Jessops to go into administration ?
- Thread starter scoopex
- Start date
They did rebrand their stores not long ago, but the change to what you highlighted above happened many years ago and I think was a decision they had to make.
If you think back to the early 2000s, film was dying for enthusiasts and pretty much gone for the point and shoot market. Everybody wanted a digital camera, so sales were high, plus the frequent megapixel jumps which were quite significant back then mean't people bought cameras more often.
There were few DSLRs and those that did exist were very expensive. So Jessops was likely faced with a situation where film SLRs and accessories were very popular with their Professional and serious Amateur customers, but with the advent of digital, people all started buying point and shoot digitals instead.
They obviously went through a real boom when digital point and shoot sales were very high, but that died away a long time ago.
If they had remained more specialised, then they probably wouldn't have lasted as long as a chain.
The company is in administration and now has fully ceased trading and closing for good. They no longer have any suppliers onboard with them and staff loosing their jobs won't get paid anymore and won't care.
Refunds have to be stopped early because so many people may return recently bought items just because of the fact that the company is in trouble. Plus by taking things back, you have to take stock back and give money back out. Also, unlike buying online where you have the DSR, I believe shop refunds are based on their own terms and conditions, I don't think they have to give you one.
With regards to stuff paid for that hasn't been received. If you can't get your money back or the product from them, then that is where paying for things by Credit Card comes to an advantage.
Caporegime
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You can claim it back as a creditor. However as a unsecured (as opposed to secured - such as bank holding the mortgage) creditor, the chances of you getting any money will be WAY down the list. When a company goes into administration and then liquidation (before bankruptcy) certain people needs to get paid, the tax man is the top of the list, unsecured creditors is near the bottom. If there is enough money in the pot after paying everyone else before you after the sale of its assets, then you get your money. But this is usually very unlikely, hence the bankruptcy.
Soldato
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would have only been a problem if they were delivering it to you
Anyone who paid with a credit card or used a finance can use the Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act to get their money back from the finance/credit card company.
I think it deserves them right...my 1st dslr was going to be a Nikon D200 went in to my local jessobs ordered one as they was not in stock ...as Nikon had a supply problem and nobody had them..jessobs was the 1st to get any amount and boy did they know it ..got a phone call that they had some drove over to find that they had put the price up £200 MORE than list price i have not stepped it a jessops since
Soldato
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What's with the 'advice for life' slogan on their goodbye page? Hilarious!
I worked for Jessops and it was a crap job, in all honesty.
Minimum wage, with sales targets. I was targetted £100 an hour, with a 25% 'attach' rate (25% price of hardware in addon sales, memory cards, lenses etc), and 40% Jessops Care Plan attachment. The careplan was underwritten by D and G and wasn't actually all that bad, and had a number of attractive clauses that made it worth taking for anyone who had an ounce of sense in money management.
By fiddling with the online systems (I would *always* pricematch online and use local retailers to beat prices) and using discount where permitted (I was given reasonably free reign as my figures were top notch. I was working approx 20 hours a week at max and was 31st in the company for stats, out of 1200+ employees), you could actually get a damn good deal at jessops if buying a package, it's just that very few people knew what they were doing or how to manipulate the system.
The care plan was pushed heavily as it is a high profit item but it had a damn good clause; if yuo didn't use it in the first year, you could cancel it and get a full refund. I sold no end of them with this clause stated; I'm not sure what management thought of this, nor of the online order manipulation, but I was never told off for it and was rewarded for my stats quite heavily. Both stores I worked in permitted heavy discounting in order to get good stats; if you offered to take the care plan we could take huge amounts off the camera price, and you could literally walk back into the store 10 mins later and get a full refund on the care plan.
If you knew what you were doing, or had someone who gave a toss about the customer (like me) you could get a competitive deal. Of course this rarely applied if people just wanted a camera body, or a simple kit lens setup, as there's no margin to manipulate int that.
D800s could not be sold by most branches without authorisation from haed office and nikon (supposedly, same with the 1D and cannon), which might be why you couldn't get your hands on them. Only CoEs could retail them, like the brand new one in Bristol where I worked for a while ahaha
Note I quit a long while ago, and was not affected by the company folding.
Minimum wage, with sales targets. I was targetted £100 an hour, with a 25% 'attach' rate (25% price of hardware in addon sales, memory cards, lenses etc), and 40% Jessops Care Plan attachment. The careplan was underwritten by D and G and wasn't actually all that bad, and had a number of attractive clauses that made it worth taking for anyone who had an ounce of sense in money management.
By fiddling with the online systems (I would *always* pricematch online and use local retailers to beat prices) and using discount where permitted (I was given reasonably free reign as my figures were top notch. I was working approx 20 hours a week at max and was 31st in the company for stats, out of 1200+ employees), you could actually get a damn good deal at jessops if buying a package, it's just that very few people knew what they were doing or how to manipulate the system.
The care plan was pushed heavily as it is a high profit item but it had a damn good clause; if yuo didn't use it in the first year, you could cancel it and get a full refund. I sold no end of them with this clause stated; I'm not sure what management thought of this, nor of the online order manipulation, but I was never told off for it and was rewarded for my stats quite heavily. Both stores I worked in permitted heavy discounting in order to get good stats; if you offered to take the care plan we could take huge amounts off the camera price, and you could literally walk back into the store 10 mins later and get a full refund on the care plan.
If you knew what you were doing, or had someone who gave a toss about the customer (like me) you could get a competitive deal. Of course this rarely applied if people just wanted a camera body, or a simple kit lens setup, as there's no margin to manipulate int that.
D800s could not be sold by most branches without authorisation from haed office and nikon (supposedly, same with the 1D and cannon), which might be why you couldn't get your hands on them. Only CoEs could retail them, like the brand new one in Bristol where I worked for a while ahaha
Note I quit a long while ago, and was not affected by the company folding.
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thats retail all over tbh, when i worked at currys they tried to convince me to go sales a couple of times as i knew a hell of a lot more about what they sold than the supposed sales staff. but i was happy being in the warehouse without the static for not hit silly targets.
I think the above shows why Jessops folded to be honest.
When a camera shop is more interested in selling insurance and hugely overpriced accessories rather than customer service and the benefits of buying from a store, then they're doing something wrong...
I visited Jessops in Leicester a week last Saturday to collect a reserved online Nikon SB-N5 for my V1, it was a good price at £20 cheaper than even Amazon.
I was pounced on by a sales guy as soon as I set foot in the door and he wouldn't listen to me when I said I was there to collect, but wanted to browse the store first. Excellent opportunity for me to handle a few bags I'd been thinking of and maybe even buy one before collecting my reservation I'd have thought? Oh no, my sales guy couldn't wait to get started on the upselling.
So, a few minutes later, I'm rushed towards the till where I was offered 20% off a set of rechargeable batteries and charger for my flash. I did tell him that the SB-N5 didn't take batteries and is powered via the hotshoe from the camera, but he wouldn't believe me. I had to take it out of the box and show him there were no battery covers. Besides, I have plenty of batteries thanks.
Next came the insurance bit. I was offered a LOL price of £39 to cover a £109 item...
When I politely refused, the salesman's attitude changed markedly and he couldn't wait to get shot of me. By that point, I was a cash cow that couldn't be milked, so I was no use to him.
On the way out, I thought I'd try and look at a few DSLR's but you couldn't get near them for the hoards of branded shirt wearing shop staff who seemed intent on chatting between themselves and having a laugh, whilst intently ignoring any customers.
The Jessops management should have looked towards John Lewis and the big camera shop independents for inspiration. The concept of customer service and repeat business seemed lost on the staff.
What should have been an easy and straightforward bit of business for Jessops ended up being an unpleasant and irritating experience for me. Customers won't (and didn't it seems) put up with it again once experienced.
I left the shop and vowed never to set foot in one again, and with Jessops demise that is now a pleasant certainty.
When a camera shop is more interested in selling insurance and hugely overpriced accessories rather than customer service and the benefits of buying from a store, then they're doing something wrong...
I visited Jessops in Leicester a week last Saturday to collect a reserved online Nikon SB-N5 for my V1, it was a good price at £20 cheaper than even Amazon.
I was pounced on by a sales guy as soon as I set foot in the door and he wouldn't listen to me when I said I was there to collect, but wanted to browse the store first. Excellent opportunity for me to handle a few bags I'd been thinking of and maybe even buy one before collecting my reservation I'd have thought? Oh no, my sales guy couldn't wait to get started on the upselling.
So, a few minutes later, I'm rushed towards the till where I was offered 20% off a set of rechargeable batteries and charger for my flash. I did tell him that the SB-N5 didn't take batteries and is powered via the hotshoe from the camera, but he wouldn't believe me. I had to take it out of the box and show him there were no battery covers. Besides, I have plenty of batteries thanks.
Next came the insurance bit. I was offered a LOL price of £39 to cover a £109 item...
When I politely refused, the salesman's attitude changed markedly and he couldn't wait to get shot of me. By that point, I was a cash cow that couldn't be milked, so I was no use to him.
On the way out, I thought I'd try and look at a few DSLR's but you couldn't get near them for the hoards of branded shirt wearing shop staff who seemed intent on chatting between themselves and having a laugh, whilst intently ignoring any customers.
The Jessops management should have looked towards John Lewis and the big camera shop independents for inspiration. The concept of customer service and repeat business seemed lost on the staff.
What should have been an easy and straightforward bit of business for Jessops ended up being an unpleasant and irritating experience for me. Customers won't (and didn't it seems) put up with it again once experienced.
I left the shop and vowed never to set foot in one again, and with Jessops demise that is now a pleasant certainty.
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The battery offer will come up on the till; Jessops did not train their staff very much and as such do not know about every item. I could not have told you the SB-N5 was the flash for the V1 nor could I have told you whether it took batteries; I would assume it didn't if I knew it was for the V1 due to it's size, but some people are thick, a lot of jessops staff were thick, actually, and just read what the till says.
£39 would have been for 3 years unlimited cover; not really worth it on something like a flash gun unless you were a crazy heavy user who might blow a bulb repeatedly. As it was a collect@store there wouldn't have been much margin, but if the store was in need of care plan stats that day, they might have done a fiver off the flashgun if you took the care plan, which could then have been canceled. Of course this wasn't heavily advertised, but I used it to my advantage
£39 would have been for 3 years unlimited cover; not really worth it on something like a flash gun unless you were a crazy heavy user who might blow a bulb repeatedly. As it was a collect@store there wouldn't have been much margin, but if the store was in need of care plan stats that day, they might have done a fiver off the flashgun if you took the care plan, which could then have been canceled. Of course this wasn't heavily advertised, but I used it to my advantage
I used to work for them a while back in the photo lab which was pretty fun but quit after loosing interest in photography as a hobby, plus I was starting uni a few months later so I wanted some time off.
Worked with some really nice staff and was sometimes really fun but saw it coming to be honest.
Worked with some really nice staff and was sometimes really fun but saw it coming to be honest.
Perhaps Jessop's should have started getting floor space in department stores to cut down on over herad costs.
Sure a modern state of the art flagship store in London is a great PR tool. It just shows that owning / Rent / Leasing 125apx shops over the country is another reason why is has been difficult to offer competative prices.
Also I agree with Hxc that staff train to get the most for the customer should have been jessop's top tactic.
Quality of service to me goes a long way and is the difference between to out lets when the price of goods are similar.
Sure a modern state of the art flagship store in London is a great PR tool. It just shows that owning / Rent / Leasing 125apx shops over the country is another reason why is has been difficult to offer competative prices.
Also I agree with Hxc that staff train to get the most for the customer should have been jessop's top tactic.
Quality of service to me goes a long way and is the difference between to out lets when the price of goods are similar.
So was there an employee incentive for pushing sales? As it kind of sounds like there isn't.
I remember when I had a retail job, 13 years ago at GAME.
Although it wasn't something that was talked about much when I was interviewed for the job, the new manager who came in spent his whole time going on about us pushing reward card sales. This was obviously something he was made to push by the Area Manager and Head Office. When I had a staff review with the Manager, they had a whole breakdown of my reward card sales numbers and that was pretty much all they even cared about.
The issue I had with it is that there was absolutely no incentive for staff, no extra money for sales, no competition for the best staff member with a prize etc. So while I'd ask people when they came to the till, I wouldn't shove it down their throat, because it was plain annoying.
I would imagine many businesses in Britain operate like this and push selling their own products, aftercare and bargain items at the tills, but really you need to give staff an incentive to sell them properly.
you'd think that any retail outlets of value would do this but the managers detest it as it costs them money to have staff trained, even if the training's free they have to pay for the staff to be there.
when i worked at currys the managers where encouraged to get people training from suppliers but rather than pay the extra couple of hours they would owe hours back, so you end up with no one taking any training.
only shops that are liable to train the staff will be independent or the odd small chain. unless you get lucky and find a member of staff who trained themselves up a bit.
I'm not disputing that they had to change - but it was the extent of that change which ultimately proved to be their downfall. The newer stores only seemed to stock point-and-click cameras and a handful of DSLR kits. As for accessories, quite frankly that was a bit of a joke. A slim selection of very over-priced digital cards, bags that were invariably too small, and one or two tripods that any serious user would probably end up replacing within a year.
I can understand that they didn't want to stock every store with a gazillion products, but why did they not retain their useful catalogue instead of replacing it with what was essentially a glossy brochure for the latest electronic gizmo? At the least, they would have been able to offer a wider choice of products to people who wanted them.
To give you just one example of how, in my opinion, their approach to customers had deteriorated I strolled into my local store in November intending to buy a battery grip and a wireless flash trigger. I was met with a blank, uncomprehending, stare by one salesgirl who shot off to "find someone who might know". Her replacement merely told me that they didn't hold these items in store.
So I wandered to the LCE branch nearby, where they told me they could order in the grip and flash trigger for me. Oh, and that I'd probably be better off purchasing the grip online because they wouldn't be able to compete, given the ludicrous prices Sony charge for their accessories. In the end, I ordered and paid up-front for the trigger, purchased a Manfroto monopod that they had in stock and which I'd been wanting for some time, and a replacement neckstrap for another camera. The guy was absolutely right about the saving I made on the battery grip too
I think you're put your finger on it with your last comment - by focussing purely on the casual "granny needs a new camera for Xmas" market they effectively did become too specialised.
Exactly.
I wonder who will fill the gaps in the high street now that they are gone? I mean there will be certain major towns and cities without a single semi-specialist/specialist photography shop.
There are a few big independents, but how many of them will look at this as an opportunity to expand and grow their business?
There are a few big independents, but how many of them will look at this as an opportunity to expand and grow their business?