A&M Photo World - $549 Digital Rebel kit?

Noticed that A&M PhotoWorld is advertising the Canon Digital Rebel with
18-55 lens for $549... $449 for body only in October's Popular Photography.

I know better than to even think of ordering from them, but how could anyone
see this and actually think they would get the camera at that price? Isn't
that hundreds less than wholesale? Those camera ads are strange...

TR

 

....It doesn't take to many people in a population of 250 million people to
make this scam profitable for them...even if the biting fish are only 1 in a
million.

250 x $549 is $137,000.

Unfortunately, there are FAR more than 250 suckers in the US of A.

 

According to Pop Photo's policy, as stated in the magazine just before
the ads, if you mention that you found the ad in Popular Photography,
they have to honor it or else they are toast. How about turning it into
an experiment and calling Pop Photo first, then call A&M and see what
happens. I predict they will suddenly be out of stock, but I would be
fascinated to see what happens.

Gary Eickmeier

 

Pop Photo's position (stated in their mag) translates to "we know there are a
lot of bait-and-switch companies advertising with us but until someone
actually gets defrauded of their money we'll continue to take the advertising
dollars of these sleaze-ball companies".

Basically they are saying that if you send the company money and don't get what
you ordered then it's a fraud. Until then (ie, if the company agrees to return
your money, eventually) Pop Photo apparently will still accept advertising from
the company. Which is one reason a lot of people have lost respect for
magazines like this ...

Bill

 

In all fairness, even in these groups you've seen the rabid whiners
who accuse B&H of being bait + switch operators. If people complaining
_at all_ were grounds for refusing advertising from companies, who
would actually qualify?

B>

 

The magazine also says they have a policy of spot checking the dealers
anonymously. I am astounded that some of them still advertise in the
mag, IF all of these checks and policies are factual.

I'm sure B&H, Adorama, Tristate, 17th St Photo and probably a few others
would survive any number of spot checks and customer surveys.

Gary Eickmeier

 

I somehow doubt these spot checks run to ordering expensive equipment
and seeing whether it arrives.

Indeed, but I was pointing out that merely having complaints wasn't
enough.

B>

 

From: Bruce Murphy

The difference is that you can call B&H and actually GET the items advertised,
shipped at reasonable cost. A small % of people might disagree but it's a very
small %.

The A&M type companies NEVER ship product at the low ball prices they advertise
UNLESS you agree to outrageous shipping costs, buy over-priced accessories
(often items that others already include) and/or agree to an expensive
'warranty' that you likely don't need. You would end up paying more than you
would had you bought from a reputable vendor. If you don't believe this just
give them a call and ask for a $1,200 camera that they are advertising for $900
and listen to the song and dance ...

 

Bill Hilton wrote:

....and the more accessories you buy the less the shipping costs are. At
some point, shipping is even "free".

 

Hello? Hello? I'm FULLY AWARE of the difference, I was pointing out
that even B&H get complaints about them being bait&switch
merchants. How then are those complaints a useful basis for deciding
whether a merchant is good or not.

B>

 

I recently bought a camera from Butterfly Photo at a (what I think is)
very good price - Minolta A2 for $640 w/USA warranty. I ordered it
over the internet and was called by them to confirm. There was no
pressure to buy anything else & I had the camera in my hands in
3 days. After I bought & received it, I found the NYC BBB site and
looked them up to see what kind of rating they had. Well, their
rating wasn't bad, but did have some hits on it - enough that I would
have thought twice about ordering from them if I had seen it first.
After reading this thread, I also looked up A&M - they have an
abominable record; I would never order from them based upon the
BBB report, but think about it, they have 58 bad hits, but how many
sales have they made which went through flawlessly with customer
satisfaction? I guess it's just a crapshoot - sometimes you win, and
sometimes you lose, but you use all the info available to you to make
your decision & then hope.
APS