Camera City Review (cci)

[Vacationcity]

WARNING PLEASE READ THIS ABOUT CAMERA CITY-

I have just purchased almost $9,000.00 of Camera equipment 2 days ago (May 2, 2006) after a month of figuring out exacting what I wanted and then 4 days (and nights) of searching for the best price on the net. I am the owner of a very large online travel agency focused mainly on Costa Rica in Central America. I could not afford for there to be any mistakes on my order because my sister-in-law is bringing these items to me here in Costa Rica on Tuesday (May 9, 2006). In my search, the BEST price for everything I need was found at Camera City (CCI) www.ccicameracity.com/.

Owning an internet based business myself, I did what any normal net nut would do...I Googled them and searched for reviews and blogs. I found absolutely Horrible reviews on them and I begin thinking about how my sister-in-law is coming in 5 days or so and what if these reviews of CCI are correct. The gentleman that had already been helping me was Sid at Ext. 203 and he did a GREAT job, but on my 2nd call I told Sid about the reviews I had found & sent him links to them. Sid assured me that CCI was not that kind of company and they only wanted to sell me the items I needed for the best price and he promised excellent service afterwards. I told him I would think about it and hung up.

A few hours later I recieved a call from John at Ext. 201, one of Sids co-workers. He told me of his conversation with Sid and their concern of wanting me to feel secure in doing business with them. No hard sales push and no rudeness had been given by either of them. After talking to John, I thought a while and even though I wanted to save the $1,000.00 or so, the money really was not that important to me, it was the service....I HAD TO HAVE GREAT SERVICE. Trying to exchange something in the states when you live in Costa Rica is VERY Hard.

Here were two guys that DO NOT work on commissions yet both trying to get my confidence....why? If I did not buy from them it would be no big deal if they do not make commission right? I can only say that I kept thinking about the sincerity in their voices & the follow up call that John made to me. Both men were giving me their word that they are on the up & up.

I decided to purchase the items from them and my bill came to $8,470.00 and the items were sent out overnight to my sister-in-law. The next day it was all there but 2 small things that John made sure were sent "Overnight" again because they were back ordered. The items are all there according to our family members and the order is correct by brand and number. I can only say that my experience was great working with Sid & John and I proudly refer others to these two individuals. I look forward to doing business with them both again and hope that others will take the time time to write a GOOD review for them. This world is hard enough and most only take the time to complain but never to give thanks,,, Thank You....John Thank You Sid....

Mitch Chandler
costaricaseo@yahoo.com
011-506-290-0798

[hello]

HELLO??, Review of Camera City must be by them. I found a wholw list but all on 1 site, maybe this can't remember now. BUT if you llok futher you will se MOSTY dissatisfaction to a high degree. http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1734.html Below is .8 not 8 of 10 but LESS THAN 1 in 10.
Customer Satisfaction
Six-Month Rating: 0.80 Six-Month Reviews: 28

Lifetime Reviews: 64







Lifetime Rating: 0.70 Average Store: 7.02
High Average: 9.06
Low Average: 3.44

5.37 Pricing of Products and Services
0.39 Likelihood of Future Purchases
1.07 Shipping and Packaging
0.47 Customer Service
0.00 Return or Replacement

[audreylobo]

PLEASE READ.. THE FIRST REVIEW IS A FRAUD!!

Horrible place and filled with frauds... Please beware.. The poistive review written on this site is by the Reps themselves.. I bought a D70 and then cancelled it because EXTN 201 was as rude as ever. I normally never complain but this guy is neurotic. I cancelled my credit card along with the order and also lodged a omplain at BBB. Surprisingly I am not the only person who has lodged this complain with BBB but there are a couple of cases outstanding against them..

[Brenda Safranko]

Horrible experience. They are rude and the sales people make deals which are not honored by customer service, which then charges you more. I ordered a Nikon lens. John, the sales person, suggested a better lens and then convinced me to cancel my Nikon d200 with 18-200 lens order from Amazon. He said he would offer me the American package for the camera and lens I had ordered from Amazon with the lens I had ordered from him for $2100.00 and no additional shipping over the cost of shipping the lens. He suggested some filters, which we added and a memory card, which we added and then decided against. John OKed the package prior to the memory card addition with his manager. Customer service refused to honor the deal he made about shipping costs.My boyfriend told them it was disreputable to charge more for shipping than was agreed upon and canceled the entire order. When I called back to John to tell him customer service did not honor the deal he made, another sales person answered. He told me I changed the deal by canceling the memory card. I told him the deal was make before John added on the memory card. He actually yelled at me "I don't care what you have to say, lady. Did you or did you not change the order You wasted John's time and then canceled the order. I don't care what you have to say. Future buyers beware, you do not want to do business with people like this.

[Brenda Safranko]

It says I gave these guys 5 stars, incorrect. They are to be avoided.

[nancyvegas]

Buyer beware! Wish I had checked out this company before doing business. I've ordered so many things successfully online I didn't bother to check their credibility, and I paid the price for it. BIGGER PROBLEM: they got away with it because the credit card company was sending so many letters saying they're charging me, they're not charging me, they're crediting me some money, they're not doing anything, that I didn't know til year end that they got away with charging the full amount and my credit card, Citi Cards, was unable to help do anything about it. I bought a camera, Olympus SP-50 from them, and thought I had a great deal but ran into the similar problems listed in other people's reviews. They told me to upgrade to the US version, which I discovered later that Circuit City had the same package for about $25 more, which I should have just ordered. Stupidity took over, and I bought from CCI and got charged for a package deal that I never ordered. They substituted for products that I wanted, and sent me stuff I didn't order. Then they screwed up my digital card and sent me an "M" XD card instead of the upgraded H card. They said they would exchange it, but I sent it back, paid the postage to return it yet, and they kept it. When I yelled at my credit card, they said that I needed to return everything in order for them to do anything. CCI said they would not accept the return without a return number and they refused to allow me to return it. They said they had been nice about it and that they didn't have to do anything else. I was still waiting for my XD card, so I didn't say anything. Then I finally figured out they didn't plan on sending me anything. So I overpaid a lot of money for my camera, tried to exchange something they did give me a return number for, and didn't get anything back. So I paid $499 for something that cost $250 at Circuit City. All the other charges I got hit with, because the credit card wouldn't protect me. As soon as I finish paying it off, I'm dropping my card. And I had a 20 year relationship with them. too bad. You think 20 years would have counted for something. So double whammy here. Don't count on Citi Cards to be of any help. Don't believe anything these CCI guys say, and whatever you do, if you can just deny accepting the package, that's the only way that CCI will take the package back, and that the credit card will have to acknowledge. If you've never signed for it, they can't charge you for it. Don't just send it back to CCI, or you'll be out the money from them, and your credit card. Or eat it. but don't try exchanging or returning it. You won't see it. And they'll say they didn't get it, and your credit card won't be of any help unless you return it all back to them unopened, proving you didn't do anything to the package. I'm trying to post this everywhere I can, and noticed someone said they filed a claim with BBB. I'll go there too. We need to warn others of these shiesters.

Do business with internet companies who have their addresses and all contact info on their contact page. Do not rely on e-mail. CCI does not respond and does not send out confirmations on phone orders. PHONE ORDERING is worse. There's no electronic tracking on a verbal agreement, and as everyone has stated, these guys are rude and condescending, and the worst company I've dealt with in years.