Martin's Camera Shop Review

Overall Rating

Very, very poor customer service. Poor stock availability. Looooong delivery times.

I have placed orders twice with Martins camera shop. The first time was for a canon 40d and lens. I placed the order on a Wednesday and received the usual automatic confirmation email, by the next Wednesday I hadn't heard anything from them and so I decided to call them to see what was happening.
What makes me laugh is that on their website they claim that you can place orders via their "Telephone order HOTLINE". No matter how many times I tried to call Martins Camera Shop, I never got through to anyone and had to leave a message. I also had to leave more than one message before anyone bothered to get back to you.

I did eventually get a call back from them on Friday after leaving messages on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I was told that they had placed an order with their supplier and that I should receive my order by the middle of the next week. To cut a long story short, I didn't receive anything the next week!! My order only arrived the Friday after. Three and a half weeks after I placed the order!!!! There was a letter with my order from them, apologising for the delay and saying that it was down to their supplier and was out of their hands.

A month or so later, against my better judgement, I placed a second order with Martins Camera Shop. This time it was for a single very common and inexpensive lens. I assumed that because of this they would most likely have them in stock and ready to go. The order was placed on Thursday 29th November and again I received the usual automatic confirmation email. By Monday the 3rd December I hadn't heard anything, so I called the "HOTLINE" again and left a message. I left a second message on Tuesday and by Wednesday, I received an email saying that they didn't have any in stock and that they SHOULD be able to get one to me by Xmas!!!

I was very frustrated by this point so I sent a reply asking them to cancel the order and told them that because of their lack of customer service I was going to take my business elsewhere.
I had no response from them after that. A week and a bit later, on Friday the 14th December, I received a cheque in the post for the value of my cancelled order!!! There was no email or letter to accompany the cheque!!! Now That is extremely poor in itself but what really annoys me is that I paid for my order by card so I don't understand why they weren't able to just refund my card. This seems quite spiteful to me.

I will never consider using them again!!

p.s. I placed an order for the same lens with Calumet photographic the day after I cancelled the order with Martin, I received it the next day. My cheque for the refund from Martin's Camera Shop arrived a week after that.