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Most Makers I know are usually thrifty (in a good way) and on the prowl for a good deal, but be careful…Today will likely go down in web history as another example of just how quick and bad things can get online – we’ve lived through the Kryptonite bic pen lock swarm, the recent Sony Rootkit and now read the story of someone who may have discovered when those low-cost camera sites have deals that seem too good to be true, they usually are. Link. If you’re a fan of Digg, this saga is the most “Dugg” story along with the most comments, ever. It will be interesting to see what happens next…
6 thoughts on “Bait and Switch Camera Stores…”
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There is/was a place in NYC called “Smile Photo” that did something like this to me back in 90 or 91. I ordered a bunch of light stands, softboxes and other items for studio work. I asked several times if everything was in stock and ready to ship, to which I was told it was.
When my order arrived, all I got were the light stands, nothing else. I called up and was told everything else was on back order, but would be shipped in a day or two. A week passes, nothing, call back and get some rude guy who wanted me to purchase the no-name items for the same price, otherwise it would be months before anything could be shipped. I said that is the dumbest thing I’ve heard and I was going to post about what they are doing at Prodigy (before internet) he told me “no one will give a f*ck” or something to that effect.
I called back the following day and said to cancel the rest of the order and credit back my card. Was told they couldn’t credit my card but would send a check, takes a week. A week later, I did get a check, for the entire purchase. I cashed it the same day I got it.
So 2 weeks later Smile Photo contacts me informing me they made a little mistake and would like me to return the check they send and they would send me one for the correct amount.
Not sure whay my exact words were, but I’m thinking they were something along the lines of “hahahahaha… bite me”.
Anyway…. I’ve purchased a EOS 20D and later the Speedlite 580EX from buydig.com and have been very pleased. When I purchased the 20D, they called me to verify I had made a purchase and my address, no upselling at all. I’ve got a SD550 that will show up tomarrow from them as well.
I ordered an Olympus C-7070 from some no name camera store online, can’t recall the name off the top of my head but they had the lowest price on the camera I could find. They call to confirm my order, and tell me the camera I purchased is a refurbished model with no warranty and is also out of stock. How can a refurbished camera be out of stock? Are they sitting around waiting for someone to return a camera so they can refurbish it? But they could ship me a brand new model right away at some price way over the competition’s price, along with an extended warranty, a filter pack, a tripod, and a camera bag. I said that’s ridiculous, xyz.com has the camera for much less, and in the end after I told them to cancel the order they gave me free shipping and cut the cost so just the camera matched the other website and it worked out, but the whole thing just seemed like a scam.
It’s always a good idea to check at ResellerRatings.com before ordering.