Cameras & Camcorders

[Nokia]

There are tens of thousands of products that BB doesn't carry.

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hi Anxious2Angry,

I agree completely that the customer on this forum, wanting to purchase this camera from us, most likely represent a much larger number of customers that never extend the effort make a post or visit this forum at all. I also would love to be able to tell you that we anticipate selling this camera soon, but unfortunately at this time we will not be able to offer this camera for sale to our customers.

I can say that it is not always our decision not to carry a particular model. Just as often as us merely deciding not to carry a specific model camera, the manufacturer is not able to provide us a certain model. This can be for a number of reasons (i.e. they have contracts with other retailers that prevent this; they can't/won't sell it to us for a price that would allow us to provide our customers a competitive price, etc...). It is also true that we sometimes just decide that a particular model doesn't fit with our business strategy, and will all the models out there we unfortunately aren't able to carry all of them.

Believe me that if we ever are able to provide this model to our customers I will be posting to this thread, and you should get an email notification if this is ever the case.

Thanks for posting your concern,

[Anxious2Angry]

I don't think it's an outside vendor issue, as you apparently had it in your system at one point and for goodness sake, even Walfart offers it!  (Again, what's up with the competitor name rejections in the forum? Is this forum for open and honest customer views or not?) As for business decisions related to "competitive price" (read "profitable enough price"), you should provide the customer what the customer wants even if the price point doesn't make as much for the company. Maintaining customers is important for future purchases. Just ask Verizon about deciding not to carry the iPhone because the pricing terms demanded by Apple; see if they think it was a "profitable" decision in the long run.  I'm assuming that it wasn't a decision not to offer a product that won't be easily damaged thus providing a long lifespan and reducing replacement sales (as you well know, water damage is the number ONE reason for damage to portable electronics). PLEASE tell me THAT wasn't the rationale for your decision not to carry the DSC-TX5(?)

Sony has a UNIQUE product here in the DSC-TX5: a highly featured camera with high image quality that is also waterproof. No one else has such a product...waterproof offerings up to now have all suffered severe feature and quality deficits. This product is the waterproof digital camera for which many have been waiting to make a waterproof camera purchase.

BestBuy's opportunity cost here is huge. You will not simply steer customers' demand from the DSC-TX5 to another model that BestBuy stocks, but lose the sale all together. When the customer finds another retailer to meet their demands and take their money, they will be lost to BestBuy on future purchases for years, perhaps forever.

As Julia Roberts put it in "Pretty Woman" (think you stock it), "Big, HUGE mistake..."

[Anxious2Angry]

Not to mention BestBuy Gift Card purchases lost and the ever-increasing need for positive vs. negative word-of-mouth (read facebook and twitter) reviews of retailers...

[ShapeGSX]

"I'm assuming that it wasn't a decision not to offer a product that won't be easily damaged thus providing a long lifespan and reducing replacement sales (as you well know, water damage is the number ONE reason for damage to portable electronics). PLEASE tell me THAT wasn't the rationale for your decision not to carry the DSC-TX5(?)"

That had not occurred to me.  Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were the case.  Although, I would instead say that Best Buy stands to lose more money due to reduced sales of warranties for ruggedized portable electronics.  This could explain why there are so few waterproof cameras offered in their stores.  All they offer are crappy Olympus waterproof cameras in store.  And online, all they offer are Fuji, Olympus, and Pentax.  Bleh.  Even the employees I have talked to think it is weird.

If that is the case, that really blows.

[Anxious2Angry]

Once consumers realize that this sort of thing IS happening, then they will be forever lost as customers to the offending retailers (and TRASHED online)

[Anxious2Angry]

I'd even be willing to bet that the extended warranty "protection plans" wouldn't cover this type of camera because it IS going to be treated roughly

[blawbb]

I agree it is a HUGE mistake not to carry this model, it is the camera alot of us have been waiting on, but hey, lets face it Best Buy can do whatever they want.

It doesnt really matter what anybody thinks, and I am sure they can bully any manufacturer out there, so I dont really buy that excuse.  Who knows why they wont carry this camera, but when you are the big dog on the block you can do what you want.  Look at me, I complained about it and still bought a more expensive camera from them.

[Anxious2Angry]

Well, THAT was silly Our next step should be shopping with one of their competitors that wants my money and shows it by stocking what WE want.

[blawbb]

Yes it was silly, but trust me the TX-7 is bad a$$