On April 5 I bid successfully (EBay) on a camera (Olympus C-4000 plus ultimate kit, $213.50). The EBay info expressly said: seller pays shipping, thus I paid just the $213.50 shown in the bill.
After waiting for more than a week for the camera to arrive I sent an email to ChoiceOneDigital inquiring about when I could expect the camera to arrive - no answer! Another email: this time an answer: I owed them $29.99 for shipping. I reminded them with another email of the "seller pays shipping" phrase in the EBay info. Their answer this time: the $29.99 were "auction fees".
It all sounded fishy to me, so I asked them to refund the money I had paid thru PayPal. Answer: They couldn't do that. When I insisted, they agreed as an exception but only after I paid the $29.99. Naturally this was unacceptable - after all that had transpired thus far I might never see the $213.50. So I tried to call an 800 number and was put on hold forever and a day. Then I called their toll number, talked to a rather uncooperative fellow (Kevin) and told him I would want to receive the camera ASAP because I was going abroad for some months and I would send a personal check for the $29.99.
After about a week I inquired by phone whether the check had arrived and had they shipped the camera. The person answering (I think it was Kevin again) knew, lightning-fast, that the check had not arrived... Remarkable! Waited another week and my departure was near. No, the check had not arrived. First time that one of my letters should have gotten lost!
From abroad I tried to send emails to the only address I knew: [email protected] - all emails came back marked "undeliverable".in the meantime I had found out thru www.reseller-rating, that the outfit has a rather low consumer rating. (I know - I should have checked that first, but I was in a hurry while the auction was running out).
Status as of 10-20: ChoiceOneDigital has my money and I have NO camera, and the (fly-by-night) outfit is not to be found.
0 comments