Digital Camera Buying Advice
http://live.pirillo.com/ – One of Chris’s friends found a website that offered the Canon TX-1 for almost one hundred dollars less than what Amazon was offering it for. He placed the order, then received an e-mail response with a request to call the company in order to complete the order.
Chris’s advice: he’s walking directly into a bait and switch scam. When they have you on the phone they’ll up sell you, or only sell you the camera but it won’t include a lens or battery.
Chris found himself in a similar situation in a store in San Francisco: he saw a camera at an incredible discount, but it didn’t come with a box (it cost extra) or a battery (which was an extra $100!)
The lesson: be as careful online as you are in the real world. If something seems fishy, or you’re just not comfortable with the transaction then you have the right to back out of the purchase.
Do you have any suggestions for avoiding the classic bait and switch scams?
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5 Comments
Susan
June 14th, 2007
at 12:00pm
A problem that I”ve had online with buying cameras is that they offer it for an insane low price, like $100 less or more than in stores… then you order it through the online form, and you find out it is backordered… like WEEKS… and in some cases don’t know when they’ll have it in. I’ve even called the # for online stores before, and they say “yes we have it,” then you ask them to physically check, and they say “oh it’s on backorer.” Yeah, that’s what I thought. Sometimes worth the extra $ to buy it in person at the store.
Arik
June 14th, 2007
at 6:06pm
I actually bought my camera from one of these.
After ordering online they obviously wanted a phone number. No problemo. Then they call and try to upsell. After maybe 1/2 hour of replying “no, I don’t need an extra battery. Or the soft case. Or the underwater case…” they were through. Camera arrived as promised, bought the accessories elsewhere (where they were more reasonably priced).
It’s not all a scam.
– Arik
Arik
June 14th, 2007
at 6:06pm
I actually bought my camera from one of these.
After ordering online they obviously wanted a phone number. No problemo. Then they call and try to upsell. After maybe 1/2 hour of replying “no, I don’t need an extra battery. Or the soft case. Or the underwater case…” they were through. Camera arrived as promised, bought the accessories elsewhere (where they were more reasonably priced).
It’s not all a scam.
– Arik
bob mendell
June 16th, 2007
at 8:19am
Found a deeply discounted digital camera from a New York area online vendor and ordered. Turns out I should have checked http://www.epinions.com and http://www.ripoffreport.com for the vendor’s name to see it was a large-scale scam with same outfit having multiple vendor names using bait & switch, but if you don’t buy more THEY cancel your order. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten their names.
Vance
June 16th, 2007
at 2:14pm
That’s funny. I have bought several camera’s, lenses, computers, gps units, mighmp3 players software and assorted junk from online dealers and I have never had a problem with any of this stuff. Then I always stick with biz-rated 4 star or above places and I’ll pay a few dollars more to deal with a known quantity. I don’t usually pay a lot more but $20 t0 $30 for no hassle service on a $1500 purchase seems like smart money to me.
You have to remember, “If its too good to be true then you may well be blue.”