Stay Away From Royal Camera

[mjs1973]

I'm all for letting the public know what these types of companies are doing, but is this legal? Also, it appears that your site has actual links to the real royalcamera.com site... I like the idea, but you better make sure it's not something than can come back and bite you in the butt.

[Handstand]

These guys are scum bags. I tried to buy a Canon 20D through them and had a horrible experience.

After searching the net Royal Camera had the lowest price by far. I called in a placed an order. I was told they had the camera in stock. I requested overnight shipping because I needed the camera quickly. The next day I got the "confirm your order" e-mail and was asked to call in. After being treated rudely and asked a bunch of questions that had been answered in the orginal call I was told the camera wouldn't ship for 3 - 4 weeks. I abuptly said "Cancel my order." This guy came unglued on me. He said "You don't have to be rude. Maybe you can talk to your wife like that, but you can't talk to me like that." I asked to speak to his supervisor and he said he was in charge. I tried to cool down, and politley asked him to cancel my order. They did cancel it and there were no charges on my account, but the lies, deciet and rude treatment was beyond belief.

These guys are classic bait and switch. My advice is to stay as far away from Royal Camera as possible.

[Charles De Groot]

I'm all for letting the public know what these types of companies are doing, but is this legal? Also, it appears that your site has actual links to the real royalcamera.com site... I like the idea, but you better make sure it's not something than can come back and bite you in the butt.

Of coarse it is legal to write about what these companies are doing. It comes under freedom of speech. When companies like Royal Camera continue to act the way they do it is our morel responsibility to alert our community members and save them from being lied to and taken advantage of. Remember we’re Americans and the threat of being bitten on the behind comes with standing up for ones self. That threat is what Royal Camera and companies like them keep in their tool box of dishonesty and deceit.

[squareapple]

hello,

I just wanted to chime in alongside the chorus of displeasure for royal camera. Like many others, i was led in by the sucker price. i have never before felt such disdain for a retailer. i felt sick after i spoke with "larry". In the end i did purchase a camera from them (Fuji s5100 - my first camera!), but i would sooner be eviscerated than deal with them again.

i would implore anyone looking to buy online to take the time and actually do some research on the shop. i wish i had.

rob

[marrik]

I called about the Nikon 8800 and it was the worst customer service I have ever had in my life! They guy was basically a butthole. The camera was at a very good price but no battery, no cables, no manual, nothing... just camera in a bag I guess. If I baught everything I needed for the camera to work plust their expensive shipping It would have cost almost double the advertised price. I hope they go out of business!

[dovertn]

Royal Camera has struck again!!!! I just got off the phone with my Mastercard disputing a charge that was $400 higher than what the salesman said it would be. I called for a Nikon D100 and He said I was stupid for not buying a D70. He tried to shove every accessory down my throat and told me that I was stupid to not by memory cards ($300 higher than every where else on the web) from Royal Camera. It has been two days since he promised that I would receive my overnight premium shipped camera so that I could take it on vacation. No camera and $400 in extra charges on my card. The Credit Card companies should ban Royal Camera's charge machine. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT ROYAL CAMERA. THEY ARE A ROYAL PAIN!!!!!!!!

[digital cat]

I ordered a Canon 20D in May 2005 from Royal Camera because of their very low price on the body alone. However, I also ordered a 1GB CF and a battery upgrade at the same time. This put the price up to the amount other companies were charging. I asked for 2nd day delivery and was told this was $30 more. My credit card was over-charged by $191 so I called Royal to complain. As it turned out I was charged $147 total for shipping in addition to being over-charged $69 for no reason. The camera and equipment arrived on time, but they had substituted on off-brand CF card. I called to complain and they would not take the card back for credit. They did offer to send me another card free along with a camera case. I received the free 1GB CF card and camera case. The case was off-brand and the camera would not fit inside it.

A friend of mine from my city ordered a Canon 20D two days before I ordered mine. She did not buy any over-priced, off-brand equipment. A month later she has not received her camera. You could say that I was "lucky" to receive the camera from Royal, but it turned out to be a poor deal, actually higher than other companies. I would not recommend anyone order anything from Royal Camera, based on my experience.

[lighthouse]

Hello everyone -

I searched around the internet for 2 weeks and finally found Royal Camera - which promised me a great deal on a Canon Rebel XT. $419.00 for the body. I requested 3 day shipping and two days after placing the order online, I returned to work with an email that asked that I contact Royal Camera at extension 201 to confirm the order. My wife called and immediately the jerk (oh sorry, sales rep) started trying to shove other products in her face. He claimed the battery charger for the Rebel was not included, which I'm not certain is a lie but seems fishy to me. He wanted to charge us 200.00 for that. He wanted me to buy the "Kit" with the standared 18-50 mm lens but since I have one for my 20D I declined. What originally started out as being a $600.00 order (Also had a 200 mm telefoto on order) ended up turning into over 1,000 dollars by the time I hung up. A deer in the head lights - I realized quickly I'd been had and my wife (taking the reigns) called back and asked to talk to the same extension(201). He answered and my wife explained that she wanted to cancel the order because the price had gone up too high and it was a spur of the moment thing. He rudely wanted to know "WHY?!" she was cancelling and when she told him we were going to do some more shopping around and we may be back he quickly cut her off and said, "Don't give me this you might be back crap - I don't have time to talk to you." And he hung up on her. She immediately called back and let them know how rudely she'd been treated and asked to talk to a supervisor, they transferred her to someone else and it wasn't a supervisor. She wanted to make sure that the order was cancelled and the person told her it was. She called back later to check and make sure it was cancelled - the person told her it wasn't - but they would cancel it. We've contacted our credit card company and warned them that this may not be the end of it.

Not only is the customer service non existant with this company - but of the 4 people we've been in touch with. 100% of them have been jerks. I'll be buying a camera locally for about 300.00 more - but I'd rather pay extra and know what I'm getting.

BE AFRAID - BE VERY AFRAID of this company.

[Dominic71]

All,
I too was dupped, but I think I may have caught it in time. I placed my order yesterday on the internet for a Nikon D2X. Thought I was getting an amazing price. They followed the usual MO and called to "confirm my credit card info" then tried to sell me numerous things I did not need, I turned them down on everything but a different lens. "We have had a lot of returns of the lens you ordered." As usual, the camera did not come with the software, battery, or accessory cables. Thinking my camera would be useless I agreed to six hundred dollars extra for those items. They caught me at work so I was not eager to have a lenghty discussion. As I was driving home I decided to do some research, I went to a few webpages and discovered what a bunch of scam artists these guys are. The exorbinant prices of accessories and the really low price on the body should have tipped me off. I called American Express and informed them of the days events and discovered that they had tacked on an extra $1000.00 to the price quoted over the phone. I supplied AMEX with the details from this site and the BBB and recommended that they pull their affiliation with this company. The charge has been placed in dispute. Hopefully, I will be able to turn off the shipment in the morning. based on the comments about their shipping practices, I doubt the order has left the building.