Not aggressive enough
I've received some information about what Canon's favourite competitors are doing to stimulate sales this Christmas season. Both Panasonic and Nikon are offering very substantial dollar spiffs on cameras sold. This is taking place in both Canada and the USA. For anyone in retail, this plays a BIG role in what cameras they pull of the shelf first.
A Wolf employee told me his co-workers are definitely getting geared up to sell Nikon products. If that can pay for the Christmas gifts, why wouldn't they?
Canon's approach? A rewards program. Sell $25K of stuff and get a free SD1100. A slight exageration, but not by much.
5D Preorder Legal Issues
I spoke to a lawyer friend about the whole issue of pre-orders and whether retailers are entering into a binding agreement about price. His answer after a subtle laugh; “No”. In Canada at least, pre-orders are technically not legal, so there is no binding agreement.
If anyone wants to dispute this, I'm all ears. You lawyers love to stir it up!
cr
24 Comments
“Anonymous” – First it’s funny how all the people who work for Henry’s or Vistek or any other distributor OR have a viewpoint that the distributors shouldn’t honor the pre-orders all seem to comment anonymously. It seems to suggest that even these distributor-evangelists are ashamed of what their employers have done increasing pre-order pricing. I think everyone is entitled to an opinion and that no matter what happens in this debate your opinion should be respected but at least have enough pride to stand behind your opinion.
With respect to my pre-order the receipt I got from Vistek says “Sales Order” at the top. It lists specifically the Canon EOS 5D Mark II in the Item description at a price of $2799.00. At the bottom of page it says “Payments Received = $559.80” and “Outstanding Amount = $2379.15” (with the GST being $139.95).
Nowhere does it say that this is a “pre-order” with an “estimated sales price” or that “price is subject to change”. There is no fine print anywhere on the page or the attached visa slip. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that I should need to pay more in the future (besides the outstanding amount) or that the price could increase.
The new invoice I received does indicate that the price is subject to increase, but not the old one.
I think this is definitely going to be a case of Vistek differentiating between what they are legally allowed to do and what they should do that’s best for the customer (and future business).
Maybe its legal for them to change the price, maybe it isn’t. I think most people will complain but I don’t think a lot of people will attempt legal action even if the price increase is illegal. I think the big thing that Vistek and other distributors need to consider is that regardless of what the piece of paper (order/invoice/receipt) technically is, everyone thinks that fundamentally it is a ticket reserving their camera at a fixed price. Failing to honor pre-orders at this point definitely seems like a huge blow to their credibility among an advanced amateur – pro user crowd who pre-ordered. This is the segment of people who will be buying more expensive lenses and lighting equipment from them. If this was just over a rebel, I don’t think distributors would have to worry about as much repeat business. But I can gaurantee I won’t be buying a single thing from Vistek from this point on, and I’ll be telling every other pro-photographer I know about my experience.
I also don’t understand why so many Sales Agents agree with what’s being done here. Why are you the ones posting comments on here and not the executives who made the decision not to honor pre-order prices. Most of the Sales agents I know are great people who are also photographers. I just can’t picture them tolerating being told to treat their customers this way. Are there any Sales people out there who are upset that their distributors raised the price on pre-orders?
I also haven’t had any phone calls or e-mailes returned by Vistek or Canon.
OK, this is from the first time poster who just cannot listen to all the pixel-peepers, complainers and other types of sorry losers out there.
Canon “missed” 5D update?!?!?!
What the heck?!?!?!
Are you trying to say that the quality of photographs you were taking (if the likes of you are actually taking any) suddenly dropped after using a camera for 2 years and not upgrading it?!?!?! Get real, all those AF issues, high ISO issues, whatever issues don’t stop anybody who does real job with their Canons, Nikons, Mamiyas, Contaxes (I have and use all of those) from carrying out their assignments.
Take 5D for example – superior high-ISO performance for several years… yes, it has been surpassed now, but does it suddenly mean that it is not capable of making high-ISO shots anymore, just like that, out of the blue?!?!?! I have been taking some great live performance photographs with it and am still doing so, they did not deteriorate overnight, not at all. I pre-ordered 5D MkII, by the way. Moreover, 5D’s autofocus works just fine in the low-light, thank you.
Sorry for the incoherence, I guess I just could not take it anymore and had to vent a bit.
Respect to all and let’s continue making photographs,
Danijel
Danijel, if you refer to my post, my point has never been an amount of pixels issue. I had a 5D and it was a great camera 3 years ago and it’s still doing great photos today, but obviously it’s not “that much” of a great camera today (based on feature, speed and all the whistle and bells).
16MP would be enough for me, but having a camera with a decent transfer speed is a must in 2008 (almost 2009). Bigger buffer and better LCD is also nice and part of what you would expect now. Seals are a bonus. Liveview, movies… not sure yet, never tried a camera with that, except my SD400 !!!
I never said that the 5D was bad, but the 3 years gap is definetely a Canon issue regarding revenue and position in the market.
Hope it clears my point of view.
Rox
p2vbnhaemdquzjgs