WARNING: fotoconnection.com

[The Merg]

venomxx:

Make sure that if the package arrives that you refuse delivery. You are taking the right action on disputing the charge with your credit card company. You might also want to consider filing a police report in your local jurisdiction. Most places allow the victim of credit card fraud to file a report in the jurisdiction they live in no matter where the fraud occurred. Keep on file any records you have of contact with the company--invoices, e-mails, and your responses to them.

Good luck and welcome to RR!

- Merg

[marklori43]

I called and ordered a Canon SD750 for my daughter, then received an email, followed my a phone call to confirm my order. I knew this was going to be the high pressure, sell yoou more routine. I told him I just wanted what was in the description. I said he could not ship without a battery. I explained their was and he gave me the 15 minute battery and that he could not sell it to me unless I ordered one. I hung up and talked to a "supervisor" who said she confirmed and would send.
Instead of the USA Silver model I ordered, I received an Import, no factory warranty inside, the Black model and no 32MB SD card. I called customer service and they tried to sell me a 1GB card. He said there is no 32MB SD card. BS. I called Canon USA and they registered my camera for a 1 year factory warranty, and they arekind enough to Fedex me a 32MB SD card, even though it is not their fault.
When is the government going to step in and regulate these crooks.

[saturnotaku]

Originally Posted by marklori43

When is the government going to step in and regulate these crooks.

As long as people continue to ignore the maxim of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" there isn't a whole lot anyone can do.

[ocrickb]

Just wanted to thank everyone here for their postings. Wish I had time to do it for all the posts regarding the other online sellers that participate in these practices.
I have been looking at E-Bay and going to look at some of these sights because I want to get a Canon Rebel XTI. I had at least 5 of these guys bookmarked as possible places to buy.
You have all saved me from having to deal with a horrible experience!

Thank you!!!

[switzer]

I feel like such an idiot! I'm too smart to all for this...but I did! My experience is as described above: I ordered a camera (which was a replacement)--I knew it had a battery included, but received the fotoconnection email requiring me to call them and then....after the first 20 seconds, knew I was in trouble. The hard sell: you need a new battery, it only comes with a temporary one, etc. etc. I immediatelly said I wanted to cancel my order & they wouldn't let me! Hung up on me, actually! I thought these sorts of places weren't allowed to operate! I tried to cancel the credit card order, but I have to go through the dispute process. How can NEW YORK allow this company to operate?! But more importantly, buyer beware--I should have done a google search since I wasn't buying from AMAZON (like I usually do). I'm just sick about this...but I'll live! Thanks for the info on this forum. I will send the package back & try to get my credit card to refund the charge.

[Jetlagchicago]

Here is the link, please report fotoconnection to NY state attorney office. The more complaints they receive, hopefully can kick out these liars,scammers and cheater.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/online_fo...aint_alert.jsp

Important, this is for the internet. Other departments within the Attorneys office do not handle this, so this is where you want to go.
I orderred a Denon receiver and a couple cables from Fotoconnection. Like others, they were very pushy trying to sell me warranty, extra cables, and over charge me on the shipping. After I received the package, I found one cable was missing. I contacted them right away, first some sales people hang up on me over the phone, then I finally reached customer service after multiple transfers. The customer service said they would ship out the cable right away. Called again after 2 days, customer service said cable already been shipped by UPS, I asked for tracking number, customer service changed their words saying that it was shipped by USPS, so no tracking number. Called again after 3 days without receiving items, customer service told me they were not sure if the item had been shipped, if not, they would ship it that day. I finally filed charge back. After 30 days of chargeback, I received the package with delivery certificate. After I signed off on the package, opened it, it was NOT the cable I ordered. I ordered cable worth $98, they shipped me different cable worth only $20. Because they had prove of me receiving package, I couldn't keep on filing chargeback for missing item. Now I had to file disute with my CC for wrong item. I called their customer service again requesting the correct item. They said they can ship me the correct item for extra $16!!! I refused to pay extra for my original order. Guess what, the customer service used 'F' word cursed me over the phone!!! I was extremely angry and didn't even know what to say.....

I have already filed the report using the link above, whoever have been ripped off should immidiately report them to New York State Attorney office. This kind of lier, cheater, scammer and extremely rude practice should be kicked out of the business right away.

[ITWebMan]

It began with bwayphoto.com, who tried scamming me on an bait & switch to an "Import" Canon S5-IS, which started out with the "Call us back to confirm..." scam. I tried overcoming the VERY RUDE phone call... because of the savings.

Well, cancelled it and went to fotoconnection.com (eshopperpro4.com). Exact same thing. They are RUDE when you call back and why they keep placing me on hold (4 times) I do not understand. I almost feel sorry for those people. Their lives must be very empty and hopeless to behave as they do.

Bottom line, DO NOT DO BUSINESS with the following, unless you want to enable further poor ethics.

• bwayphoto.com
• fotoconnection.com
• eshopperpro4.com

Circuit City had the camera at only $24 more (basically the taxes)

I normally don't subscribe to these sites, but I saw the passionate posts here and wanted to share. Thanks! -James

[simon23]

Stupidly I was following the attractive prices, but I learned a while ago to google the companies I like to perhaps do business with, so I saved myself some troubles. Now, I did talk with "Fotoconection" and they lied about all kind of thing while being rude. The best part was the sales guy or whomever he was, that told me that for $200 over the price of the Nikon D300 he would send me the new Nikon D350 !!!!!!!!!!!!! The D350 doesn't even exist.
Anyway, I hope this help. ALWAYS google the company, you will get all the information you need to realize that they are thieves.
Simon

[jamiesuzanne]

Apparently I'm a little more gullible than I thought I was. They did all the same stuff to me, upselling, telling me about a temporary battery and all that crap.

Thing is, my roommate bought the same camera at Wal-Mart (but i wanted a different color, not available at the store). I told them she didn't haev to buy any extra batteries, and they said "Well they didn't tell her right, because they all come w/ a temporary battery, so she will have to go buy a new one."

I tried to cancel as well, because Iw as planning on only spending $129 bucks, byt they convinced me to buy a 5 year warranty (which they "nicely" bumped down from 149 bucks to only 49) and a free "express charger" if I agreed to spend the extra money and buy the 5 hour battery over the 2 hour one.

Just a few minute after I hung up w/ them, I was convinced I'd been duped, called my roommate, she said she had used the camera ALLLL day and the battery was fine. I called a few places that carried the same camera and they all said there was no "temporary battery".

So i called fotoconnection, and the guy cut me off in the middle of explaining what happened and told me to call back tomorrow! WHAT AN ASS!!!

So yeah, I'm pissed. I ended up forking out over $200 bucks for something I should have spent less than $150 on.

So now what....if I refuse the package when it arrives, is there any kind of "proof" that I can get that I can take to my bank if fotoconnection refuses to refund my money? What's my best option here?

Thanks!

[LarryComputrGuy]

Yes, they're still up to their old tactics, only I actually DID receive the Avanti wine cooler I ordered...arrived BROKEN (2/22) and they said they'd send factory authorized service to "fix" in the field. Two weeks later, they tell me they can't get any spare parts from Avanti, so they have shipper come and pick it up and return to them. THEN they'd ship out a new unit. Waited another week to hear from the shipper, called my credit card company AND Avanti, but they can do nothing until unit is shipped back. NOW the only person who can "talk" to the shipper is "out sick" and this should "be taken care of within 24-48hrs"...anyone wanna take money on that happening!! One of the worst customer service departments I've ever experienced--and I used to be in a service oriented business!!

DON'T be sucked in by the low pricing!!! THey'll figure out some way to screw you, even if they CAN'T upsell you something!!

UPDATE: To their credit, I kept on the repeatedly and they finally authorized the pickup and return of my defective wine cellar! A few MORE calls (by now I had specific peoples' names and extensions) and the DID process my credit card return!!

So, in truth, though I wouldn't deal with them again, they're not crooks...They just need to learn that everyone's not stupid, and they have LOTS to learn about customer service!!