PC World - rude and threatening

pimento

My sister and I were stopped from taking photographs of a dress that my sister was going to buy for a wedding in L K Bennett in Covent Garden. She was trying it on and I was also in the changing rooms. She wanted her other half's opinion on the frock before she parted with her £250.

The assistant said I couldn't take pictures, so I just turned the flash off on the camera so she couldn't see what I was doing.

She did go back and buy the dress having got the go ahead from her other half.

reehsetin

most shops don't let you take pictures, both retail companies I worked for said that people couldn't take photos in store, shouldn't have been handled that way though

custardy

pimento wrote: »

My sister and I were stopped from taking photographs of a dress that my sister was going to buy for a wedding in L K Bennett in Covent Garden. She was trying it on and I was also in the changing rooms. She wanted her other half's opinion on the frock before she parted with her £250.

The assistant said I couldn't take pictures, so I just turned the flash off on the camera so she couldn't see what I was doing.

She did go back and buy the dress having got the go ahead from her other half.

to be fair,i can see their reasoning there as you could be planning to copy the design

pimento

I suppose so, but we could have purchased the dress, taken it home, reverse engineered it, then taken it back for a refund the following day.

We're both rubbish dressmakers though.

edgex

Ivory_Tinkler wrote: »

I don't understand why you needed to take a photo - surely writing down the model number would have been enough because you then could have seen the image on their website? Maybe the manager thought you were up to no good by taking photos. However, this doesn't give him licence to be rude and for that reason, you should get in touch with PC World and bring this to their attention.

quite often the model numbers are half meaningless, as they add all sorts of pc world only codes onto them, to try & claim they have that model as an exclusive
when you then compare the actual specs, you find its an off-the-shelf model that everyone else is also selling

FATBALLZ

custardy wrote: »

to be fair,i can see their reasoning there as you could be planning to copy the design

If you were going to copy the design you could get a picture out of the catalogue. Or if your friend bought one use that. Or even just buy it yourself and copy it at home - why not if you intend to copy it and make £1000s? If they don't anyone to see it they should store it in a safe and make you buy it in a safe and not tell the combination so you can't see it or wear it when you get home.

This whole paranoia about photos is ridiculous - probably originating from the modern-day assumption that everybody is more likely than not to be a terrorist or p@edo.

Darksun

For the record, I think you can ask for a copy of the specs for laptops in PC World. I remember looking in their a while ago and the sales assistant printed off copies of the laptops I was interested in.

I did end up buying from there, but only because I got a very good deal on an ex-display model

custardy

FATBALLZ wrote: »

If you were going to copy the design you could get a picture out of the catalogue. Or if your friend bought one use that. Or even just buy it yourself and copy it at home - why not if you intend to copy it and make £1000s? If they don't anyone to see it they should store it in a safe and make you buy it in a safe and not tell the combination so you can't see it or wear it when you get home.

This whole paranoia about photos is ridiculous - probably originating from the modern-day assumption that everybody is more likely than not to be a terrorist or p@edo.

what if its bespoke to that shop?
read back a few posts and see that have already said i do the same in shops

marleyboy

I would have promptly took a photo of him "for prosperity", and announced my camera is private property, just like their CCTV is

cottager

I should think within their own premises/private property they're within their rights adopting whatever policy they like, however lacking in sense or logic it seems; but there's a way of doing it and the way this was handled was all wrong. A polite quiet word in a pleasant manner was all that was needed, and a reasonable explanation not much to ask. No need for a ban either!

This doesn't apply to the 'inside a shop' scenario, but for interest a campaign site with info about taking photos in public places or of public buildings, which can attract police and security attention these days:
http://photographernotaterrorist.org/
It prompted the Home Office to issue revised advice to police forces.
One item Sept 09 covers shopping centres, though not the shops themselves.