My recent transaction with "86th Street Photo and Video" is best described as being biten by a snake! If you search online, using term "Beware of 86th Street Photo & Video, " you will see Epinions.com website has two pages of complains about this company. Please save yourself and run from it!
Here is what happened to me.
When I searched online for Garmin 650 GPS, this online store has the lowest price. So I called its toll free number, 1-800-815-2040. A sales man called Sean talked to me. He told me I must buy a memory card for it otherwise I cannot use it.
That was the first lie.
I was very surprised to hear this, because I read quite a bit about this product when I was deciding which kind of GPS to buy, they all say just open the box and use it. Never a word about memory card. So I asked him why I need a memory card for it, and, if I don't put a memory card in, could I still use it just for directions and maps, because I don't care to use it for those other fancy functions, like store pictures and listening to music.
He told me firmly that without buying a memory card, I would not be able to use it for anything; that to run it, I MUST put in a memory card.
I have bought many things online, and never had any business or individual sellers blatantly lie like this. So, I believed what he said, figured I did not do enough research on it.
Then he said the memory card of 2 GB is $129; that its original price was twice as much.
I never bought a memory card, and had no idea how much it should cost.
He then said that they offer the lowest price on everything, in fact, if I find anyone has a lower price, they will match it!
This was the second lie.
So, I ordered 2 GPS and 2 memory cards. With shipping I spent nearly $700! That is all started from seeing their GPS price as $199 each.
The reason I did not try to do more research on it was because my daughter's graduation party was coming up, and I was in a hurry to get it, one for me and one for my daughter.
But the next day I decided to call Garmin company. Its customer service was really concerned about the fact that this store says the product cannot operate without a memory card, because it should not be! It strongly advised me not to buy it from this store. Its reason was, if the GPS cannot operate without the card, then the store may have done something to it to make it that way! The man on the phone strongly advised me to buy it from Amazon instead.
I immediately called the store, the customer service line was forever busy! Finally, I got hold of someone. The guy heard I want to cancel the orders, told me that they were already shipped, and orders cannot be cancelled.instead, I must wait till I receive the shipment, then I call back to receive a returning comfirmation number. With that number, I can then return the shipment.
This was the third lie.
I was surprised that he never asked why I want to cancel the order. I told him that it is very hard to reach the customer service; I was on hold for almost 20 minutes! He said when I call back, it will be no waiting if I dial extention 7. It will be very simple; there will be no questions asked; I call and I will get a number, I put that number on the box, and return it.
That was lie upon lie and upon lie.
I was very skeptical. Because ext. 7 was the number I dialed, and it was forever busy. I also don't understand why I can't just cancel the order and simply refuse the shipment. I asked him, "so, will I be fully refunded?"
He said, "yes. Yeah, you should be."
Again, A big lie!
After I talked to him, I ordered from Amazon, thinking I will be fully refunded and I need the products.
After I got the shipment from 86th street video, I called and called. First of all, their hours for customer service is ridiculous. Look at it:
Customer Service & Processing Department
Mon - Thurs: 10:30am - 5:00pm EST
Fri: 10:30am - 2:00pm EST
Sat-Sun: Closed
If you work a regular job, you will see how hard it is to call this place! The only time you could probably call them is your lunch hour, and then you will waste it by being put on hold the whole time.
But I did get hold them. I was told if I want to return them, I must pay the shipping and 20% re-stocking fee! The person said he had no idea why the other person told me I will be fully refunded.
Now holding 4 GPS, and 2 memory cards that I don't need, you can imagine what a terrible situation I was in!
By then, I realized I had been bitten by a snake. They are crooks and not someone you can argue and reason to. I offered to only return the cards that I don't need. I was told I could not return just part of the shipment; either all of it or none.
I listed the lies they made and threaten to sue them. I laid out the reasons in legal terms why I would win the suit. I told him that I was a 3rd year law student, and I could easily get my lawyer friends to help me without a fee. These are all true. I have only 13 credit hours left to graduate from law school. And I am pretty good at contract laws.
The guy eventually said he will offer me 3 years of warranty on both products. He would not agree on anything else.
I asked him what about the fact that I could get the same memory card from Micro Center for $20, according to their lowest price gurantee, they should match it. I have the flyer with photo and price.
He said that even though they looked the same, they are Not the same cards.
That's just lying through his teeth!
I finally decided to accept the warranties.
You guessed it,
First of all, it was a two year warranty instead of 3 as he promised; second, I got only one.
I finally got hold of them again. I can tell you I was feeling sick in the stomach just the thought that I had to deal with those crooks again. But I had to.
A person answered the phone— No, it would be 3 year after I add the 1 year original warranty.
As to only one warranty card? He asked me my order numbers. He checked them, but then told me he needed to talk to someone about it.
Normally, the person who answers the phone would know whether it was an error or not by simply check the order. You can tell this is a shady business because after he checked my order number that I was given for the warranties, he still needed to ask someone, probably to find out whether giving me only one was done intentionally or not.
He finally came back and confirmed that I should get two.
Eventually, I got the 2 two-year warranties.
I would have never bought warranties for any products. From what I learned in commercial law class, over 80% warranties will never be used. It is a waste of money.
But even for getting that, was probably thanks to my status of a graduating law student.
I wish there are more I could do to get this company out of business. They completely violated the contract law requiring a business to be fair and honest.
On the other hand, Amazon had no trouble at all to cancel my order. I simply gave a reason online as ordered a wrong product, I was fully refunded promptly. I feel bad to have let down a fair business. The only thing I could do is to continue to buy from them as I mostly have been doing. And if I want to buy from a strange company, make sure to check them out online. It would have been very easy to see all those horror stories from other victims.
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