Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:27 pm
We should all write letters to our major news affiliates, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and persuade them to do an investigative expose on bestpricecameras.com (they operate under multiple names) and other online crooks in such news-shows like 20/20 or Dateline. I've read the reviews about bestpricecameras.com from a number of public forums as well as the complaints filed to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) --- and all this would make such a compelling, informative, and cautionary TV-documentary about bestpricecameras.com in particular and the digital camera gray-market in general.
I too share a similar experience with bestpricecameras.com. I made an online purchase for a Canon Rebel Xt for $449. I called to confirm my order and they said I would have to pay an additional $149 for batteries. I said that Canon should have already have a battery in the manufacture box, but they said that it doesn't. I said I needed more time to think about it and to cancel my order and the guy hung up. Feeling uneasy about the phone call, I googled "bestpricecameras.com" (which, I know, I should've done earlier) and found hundreds of stories about how people were receiving the wrong items, paying more than they agreed to pay, inferior parts, wrong warranties, opened boxes, unitemized invoices, extremely rude, offensive customer service, and, worst of all, unapproved credit card charges after they get your credit card information! Although I told them to cancel my order, I knew I couldn't trust them, and so after reading other people's accounts, I decided it would be best to cancel my credit card to avoid them from making unapproved transactions (one person said that his card was charged for a Barcelona plane ticket!). It's been such an inconvenience but I'm glad I was able to cancel in time before they made charges: 7 days without a card is better than months and months of headaches from dealing with these rude, unethical people.
Such stories and complaints about bestpricecameras.com have been CONSISTENTLY posted online since 2005, with frequent reports to the Better Business Bureau and the NY General Attorney. I have no idea how they still continue to do business.
To shed light on the dishonest scam practices of bestpricecameras.com WE SHOULD ALL WRITE TO OUR LOCAL AND NATIONAL NEWS syndicates to tell them about this store and their unethical selling practices. If the BBB and NYC aren't going to shut this place down, we can at least have reporters broadcast our frustrations and their illegal practices to a wider audience. I wait for the day I tune in for nightly news and see these people exposed for their criminal acts.