Southerland’s Photo

I will try to be as thorough as possible here. I am tempted to grant these folks 1 additional star (2 total) for the beginning of my interaction with them when it looked like everything was going to be all peachy: I’d been looking for a particular old film camera, a Pentax LX, for quite some time and bought one at online auction from «Christy’s Cameras», which is a side-​business of theirs (my CC statement showed the charge as Southerlands Photo). That very same day, not an hour or two later I received a very friendly message from them that they’d received my payment and that they were able to get it out in that day’s post for me! Awesome! And that’s where the goodtimes stopped…
The camera (a rather heavy film SLR with an old auto-​winder) was packed for shipping by placing it in a ziplock bag and placed in a *very* well used (read «completely worn-​out») cardboard box with not nearly enough packing peanuts and no other padding so it had just banged around in that flimsy box. The camera arrived to me sitting in one corner of the box at the very bottom with a dented damaged viewfinder (not surprising) and the flash hotshoe bent out of shape and not useable. I was obviously not happy about that but the camera itself worked great (and still does), and luckily the viewfinder can be swapped out on this model. Given how hard these are to win bids on I wanted to keep the camera and receive a partial (very partial) refund for the damage so I could replace the viewfinder or just use it as-​is. In either case the camera was certainly no longer worth what I’d paid and contacted them to sort this out. I sent pictures of what had happened, sent detailed explanation of the problem and had a lengthy email conversation via ebay’s resolution portal. Short story is that I was had. They (Christy and another anonymous employee) told me they would only accept me returning the entire camera for a refund that they could either repair and relist the LX or just note the damage and then relist it. What this says to me (now having gone through 2 weeks of b.s. over all of this) is they wanted more money for the camera and figured they could do better by shafting me and my sale. Ebay got involved and sided with them saying my only recourse was to return it for a full refund. Great so I was just out of luck. (This was made even more ridiculous because not a week earlier I’d bought a camera from a different seller which, similarly arrived damaged because of poor packing, but that one didn’t work at all… but in THAT case he refused to accept a return and Ebay side with him saying that I could ONLY get a partial refund for a completely *non-​working* camera! So Ebay gets not points from me in the past month either.)
The friendly email I received at the beginning of this sale sure is in stark contrast to the very curt, very unfriendly, no-​room-​for-​discussion responses I received over and over again from Christy and Southerland Photo employees. I’m sure they will say that I am just some person looking for a «discount deal» (a comment you see a number of times on their Ebay responses to feedback left by a few other unhappy customers) but that is just b.s. I’ve been buying and occasionally selling on that site in good faith since 1999 and have never received a negative review. I’m also hesitant to leave that kind of feedback, but in this case I was compelled to. In their emails they even told me that Ebay would side with them and they had nothing else to say — so I was gamed from the beginning of trying to work this out.
All in all I still have the camera I wanted, it is in great shape and works very well despite the damage so I just get to eat this cost. But if I am ever in Huntsville I will have words for Christy and the other folks at Southerland’s. One of the most unhelpful, bad faith, bad business interactions I have ever had on Ebay and you can bet if I had bought that camera in their store face to face as a resident of Huntsville, this story probably wouldn’t exist, because that ain’t the way you treat people.

Southerland’s has been around forever. Great little shop. They repaired my Nikon when I dropped it on concrete and fixed the flash (actually they shipped it off, but it was done in ~ a month).
They take their time to listen and explain things to you and (I believe it was) Mr. Southerland turned me on to Holga (large format negative/​film) cameras, which he said is the ‘hottest thing the art students are using’ and he had them for sale for ~ 25.00 I ended up getting one for my best friend and she and her husband love love it!

In the days of the Internet, it is good to know there is still room from a good old fashioned camera store, where you can actually hold something in your hands prior to purchase. The folks at Southerlands have been good to me over the years (well, there have been bumps in the road) and I will continue to be a customer. The staff is knowledgeable and willing to give advice as needed or requested. The prices are not out of line, but of course, there is the tax thing. I am willing to pay a little more to keep a local business operating. Keep in mind, this is a small camera shop with limited space, so if you are looking for a NY style superstore, well, this ain’t it.

Southerland’s Photo is a quality old-​school camera shop that I find myself turning to time and time again — for excellent quality prints and efficient service. When I have an issue regarding my camera, the friendly and knowledgeable staff are great at trouble-​shooting and expanding my product knowledge. An extra star for drive-​through print pick up service and the after-​dinner buttery mints at the cash register!