Well, they are sponsoring the competition so you'd think they were a good firm to deal with. I've bought loads of kit there before but I doubt it will happen again.

Read on for a true story of how they treat their "valued" customers...

In September, Nikon announced the D3. Test shots leaked onto the web and I was very interested - it would come in VERY handy for the winter wedding scene. I called all the top dealers in the UK. They all told me the same thing - put your name down and wait, we will call you when they are available and ask if you still want one. Warehouse sounded the best - they told me about the huge order they had placed, how many they had been promised, how many they had sold, when I could expect one and that when available they would make sure they had the best price in the country. I was told that I'd be in the first batch in the country and that the price of £3,399 was just their guess - at launch they would be the cheapest. I believed them. I gave them a credit card order. Sadly, they lied.

I wasn't in the first batch. Nor the second. When the D3 started shipping I had mysteriously moved to position 50 on the list and they were receiving less than 10 per week (the slow shipping is no surprise with Nikon and affects all dealers - some are honest about this and some just promise there will be enough in their allotment). They agreed with my appraisal that far from receiving the camera in November I'd be lucky to get it before February.

Anyway, today they called me and said they had one. "Great, how much?" "£3,406.95". Err, they are available for 3199 elsewhere - "yes but they aren't in stock". Well I know that. I've had it on order for 3 months - nobody has them "in stock" - but you said you'd be the cheapest.

I also said that since the 24 - 70 is now available I'd like to add one to the order - but would expect them to be competitive.

Long story short - they only have 1 manager who can deal with this (YYY) and she's been too busy to speak to me for the last 5 hours. It has passed the cut off so now they won't ship it today. YYY may or may not call on Monday. I'm told it's very unlikely they will honour their promise of being the best price - just like they fibbed when they said I'd get one in the first batch. That was partly down to Nikon - the price isn't.

So before choosing a retailer for your next expensive purchase you might like to run through this checklist.
1. Do they talk to you honestly and openly before you make a very expensive and important order?
2. Do they honour promises to be competitive on price? Or do they try to avoid price matching every single way they can despite trumpeting it in adverts?
3. When they have a genuine customer service issue is there anybody empowered to fix it (or even give a definitive answer) with, say, a couple of hours?
4. Do they return calls when they say they will?

Because I don't think I want to spend my money with any company that can't answer yes to all those....

OK here's an update.

For those people wondering why I'm bothering - there are no D3s in free stock anywhere in the world at the moment. I've been on the list for 3 months and if I cancel with Warehouse I will likely have to wait until March for one. You are supposed to be able to fast track with an NPS membership number but I've never joined because (1) it's mostly a US scheme and (2) they are heavily biased against social photographers - I have to show tear sheets of published work....

Anyway.....

YYY didn't call me today. At about noon my nerve went (since cutoff is 4pm) so I rang. Everything went very well, the person who answered the phone tried to transfer me. Then I got the amazing response YYY is too busy to speak to me - she will try to call before 6pm

Who else can help me? Nobody - they have no other person empowered to talk to me about this.

OK, you win, just ship the camera. Oh no, you'll have to talk to Vicky - there is no camera reserved for you.

So, I won't get my camera today.

It's unlikely I'll get it tomorrow (since Vicky has to prioritise me high enough to call before 4pm AND we have to find a D3 that they have sold to somebody else).

It's unlikely I'll get it before March - because if they can't ship it very soon then I will cancel the order.

So ask yourself - do you want to deal with a firm that has nobody who can be bothered to call a customer to solve a presales problem on a 4K camera within four days - or not?

Now that I've stopped caring it's actually quite funny.

YYY finally called me at 5:35 today. She had no clue why she was calling. I filled her in somewhat. Unfortunately after waiting 4 days to speak to her it turns out that she's not actually the only person in Warehouse Express who can answer my questions. In fact she can't answer them at all (since for one thing she has no access to either the stock or order systems).

The person who can answer my questions went home at 5:30.

You couldn't make it up........

 Hard luck Jon, hope you don't have to wait too long!

Nope, I've decided. I just don't trust them.

Say I buy a £3.5K camera from them and there's a problem. Will I want to wait 4 days for a manager to tell me they can do nothing?

I had a problem with a D2X (it just "stopped working"). I had bought it second hand from Grays. Monday I rang them describing the problem. Tuesday a courier picked it up. Wednesday they rang me. Thursday a brand new camera arrived. That's the kind of service pros expect and that's what I need if I'm earning my living from my camera.

Ironically Grays are exactly the same price as WEX. Why would anybody shop with them? I won't.

Well, fair play to them - I posted on WEX website last night and emailed the CEO with a summary of my issues.

Colin McCarthy called me at 8 last night (yeah, he checked his email account that late). We talked and he told me that he would look into it.

9:30 this morning he called again. We talked for a long time and he went through my issues point by point. On some things we agreed, on others we disagreed but it was great to talk with somebody who understands the business and talks honestly. On this occasion his customer team screwed up - he apologised and I accepted it. As I said to him, if I'd had this conversation on Friday then I would have been happy to pay the money and receive the camera.

In my book, the good companies to deal with aren't the ones that don't make mistakes - they are the ones that fix them when mistakes happen. I'll put this one down to experience and hope for better service next time I shop with them.

Oh and I should get my D3 tomorrow..........

You should try getting one for review...

>> You should try getting one for review...

Well you've got my number.....

Simon - yeah it was the attitude of the CEO that swayed me. I really was set to cancel and wait it out but I was impressed with his frankness and willingness to talk things over. Let's hope the rest of the experience was just a blip.