Dirt Cheap Cameras hits the dirt, perhaps

Dirt Cheap Cameras has been recommended a number of times in this group.
However...

They (and their parent, Impact Cameras) appear to be in receivership OR
have been acquired (depending on whom I talk to), and the adminstrator of
their assets is not yet clear whether I will see the deposit I paid on a
camera - it depends on the creditors in place when the company is wound up.

Not ideal, really...

Perhaps the newly restructured/acquired company will be more robust. But a
potentially lost deposit is not a good start.

 

Many thanks for this post......I was window "shopping" online this morning.

Good luck with the refund.



Warmingup

 

I get the feeling it's only a matter of time before they are not so "dirt
cheap" any more.

~Seb

 

if you paid buy credit card try contacting your bank. i use mastercard all
the time for this reason. a little while back the same thing happened to me
with e-store. i ordered an item from them and they went into receivership.
all i had to do was go to the bank and fill out a form. got *all* my money
back.

 

How did you pay the deposit? If it was by credit card then you will get
your money back one way or the other - just contact your bank and discuss
it with them.

Scott

 

The ASIC online database will reflect any changes in ownership or winding up
notices.

 

they arent cheap.
Just like every other bullshit sale in this country. Nothing is cheap, you
always get ripped off.
The cheaper they claim to be, the more expensive they actually are!

 

I have always believed that firms like dirt cheap are never intended to last
any length of time. It is an accounting reality that unless you make enough
profit to maintain your business, pay your taxes, provide an income and
replace equipment as it ages, you cannot have a viable, long term business.

It is impossible to maintain any business for any length of time on the
profit margins DC operate on. Eventually they had to buckle at the knees,
which is what just happened.

The part I can't quite comprehend is that so many people buy from these
sunset firms that their continuous revival after bankruptcy is assured, even
though it destabilizes a whole industry, forcing businesses with viability
to risk bankruptcy trying to stay afloat in competition until they too,
decide to call it a day. All that is left are department stores and "Teds"
type chains who bastardise product ranges to "offer" cheaper prices.

Democracy is what we call it when you can do whatever you please, regardless
of how it affects others. Maybe distrust, stupidity and deception is part of
society now. I hope not. Maybe if ASIC required a simple test before letting
idiots go into business. Something like: How many accountants does it take
before you learn 10% gross profit will send you broke?

Even the name???
Dirt Cheap... Gimme a break!

 

Thanks for the pointer. It says:

IMPACT TRADERS PTY. LIMITED
ABN 50 003 455 801

31/05/2004 020313947 2 505U Notification of Appt of Administrator Under
S.436a, 436b, 436c, 436e(4), 449b, 449c(1), 449c(4) or 449(6)

** UNDER EXTERNAL ADMINISTRATION and/or CONTROLLER APPOINTED **

 

Agreed. Having spent ages in computer retail, the same thing happened there
too. I'm not in retail anymore but still have plenty of very close
contacts. One thing that really pisses me off is when customers will go
into camera/computer shop and ask all the relevant questions, feel the
product, test it etc, make sure that it will do the job. They'll spend ages
with a salesperson, then when they are happy with it and ready to buy, they
come back with "I can buy it from the web for $xxx, can you match it". The
very reason it is more expensive at the specialist store than from the web
is because the store has staff who are (or at least should be)
knowledgeable, who are prepared to spend time with a customer, these staff
are expensive. The store has retail showroom area which costs a damned site
more than warehouse space. As a result the store's operating costs are
significantly higher, so that they _CAN_ show the customer how it works etc,
so the customer _CAN_ make an informed decision.
I know HN's are normally not real flash, but the one near me actually has a
couple of working photographers on their staff - these guys really know
their stuff. Next door to them are the good-guys - I've actually heard the
good-guys say "i don't know much about these, but go next door to HN, and
once you find out the best one for you, come back and we'll knock 10% off
their price".
The trouble is, the modern customer doesn't give any value to service, and
is quite happy to spend an hour with a salesman to get the product info,
then go away and buy on best price. Ultimately what will happen, is that the
better class of store will die off, or at the very least stop employing
knowledgeable people and replace them with 16yo schoolkids. The customer
won't have any pre-sales service other than what they can get from product
brochures, and will ultimately waste money on products that aren't suitable.
I can't remember the exact wording but I heard a saying that went something
along the lines of "you'll still be enjoying a good product, long after
you've forgotten the purchase price".

 

Doesnt sound good.

 

Obviously another G&V imaging customer.

 

Justin Thyme wrote:

I LOVE getting good customer service, and if i can find a place that serves
me well, i'll stick with them as long as the bank-balance will allow, even
to the point where i might be able to purchase products marginally cheaper
elsewhere.

Problem is it's not always easy to find. I spent many many years ( and many
$10,000's of dollars ) , at a hi-fi store primarily because they knew
me, when i arrived they'd great me by name. salesmen that knew of me, would
even go an fetch the salesrep i regularly dealt. The service was excellent.
Got to the point where they'd lend me gear to try at home. That stopped
after they got ripped off a few times by other customers! I got to the
point where i knew the salesrep's wife, and she chatted to my wife.
Favourite incident was when i showed up one day, they were too busy, so
handed my a bunch of remotes and sent me off to one of the sound rooms to
entertain myself for an hour or so. I heartily recommended them to mates,
and over time, directed 4-5 peole towards them. They loved that .. so in
the end their customer service paid off.

By comparison, other places i shopped knew less about their gear than i did,
so i never shopped their. Interestingly a couple of places i visited while
shopping around for DVD players, knew bugger-all and even lied about
products. I was pleasantly suprised when at least one of them went
bank-rupt.

In the 9-12 months i've been buying cameras bits, i've built up a little
familiarity with at least one store, unfortunately they don't carry much
stuch as they are primarily a processing lab. Another shop i've been to a
few times, doesn't have seem to have the staff or the time to attend to
customers. They are busy, but the last sales rep i dealt with didn't seem
to concerned about whether the lens hood they were selling me was actually
meant for the lens i had in my hand. Turns out it wasn't and i found out
the hardway, so i'm going back today to see if i can get the right one.

Online shopping is great though, when the savings are of the order of 10% -
30%, then it's hard to resist. To be fair, i've only once looked at gear in
a shop that i've ended up purchasing online.

Hi-fi stored i shopped at one similar, "the disappointment of a cheap
product will outlast the joy of a few dollars saved".

They also had "if you like our products, tell someone, if you don't like our
products, tell us!" So i did a couple of times and they happily exchanged
gear with no charge.

 

DC has/had what is, in theory at least, a good business model. They had
a number of bricks-and-mortar retail outlets, selling at relatively
standard bricks-and-mortar prices, and then they had an unrelated (as far
as the general public knew) on-line shop selling at lower margins due to
the lower overheards associated with the online shop.

The profit margins may have been low, but I suspect that they were based
on the fact that most of the once-off charges were being covered by the
B&M shops, so the additional overheads of the online shop were low.

At the end of the day, I suspect that when really went under was the
"Impact Camera House" shops (ie, the physical shops) rather than Dirt
Cheap Cameras.

Scott

 

How can you say that Scott?
If a business has a good business model it will survive. If the plan is
flawed, they will fail. 42 years ago a hardware store (my father had 4 of
them) needed 33.3% mark-up to make a long term viable business.

Today, independent hardware stores don't exist because they cannot make
that profit margin and either went out of business or were swallowed up by
Multi-National chains. This is my prophecy for camera stores.

Your suggestion of "bricks and mortar" stores dragging down an on-line
venture is odd, to say the least. Neither operation made enough profit to be
viable. It was a dud business!

 

Ummmm... yes there are still some left. In fact, there's one about
15mins from here that does very well - despite being with a 5km radius
of a Mitre10 store, a True Value store, a Bunnings warehouse, a
KMart, and a BigW.

They fail because they fail to provide the LEVEL AND TYPE OF SERVICE
(the sole strategic advantage most of them can offer) that can justify
a higher gross margin on the items they sell.

Cheers... Derek (DJ)

 

"Yes Sir, we can. But there is 1 1/2 hrs at $75/hr plus a 3 hour
minimum hire fee for the body you have been using. Step this way,
Masters or Visa?"

--
Paul Repacholi 1 Crescent Rd.,
+61 (08) 9257-1001 Kalamunda.
West Australia 6076
comp.os.vms,- The Older, Grumpier Slashdot
Raw, Cooked or Well-done, it's all half baked.
EPIC, The Architecture of the future, always has been, always will be.

 

I while back, I was in a Chandlers store and had to wait for two
customers before me before being served. One bought a DVD and the
next one bought a fridge. I bought a $400 VCR. As my order was being
processed, I mentioned to the salesman that he was doing well. Three
good sales in less than 30 minuites. He replied that when a new
product arrives he reads the instruction book. I had looked in
other stores but couldn't get sensible answers to my questions.
The much vaunted "service" mentioned above is almost non-existant.
You may as well shop mail or web order and save the dollars.

However, back to the subject. Neil at DirtCheap has given me
far superior advice and service to that which I get in my local
specialist camera store. The only dis-advantage is that I can't
handle the products. This is often the same for the camera store
as they don't have the item in stock but will order it in if I
am prepared to pay a 50% deposit. I not dis-advantaged by buying
on the web and save a few bucks in the process.

Cheers,

 

I know they say "no shop front" and they have a St Leonards (?) NSW postal
address, but does anyone know if they allow self-pickup at all.....?

Thanks,
DS

 

My experience is that they don't which is why I didn't buy my D100 from them
(I wanted it *now*)