Castle Cameras - www.castlecameras.co.uk

Negative Experience with Castle Cameras! I ordered the Sony a7rii through their website, my credit card was charged, I recieved an email from their credit card processing facility that my credit card was fine and that it was charged, and for no reason Castle Cameras said that my card "did not pass security checks" (and I had already received the email that my card had passed), and they refunded the charge to my card (of course ordering in euros, they did not refund the processing fees and exchange rate charges!!!) and asked me to do a bank transfer of the funds for me to order the camera! Sounds just like a fraud attempt (send 3000 quid cash to a bank account, instead of use a credit card!?!?) And if I didn't receive my camera, what recourse would I have???? Sounded very shady!!!

Bought a Nikon D600 in March with three lenses at a cost of £4300, I took the camera back after my holiday in November as I felt I was badly advised when a new model came out not long after purchasing the D600. They offered me £1800 back for the camera and all lenses having only taken 670 actuations. All items were in mint condition with all boxes and manuals.

I bought another camera on there advise which was not suitable for my needs and charged me a lot more than the 5% restocking charge advertised.

Will never buy another item from Castle Cameras as I have been ripped off.

Spent £1900 on a camera when doing so asked them if I had a problem with the camera within the warranty period could they loan me a camera whilst it was being repaired. Not a problem I was told. So I now have a problem with the camera needs to go back for repair - replacement camera offered but they want to charge me £100 to "hire" a camera a day. Love taking your money service non existent just lie to your face - buy elseware if I were you.

Been looking for a D7000 for a while now, and found a great deal on another site (about 4 quid cheaper). Unfortunately, after ordering, the other company told me they didnt have it in stock, neither did Nikon, with no clue about lead times. So why advertise online then?!As nikon are ceasing production of this body, I didnt want to risk missing out so I cancelled the order and rang Castle. They had one in stock, with the kit lens. I have a selection of lenses, so they agreed to break the camera into body only - and honour the online price.

Within 24 hours the camera, safely and neatly packed, was at my door (with a nice little surprise put in the box too). Very good considering I asked for Royal mail delivery instead, it went courier and meant I had the camera sooner.

Would reccommend again.

Bought a camera in the Bournemouth branch in January. Drove 35 miles to pick it up only to find they hadn't got the camera they told me was in stock. Three months later, I found a spot on the photos, called the shop who told me to bring it in. When I arrived they told me it would be £30 - £50 pounds to clean. Today I went to pick it up, reluctantly paid £50, only to find that they'd moved the spot to another part of the sensor. The guy then cleaned it again in 5 minutes. Barely apologised. £50 is a total rip off. Will clean it myself next time and will never go back to that shop.

I decided to go to Castle Cameras for two reasons: firstly because I prefer supporting independent shops if I can and secondly because I had a couple of friends recommending it to me.

Problems I found:

- Staff were quite rude, not acknowledging me (or anyone else) as I walked into the shop

- Staff weren't really helpful to me, didn't explain things or bothered giving any advice

- No room for negotiation at all (one would believe that spending over £800 would mean getting at least some sort of discount...)

I've got the impression that the staff seemed more helpful to older people and younger ones seem to be treated as time wasters.

I certainly don't recommend Castle Cameras.

No complaints whatsoever. I live overseas, so I contacted them before I ordered to ensure that they could supply a VAT reclaim form, with the purchase, which they confirmed would not be a problem. I then asked them to despatch the lens and paperwork to a family member in the UK, for collection by me when I visited last week. Both lens and form arrived very quickly and as promised. Goods were well packed and in excellent condition. I'm now back overseas and enjoying my purchase. Truly a great service matched to a great price. I would not hesitate to purchase from them again.

Turned out my order after processing was out of stock. They quickly let me know and kept me up to speed with when it would arrive. True to their word it arrived today.

All in all great service despite the item not originally being available.

I decided to support local shops rather than the likes of Currys. Sadly this didn't work out for me. There is no indication of stock on the site and being allowed to placing the order I believed that there must be stock. Within minutes of the order being placed I received notification that the money had been taken from my card.

A number of hours later I received an email telling not only was there no stock but they didn't have any details of when stock would be available.

I got no response to emails asking for the money to be repaid until they had stock and asking about when they would have stock.

In the end I phoned in and cancelled the order. I have been told that I will receive an email notification that the funds have been returned in a couple of days. Funny how this takes time but taking funds didn't. I await notification or the returned money and of the cancelled order.

I wanted to buy a lens in person rather than over the web. They had competitive prices, and had the lens I wanted in stock unlike the other major camera shops in the UK. Went to the store in Salisbury, very helpful staff. And wow, how many lenses do they have in stock. If you want to try a lens out, and are in south of England then they are well worth a visit. A real camera store stocking lots of great gear from all sorts of manufacturers, even obscure ones