WARNING: fotoconnection (eshopperpro4, TVsDepot, TheWizStore, ephotoclub, 1stopcamera

[firewalker2]

My story reads pretty much the same but possibly not as bad. I ordered a Canon EOS digital 350D XT, I wanted the package with the lens so I placed an order for $419. I got the email everyone gets, you know, call us so that we can confirm your order. I call them, the rude salesman tries upselling me everything, stating that he will send it all out for $570 and I said "no, I don't want that, I want what I ordered, he stated that it was not in english, that it would be a Japanese version. Obviously, my japanese is a little rusty so I said, that won't work, I said that online it said nothing of the sort. He then moved on, stating that I could get the English version, without a lens (body only) for $399. I said this is a new, not a refurbished unit right? He stated, it is new, US version, free shipping. He tried the battery story, you know, you need a battery etc. I told him I didn't as I already had purchased 2 other batteries. He told me I wasted money by going with someone else for the batteries, I laughed. He restated the order, hung up and that was that. I did get the camera rather quickly, 3 days shipping. I was nervous as I opened the box....
What I got was suprisingly what I ordered! However, it came in a white Canon box (not original) and did not come with a warranty card, although I did not purchase a warranty. Evidently I got a gray market camera. It is new, it is just sold from Japan, to a reseller that does not have a license agreement with Canon to sell their cameras. Same camera, basically without the support. So no one year warranty, no warranty at all. The camera works as new, everything was included, the battery (canon) charger (canon) all the books and CDs etc. The memory card I ordered from another company thru amazon.com, guess what, it was the SAME company but under a different name. It was called Photo something, this company has many alias names. The memory card (2gb) was priced well, received quickly but again, this time no packaging at all, simply in a small plastic case that all of these cards comes in. Could be used? Refurbed? Who knows, it works currently so I am not too worried about it. Bottom line, would I buy from these guys again, HELL NO....I ended up getting a decent deal, $399 for the body is still a great deal but again, no support, if it breaks, I will have to find a third party repair shop and it will be my own dime. The upside is, I really have never used a warranty in my life, even my other Canon cameras, I found I never even sent in the warranty card. So with fingers crossed, I consider myself fortunate. Online the camera body only is listed for $319. I ended up paying $80 more for the "american" version, whatever that is...I believe that the language menus for these cameras can be switched to Spanish, English and Japanese. I wanted to share my story because most of these threads never talk about what they received. I am happy with the camera and price, I will never shop unprepared again, oh, and lastly, I cancelled my credit card, called it in as lost and reordered another with a new number. I do not trust these people with having my credit card #. I may be a bit paranoid but I feel better that they do not have a working card number now. Sorry for the long post, I hope that it helps some make a decision. You can get a good deal here, you can get it rather quickly, many places sell gray market cameras as new, it would have been nice to have an honest person telling me this all up front but I suppose these people make a ton of money with their bait and switch routine. They are very good at it. My final advice, and what I will do from now on, spend a little bit more $ and have peace of mind.

[Camwhiz]

Everything I've read on this company is dead on. They will take your money. I bought then cancelled immediately an order. They shipped it anyway. I did not accept the package and disputed the amount to my Capitol One card company. Fotoconnection.com took 15% for restocking fee. When I complained to them, I got the big runaround. They said it was policy. I said they lied when they said they cancelled the order. Since they won't send out confirmation emails, they said it was my word against theirs and I had no proof on cancelling. So what did I do? Since I'm retired, I called their order line and talked to the same guy over and over telling him that I would do this forever to stop others from getting scammed. I could tell the guy was frustrated, even telling me they had 200 people and it wouuldn't hurt his sales. I said ok, but I'm calling anyway and if he hangs up, I'll call right back. He had to answer since it could be a real customer. 800 numbers cost them, by the way, by the minute. After being sent to managers 3 straight times, and fussing them out, I finally was offered a $30 gift certificate to stop. I still haven't completed my story, as I have to get the merchandise from the gift certificate to see if my harassment got me anywhere, but if you have the time, do the same and be persistent. You will be helping others.

[The Merg]

Camwhiz:

Be careful doing something like that. What you described could be considered to be Telephone Harrassment which is a Class 2 Misdemeanor (up to 6 months in jail and/or up to $2,500 fine) here in Virginia.

Your best bet is to follow through with the dispute with your credit card company. If you dispute the charge, your credit card company will take the full amount of the charge off of your bill and it won't matter if fotoconnection.com tries to stick you with the 15% restocking fee (which is usually done by refunding all but 15% of the initial charge). If fotoconnection.com attempts to actually charge your card with an additional 15%, dispute that charge as well.

- Merg

[Camwhiz]

Thanks Merq,
I don't think a jury would ever convict me as long as didn't threaten anyone with bodily harm or curse, etc. What I did each time was explain to the rep and managers that I wanted my refund, deserved it, and wanted to speak to someone who could satisfy me according to their "Satisfaction Guarantee" shown on their website. I told them if I didn't get satisfaction, then I would continue to call as long as it took, and I demonstrated that over the next hour. Your other point was that I should contact the credit card company. I did so. They did refund the full amount, but then recinded the amount when fotoconnection.com gave me back all but 15 percent. Since I could not produce a cancellation confirmation (which fotoconnection.com would not send after telling me they had cancelled), Capitol One told me that my only recourse was to talk with the company. I'm very unhappy with them also. So again, thanks for the advice, but I still believe that this ploy is an effective way to make this company take notice.

[goodscout]

Hey, everyone,
My experience with fotoconnection.com is similar to yours. They are
unscrupulous and don't care anything about their customers. So
complaining does no good. I even emailed John Silver, president
of the company (or so they tell me) and no response. I was too eager
to save money on a Canon HV30 camcorder. I'd gladly spend $150 more
for customer respect and trustworthiness. These people are BAD!
Goodscout.

[jamiesuzanne]

I sent them a good 4 or 5 emails asking them to send me some sort of confirmation that they had actually cancelled my order. (The guy on the phone told me he couldn't cancel it, but after I chewed him out he said "Ok I'll cancel it if that's waht you want", I said "Yes, that's what I want' and he said "Ok" and hung up). I wasn't sure I wasn't still going to get charged adn still recieve the package.

Thing is, the camera was on backorder, and for a full week I waited for that confirmation and never got it, so the day I was told it would ship is when the status on my account FINALLY changed to "cancelled". For that whole week it had read "processing" so I was afraid it wasn't really canceled.

All in all, the situation was sucky, but at least I was lucky enough to actually get my order canceled before anything really crazy happened.

[DICB]

Hi,
I asked a friend to purchase a camera for me as www.fotoconnection.com does not accept international credit cards.
Their website offers a seemingly great deal as you will see from the link. http://www.fotoconnection.com/p72218...uv-filter.html
You will also notice that it clearly mentions thats 'whats in the packages' is
a • Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery Pack

BUT soon after placing the order and giving the credit card details we got a call from TOM insisting that there is no battery provided with the pack. TOM kindly agrees to provide abattery for $ 79 only/- WOW. Except when we receive the package the manual states that as part of the standard accessories is SURPRISE SURPRISE YES YOU GUESSED IT THE BATTERY THAT WE PAID $79 FOR. Now I assume that since I paid $79 additionally I should have got 2 batteries right? But no. TOM tells me 'forget the other battery' and if you want your money back i'll give you a dollar.

Not only that but the Full size tripod that is mentioned in the package is a MINI 6 in high it fits on my palm. YAY.

So tell me what action can be taken against such a company? How is it still functioning after all the complaints against it?

[abderian]

Talk to the credit card company to get the charges reversed.
There are posts earlier in this thread that provide links to the New York BBB.

[DICB]

Hi abderian,
Thanks for the advice. I dont live in the United States so i dont know how this works but can I just get the $79 reversed? or would it have to be the whole amt?

[Hagrinas]

I placed an order with fotoconnection.com in July 2005. They had the best price by far. The shipping was fast, everything was as expected, and nobody called to try to sell me anything. Overall, it seemed like a good experience.

Fast forward to today. I got an email, purportedly from PayPal. It was actually a phishing scam. The unusual thing about it was the email address it was sent to. I have a number of domains registered, so when I deal with a merchant, I create a unique email address, so I can cut it off if I start getting spam. The email address that the phishing scam was sent to was fotoconnection@... The tail end of the address is my first name dot my last name dot org so it's not as if somebody just tried random addresses at aol.com or some big provider where it's worth their time trying to guess valid addresses.

That email address was never used by me to send anything. It was used by fotoconnection three times in 2005 to notify me about the order and shipping. It was never used before or after that. It's extremely unlikely that some spammer intercepted it back then and sat on it for three years before using it. It is also extremely unlikely that somebody guessed that email address, or used software that tried random combinations to generate email addresses. If that had happened, it's likely that they would have tried other addresses at the same sub domain. But I didn't get a single spam to any other address at that sub domain.

I can't say that the phishing attempt came from them. I have no way of knowing. But there's no plausible explanation for how somebody got that email address, except that they got it from fotoconnection. It might have been that they are perfectly innocent and a rogue employee stole their data. So anybody reading this will have to judge for themselves and take things in context with other posts.

All I know is that they had my personal information, including address and credit card number, and there is no excuse for not having procedures in place to protect data. I would have reasonably expected that they would use a secured system, and few inside users would even have the capability of dumping the email addresses to a file. I would think that if somebody may have used their system for criminal purposes, they would care. Since it violated their privacy policy, I emailed them at the address they provided. Sure enough, it bounced. There's no such address.