Consumer Alert: Where NOT to buy a camera - My bad Experience

My wife started having contractions on Tuesday, November 22nd. She's
not due until December 14th but it was a good reminder that we need to
start preparing for the big day. Bags need to be pre-packed, directions
to babysitters, phone numbers, and pre-registration paperwork all need
to be figured out, completed and ready to go at a moment's notice.
Since then the contractions have increased, gotten stronger, closer
together and become much more frequent. Anyway, that night, we decided
it was time to upgrade the memory card in our digital camera. All we
have right now is a working 16MB smartmedia card for our Fuji Finepix
6800. It was a great camera when it came out four years ago: three or
four megapixels, optical and digital zoom, macro and movie modes, LCD
view finder, etc. And the chassis was designed, in part, by some
engineers at Porsche too, which I found to be a neat novelty and I'm
sure I paid extra for. But apparently, according to several stores we
visited and the rather snooty 19 year old sales clerks usually behind
the counter at the massive home electronics conglomerates, smartmedia
memory is pretty much on its last leg and as such inventories are very
low and what is in stock is usually quite expensive. I was mildly
discouraged that I'd chosen a camera that, after only 4 years, the
memory required to run it had pretty much gone the way of the buffalo.
I was even more agitated at the fact that I was pretty sure my best
move was to purchase a new camera. The guy at Best Buys tried to get me
to walk out with one that night. CompUSA tried even harder.
Coincidentally, this is a random side note, I'm pretty sure I'll
never shop at CompUSA again if I can help it. Just about every piece of
merchandise I saw there only displayed a price tag of what the will
cost after 2 or 3 rebates, one of which inevitably involved a one-year
subscription to AOL. But that's neither here nor there.

So I decided I wasn't going to invest hundreds of dollars into
something without doing some research first. I spent most of that
evening looking up information on brands, features, etc. I found a very
helpful site called Digital Camera HQ (www.digitalcamera-hq.com). They
were most helpful in deciphering what I wanted in a camera, the
advantages and disadvantages of the different options, etc. I decided I
wanted a good, reliable name brand. Preferably Canon if I could afford
it. And I decided I did not need 7 or 8 megapixels. My wife and I
figured we could get by on 4, but 5 would give us some room for
cropping if necessary. And we decided rather than a large footprint
that requires its own carrying case and is awkward to carry around, we
wanted a small, compact "point-and-shoot" camera that would fit in
a purse, front seat console, or even a large coat pocket. We figure
we're more apt to catch those precious moments if bringing the camera
along isn't a burden. After a long series of evaluations and a
detailed matrix of camera needs and features, I decided on the Canon
PowerShot SD450.

For a link to the SD450:
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=11939


Pretty happy with my choice and encouraged by a plethora of positive
user reviews, I went about finding one. I was hoping to find it for
under $300, as Froogle searches were showing that my camera could be
had for as little as $250. But after looking up all the local stores
that carry them, I found that $350 was the going price for nearly every
one of them. Wal-Mart was the cheapest at $320 and my local Wal-Marts
didn't have any in their inventories in stock. Charity and I wanted
to get it as soon as possible because the contractions weren't
slowing down and we could go into labor any time and to do so without a
camera...well that's apparently just unacceptable. So she suggested
that if it's so much cheaper through some online vendors, why don't
we see if purchasing it through them and having it shipped "next day
air" was cheaper total than $350. So I went back to Froogle...where I
discovered a new company to put on my NEVER EVER USE THESE COMPANIES
AGAIN list.


Best Price Cameras (www.bestpricecameras.com) seemingly offered the
lowest price on the camera that I wanted, as you can see from the
picture. I attempted to make the purchase on Wednesday night. Attempted
being the key word. And attempted, and attempted and attempted. I was a
little surprised that a company whose only source of sales was through
their website would have such a flakey online ordering process. Broken
links at every click. Every time I tried to submit information for the
order the session failed, and I'd have to reestablish my secure
connection, re-fill in all my information, credit card numbers, etc.
This happened at least 5 times before it finally went through (and no,
it was not my Internet connection failing because between each failure
on the site I would check it against other sites just to ensure my
connectivity was not the culprit). It did eventually go through, but I
was quite concerned by then that my card might be charged multiple
times, so I sent an email to their handy-dandy customer service email
address just to verify the order was processed, and only one time.
Three hours later I received confirmation of my order and it became
clear to me at that time that only the one order that made it through
was in fact processed. Shipping it next day air cost about $36, which
is what I expected, however I was disappointed to see that adding a 3
ounce 128MB SD memory card would bump the shipping up to over $70, so I
decided to forego the memory card (I found one on eBay for $7 plus $9
to ship it, brand new still in its box). Two days later I received an
email from Best Price Cameras in response to my initial inquiry about
the order processing problems. All it said was please call the customer
service 1-800 hotline. Struck me as odd that they'd have a customer
service email process set up if all it did was reply back for customers
to call the service hotline. Confident that only one order was
submitted and processed, I decided against calling them for further
verification.

Later that day (Friday) I received yet another email from somebody at
Best Price Cameras. A sales rep. The email came at 2:19pm and it stated
that before my order could be completed and shipped that the gentleman
needed to "confirm my telephone number" and I needed to call him
directly and do so before 3pm my time, which gave me a 40 minute window
to call him or the order couldn't be processed until the next
business day. I of course didn't get off from work until 3:30pm that
day. So I was needless to say, very disappointed by that incident.

I called them first thing on Sunday morning (apparently Saturday's
not a business day but Sunday is at Best Price Cameras) and the message
still stated I should call back during business hours a full half-hour
after their own message said they'd be open. I did eventually get a
hold of the guy that wanted to "confirm" my telephone number. Which
I thought might be a problem since I did it from my cell phone while I
was on the road for work purposes and it wasn't the number I put on
the order. But it turned out to be a non-issue. The guy never asked for
my telephone number at all. What he did ask me, in the same "I hate
my job" tone that I got at Best Buys, is what kind of battery and
battery charger I would like my camera shipped with as well as what
kind of warranty (if any) I'd like. Now I was a little surprised by
this line of questioning because the website says right on the SD450
page, "Everything we sell is brand new and factory fresh" and the
Canon website states what accessories the camera ships with in the box
and a battery as well as a charger are included. Best Price Camera's
SD450 page also states "Everything we sell comes with a full US
Warranty".

Canon's Statement of what's "in the box":
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=BoxContentsAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=11939

Now, in the version of English that I speak the phraseology, "comes
with a warranty" means it's included in the price. So now I'm
getting a little upset that it was not included and that accessories
that came in the box according to Canon were costing me extra and
asked, in a most reluctant tone, what the price for a battery, charger
and warranty was. He quoted me $42 dollars and said it would bump my
shipping up too. Yeah, that "next day air" that still hadn't left
the warehouse yet was going up and now...I was looking at paying quite
a bit more than $350 for the same camera at a local electronics store
and had I gone that route I'd have a camera in my hand and my wife
(contractions now every hour) would have one less thing to worry about.
So yeah, I let him know I was more than a little ticked off and that's
when he decided to be a "nice guy" and cut me a deal, in so much as
if I get the 2-hour battery, instead of the 1-hour he'd keep the
original shipping price.

Gee thanks.

The camera, at the absolute earliest will be here tomorrow, one full
week after I placed the order. The baby's due any day now. Best Price
Cameras, in my opinion epitomizes everything that my mom is scared of
about buying merchandise online. It was one of the worst online vendor
experience I've ever had, and I've done a lot of online purchasing
throughout the years. But lesson learned: I'll never just go with the
lowest price in a Froogle search again.

To see this write-up with pictures and "prettier formatting" see my
blogged article:
http://bazooka-joe.blogspot.com/2005/11/consumer-alert-my-digital-camera.html

Regards.

:Bazooka-Joe

 

Bazooka-Joe writes ..

You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by checking this vendor
at resellerratings.com first ...
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller8754.html ... aka infinityphoto
aka jandkcameras ... rating of 0.28 where 7.5 is considered decent ...
the gripes on resellerratings all sound like yours ...

It's a shame guys like this stay in business but if consumers would
just do a bit of research first they'd know to avoid them ...

Bill

 

I've certainly learned my lesson. Thanks Bill. I'll go checkout that
site and add my $0.02 to the reviews.

:Bazooka-Joe

 

Bazooka-Joe writes ...

Joe, another use for that site is to enter the product you are after
and sort the answers by price, then pick a company with a high short
and long-term rating (unfortunately some companies have employees enter
glowing reports, which can give a false short-time picture Also
look for low or reasonable shipping costs since some outfits offer low
prices but ridiculous shipping charges ...

http://shop.resellerratings.com/pid-27080549/SB-2 ... there are some
excellent stores on this list selling it for (slightly) under $300 ...
just in case your current deal falls through.

Bill

 

'Thou shalt not cheat the Goyim on the Sabbath day'

 

Ah, I believe it's "Yentzim Goyim".

 

They don't discriminate, shops like that cheat everyone, Goyim or not.

You gotta wonder why they close on Saturday, since they obviously don't
practice other parts of the religion.

 

I wouldn't know - I'm merely an ignorant goy, fit only to be cheated and
worked like a mule by the sons of Abraham.

Mind you, if the mules ever get fed up of being mistreated and kick them in
the balls, they'll have quite a surprise. I once heard a story about a
German mule that was being worked to death - it got quite uppity,
apparently.

 

I quit reading after page 20

 

Well, from my point of view, you made several serious errors. First, if
you want something today, buy it in a local store, period. Yes, it may
cost a bit more, but you walk out with it!

Second, NEVER put up with a website that makes ordering from the
painful, just don't go there. If they are that shoddy about their
website, just think how likely it is that other aspects of their
business are well-run.

Third, after the guy tried to add on to your sale, and the shipping cost
began to swell, you should have canceled the order, and put the company
on your 'do not patronize' list.

I will try to look into the future for you a bit: I suspect that when
you get the product (a few days from now), you will find it
unsatisfactory, and you will have little of no luck at correcting any
deficiency.

In the future, if you wish to order online, deal with a company you have
confidence in, such as Amazon, or a major retailer, and pay a few
dollars more. You will save money, and much frustration in the end.


Now, before everyone gets the idea that I am 'down' on internet
businesses, let me say I ordered something from Old San Francisco Music
Box company this week, and received the order the NEXT DAY (ground
shipping, free). Ordering online was trouble-free, and easy, and their
service was fast, and reflected past experiences with the company. Many
online ordering companies are like that, but there are thousands that
just are out for a fast buck, and will disappear after your credit card
number is harvested... Take care!

 

Next time, check here on this newsgroup for recommendations for digital
camera vendors before you buy online. Better luck next time, and best of
luck with your baby.

 

You're not very smart, are you?