Why are camera dealers so shady? & Terrible experience with GeniusCameras.com

I'm totally new to this hobby and non-mainstream stores' (Bestbuy, etc) cameras and recently tried to make a purchase from GeniusCameras.com for a D70. Thinking $650 was a good deal for the camera and 2 lenses, i placed an order and quickly recieved an email stating that i needed to call them to confirm. To my surprise, by the end of the phone call they were able to twist my arm and sell me a battery and charger for an extra $275 and $75 shipping then abruptly hung up after telling me the total would come out to $999.97. I thought that was outrageous so I immediately called back to cancel the battery and charger and they said I couldn't change the order because it had already shipped. I was like what?! Luckily they called me a few days later and said I had to verify my shipping address since it wasnt on my credit card and i promptly took the opportunity to tell them off and cancel the order. They even tried to convince me that the camera was already on its way!


My main question is why the heck is this business so shady? I have been involved in a great number of hobbies from collectibles to paintball and cycling but have never ever found customer service and sales tactics to be this bad anywhere, not even from car salesmen. And why is it that most of these dealers are in the NY/NJ region? Any ideas or comments?

I have no experience with this, but your experience sounds awfully similar to others from stores like Royal Cameras and such. Perhaps they're all the same place?

You've nailed all the points about these shady businesses. The reason there are so many is that they work. Unfortunately, not everyone is as insightful as you were in your situation. It's frustrating to think that people fall for it but they do. The best thing you can do is what you just did here by posting. And make sure your family and close friends don't fall for it either. I wish these business owners could be sent to jail.

Now that you've found this site, you have a tremendous amount of resources at your fingertips. Not only can you get sound advice on gear and such, but you can get feedback on individual dealers as well as a complete range of purchase prices for individual models.

As you've found out, any "deal" that seems way better than the rest is usually too good to be true, but hopefully you won't have to deal with that again... :cool:

glad i read this post. i was just about to buy the Canon 20D from Genius. the deals seem to good to be true. I guess they are! I thought that the D70 package INCLUDED a quick charger and battery no?? Where did you end up buying the D70?? I just saw RITZ CAMERA dropped the price to 749 body only.

TJ

i bought my d70 package from cameta cameras on ebay for 999.95 buy it now, $17 shipping. it came with a 28-80mm nikkor lense, 1gb 80x cf card, extra battery, cf card reader for your usb port, nikon gear bag, lense cleaning stuff and 30 free shutterfly prints. not to mention all the retail stuff that's supposed to be included in the box like cables and battery and charger. i don't think i could've found a better deal.

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Originally Posted by brotski

glad i read this post. i was just about to buy the Canon 20D from Genius. the deals seem to good to be true. I guess they are! I thought that the D70 package INCLUDED a quick charger and battery no?? Where did you end up buying the D70?? I just saw RITZ CAMERA dropped the price to 749 body only.

TJ

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