Ball Photo Supply Camera Ctr

This is in reply to Keith. I am the clerk who sold you the camera. I sold you a camera that is 10 years old, and I told you that there was over 5,000 shots on it, not 59. The policy on used equipment is a 30 day warranty. The camera was in excellent ++ condition. You came 4 months after the warranty had expired, and you expected us to fix the camera for free.You are not being honest about the 59 shots, which leads me to believe that you are not being honest about the 300 shots. Anything can happen to a 10 year old camera in 5 months, regardless of how many shots there is on it. I wonder if Best Buy or any other business would fix a camera after the warranty had expired. And I think the manager was very generous to you to offer to pay for half of the cost of the repair. I guess some people no matter how much you try to help them, and walk the extra mile, there is no way you are going to please them. Itai more

I am a resident in Los Angeles, CA, and I flew to Great Smokey Mountain area to join a photo workshop and experienced issues with my Canon 5D III. The instructors could not diagnose the problem and could not help me. \r \r After the workshop, I drove to Ball Photo Supply, Mr. Itai Minovitz, I believe an employee of the store, quickly identified the cause and solved my problem, he did not charge me a penny. Still to today, I feel so indebted to him for his willingness to help and his expertise in camera so I could continue shooting photos in my East Coast trip! more

I chose to take my camera to this store because there are no camera stores where I live and I didn't want to have to send my camera to Nikon. I was in town for photography classes so I rushed down to Asheville on a Friday evening to beat their 6 p.m. closing at the store. When I called to say I was about 10 minutes away and was going to drop off my camera, the man on the phone said, "We'll be open if you make it before 6." First bad indicator, I should have followed my instinct and heeded the horrific reviews of this place. When I got there, I was not greeted in any way. I was more of less glared at for arriving at five 'til 6. A different man took my camera and my information and literally could not wait to get out the door and jump in his Honda to leave. Second bad indicator. When I went to pick up the camera the next day, I barely made the 5 p.m. closing, having been in class all day. Again, not greeted, treated like I was a nuisance and in the way of them getting home. I was given more

One of the other posts here from JuneSnow states she 'had to wait 30 minutes to get waited on because she's a woman.' I am most definitely and without even the slightest doubt a woman and I was taken care of promptly when it was my turn after the people who were there first were taken care of.\r \r I had a 46 year old slide that had splotches all over it from just being old and starting to decompose. They quoted me around $44 for complete restoration and a 5x7 photo. I went back to pick it up & when I saw how beautiful the photo was I started to cry. They completely restored my parents one and only wedding day photo from that slide. I was more than pleased and highly recommend them for restoration work and printing quality photos of family heirlooms.\r \r The gentleman behind the counter asked me what they had quoted me for a price - I told them around $44. They charged me $29 which I considered very fair taking into account all of the work involved in the restoration & the quality photo printed out. Charging me less than what they originally quoted tells me something about their integrity.\r \r The quality of the printed photo was a world of difference from the photos I printed out from the 'usual' cheap places you go to print photos from photos or slides.... think smiley face and discount warehouse type stores. \r \r I had an excellent experience with Ball Photo and would highly recommend them. more

I've had a couple issues with equipment from Ball Photo. I was sold a camera and was led to believe it had only been used to photograph 59 photos. It had been owned by the clerk who sold it to me. The shutter broke after 5 months and 300+ photo's. They sent it out for repair and felt I needed to split the difference of the repair cost which were $190. more

I waited at the counter for 20 minutes to drop off a roll of film. As far as I could tell there were three people working, and only one other customer in the store :-/ I ended up walking out, film still in hand. I am one of those customers who won't cry or complain, I just won't ever go back. In today's world, with everything available CHEAPER online, customer service is absolutely CRITICAL. more

I waited 20 minutes to drop off a single roll of film. There appeared to be three people working, and as far as I could tell one other customer in the store. I wanted to support my local camera store, but I will go back to using online sources for my photography needs :( more

JuneSnow, Im very sorry you had a less than satisfactory experience at this store. I am an employee here and I can tell you that we try to help people in the order they arrive in our door and give them one on one attention so it does take longer to receive service. As for camera brands, we sell canon,nikon,sony,olympus and pentax. We do tend to sell more canon due to the company working with our local store a little better. We may not be able to answer every question about each brand, but we do try in a professional manner. I hope you will give our store another chance sometime soon, Sean more

I'm convinced that the other person who wrote the [5 star] review on Ball Photo either works for them, owns the place, or is closely related to the owners. There isn't a single photographer in Asheville who will say something positive about this place. The owner, his son, and their employees, have always been a pain to deal with. It doesn't matter what you want from them, they think they know best [and 9x out of 10 they don't] and will treat you like dirt in the process. If you are a woman, it could be 20 minutes [or longer] that you'll be waiting for someone to simply say, ""How are you?"" or ""Can I help you with anything?"" Also, if you ask for Nikon, they'll demand you buy Canon. There's a LOT they don't know about photography or specs, but they believe that they do. They have huge egos because they are the ONLY camera supply store in Asheville. Do yourself a favor, test out what you want from Ball Photo, then PURCHASE IT ONLINE. They do not deserve the profits. You WILL be ripped off. Ask ANY photographer in town. more

this is the only place in Asheville to buy a camera other than Best Buy. Ball Photo is probably still open only because it's the ONLY place in Asheville for most basic photo needs. If you have any questions about anything don't go to anyone working for Ball Photo unless you want a smart a** grin and answer. I was in a bind a few months ago and desperately needed a black paper seamless background. When I came in there asking for a "black paper seamless" the younger man, the balding Napoleon Dynamite, didn't even know what a "seamless" was and treated ME like I was the idiot in the store (I've got a Bachelor's in Technical Photography, I think I know what a seamless is). On top of that, I got charged $90 (over $100 after taxes) for a Savage brand solid black, nine foot, paper seamless when I knew for a fact it went for $39.95 on bandhphoto.com The older man who sold it to me even looked at me like, "Ha, we are ripping this girl off good!" and I said nothing because I needed the seamless more

This place has everything. Lenses, bodies, and all those little gadgets and filters I like to use. Great customer service, knowledgable and helpful. Conventient location. more