I thought I had done my homework and asked the right questions (during repeated phone calls to verify the item I was ordering was, in fact, offered for sale in the US WITH a US Warranty - not a grey market item); each time I was assured that it was AND the website proclaimed so. Then the hitch - "We need to verify your address". That seemed like good business practice until the shipping window slipped and I was "urged" to upgrade my shipping method (to the tune of $44.95 for 2nd Day UPS Air vs. $24.95 for UPS Ground) to make my origonal request date.
Finally the package arrives (an $800 camera left in my doorway on a main street without a signature requirement - UPS states that they only billed US1Digital $7.80 for the package and were not requested to get a signature release so US1Digital got $37.15 to misship/mislead). End result - they shipped a PAL (European) vs an NTSC (North American) model with NO US Warranty.
When I attempted to have the company rectify the problem, John/Customer Service (?) first offered to GIVE me a 3 year warranty in order to drop the complaint and just keep the wrongly-shipped camera. Then he insisted that I ship the item back, they would try to find the proper part AND if they did not have it, would refund my money (and after further probing) would even refund my shipping expense (for a total of $596.95) - all after initial repeated assurances to me that the company DID have the product advertised to sell me.
The end result is that:
1) American Express has opened a Fraud Investigation into the practices of this company and has put a hold on any charges to my credit card by the vendor.
2) The New York BBB has initiated an investigation into this transaction.
David
Peabody, Massachusetts
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