I used "pricegrabber" to search for a Minolta A200 Camera. I found a very low price at wawa digital (that should have been a tipoff right there). There were a number of favorable seller reviews, so I went to the site and ordered the camera. I again should have suspected something when I was required to phone the company to confirm. I had never done that before either. I talked to "Sam", and he went through a list of items that I needed to fill out a good camera experience, and decided that a higher capacity battery and an extended warranty would be ok. I also went with overnight delivery.
Later I got out my calculator because the numbers were off. The shipping had doubled, and the batt. And warranty were each $100 more than advertised.
I called customer service the next day and ran smack into a gargoyle that coudn't keep his lies too straight. I wanted to cancel the extra items and have only the camera sent, or at least pay only the advertised price. He told me that there was no way that I could do that, of which I worked hard to disabuse him of. He was getting madder, and it wasn't helping too much that I thought that the whole situation was amusing, and couldn't stop laughing. He kept offering new add-ons but by that time there was no way I was going to trust him.
I finally told him to cancel the whole order, and was told in reply that I would have to pay a 20% re-stocking fee. I was also told that I had better not dispute any of this money with my credit card company because he was going to get his money, or else. He also told me that he was going to spread my credit card info over the internet. I think that he must make more money in identity theft than cameras. I was also told several times that the conversation was being recorded. After threatening to spread my Card info over the internet, I hope that he really was.
I don't think that these people are native Americans. I not only detected an accent, but most of the names I was called showed little or no creativity, and was very, very repetitive. Any solid USA grade school kid could have easily walked circles in profanity around him.
Overall, dealing with this type of person is unpleasant. This was the first time that some one had attempted to rip me off on the internet. I will be more circumspect in the future. So far all I have done to protect myself from this company is to cancel my credit card, and send for a new one. I will also dispute any charges that may show up. I also talked with a really wonderful young lady at the F.T.C. Who gave me some good advice. I feel confident that nothing untowards will come of this except possibly old Wawa will be put out of business. I'm sure that he'll soon be back polishing his poor profanities on a new generation of "suckers" (his word, spelled with an F) under a new name. Watch your backside.
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