On 12/24/07,86th Street Photo & Video charged my account $259.94 for a camera and extra battery. I bought the battery because the sales person told me the battery that came with the camera was of poor quality (I later determined that this was false). Upon receipt of the goods, I discovered that the extra, supposedly high quality 3 hour battery, for which they charged me $59.95, was a cheap generic battery.in fact, I could not determine the actual manufacturer because the print on the packaging and the battery itself was blurred. (I later determined that the very best batteries sell for well less than half that amount.)
I Googled 86th Street Photo & Video Reviews and discovered a plethora of complaints and unfavorable reviews. The company makes a practice of bait and switch and up-selling poor quality accessories, without the purchase of which they will not honor their advertised prices for the cameras. A number of reviewers caught them making false claims about the need for accessories such as the extra battery I ordered.
I contacted the company by phone (a one hour affair) to return the order in its entirety, after they failed to respond to my email. The person I talked to, Rachael insisted I would have to pay a restocking fee of 20% as well as the shipping and handling charges (which had mysteriously more than doubled after I added the suggested extra battery to $19.95 from $9.95). I told her that I refused to pay either in light of their deceptive business practices and that I would simply return the merchandise and dispute the entire charge with Discover. After receiving a series of harassing calls from her, I finally agreed to pay the shipping charges but not the restocking fee. However, they did not honor the agreement they credited me the amount of the original purchase then entered a wholly new charge for the restocking fee and shipping and handling, i.E., $67.94.
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