McBain Camera

In all my years of shopping and going to different stores, I have to say this McBain Camera location at West Edmonton Mall gave me one of the worst services I have ever experienced. I went there on a quiet Wednesday evening (January 13, 2016), to get my passport photo taken. There was no other customers in the store when I walked in. At the counter were two salespeople, a very overweight woman and a little skinny Asian guy named Alan. First, I wasn’t greeted in any way. In fact, the woman was absorbed with her mobile device, busily playing a «dominoes game» that I could see from about three feet away. I asked Alan if they took passport photos. He coldly told me, «Yes we do. Go have a seat.» I was ready to walk out, but I needed a passport photo done right away, and they were closing in about 40 – 45 minutes. Alan got out a camera and said, «Take off your glasses, neutral expression.» He acted so rude and curt with me, as if he just wanted to finish the job as quickly as possible. I felt really rushed. I wasn’t satisfied with the first picture he took, so I asked him to do it again. He appeared bothered by my request (which I don’t know why, since it was a digital camera he had and he could just delete the first picture!). I looked at both photos he took and decided to accept the second one. He snapped «Ok, the second one it is,» and left to go to the cash register, leaving me to put my glasses back on and waited for me to pay. When I got to the counter, the woman was still playing with the game on her mobile device, oblivious to my presence or anything else around her. «Wow, lazy!», was my first thought. Imagine if the owner of this business walked in and saw her wasting time goofing around in there! Meanwhile, I wanted to give Alan the benefit of the doubt (and see if I could get him to «smile»), so I asked him in a friendly manner if he had a «busy day today.» Again, no smile — nothing but an abrupt, short, cold reply from him, «Not really.» «Is this guy for real?,» I thought. I couldn’t help but think that maybe because he was so short and skinny, he was suffering from a Napoleon complex, but it was more of an attitude problem. He didn’t want to talk or look at me. I know it was close to closing time, but the poor service I got from these two McBain Camera employees was deplorable. Maybe they were bored and wanted to go home, but they should still assist their customers with a smile and show some respect and common courtesy. I was satisfied with the passport photo Alan took of me, but I will not go back to this McBain’s in the future because of the poor service I got from these two employees that evening. One of the reasons I chose to go to McBain’s was because it supposedly had a good reputation. In addition, I used to go to the one downtown, and always got great service there with nice employees. But the West Edmonton Mall one left a bad taste in my mouth. All the time I was there, I thought I had done something wrong. I hope one of the McBain’s owners will see this review, and give some much needed «customer service training» to these two employees at the West Edmonton Mall store. They are simply going to hurt their business even more if they continue to behave like this towards other customers.

I walked into this McBain camera location with a really simple shopping errand — finding a case for my new waterproof point-​and-​shoot. I had found the case I thought I wanted online, and had called ahead and knew that this location carried it. When we arrived, a staff member greeted us, and was able to show me the case I asked about. When my fiancée was a little underwhelmed by the case, the salesman brought out a couple of other different cases, and also got the display model of the same camera I had, so I could try sliding the camera in and out, and to make sure it fit. We ended up going home with a case that was $ 5 cheaper than the one I had set out to buy, and a much better fit for what we wanted in the first place. As someone who is a frequent customer at Best Buy, I found the service and helpfulness we received to be a refreshing and welcome change from my normal electronics shopping (find item, find blue shirt, get item out of locked case, purchase). I can’t comment on their prices for cameras, but I will definitely be returning when I am ready to get a second lens for my dSLR.