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What is up with Online Camera retailers?

coachingguy

coachingguy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 7, 2003
701
224
The Great White, Albeit Frozen North
I am totally frustrated w/ two online retailers cameraaddict.com and broadwayphoto.com. I ordered a camera from each of their websites. Only to receive an email saying that I needed to call them back to confirm the order and "verify" that I am me.

The call back is only an attempt to upsale you. "The battery is only a demo. the camera requires a special card that only we sell. You REALLY need the warranty. No? well okay, it's your camera...let me get the total... Your total will be $15 - 25 more than it says online because of our handling and taxes charge"

My response was to cancel both orders. I told them I don't live in NY, and am not subject to their sales taxes. Again, if it's too good to be true, it is.

I've ordered from Adorama and BH as well as 47th street photo many times without any issues. I guess I'll be going back to those retailers.

Anyone else have issues like this?

Coachingguy
 
Those camera retailers are well known for being scams. Always check out resellerratings.com if you have never ordered from that place before.

JohnMC

EDIT: I was beaten to it, see above.
 
Honestly, I'm sorry that you got into this but really... I wasn't aware that there was anyone these days that didn't know about broadwayphoto. Its like the most publicized internet scam in the last few years.

The term is bait and switch, and the main players are "plastic lenses", required batteries, backordered and out of stock.
 
I know about resellers.com, I guess I'm just surprised that companies try that crap anymore.

I found the camera, a Panasonic DMC LZ7K at J&R and Crutchfield for a price I'm willing to pay. Have checked out their reseller ratings, 6.5 for JR and 9+ for Crutchfield.

Does anyone have experience with either of these venders? I ordered from both a few years ago, and had great service. I'm hoping that hasn't changed.

It's interesting that resellers.com has the Apple store and Target so low...

Thanks again,

Coachingguy
 
coachingguy said:
I know about resellers.com, I guess I'm just surprised that companies try that crap anymore.

I found the camera, a Panasonic DMC LZ7K at J&R and Crutchfield for a price I'm willing to pay. Have checked out their reseller ratings, 6.5 for JR and 9+ for Crutchfield.

Does anyone have experience with either of these venders? I ordered from both a few years ago, and had great service. I'm hoping that hasn't changed.

It's interesting that resellers.com has the Apple store and Target so low...

Thanks again,

Coachingguy
Click to expand...

Both of those are fine... but Crutchfield has a good price on something? Better than at Adorama or B&H? I'd have to see it to believe it.
 
Lovesong said:
Yup- the old adage goes that if something seems too good to be true, then it is:

http://thomashawk.com/2005/11/priceritephoto-abusive-bait-and-switch.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,107855-page,1/article.html

When checking out camera stores, ALWAYS go to reseller ratings.com and search for the name of the company.

A whooping 0.73 out of 10:
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Camera_Addict

and a staggering 1.18/10:
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Broadway_Photo
Click to expand...

That Blog by Thomas Hawk is unreal, even scarier than the PCworld article... Thanks for the links.

Coachingguy
 
I fell for that scam when I bought my Elan 7E nearly a decade ago. It seemed like a great price, I called them, they convinced me that I needed all these other features, and next thing I knew, I had paid too much for what normally would come in the box. I was young and there wasn't near the amount of easily available internet-based research around.

Since then, I've shopped at B&H and B&H only. They don't always have absolutely the best price, but I've never had a bad dealing with them and if you go to the store, you can't help but be impressed with how it runs.

The sad thing is that when it came time to buy my 5D a year or so ago, I almost fell for the same scam again! I guess I have a short memory, but I called up some fly-by-night place offering some insane deal on the body and couldn't keep myself from calling. I basically went through the same conversation. It didn't take but a few seconds when all the old painful memories arose and I sanity took hold of me again. I ended up going back to B&H.

As somebody mentioned, if it's too good to be true, it is. I'd say stick to Amazon, B&H or Adorama. Buy.com sometimes has good deals and I think that buydig.com is probably ok.

Same goes for Ebay, things are frequently not what they seem. The rating system there is total junk.
 
I stick with B&H and Amazon, even if they cost a bit more. Much safer, and returns are easy.
 
The first thing to check on any seller apart from their rating on resellerratings.com is whether they are an authorized reseller for the brand. This doesn't matter much on cheapie P&S stuff, but when you're getting ready to drop serious $ on a DSLR, that makes a huge difference. Many of the places selling DSLRs for an unusually low price are not authorized resellers, and you are in serious danger of getting a "gray market" camera; what that means is that you may have trouble should something go wrong and you need warranty service - the manufacturer doesn't have to honor a gray market product.

As always - if it's too good to be true, it's probably a scam.

I'm always amazed when people just throw whatever is that they want into a google search and grab the "lowest price" vendor - that's just asking to be scammed.
 
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