What ... it doesn't come with a card?!

As a salesperson at Camera House, I get a lot of camera enquiries. Most of the time, the conversation goes well, and the customers leave either with a brand new camera or freshly learnt info about photography and what's right for them.

The end of the conversation typically goes like this (other salesmen will feel my pain)

Me: Yep so this seems like it'll do what you need. Good sized screen, Li-ion battery, 10x zoom.

Customer: Sounds great

Me: mmmhhhmm

Customer: So how big's the memory card that you get?

Me: It doesn't come with one, but it takes SD cards, and you can have a look at our range of SD cards over here *points to accessories cabinet*

....

and from here I generally get a variey of responses ranging from complete understanding to complete outrage. Depending on that response I'm either cracking jokes with the customer or left trying to defend the manufacturer (I seriously don't get paid enough to argue this every single time :P)

Today I had an absolutely brilliant classic from a customer during this conversation. When told that the Panasonic TZ-11 doesn't come with a card ... he said "But when you buy a car, it comes with batteries". I stood there and thought "This guy just threw the worst argument at me", but me being on the clock I restrained myself and politely said "Well when you buy this camera you get a battery too". Needless to say, this sequence of events left him wondering how on earth he lost that argument.

Everyday I wonder why people expect to get a memory card with the camera (free). I always tend to end up saying to the customer "When you bought your film camera, it didn't come with film either ... and I'm also pretty sure that it didn't come with free processing". This notion of NOT getting everything you need is not new, it's been around for ages ... so I just can't understand why people ONLY expect this kind of freebie when buying a camera.

To assist my argument I will come up with a list of examples (just off the top of my head) that I have/will use when people complain about not getting a card.

Customer: Well the camera's useless without a card, why don't they give you one?

Me: - Toasters don't come bundled with free bread, what good is a toaster if you don't have bread? Go complain to Myer about that before you ask me that again.

- Your CD burner didn't come with blank CDs

- That wallet you're holding didn't come with free money

- The toy that your kid's playing with ... I'm sure batteries weren't included

- Did your iron come with free shirts?

- These photo frames don't come with photos either

- My car didn't come with free air con ... and I didn't complain

- That $4000 camera over there *points at the 5D MkII*, that doesn't come with a card either

- Those professional photos you got printed a week ago, you had to pay extra to get the photos didn't you? That's what I thought ...

I can go on and on and on about this, and if you work in this industry you'll know the frustration so feel free to go ahead and use these arguments. If you are a customer, and have asked that question before, I hope you now know how annoying and how wrong you were (or still am). Since manufacturers (Nikon, Olympus, Canon, Sony etc) don't have to deal with these questions, I'll take one for the team (for FREE) and I hope I've changed your way of thinking with this blog. I guess what I'm saying is ... take this advice, it's FREE advice and it's good advice.

Tomorrow's blog will be less ranting and more reviewing, stay tuned for a preview of the much anticipated Olympus "Pen" E-P1 camera that even the layman can undestand.