S: Never do business with Best Price Cameras

[Airencracken]

http://www.bestpricecameras.com/welcome.asp

So a week ago I order a Panny DMC-FZ30 from this website. First off they never send me a confirmation e-mail. Then on Sunday morning a representative calls from their website to confirm the order and try and sell me a bunch of accessories. Then this representative informs me that the black model is out of stock so he'll have to give me the silver one. Now this morning I get a call that they're all out of stock of all of them and they'll have to refund my card.

I look online for another place to purchase the camera right? One retailer comes up as having a good price a la pricegrabber. One Stargate photo (http://www.stargatephoto.com/) and this time I don't do a web order, I call and ask if they have the camera in stock and they say yes. I then proceed to tell them my horror story with the other retailer and the guy asks, "Who did you order from" and I tell him and he says "oh, actually, we don't have that model in stock". Wow, what shysters.

So eventually I ended up ordering the damn thing from amazon. I have less than a week till my road trip and I had to get expedited shipping. I hope to hell it comes in time.

[mcs328]

Aren't these the fly by night retailers based on NYC? They do exactly what you described, close shop once they are found out and open again under a different name. Rinse and repeat.

[InfiniteNothing]

Oh! my bad dude. I found them on google with an irresistable price. Thought I'd point them out to you. In my experience Amazon is VERY fast.

[Markel]

I remember seeing a web page somewhere where the guy posted pictures of a number of these "stores". It was pretty revealing.

I came accross this forum (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=6081) thread discussing these stores.

[Cubsfan]

Here's a horror story where digg.com actually helped out (vigilante thing)

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

[Airencracken]

YUP! It was a NYC based business. They'd better refund my card correctly. Either way I'm glad I used my AMEX card. I've had great experience in the past with their customer service (AMEX's that is)

[MikeD]

In my experience Amazon is VERY fast.

:stupid:

You're good to go. Now just get Amazon Prime and you won't have to worry again. ;)

[CornMonkey]

BBB report for Best Price Cameras (http://www.newyork.bbb.org/reports/businessreports.aspx?pid=44&page=1&id=12668)
BBB report for Stargate (starlight) Cameras (http://www.newyork.bbb.org/reports/businessreports.aspx?pid=44&page=1&id=74756)

when it comes down to it, never ever buy consumer electronics from stores based in Brooklyn, NY. they're almost all these bait-n-switch types of business fronts. if you don't buy the ridiculously priced accessories, your item is suddenly out of stock.

warning signs:
- price is almost too good to be true (because it is)
- merchant ratings are really good (because they boost their own ratings...pay particular attention to any and all negative reports)
- based out of NY

when in doubt, always check BBB first...and take note of all their other aliases.

[Airencracken]

Yeah I guess now I know for the future. Damn I feel like an idiot.

[avlena]

BBB report for Best Price Cameras (http://www.newyork.bbb.org/reports/businessreports.aspx?pid=44&page=1&id=12668)
BBB report for Stargate (starlight) Cameras (http://www.newyork.bbb.org/reports/businessreports.aspx?pid=44&page=1&id=74756)

when it comes down to it, never ever buy consumer electronics from stores based in Brooklyn, NY. they're almost all these bait-n-switch types of business fronts. if you don't buy the ridiculously priced accessories, your item is suddenly out of stock.

warning signs:
- price is almost too good to be true (because it is)
- merchant ratings are really good (because they boost their own ratings...pay particular attention to any and all negative reports)
- based out of NY

when in doubt, always check BBB first...and take note of all their other aliases.

why NY? do they have really lax online retail laws or something?

[utcpal]

Whoa.. Warning to all of us, who buy stuffs from an unfamiliar websites..