When doing business, I suppose there’s nothing more rewarding to the businessman than customer loyalty. No, I don’t mean loyalty cards that force clients to come and spend to earn brownie points and get ‘free’ gifts. Those bullshits come with lots of fineprint and make you spend money without you even realising it. I’m talking about good businessmen that makes the customer to want to come again, avoid other shops, and encourage other people to visit the same shop. You know why I’m suddenly into this?

Because I believe I have found one.

The story goes like this. As a few of my friends [you, perhaps] have known, Albert is also my ever loyal geeking-out buddy. One fine day while we were wandering around KL looking for a wireless slave flash [which we found out to be the ultimate piece of crap], he took me to a neat little camera shop at Ampang Park.

There’s a Dunkin Donuts in front of the shop,… but I resisted the temptation just for that day.

The shop is run by a dude, his wife and his foreign maid [probably indonesian]. The shop didn’t seem to have much custo-wait, when we got there, there was nobody. So he entertained us by letting us toy with his stuff, which we didn’t even buy [because we discovered how useless the slave flash was]. Albert told me he went to that shop because it was recommended to us by Jason, another friend of mine, who said it’s a REALLY good camera shop. He came a bit later, to buy a filter [I forgot what filter, UV perhaps].

During the time, we have been geeking out on our discovery of shooting in IR without paying for an IR filter. Albert was also developing an interest in neutral denstiy and polarizing filters. While looking for slave flashes, we were also surveying prices for lens adapter tubes* for our respective cameras. The others shops around KL we have been to [Pertama, Sg. Wang and other shops in Ampang Park] sell them for prices ranging from RM 70-100. When we enquired the current owner, he said;

“You want original or compatible one?”

Whoa, he suddenly turns into Mr. You-Can’t-Bullshit-Me-Cause-I-Run-A-Camera-Shop. But his question made sense, and we asked for the third party one, he gave us a nice price: RM 40. “Cincai la, I want to clear old stock.” Needless to say Albert and I were both shocked. As luck would have it, it’s the one for my A95, as the one for his A520 isn’t available yet as the latter model is still too new for third-party manufacturers to produce anything. I immediately took it, leaving Albert feeling very very jealous >:D [Hahaha, admit it, man!]

We have since been visiting the said shop more often as Albert and I started asking for filters. Everytime we did, Jeff [the shop owner, as we came to know] would offer us helpful insight and irresistable discounts. I even bought a whole camera set from him [for my mom], and when what I bought could easily cost me some RM 4000-4500 elsewhere, he offered a me price of only RM 3000. He even willingly takes orders should the item requested isn’t available in his stock.

You’ll never hear the standard Ah Beng reply of ‘No Stock’ [I feel like shoving my foot into their mouths when I hear that], but you’ll get an “Aiyoh, right now I dun have hor. Nobody really buy those things one. But if you want I can order for you, tomorrow can get. Want? Is it urgent?“. How’s that for customer satisfaction?

One day I dropped by to get myself the IR filter that he ordered for me. While I was waiting for it, a couple stopped by and looked at some cameras. He attended to them [naturally] and they enquired about buying a digicam. I can tell that they never owned a digicam, before, from their questions. But from how Jeff handled them, I can also tell that he’s trying to give them the best offer for their money. He took out several different cameras, let the couple try them out, and explained what pros and cons each digicam set has. But there’s something even more interesting.

The husband of the pair asked; “Do we get coupons for free prints?” to which Jeff laughed and replied “No. We don’t do free prints. Want me to explain why?”

He brought out the free prints coupons, and showed us the fineprint and explained the procedures. Apparently the supposed ‘free prints’ come with plenty of terms, forcing the customers to fork out money for a shitload of prints BEFORE getting their bulk of free prints. In short, it’s a scam to let camera shops make some quick buck out of noob customers. Of course, I was impressed by his integrity and honesty as a businessman. He made his point clear that he only wants to live on good money, and refuses to take advantage of his customers despite knowing he can get away scot-free.

He’s one of the diamonds in the rough, a gem in the concrete jungle that is KL. An unsung hero.

Today, I went to get myself a step ring, as well as a spare battery for the new camera and a filter. I only got the step ring, though, as the battery still has not arrived and the filter haven’t been ordered as there has been no demand. Which is okay, because I know he can and will get it for me. As I was about to leave, he pointed out to me;

“Everytime you or Albert come ah, I get a lot of customers. And they come back, like you oso.”

I never noticed it, but everytime I do go to his place I would always be waiting for a while before I get my stuff. Yes, I was kept waiting for short moments every now and then because everytime I hang around there, people stop by to see what’s going on, and some of them ended up asking Jeff about stuff. Some of those who did ask, bought stuff from him. I never noticed all this happening, because while I was waiting, I would be peering over a catalogue of items, or playing with the stuff I was going to pay for.

Jeff: You never realise hah, but when you come down and sit here ah, people stop by you know. They come come look look, and then they buy something. I think you and Albert got good feng shui for my shop ler.

Me: Wahh,.. good leh. Usually your shop dun get much customers one meh?

J: When they see empty camera shop, and shopkeeper korek hidung ah, they think the shop must be lousy cos nobody go there woh. But when the shop got people ah, they come to have a look oso. Then only they have interest.

Me: Ooooh, like that one ah?

J: Yeala, yeala. Eh, So far ah, all these filters lah, rings lah, whatever lah, only you and Albert ask you know? Nobody buys one. They come here, buy digicam, print, or burn CD only.

Me: Haha yea lah. Only we two people gila a bit.

J: Good la, good la. Eh, you two donid worry one. You want anything oso I can give you gooood discount, I geh-ren-tea you one woh. You help me make money, I help you save money. Haaa.. good leh?

I wonder if my face looks like this?

Anyway, I can tell he sincerely meant what he said because he even offered to swap my old damaged tripod for a brand new one, when I didn’t even buy it from him! So, enough with clues, let me tell you how to find the shop. Get yourself to Ampang Park, and go to the first floor. It’s diagonally in front of Dunkin Donuts. The shop is called Leos Com Trading. It’s a very small shop. When you get there, ask for Jeff, or Tauke. And tell him ‘Fazri’ sent you, MWAHAHAKAHKAHKAHKHAKA [okay, just kidding. I doubt he even remembers my name. You can substitute my name for Albert's though XDDDD].

If you have any camera related enquiries, go to him. Seriously :D

*lens adapter tubes;
Some compact ‘entry-level’ digicams, like the Powershot A-Series, allows the user to expand their creativity by letting them attach conversion lenses or filters via an adapter tube, which connects the accesories to the camera body.

UPDATE: I animated the lucky money Fazri cat.