Holiday Shopping Notice; Buyer Beware!
Holiday Shopping Notice; Buyer Beware!
CameraTown.Com (press release), NH
December 4, 2006 — In 2003 PC World wrote an article titled “Camera Confidential,” which helped to expose the pushy and, at times, unethical practices of many Brooklyn, NY based computer and camera dealers. PC World went undercover, shopping online and by phone at Broadway Photo and at six other dealers in the New York area that sell over the Web.
Their findings could be best summed up by the old saying “Buyer Beware.” PC World goes on to say that “While prices are tempting, the hassles can be incredible. Most stores gave us an aggressive sales pitch for pricey accessories, charged excessive shipping-and-handling fees, and in some cases took weeks to issue refunds for stuff we returned.”
PC World is back again with another informative article titled “Shopping Engines: Suspect Advice?” Like the previous article, this story exposes how many of these same Brooklyn, NY based online retailers are getting 4 and 5 star ratings while their BBB rating tells a different story.
“When we went window shopping at NexTag for a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT digital camera, the shopping engine recommended, by way of its Trusted Seller logo, several online stores with “unsatisfactory” BBB ratings and complaints filed against them at the New York Department of Consumer Affairs.
When we searched at Yahoo Shopping for popular consumer electronics (a portable DVD player, an iPod, a digital camera, a camcorder, a GPS navigator, a portable game system, and a flat-panel display), nearly a third of the merchants that came up in search results had “unsatisfactory” ratings with the BBB.”
If you are shopping online this holiday season, and many of you are, please take a few minutes to read these two articles. While a low price is always a big motivation, keep in mind that a company cannot legitimately sell below cost without some trickery. Many of these “shady” retailers will remove included accessories from the box then try to sell them to you in a package or as an add-on when they call you to “confirm” your order.
These articles from PC World also help to expose that many of these retailers are actually owned and run by the same people under different aliases. For example, dBuys, one of the seemingly lower priced online retailers, also does business as:
Dbuys.com, Inc.
I Buy Digital
IBUYDIGITAL.Com
Ibuyplasma.com
Real Deal Shop
While retailers like the ones mentioned above or in the PC World article(s) help to tarnish the online shopping experience, other retailers – the ones that often seem to have “higher prices” – go out of their way to satisfy their customers and do try to mislead through advertising and deceptive “bait & switch” sales practices.
At Cameratown.com, we have made it a point to only accept retail sponsorships from legitimate photo retailers – such as Adorama and Hunt’s Photo & Video. That said, you will still find these Brooklyn based retailers listed on our site from time to time through random Google Ads and through our shopping portal that is run by Pricegrabber (cameratown.pricegrabber.com).
Below, we have compiled a list of retailers that we either have had good experiences with and are known authorized dealers for the products they carry or are satisfactory members of the BBB.
Adorama (adorama.com)
Hunt’s Photo & Video (huntsphotoandvideo.com)
B&H Photo (bhphoto.com)
Buy.com (Buy.com)
OneCall (OneCall.com)
J&R Music (JR.com)
Zeff Photo Supply (Zeffphoto.com)
Staples (Staples.com)
OfficeMax (Officemax.com)
NewEgg (NewEgg.com)
TigerDirect (TigerDirect.com)
Norman Camera (normancamera.com)
Ritz Camera (RitzCamera.com)
MWave (Mwave.com)
Circuit City (Circuitcity.com)
Best Buy (Bestbuy.com)
The camera retail business has very slim margins – even at the manufacturers suggested advertised prices (M.A.P.) – so discounts that go beyond 10 or 15% are probably worth investigating before handing over your credit-card. In the end, the old adage “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” should always be in the back of your mind.
Add comment December 5th, 2006