Croma Digicam Experience

We'd lost our second digicam for the year! The first was a Kodak the second an Olympus. I desperately needed a digicam to capture the things that my little girls suddenly come up with. But the budget was a teeny-bit tight knowing we had already been not-so-careful about the first two.

On my birthday, Ben decided it was time to get a new one since we were really missing out on preserving the memories of the girls’ actions. But the only hitch was we wanted a good deal. That meant a good digicam with good features, good looks and good pricing. In short, value for money.

We visited the Croma showroom at Kamanahalli. On seeing the Canon, I instantly fell in love with it but Ben felt that the Sony Cybershot W220 was a better option for amateurs like us. So we took the salesman's viewpoint. His suggestion was that the Canon was a great digicam even in terms of print quality. So Canon IXUS it was. And the guy tried telling us that it was store closing time so we better hurry up. (At the time of billing we noticed another customer walking in and being warmly received, how come they weren’t in such a hurry then, I wonder?)

As the cashier punched in the bill another salesman began taking us through the features and settings and at the same time gave me a form to fill which asked details like if we were informed about the details of the Digicam, etc. I felt completely unsure because of the pictures that were displayed. But he assured us it was only my perception. We sat in the car and as I began clicking, the pictures refused to come clear and were the blurriest I’d ever seen. Ben rushed inside and told the guys about it who simply brushed it aside saying our hands were not steady enough and that the digicam was very sensitive because of which the pictures were blurred. We tried reasoning with them and asked them if the settings were right or probably the piece might be faulty but they refused to budge even saying that since we had already filled in the comments sheet saying we were satisfied and that stands true. Besides, they said, the warranty card had already been stamped. Ben even called the store manager of no avail.

Ben was at his wits end. This was supposed to be my birthday gift and here we were, thanks to Croma, having an experience to remember. What were we going to do? We had purchased a digicam which clicked good pictures only if taken with an absolutely steady hand for a good Rs.10,000! Since it was of no worthy use to us and we were left completely helpless, Ben simply left the digicam at the store and drove away.

On our way back the store manager called and after a few calls back and forth said that he would check with the store and call us back. The next afternoon, a representative from Croma called saying we could have the digicam exchanged provided we settled for a Sony Cybershot W220 or any other digicam of a higher value.

So once again, we go to the store but asked for someone to take us through the Canon settings once again since we really wanted to get to the root of the matter. This time around, we had someone who had all the knowledge of digicams and took us through every small detail, some of which even fascinated us! But most of all, he showed us how to click the pictures... just like that... all that was needed was that we hold the button down for two seconds if we wanted to focus or the camera has an auto focus. What a relief! If only this well-informed guy, who was also the most courteous we had come across at Croma would have been there a day before!

So, we finally walked out with our Canon IXUS and believe me, it’s THE BEST digicam I've had.

Thanks Ben, for your beautiful gift.