London Camera Exchange - Guildford Reviews 78

Very good store experience in Oxford, the staff were very informative about which cameras are the best. Made our purchase online and got it next day! Very good service overall. Would reccomend.

After about 12 years of using my Canon 750D and 3 lenses, I decided I wanted a change.

As well as cumulatively spending weeks on line searching, considering and assessing new and 2nd hand bodies and lenses, I spent a good few hours with various members of the LCE Guildford team. They were all interested in my needs, were patient and extremely informative about the options available.

I'm very happy with the service provided and was pleased to buy some new equipment from them. Thanks particularly go to Hayden, Joe and Martin.

The lens was a good price and works fine but needed a good clean as the front element look cloudy before a good wipe with a micro fiber cloth.

Ordered a couple of items from online. Arrived in good time. One item had to go back because I ordered the wrong size. Thought I'd return to my nearest branch. Whilst doing this I took and old camera (2012) and some lenses with me.
Not thinking I'd get anything, I was surprised to be offered £150 cash.
I received my refund after a couple of days.
Would recommend.

They give a very good px deal.When i visit their shop in Guildford , i find them extremely helpful and honest.They are polite and friendly.

I had to file an insurance claim because of total loss salt water damage to my Fuji camera and lens.I visited LCE at Guildford and Martyn Pearce and his staff took a lot of trouble to inspect the damage,then send me the details and replacement costs for my insurance company.The whole replacement took quite some time( the insurance company not LCE).Once agreed,the whole replacement process was faultless. If only all retailers were so customer focussed,I would not hesitate in recommending Martyn and his team in Guildford.Indeed the first time I was a customer at this branch was in 1976.Many thanks again.

This review is due to the experience of I consider Poor customer service. I did a trade and obtained a gadget.
The gadget is obsolete, and was complete, though the dated camera plates were a older Spec as such from the back store and a replacement was found .
Not until I got home to review I found that at a cost of a plate was missing as exchanged for the replacement.
I was not told about this until I made a telephone call.
I found that the remaining plate did fit another item I have and could have used the second one
Considering the cost of the two items traded were to the benefit of the shop I felt it was rather underhand or a twist of selling .
I now would not recommend to trade to LCE at Guildford.
LCE of some of the Shops offer very good service Alas no longer near me .

Joe at Guildford took me through the bino options in my budget. Tried all the options. Very helpful. Went home to consider my options. Ran out of time to make my purchase in store so bought online which was fulfilled very efficiently. Very happy with my purchase.

Another fantastic experience with LCE Guildford. The best place to buy your used camera equipment in the UK.
Always a pleasure to buy from.

Good advice about lenses on the phone. Quick delivery well packaged. Easy to use website.

My camera arrived both quickly and in excellent condition. It’s a used camera but still in the original box with the instruction books. The buying transaction was quick and straightforward. I will definitely put London Camera Exchange on my shopping list the next time I need something.

Excellent shop - very friendly, knowledgeable staff and huge range of camera gear, new and secondhand. I bought a used Nikon lens and came away very pleased with the transaction. Highly recommended.

Bought a couple of cameras recently and have nothing but praise for LCE. Brilliantly packaged and super quick delivery 10/10 wouldn't hesitate to use LCE again.

I pre-ordered a new camera from London Camera Exchange. Later, I received an email asking me to pay a 10% deposit of £640. I asked a few questions about availability and was told I’d be first in line if I paid right away. After several emails back and forth, I went ahead.

The very next day, I found out the camera wouldn’t arrive until mid-October. Since I have a trip in early October, I emailed to confirm and asked to cancel my pre-order.

No reply.

The next day, I emailed again to cancel.

Still no reply.

Ignoring customers doesn’t make problems disappear, it only breeds resentment.

In the end, I bought the camera directly from the manufacturer’s website, thanks to a stock alert. Meanwhile, LCE just kept ignoring me while holding my £640 deposit.

These are appalling business practices. Once they have your money, good luck chasing them.

I will never deal with this company again, and I strongly warn others to be VERY CAREFUL. Every camera shop looks fine, until something goes wrong.

I have always bought from LCE and mainly this store due to the locality.
Px’d a lens against new one. Great service as always.

LCE had exactly what I was after second hand. Accurate description, all candy in the box and timely dispatch. Excellent.

I generally think, especially in the camera space, you should always try to support your local businesses but there are a few issues with London Camera Exchange - previous experience with Oxford, Reading, Chichester, Bristol, Exeter and Winchester stores has been great to Excellent having also attended a few of their events and shooting days. 


The Guildford store however, displayed a complete lack of care (there’s another word I would like to use), for not only an issue refunding which has lasted well over a month, but just generally. 

After returning my item to London, it was sent to Southampton to facilitate the refund, who forgot or got lost and then it went to Guildford.

The item was a peak design strap that was the wrong colour, nothing crazy, but I purchased from the Strand store the correct item at the time of returning.

I went to Guildford to view a lens and thought I’d ask about the refund, and was prepared to spend probably well over £1000, though will likely be returning the the item I purchased recently due to the service from the Guildford store.

Just because a client isn’t kicking off and shows patience, it doesn’t mean everything is okay. If it takes someone to get annoyed for the staff to care, that is a problem - though I would rather not ruin my day to get some common sense awareness from staff. 



Now to be clear:



It IS NOT okay to take well over a month to refund a return
It IS NOT the customers problem what your companies back end processes are that are delaying this
It IS NOT okay that when checked, the staff show a complete lack of care and say - “well it’s in a backlog so should be with you soon”, saying with a smile doesn't make it better. 



Guildford could have apologised and tried to ensure that it was moved up in the backlog, they could have given some goodwill adjustments to the options I was viewing in store, there is many ways you could have been better, but I get the impression the staff are likely just students from the local city, that don’t particularly care about the store, and just need a job while they study.



The cherry on top was that I had the lens I wanted to return from used stock for the lens they had at double the price, boxed and ready to give but that was seen as a big issue, “we will need to call that store ahead of time”, it’d be easier if you contacted that store.



If I had not chased to ask if anything had happened with the return, this wouldn’t even have been checked - as mentioned in previous reviews, the grey market new equipment with better warranty is usually cheaper than LCE used and new, purchasing from LCE is choosing to pay a little more to support the local camera stores.

This only drives customers to amazon and others who have a customer first mindset, and easier returns policies.

Edit: Five days since visiting store to check and still not received refund. Nearly two months since returning the item.

Edit 2: Have returned lens just purchased due to this, will see how long it takes for refund on that lens.

Very friendly and knowledgeable people

I lost my previous Canon compact camera recently and needed to purchase a replacement. The Guildford LCE store were very helpful and I purchased a Panasonic Lumix TZ99, as a replacement, there. A few days later I used the LCE website to purchase a spare battery online for the camera and that process worked smoothly too.

I phoned to ask about a DJI action camera. I got an answer very quickly and the person I spoke to was very happy to answer all my questions about the product and give me some advice. It was very competitively priced so purchased it from them.