Art's Cameras Plus — Local services in Greenfield

We have an arts based community center and called the week before we needed to rent cameras for our youths Urban Engineering Community Development Photo Gallery. We were told by phone that we could rent any amount of cameras and lenses and that cameras were available... of course you cannot see anyones COLOR by phone.

Upon entering, the employee who I believe's name was Jeff was completely and utterly condescending. He told us immediately that they do not rent in volumes. They could not rent 4 cameras at a time. When I informed him we have a non-profit and we called last week, he said oh let me see what I can do. As he was talking to an employee and "searching for solutions" I ran to the restroom for all of maybe 5 minutes. Upon returning, he was helping another customer and his tone was completely different than his tone with my cousin and I, both brown women while the customer was an older white man.

Another employee came and asked if she could help us and he basically told her he was already helping us and made us stand there and wait for him although other employees could have helped or started setting us up in their system... or anything because he was dragging his feet. After 40 minutes of him telling us he could not help us and him dragging his feet finally he said let me enter you in the system and said it is a $1,000 deposit as we never did business with them. Fine, no issue I handed him our card and gave him all our info. I asked him how long would this be as our development walk was at 12:30PM, he proceeded to be argumentative saying we should have reserved by phone not just called but also followed-up, we should have been more proactive -- I said, You stated you couldn't even help us at first.

All in all, I will say this employee was completely prejudice in his approach and his tone was out of line to us the entire time even raising his voice. I never once raised my voice and just informed him his energy was different with me vs other customers.

When I asked him to lower his voice with me, He told us they will not rent to us and we will have to figure something else out.

Great job supporting black and brown youth Arts Cameras Plus.

IN RESPONSE TO THE OWNER:

You never left a number to contact you. Your employee has given you a false narrative of how this situation went down, feel free to check cameras.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, glad our center was able to support black and brown photographers today as entrepreneurs whom we contracted for this program. Our gallery night is Friday and despite your employees attempts to ruin our project it will be a...

in the evening of Friday May 25th, 2018. I called Arts Camera Plus about 600PM to ask if they had the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Medium Telephoto Lens in stock. The rep placed me on a brief hold because she wanted to check the back of the store for the lens. After checking for the lens she came back to the phone and told me the lens is in stock. 1 hour later I arrived at Art's Camera Plus in Greenfield, Wisconsin 1 hour before closing time to purchase this particular lens. I was greeted with a, "hello" immediately by one of the customers service reps from across the room then after a brief moment he asked," how may I help you." Up until this point service was fine.

But to make a long story short I felt that the customer service rep who ultimately helped me which was not the guy did more to make me feel uncomfortable by:

Threatening that if I did not buy a polarizing filter for my lens that I was going to break my lens and it would end up as an expensive flower pot then stating that only their lens filter would protect it from damage when I stated I had a discount elsewhere for a polarizing filter

By making me feel like there was no lens in stock, (almost being apprehensive about the sell) having to check multiple times in the back after I asked about it.

As a customer, when you visit a store you want to feel welcomed with a warm tone, not cold and sarcastic tone. or told, " you dont seem sure of your self," yes, that happened! Because it's all about the feel and of the atmosphere for me, walking into a store the first time to spend my hard earned money to be treated less than a paying customer for what ever reason makes me not feel sure of my self and by that definition makes me not happy to spend my money there.

UPDATE:

I went back again Saturday afternoon, May 26, 2018, with a friend but this time I felt that the customer associate was a bit warmer, friendlier and I left there with a more fulfilling experience as a customer. Thanks Holly for making my...

I am not the type of person to write negative reviews, especially about a local business I visit often. However, I’ve had a consistently poor experience with Art’s Camera Plus.

Some background: I am fairly new to 35mm film photography, having started it as a hobby during the pandemic. I live in the Milwaukee area and unfortunately, there aren’t many places to get 35mm film developed locally. I would much, much rather patronize a local business than send my film to an online darkroom because of course, I’d rather support the small businesses in the area.

Art’s is the closest camera shop to where I live, and getting 35mm film developed is cheaper here than Mike Crivello’s and Tom Fritz Photo Lab. However, after getting several rolls developed here over the last year, I believe I’m getting what I pay for.

The staff at the Greenfield location (in the drive-thru… I’ve never gone inside) is consistently rude and I’ve had issues with my orders at least four times now. They’ve forgotten to send the scans, scanned the photos incorrectly, sent the scans to the wrong email (multiple times, even after I thought the issue was corrected) and I’ve had different staff members tell me different things about what services they offer. It is really frustrating. The film also takes a while to develop, but that is completely understandable. I wish they had a “rush” option like Mike Crivello’s.

However, despite this review, I will keep going here and dealing with the poor customer service because there aren’t many any other options in the Milwaukee metro area. Also, I still want to support a local business even if their employees aren’t always the nicest or most...