Internet Buying Used To Be Fun :(

[S10xGN]

Tried buying a new camera (Kodak Z712 for $179.00) this weekend from TheDigitalNerds.com. Got an e-mail and voice message to "call and confirm" my order <huh?> which I did. The guy tried slamming me with a bunch of high dollar "upgrades" like a 1 gig memory card for $129.00 and a "better" battery for $99.00. After declining his "offer" and saying only the camera please, he stated that the camera I ordered was a "gray market export model" and all the menus are in Japanese. At this point I ran out of patience and cancelled the order (which I'm sure is exaclty what he'd planned).

I called Kodak yesterday to see about these "gray market export" models and was told (of course) that no such thing exists. These people are true scammers as seen here. Wish I done a bit more research before trying to buy from them, but I got the scoop from these guys, where you can see they are a "featured seller" with 3688 reviews (1 pending and if they publish it, it won't be good).

Bottom line is: you must research the companies thouroughly now days, there are a bunch of scammers out there now days!

 

[SS_Sean]

I'm a little slow...what was the scam?

 

[Grumpy]

I'm a little slow...what was the scam?

Sean send me $219 for a wiz bang camera ohhhh ya don't want the "upgrades"??? well never mind :biggrin:

 

[bishir]

Do these people have your credit card info? I'd be watching that account!

 

[John Larkin]

That's why they call it Crooklyn. However I have ordered from etronics.com in Brooklyn and they were excellent. They show a ZL10 on their website but out of stock if that helps any.

 

[cfBuick]

Bottom line is: you must research the companies thoroughly now days, there are a bunch of scammers out there now days!

S10xGN, that is what you have to do unfortunately. You're a victim of a modern day bait-and-switch that is very prevalent in the electronics industry. Look for sites that are associated with a name you trust, perhaps the BBB. Or, look to sites such as pricegrabber DOT com that ranks sites based on user feedback. That might help you in the future.

And John is 100% correct when he call that borough in NYC... Crooklyn.

 

[loki993]

I'm a little slow...what was the scam?

its basically a bait and switch. I saw that there were a lot of companies doing this when I was buying my Olympus more than a few years back.

basically what they do is have an amazingly low price on something, a camera in that case. their website will show it in stock. once you order it you have to call. the person on the phone will then try to see you a ton of overpriced "upgrades", case, batteries, mem card...etc. if you refuse the camera that was in stock according to the website mysteriously and suddenly is on backorder. basically when that happens you will never receive the product.

buyer beware...if the price looks too good to be true it probably is. they and only use reputable sellers with a good rep.

 

[loki993]

its really amazing that this is still happening. I bought my camera over 7 years ago and there was same problem.

also what so amazon is that its so widespread, its NOT just a few companies. id almost guarantee, at least it was the case when I was looking for my camera, that you could do a search for a camera on yahoo shopping or price grabber. all the internet sites with priced amazingly low you can go on resellerratings and that will probably all have similar reviews.

also 1 other thing they had good ratings on the price search sites because they go on the sites and input sometimes thousands of reviews and feedbacks for themselves.

always check reseller ratings, they saved me from a similar mistake when I was looking for my camera.

 

[S10xGN]

Do these people have your credit card info? I'd be watching that account!

Yes they do have my info, but I've already informed MC to never accept any charges from them (hope it helps).

I've never had an experience like this before and hope to never have another! BTW, I called their "customer service" on Monday to be sure the order was cancelled and that was another mind-bender. I told the guy one of his employees tried pressuring me into a bunch of cheesy upgrades and his response? "So, what's your problem? I need to hang up and take some calls that will make me money". I said I wanted to be sure my order was cancelled and he said it was. I then asked "don't you need my order number?" and about halfway through that question I got dialtone! If I still lived up there, I'd be taking a 150 mile roadtrip to "make amends".

 

[SMS]

I recently made a purchase at a somewhat shady on-line business, and 3 weeks later, someone tried to buy 5 Ipods from another site, and have them shipped to Russia with my MC debit card! It was halted before it happened, but it tied up my checking acct for 5 days. Be very careful when dealing with lo-buck shysters.

Steve

 

[loki993]

I told the guy one of his employees tried pressuring me into a bunch of cheesy upgrades and his response? "So, what's your problem? I need to hang up and take some calls that will make me money". I said I wanted to be sure my order was cancelled and he said it was. I then asked "don't you need my order number?" and about halfway through that question I got dialtone! If I still lived up there, I'd be taking a 150 mile roadtrip to "make amends"

I truly cant believe how these people act on the phone. its suprising they make any money at all. I guess theres a lot of dumb people out there.