Their MO is as described by others. Bait and Switch. They offer very attractive but believable prices on branded goods, but with no intention of actually selling you the offered products at that price.
After the order is placed you recieve a follow-up contact by email or phone. They try to get you to switch to a different product at the same price by describing it as an upgrade, and superior to what was ordered.in reality, the substituted allegedly superior product can be purchased online from a reputable merchant for less than half what you will be paying for it. If you don't accept the "upgrade", you will be sent an email next day saying they are out of stock, and they are cancelling the order.
In my own experience, I ordered a Canon lens for $409 with no shipping charge. This lens is sold on the interenet in a price range of from $409 to $699. Next day I was offered an optional no charge upgrade which I assumed was still going to be manufactured by Canon. I received a Sigma lens that can be bought from amazon.com for $189.16 including shipping. The price range on the internet for this lens is from $177 to $220. No vendor has the chutzpah to ask more than $220 for this lens.
When you call them to complain, the response is uniformly aggressive, rude and confrontational, I spoke to 3 differnet people, all with the same result. Without the leverage of having paid by credit card, you are going to lose more than the return shipping cost on a transaction with them.
They will not agree to take back the cheaper product and exchange it with the one originally ordered. They will claim that it is out-of-stock. If you want a refund, they will agree to only the cost of the product less a restocking fee and less the shipping charges, and you must pay the shipping to return it.
In my case, although the original was advertised at $409, shipping free, the "upgraded" product came with an invoice for $360 for the lens plus $49 for shipping. The actual UPS cost for shipping this product to my zip code was $10.03.
Once I became agressive with them, and indicated I would contact the Credit card company and dispute the charge, they then offered to take $100 off the price. This is still $120 more than I could have bought it for from a reputable merchant.
This is a scam. It's unethical, and disingenuous but they probably have lawyers advising them so that it would be difficult to prosecute them for fraud. Avoid this merchant at all costs!
I also think their consumer "seal of approval" by ratingsplanet.com which is displayed on their website is also a scam. Probably controlled by the expresscameras.com people.
The name on the Shipping lable is "Jack Silver Photo". There is a John Silver who has been reported as affiliated with another scam website located in Brooklyn.
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