I Got Screwed!

[toyrunner95]

ok guys, never buy from camera city in NY. they are very rude and totally hustled me, they upgraded my order from a 300 canon rebel xt, to the xti for 700 without telling me. i know thats fraud but im not to worried about it because i want the camera. if you want to know the story i will tell u guys but right now ill leave it up to you.

the short version is, i bought a camera online, they upgraded it when i added the lense and didt tell me about the upgrade, also didnt tell me taht they were out of stock. more over they didnt ship it when they said. and treated me as if I had done something wrong.

%*&@! fill in your own curse.

 

[TeleScooby]

Places like Camera City are known for pulling the "we're out of stock" bait-and-switch con...as soon as they try it, I suggest going elsewhere, there are plenty of online dealers that have better reps...

Sorry you got hosed...

 

[toyrunner95]

update, so i called them and prettymuch reamed them a new one for screwing people and i talked to the supervisor and he decided to give me a 900 dollar package for 500, instead of the original 700 dollar bill. so i feel justified, but i had a suspicion when i bought it that something like this would happen. kinda got a 6th sence about deals and such.

i really cant believe that they get away with that in this day and age and that more people havent complained. they said that i was originally getting an import model instead of an american one. whatever that means. its all made in tiwan and japan anyway. i just hope it works. if it doesnt work, then lawsuit here i come!!!

 

[TeleScooby]

It'll work...what they mean by 'import' is that they didn't pay us taxes on them because they were originally intended for a different market(Asia, Europe, etc...) it's called 'grey market' because there really aren't laws preventing this, but it's not technically legal either...

I'm glad you were able to work something out...feel free to ask questions about resellers on here, I for one love talking shop about camera gear!

 

[JMyerz]

The gray markets have no warranty at all.

J

 

[toyrunner95]

i dont care about warrenty, i only buy products that have factory garuntee(however thats spelled) such as warn, canon, microsoft, anything where if there is something seriously wrong with it then they will own up to their mistake, if a company doesnt do this then i do not consider this a good company. If I damage it then its my fault and no warrently will cover a lens being shattered, or a drown camera. like if it doenst adjust shutter speed or the actual camera breaks in half then ill say something.
even most car companies will honor factory defects. i had a valve knock in my 4runner at 100k and toyota said it shouldent do that at 100k, and the rest of the motor looked almost brand new, oil was changed, belts tight, they had all the records for it so it had to be a facotry defect they did a complete head job for free. it was awsome.

 

[Ursidae69]

I'm really sorry to hear this. There are dozens of online camera shops that are bogus that use bait and switch to screw people. Resellerratings.com gives them a horrible score.

For what it's worth, prices at reputable places like Beach Camera are around the best one can do for non-gray market.

Hope this works out. Good luck.

 

[toyrunner95]

HOLY WOW!!! they didnt even score a 1 out of 10 hahahaha thats sad!!! hahaha oh wow that made my day better actually. we will find out tomorrow when the camera shows up (supposedly) and see how it works out. if the camera works and is what they say it is, canon reble xti, then i will be happy, if i got screwed oh well, im not to worried about it.

no body messes with Adam We! (family guy refrence) please tell me someone got that.

 

[toyrunner95]

im supposedly getting a USA canon reble XTI, i hope.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Gray market cameras many times DON'T have a factory backed warranty. Well, at least Nikon that I know. If you buy a camera that is not targeted for US import, then Nikon will NOT fix it under warranty and you are at the mercy of the warranty offered by the shop. In some cases this can be OK if the place is reputable, such as B&H for example. If you buy a non-USA piece of equipment from B&H they do offer a 1 year warranty. But you'd have to send it back to them for the repair. Nikon USA goes one more and won't even work on gray market products (they can tell by the serial number). So even if you send them a body or lens, they will send it back without repair. You then have to find an independent repair shop and they won't be anywhere close to free.

Personally I think it's risky, but the cost is usually cheaper. I would most definitely NOT let them switch a USA Canon for a gray market Canon, they will be screwing you down the road if there is a problem.

Thom Hogan's explanation:
http://www.bythom.com/warranty.htm

Olympus is the same deal on the Warranty on a Non US model.

I almost got hosed by the same company with a unreal deal on a overseas variant.

Talked to a buddy that managed a Wolf camera. He set me strait.

 

[cshontz]

A year or so ago, such a someone blogged about a similar experience, and it was submitted to Digg, an extremely popular "user submitted news" site. At which point the camera shop got so much negative attention, they either had to close or change their identity.

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

 

[toyrunner95]

well ive been tracking it since yesterday and so far it made it from broklyn, to jamica new york, where ever that is, it left jamica at 11:30pm. probably on a plane, call it an 8 hour flight, minus the 3 hour time difference it should have been in spokane at say 5am pst. its now 11 am im pullman and it does not take 6 hours to drive 75 miles. on top of that it does not take 6 hours to process and re pack a truck. UG i deal with UPS for work and they are usally pretty good. almost everything is automated and very well kept track of. i think someone dropped the ball.

 

[toyrunner95]

ok its about 5pm now. nothing has shown up. so i guess when it gets here ill just leave it in the box, ship it back and call my lawyer. this is insane. they have had 36hours to deliver it and i haent heard anything.

 

[goodtimes]

It takes UPS 36 hours to ship something across the friggin street. If UPS has it, it will show up in a day or two.

As for the whole on-line purchase thing....this is exactly why I like to research things on-line, then go find a local shop and buy what I want. This is not always possible, but I generally will pay the small premium to hold it in my own hands before laying down the money for it.

 

[toyrunner95]

update:

i called the shipper and they gave my my money back on the shipping, i have literally reamed UPS a new one and they tell me it will be here tonight, its supposedly in spokane. im expecting it tomorrow around noon, unless they pull their heads out and have some one drive it down that lives down here.

as for the camera, i double checked with the shipper and i am now getting a rebel XTI for about $685 which is a screamin deal. even with all the hastle. oh well we will see if i like it. with all the trouble i may just keep it. who knows.