On a recent trip to the French Quarter my husband and I stopped to look at an unusual looking lense in the display window at The Camera Shoppe. A salesman came out and said to come in and he would show it to us. It was a 500mm mirror lense and he put it on my camera to show us how it worked. He also showed us a 0.5mm wideangle lense that screwed right on to the lense on the camera and could also be converted to a macro lense. I was not familiar with either of these lenses and had no clue what they were worth. He gave us a price (no prices are listed on anything that I could see) and said they were on sale and that he would knock some off the sale price. I wound up paying a total of $653 for the two lenses. Then he asked me if I had thought about upgrading my camera. I said I had not but he asked me if I'd seen the newer Canon SLR with live view. I had no idea that was possible and was very interested. He told me that that particular camera sold for $1500 but that it (once again) was on sale and since I'd bought the lenses he would cut me a deal I could not refuse. Long story short, I paid $853 for the camera. When I got home I researched them online and almost threw up. The camera sold for $400 - $500 and the small lense sold for $30. The 500mm lense sold for less than $200. I still cannot believe how STUPID I was. I know better and let him con me so easily. I am a bit too trusting and never dreamed he would exaggerate the prices that badly. That just never crossed my mind. I have not lost hope that I might recover my money. I filed a complaint with the Attorney General and with the Better Business Bureau. My bank is also working with me on this. I'm willing to take it to court if need be. I learned that there are laws against deceptive selling practices and I'm hoping we can keep this guy from robbing any other unsuspecting people.
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