Tony Cooper
nospam goes into every discussion thinking that his position is the only right position.

nospam
everyone does that. that's what drives discussions. who goes into a discussion thinking that they're wrong??

Tony Cooper
You could respond to what I said, not what I didn't say. I don't phrase my comments without thought.

There's a vast difference between thinking you are right and thinking that your position is the *only* right position. When there are options of ways to do things, there is often more than one right way to do them.

nospam
false. some online sellers have a *lot* of sales help on their site, including extensive faqs, video demos, wizards that ask questions to narrow down the choices, phone support and even online chat for questions, user reviews and links to other information.

some sellers have very generous return policies so you can buy and handle the product with no risk, other than having to ship it back if you don't like it, which is nothing more than a quick trip to the post office.

Tony Cooper
It's always the buyer's responsibility to do their own homework. There's no reason the in-store buyer can't check the reviews and customer ratings of something before they make the purchase.

nospam
nobody said they can't do that, but most people don't.

Tony Cooper
If that's true, then all that "online help" above isn't going to be taken advantage of either.

I don't know how you come to the conclusion about "most people", though. It's that kind of hand-waving hyperbole that's a turn-off.

He won't be able to. That's typical hyperbole from nospam.

nospam
i am *always* able to back up what i say. as i said in another post, i was looking for a lens case and a local store had one for around $30 and b&h had it for $17 or so (i don't remember exact prices). that's about double.

Tony Cooper
So a $10 difference, after shipping charges, of one item establishes that camera stores charge double? And, you had to wait for delivery. What if you needed it today? What if what is offered online is a knock-off product from China that isn't as good a quality?

It all comes around to my position that there is often more than one "right" way to do things.

Buying online can be the right thing and buying from a store can be the right thing. You can't discount other people's preferences just because they aren't yours.

Slightly off-topic...the father of one of the boys on my grandson's Babe Ruth baseball team recently purchased a Canon 70D with a 18-135 lens from Best Buy. He showed me the receipt, and it was almost $2,000 with bag, two 32 gig cards, bag, and some sort of extended warranty. He doesn't know what "RAW" is, he shoots on whatever Canon's Auto setting is, he doesn't know what ISO is, and he has no idea how to capture sports scenes.

Did he do the right thing? Not from my perspective, but he's happy. It was right for him.