Ritz Camera Buyer BEWARE of "plead your case" warrantee favoring porn stars RIPOFF Hyannis Massachusetts

First of all, I take issue with the comment from Lestat. I'm a store manager and personally have never violated any company policy nor have I asked my staff to participate in illegal activities.

Next, to the reportee:

Every Ritz Camera store (and I've worked at 3 in almost 7 years) is different. I worked for three different managers in that time before I progressed to that position myself. None of those three managers did anything like what you describe.

We do not yet possess digital loaners. Judging from the 35mm loaners I found on hand in my stores, we will not get even bottom-of-the-barrel digital loaners until the company finds a way to procure out-of-date equipment and then distribute it amongst the stores.

One manager I worked for (and I would say she is one of the company's finest) was always willing to listen to special instances. It was, by no means, a plead your case type situation. If someone had a special circumstance (web design would qualify), she would inquire through corporate channels about the possibility of lending one of our floor models. Only once was this request approved by corporate.

I do sympathize. It is a flawed system. I'm not suggesting that you are incorrect in your assessment of that. I do, however, take serious issue with your characterization of the company as a bunch of people who delight in only helping out those affiliated with the adult entertainment industry.

If you had come to my location, I would have asked why you needed a digital loaner and then I would have taken to working the channels to procure you one if possible.

I do appreciate your experience, however. I will utilize this as a training tool with my staff on what NOT to do.

I hope your future dealings with Ritz are more pleasant. If there is a different location near you, may I suggest giving it a try. They will honor things the same way, but perhaps the staff will treat you with dignity (which you DO deserve).

I hope this reply eases your concerns somewhat. I do promise that we are not all bad.

Warantee Scam would be not honoring your warantee. You had your camera fixed at no additional cost 4 separate times. Running at about $250 (min.) per repair I'd say your damage coverage worked for you pretty well.

As to the "porn star" policy, that has to do with the store manager and employees at that store, not Ritz Camera as a company.

As to the "loaner" "Problem"... That is simply Company Policy.


Moral.. you paid a little over $400 for a warrantee that saved you over $1000 in repair costs.. Think about the big picture

Instead of spending $400 on that warranty, use the money for a back up camera? No professional photographer that I know of uses only one camera. Hell, I use seven cameras and I'm not even a pro. I'd never show up at a gig with only one camera. That way if I have problems with one I can just switch to the other.

Not to take away from your complaint about Ritz. I'm just offering an alternative.

I worked for Ritz for many years and have nothing derogatory (on a whole) to say about the employee population. Its management that creates the problems. Case in point...

As I was printing early one Saturday morning the manager of the store walked in with a load of Ritz bags under each arm. He approached the register and completed the opening count; as per policy. However, he then began to unpack items from the aforementioned bags and started to return them. Then he stopped. Paused for a moment. And then turned to me and requested my employee number. I wanted to know what he was doing with cameras, bags, lens, and filters that were months old. He repeated his request for my number.

At that moment I knew he was trying to return them. He used them, and was now trying to return them; UNDER MY NUMBER. Keep in mind that the items were not just a few weeks old, but a few months old. I told him he couldn't return them under my number because I would be fired as per company return policy guidelines. He said "do you like working here?" I told him, as I pick up the phone, that I was going to speak to someone at HR if he continued with the transaction. (calling the DM or RM was always useless)

By this time he had looked up another employee number and started returning the merchandise. I spoke to HR about the issue in his presence. He acted as if I weren't there.

Later that day I was reprimanded by both the DM and RM for insubordination. It should be noted that none of these people now work for the company. Fired or resigned I have no idea. But there are problems at the stores that involve not just the customers.

It's my understanding that consumers have very different experiences in many different Ritz stores across the country, and I think that it's partly because of the way the stores are divided up into districs and because of the lack of any kind of disciplinary action taken towards managment that fail in their jobs.

But that being said, the majority of the people that I've dealt with in our company are helpful and understanding. It is unfortunate that this lady dealt with these individuals, and while it's certainly not my responsibility I thoroughly appologize for their actions.

That being said, the Damage Protection plan still has some flaws in it, and the lack of digital loaners is a major one. But like many major corporations Ritz moves slowly and thus far little has been done to correct the problem. The purpose of the plan is not to scam money off of our customers, but is to repair your camera should anything happen to it, which I understand was done, several times. The plan works very well in this regard, and so I sell them in this regard; I do not emphasize loaner cameras and I explain this area of the plan should someone ask; otherwise, I don't mention the loaner cameras because I'm frankly embarassed by the inadequacy of them.

My suggestion is to contact customer service if this has happened to you. If enough people complain about this sort of occurance I have to believe that Ritz will try to correct the problem in our stores.

Thank you,