I placed an online order with this company on May 31 because they had a great price on a digital camera I wanted. Shortly after, I received an email confirmation with my initial order, but no description of my purchase. My original order was for a Casio Elixim digital camera model EX-S880 for $169.99 with free shipping. Two days later on June 2nd I received another email stating I needed to contact Tom to confirm my order. I promptly called him to do so. When I got on the phone with him, he kept pressuring me to purchase additional accessories for the camera. I explained to him that this was merely a replacement camera because I had dropped and broken mine. I told Tom that I already had the battery and memory cards and such for the camera. After several more attempts, he finally took no for an answer. He then proceeded to offer me an “upgrade” of camera for an additional $10. Apparently this “newer” model of camera had a higher mega pixel for the screen and would take better pictures. I asked him if this camera used the same battery and memory card, Tom assured me that it did. I, therefore, agreed to this “new” camera because I believed it to be a good deal. I was going on the recommendation of what I assumed to be a knowledgeable sales representative for Fotoconnection.com. Tom also encouraged me to purchase the 3 year warranty for $30 since I had “just told me [him] that you had broke[n] the camera.” He got me there, so I agreed. Tom then sent me an email to click on a link to agree to the credit card charge, now a total of $208.99- $179.99 for the camera (Casio Elixim EX-Z85BE) and $30 for the warranty. I did this no problem, based on the assumption of an honest vendor and sales person.
When the camera arrived on June 4th, I immediately recognized it to be of a far lesser quality than the one I originally had. The camera also came in a box that had Casio stickers on it, but was not in an actual Casio box. I’ve bought a few Casio cameras over the years and have never seen a plain white box like this from CasiO. This made me wonder now if the camera was refurbished - this is something that their website did not state. I looked up the camera they sent me on their website that same night and saw that it was selling for $104.99 and the warranty for $20.30!!! You can imagine my surprise and unhappiness when I realized I had been sold this camera for $179.99 and the warranty for $30!! I called Tom immediately. He was incredibly rude on the phone and insisted that this was still the better camera, never addressing the price issue. He then told me I needed to call customer service the next day if I wanted to return the camera.
Since I work during the day, I asked my boyfriend to give them a call because he was home that day on June 5th. He spoke with Josh who told him that I had been talked into this upgrade of camera because the one I originally placed my order for was out of stock (which Tom had not told me). He said they also threw in an extra battery for free, something I did not ask for. Regardless of this extra “gift” they sent me (which in Fotoconection’s response to my dispute says, falsely, that they later sent me!), I still was not happy with the misrepresentation of the better quality of camera. I had looked it up on several additional websites to confirm my suspicions that this camera was of lesser quality than the one I originally wanted. My boyfriend kept emphasizing how unhappy with this camera I was and the situation, so Josh offered him a free memory stick as an appeasement. My boyfriend hung up with Josh and called me to ask if this was enough of a remediation for me. Unfortunately, it was not enough because I was still upset with the price differences.
My boyfriend called backed again and this time spoke with Andy. My boyfriend questioned him about the price difference and was told that it was offered at a lower price on the website because it did not include anything - battery, wires, etc which does not state this. Andy told him I could not return the camera without being charged a 15% restocking fee (which yes, this information was on their website and my receipts). However, we felt because we had been taken advantage we should have that fee waived. Andy would not cave on this and when my boyfriend told him we would dispute the charges for the difference in price, Andy threatened that I would be sent to collections and Fotoconnection would “mess with my credit.” After several more minutes of going back and forth, Andy then said he would speak to his supervisor to see if it was possible to get the fee waived or he said could offer us a $50 credit. My boyfriend then asked him to email us the offer of the credit and whether or not the fee would be waived, thereby having written proof and thus giving me a choice of what I wanted to do (keep the camera and take the credit or return it with no questions asked and my money back).
About 10 minutes after the conversation ended, I did in fact receive an email from [email protected] - which is a different name than the company I ordered from, but contained a subject line of one of the order numbers on my different invoices. However, the email was completely blank with no body content!!! I replied back asking what this email was supposed to contain. I did not receive a reply to this email.
On Sunday, June 7th I received an email containing an RMA, but I had not been told if the restocking fee had been waived. I again emailed Andy asking where we stood on things. Four days later on June 11th, I received a reply from Andy simply stating “What you wants to do”. I replied back the same day that I would take the credit and have not heard from this company since.
I disputed the difference in price with my credit card and the company actually responded and denied my dispute twice. My credit card was nice enough to give me the credit as a good customer, but I am completely appalled with this company. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not do business with this company. I guarantee they will scam you and please don't encourage them to do it to others!!!
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