I decided to buy a new digital camera since my current one is about 5 years old and many technology improvements have been made in that time. I have a Canon S330 that still works great. I decided to get the newest model – Canon SD700IS. Easy decision.
So I go online and search for the best price. It retails at $500 but I have no intention of spending that much. I go to my usual places shopper.cnet.com, www.froogle.com and I find several in the low $300 range.
I bought one from Preferred Photo. I waited. Three days later I realized that I had not even received an email confirmation of my order. I went to the site and looked up the order and it said I had to call and confirm it. I called. I waited on hold. A guy came on and asked my why I was buying the Japanese model of the camera. I said I didn’t mean to and the site said nothing about it being Japanese. He explained that the menus would be in Japanese and the battery would only last 20 minutes and offered me an American model with a good battery for $50 more. I was outraged by his bait-and-switch tactics and I told him to cancel the order. He did. Preferredphoto.com is a scam.
So I did some more research and found that nearly everyone who sells the SD700IS at a low price is actually selling the European Model IXUS800 which is pretty much the same camera except it has no warranty and no clear explanation of what you are getting.
I found another place to buy my camera – BestPriceCameras.com. The description clearly stated that it was the American model that that it had a US warranty. I ordered it. I got an immediate email confirmation – nice start. The next day, they called to confirm the order and left me a voice message – deja vu. I returned the call and left Chris a message and 3 days later he had not called back. I called him again and left a message that I wanted to cancel the order. Then I called the main line and waited on hold for 30 minutes. Someone came on every 2 minutes, “Can I help you?” I responded, “Yes, I want to…” I was cut off, “Please Hold.”
Finally, I began responding, “Are you going to talk to me or put me on hold again?” They talked to me and I cancelled my order. It took me 5 days. BestPriceCameras.com is terrible.
So I purchased my camera at ZipZoomFly.com. They are great. I always get my stuff fast and they never try to rip me off. The only problem I have with them is that they only ship with FedEx. It is a great moral dilemma for me to order from them.
When I purchased my first digital camera 5 years ago, I went through the same buying procedure but I had no trouble at all. The world has changed.