It always seems too good to be true, that spectacular deal you find on e-bay. As some of us know, it typically is. However, given the large base of positive feedback this particular e-bay seller/store has received, I figured that it would be a safe bet to purchase from them. I was wrong.
I called the store's toll free number to place my order after seeing it listed on e-bay as an auction. They have you do this for credit card orders. The item was a Nikon D80 camera package with 2 lenses. It included a pair of Nikon (Nikkor) lenses (18-70 and 70-300), as well as a memory card and a few other items, all for roughly 1,400 dollars shipped, a good but not "too good" (read: suspiciously good) deal.
The call started out terribly. The phone was answered with "Hello." in a thick, east coast accent, belonging to someone that was obviously disgruntled. I figured - hey, great deal, I'll put up with a little crappy customer service. I mention the e-bay auction and that I want to purchase a camera from them. So they start processing the deal when he mentions some "upgrades".
I had seen feedback from a few users about desperate attempts to upsell - so I was not surprised when I started being told that I should upgrade my battery. He mentioned that the battery packaged with the D80 was a "low capacity" battery that would last only 40 minutes on a full charge. That, and the charger takes upto 7-10 hours to charge that 40 minute battery. Normally, the "quick charger" and "higher capacity, 2 hour battery" cost $299.00 each (a grand total of just under 600 bucks), but he would give them to me for just $340.00.
Of course, I was right on the internet as he talked to me, so I asked him for the model number (s) of the battery. He read them off to me, and I looked them up.
First of all, the "higher capacity" battery he mentioned doesn't exist. Second, the battery packaged with the D80 is touted by Nikon to last upto 2,500 shots or more (www.kenrockwell.com saying that in the real world, it lasts at least 1,000, minimum).in other words, the average user wouldn't even be able to use the entire battery in one sitting. Not to mention that this "quick charger" the salesman tried to con me into buying was also already packaged with the camera. To add insult to injury, the battery is only 50 bucks, with knock off brands being in the 20 dollar range. Seriously, $299.00?
Of course, it didn't end there. When I showed hesitation, I was told that my lenses would be "upgraded" for free if I purchased those accessories; the lenses that came bundled in that package were not "D-SLR" lenses, but just normal SLR lenses.
Now think about this. Why would a company bundle non-D-SLR lenses with a D-SLR camera? For bait and switch tactics, of course. The lenses that they wanted to "upgrade" me to, for "free" were a pair of Tamron digital-slr lenses. For those that don't know, Tamron is a low-end knock-off brand that makes cheap, inferior lenses for Nikons and other cameras. Tastes in lenses aside, they meant to sell me less valuable lenses as an "upgrade".
At this point, I requested politely to have my order cancelled while I thought on the whole thing. The 'gentleman' told me that he'd just ship what I ordered. I replied with a "Well. No. I'm cancelling the order".
We exchanged back and forth, and it boiled down to this: he wanted to charge me a 10% 'cancellation fee' for cancelling an order I had just made literally 5 minutes earlier. Obviously total bull - why would someone process and close an order while they're trying to sell me more merchandise?
I called my credit card company, disputed the charge (which was apparently never filed, contrary to what the salesman said), based on their misleading advertising, outright lying and bait-and-switch tactics. This sort of abusive retail is what makes the internet what it is.
The shameful thing about it all is that there are a good number of people out there that have purchased cameras from these rip-offs, probably not even realizing (due to inexperience with the camera market) that they're throwing money away.
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