I walked in today with the intention of buying a tripod. The salesman - looked like MIke from the website foto - greeted me and got all my info right off the bat. I didn't feel rushed at all, and instead felt like I was maybe wasting his time when I made it clear I really just wanted something cheap. He didn't seem put off by this though, which was nice. He made a suggestion quickly - 30% more $$ than the amount I told him I wanted to spend, but that's par for the course in my experience wrt all retail experiences. No problem there, but when I asked what the return policy was he said "un-used". OK. I said fine, although I told him that was a game-changer for me and explained that I could easily want to return it for something better/different. At this point he said he wasn't going to "rent" it to me. That was a strange comment I thought. All we were doing was conducting a sales discussion - I certainly gave no indication that I was the type of customer that was out to abuse the return policy. Was he possibly offended that an inexperienced photographer walked into 'his' shop? Is he possibly offended by the fact that a huge % of retailers dealing in almost all products (including photography equipment) have a more reasonable return policy than his company?
More than likely I would have not returned it, but if I did I would have put the purchase toward a more expensive item. However, since I never buy with the intention of "renting" anything his comment seemed insulting to me. At the very least it was completely unnecessary. The sale was lost right there, and there won't be any purchases from this point on made by me, my family and friends that might ask me for advice on where to go for camera needs in Phoenix. I certainly won't go back.