Abes of Maine run away as fast as.....

[Lara RR]

Our automated anti-fraud tools have detected and disabled 30 +/- reviews.

[Midwest-Trader]

Thank you for this information. Are these newly disabled reviews that will affect their rating? Without revealing how these are chosen, can you say whether these were positive or negative reviews?

[Lara RR]

A rating is updated within about 10 minutes of any review activation or edit. Those disabled reviews were "very positive".

Also fyi, merchants' ratings are calculated on a 6-month trailing average that only includes reviews received within the past 6 months. As time moves forward, old reviews drop off the tail end of that calculation. A rating is a dynamic moving average that will also change whenever a merchant receives new reviews, whenever customers change a previous rating, when reviews are deactivated or reactivated, or whenever old reviews drop off the end of the 6 month cutoff.

[frostbitetwice]

Sorry Caulfield.... Thanks your the correction, Midwest...

Keep an eye on this old fart, please...

[Midwest-Trader]

Frostbitetwice: You misread Caulfield's remark. The sales rep was Jack, the customer service rep was an unnamed female.

[nomaxim]

An update to the beginning of the thread from last March.

This company is no longer a member of the BBB.

The current BBB report states,

Name: Abe's Electronics Center, Inc.
Phone: (732) 225-1777
Fax: (732) 379-5026
Address: 5 Fernwood Avenue
Edison, NJ 08837
Website: www.abesofmaine.com
Original Business Start Date: January 1979
Local Start Date: October 2000
Principal: Mr. Abe Mosseri, President
Customer Contact: Mr. Abe Mosseri, President - (732) 225-1777
TOB Classification: Electronic Equipment & Supplies-Dealers
BBB Accreditation: This organization is not a BBB Accredited business.

Additional DBA Names
Abe's of Maine

Customer Experience
Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record record with the BBB due to a pattern of complaints and has failed to correct the underlying reason for the complaints.

The current search results for 'abesofmaine.com' with the BBB only shows two results. The above file in Edison, NJ and the original file in MA which states,

Mail sent to the company on 12/23/2005 was returned by the U.S. Postal Service as Undeliverable as Addressed.

The address once listed by the BBB for 'Abe's of Maine' in NY no longer appears in the reports or the record searches.

However, Whitepages.com still shows a business there,

Family Photo & Video
work
1959 Coney Island Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11223-2328
(718) 645-1298
Company:
Family Photo & Video

This address at '1957 Coney Island Ave. Brooklyn, NY' no longer appears in the BBB records as I stated above. So per BBB records these two business, 'Abe's of Maine' and 'Family Photo & Video' do not appear to be affiliated.


As to the 'Unsatisfactory' ratings. Consider that Abe's of Maine was a member of the BBB 9 months ago. However, they were displaying a 'Reliability Program' icon on their website, which per the BBB report at the time said they were not entitled too. See posts 9 & 10.

Originally Posted by Peter Cornstalk

At least they too the BBB online reliability button off. I was looking at them about a week or so ago and they had one up but their BBB profile says they are not enrolled in the online reliability program.

Originally Posted by nomaxim

I would, however recommend caution when using this merchant. As Peter pointed out they had a BBB icon displayed on their website that they were not entitled too.

The BBB, or someone else, may have taken legal action against them. Whatever happened they lost their BBB accreditation.

[frostbitetwice]

You are a bloodhound extraordinary always finding your man!!

[Digi-newb]

Hey folks...Been doing photography for decades, but I'm fairly new to digital.


Long story short, I bought a used D70 from a friend, after playing with a point and shoot for a few months. It didn't work out, as there were sensor issues, so I returned the camera to him.

Wanting to keep a few old Nikkor lenses, I had to opt for a new D80. The best price I found was at Abes of Maine. Too good a deal to pass up, but I'm nervous about this whole internet purchasing.

I stumbled across this board, and was mortified to read some of these posts.


Well, I contacted Abes by phone, and armed with the info I read here, I let them know that their reputation is terrible. I offered them a chance to make me happy, and ordered the D80 body.

I had a minor glitch on this past Monday,(the day I ordered) as their systems were supposedly down most of the day. I found this out on Tuesday, 3/11. They had no record of my order. I reiterated my doubts about their service, and they took the order again.


Thanks to the warnings I got here, I made it clear to them that I didn't want any problems with my purchase. I received my camera today, 24 hours after ordering. Free shipping, and the free 2 gig card...as promised.



Thanks guys...I guess this is a positive comment about Abes

[sunvolt]

The "sales assistant" Ted at Abe's of Maine gets you in on the low price--Sells you what you think is a good deal--Gets your Credit Card info and then proceeds to hound you to purchase more items while the price keeps going higher and higher--If you resist the upsell, they tell you that it is too late--You have already bought the camera!!! Run Away!! Run Away!!!

[usapatriot]

I placed a negative review on this site but it was removed. Read why below.

Reseller Ratings only allows reviews from "purchasing" customers. That means that if Abes doesn't ship your order, or if you cancel your order because of all the BS that Abes puts you through, YOU CANNOT SUBMIT A RATING. I suspect that Abe's ratings are higher than they should be due to this fact. Abes specifically looked into my negative rating, discovered that my order was not shipped, and consequently used this loophole to have my negative rating removed by requesting such from the site. I think this is a serious shortcoming of the ResellerRatings system and I hope they will consider revising this policy.

To reiterate my experience...
I ordered a camera online. I received the dreaded "we need you to confirm your information via telephone" email. I would like to point out that in my ~14 years of placing orders online, I have not once been asked to "confirm information". Why is Abes different? The "confirmation" phone call is simply a way to get you on the phone with a live sales rep that can use high pressure sales tactics to do the old bait & switch. Memory cards, warranties, high-margin accessories; Abes' business model of offering low low prices on the main components relies on customers adding high-priced, high-margin accessories to their order. It is a viable business model - but sketchy as hell. I canceled my order without speaking with a sales rep on the phone. There is no way that I'm going to risk having items shipped to me that I didn't order due to a "misunderstanding on the phone" or something dodgy like that. Furthermore, I simply refuse to do business with an outfit that engages in such questionable sales tactics.

Don't ignore the bad reviews like I did. Run away. The reviewers are telling the truth - Abes is bad business. You might get lucky, but this is online shopping, not online gambling!

BHPhotoVideo.com prices are only a tiny bit more expensive but absolutely doesn't play games. Just order from them or another reputable vendor.