot G2 does!
Hooray for JB Hifi.
* took the mickey – or “went beyond a joke” for the culturally disinclined.
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Seems R is a very useful woman to have around. We had a similar experience with staff who thought that women weren’t worth serving in Clive Peters Dandenong now I tell people to give them a big miss. The camera sound like a good "shiny thing" to have[Reply]
I’m becoming increasingly contemptuous of sales assistants who don’t understand the simple idea that paying attention to the customer, even a "browser" encourages them to spend money in their shop, which is a very good thing for them. <br /><br />The chap at Megamart who eventually served us was very reluctant to match an advertised price for the camera, and refused point blank to provide us with information on Megamart’s advertised 12 months interest free on purchases over $500. He wouldn’t even discuss doing any better than the RRP on extended batteries/ DV tapes/ SD cards etc. <br /><br />If you’re going to purchase something with a list price over $1000, it only makes sense to shop around and haggle. And I hate it when sales staff won’t compete! At JB we bought more than originally intended, but it was a positive purchasing experience – Chris was great – and with the deal Toby struck, affordable too.[Reply]