86th street photo

[budpro]

86th street photo---Avoid this scam store at all cost. They have come on low prices for their products. If you try to buy the product they immediately attempt to sell you all sorts of accesories at inflated prices and con you as to why you need them.
I attempted to purchase a cannon A 720 IS digital camera. The price was lowerer thaan any other retailer.
But, they insisted on adding an unnecessary high speed memory card rather than a standard card.
When I requested only the camera, they replied oh-- it's out of stock.
It took at least 6 hours to try to reach them. Only after 10:00 PM did I manage to get through.
Please don't waste your time with these con artists. They should be put out of business.

[nomaxim]

Welcome to RR.

Is this them?
86photovideo.com/?

If so we have a thread about them at, resellerratings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129919 (Does anyone know anything about this business?).

[digivex]

Yes, that is them and they are a total scam business that has no intention of selling you something at a low price unless you agree to buy much more at 500% over what it costs elsewhere. You may still never recieve anything. There are plenty of reports on the Internet about this business and, hopefully, someone will shut them down soon.

My wife and I just got finished canceling our credit card after falling for their scam (and before we saw all the warnings and posts about this place).

How did this happen to us… Basically, 86th Photo showed up on a price comparison web site, with the absolute lowest price and a "supposed" high rating. I now believe that they must run their own rating site. From that point on, it’s the same story as everyone else seems to report. We received an email to call them to confirm the order. We called “ext. 203 for Steve” and were told that we needed to buy batteries. But, this was for a Canon S5 IS, which uses "AA" batteries and includes them in the box. When we told him that he said "Oh, you know this camera... So, you should also know that it requires additional, special, recharge batteries", which he wanted to sell us -Again, we declined. He then said that we would need a memory card. We declined that as well. He then told us that we would need an extended warranty. We declined that as well.

After declining all the high pressure sales he then said that the camera was "on backorder" and would not ship for at least 2-3 weeks." We asked why, as their web site says "ships in 1-2 days" and he paused for a second and then said we "could try to re-order it after New Years", which makes no sense at all. Basically, if we did not buy over-priced accessories and an extended warranty (which is non-refundable), we were never going to get any camera.

We then asked to cancel the order. After that, we also cancelled our credit card as this business seems to be in the business of getting your personal information and credit card, without the intention of ever selling you anything.

[Hammersmith]

On 12/24/07, 86th Street Photo & Video charged my account $259.94 for a camera and extra battery. I bought the battery because the sales person told me the battery that came with the camera was of poor quality (I later determined that this was false). Upon receipt of the goods, I discovered that the extra, supposedly high quality “3 hour”, battery, for which they charged me $59.95, was a cheap generic battery. In fact, I could not determine the actual manufacturer because the print on the packaging and the battery itself was blurred. (I later determined that the very best batteries sell for well less than half that amount.)

I Googled “86th Street Photo & Video Reviews” and discovered a plethora of complaints and unfavorable reviews. The company makes a practice of bait and switch and “up-selling” poor quality accessories, without the purchase of which they will not honor their advertised prices for the cameras. A number of reviewers caught them making false claims about the need for accessories such as the extra battery I ordered.

I contacted the company by phone (a one hour affair) to return the order in its entirety, after they failed to respond to my email. The person I talked to, “Rachael,” insisted I would have to pay a restocking fee of 20% as well as the shipping and handling charges (which had mysteriously more than doubled after I added the suggested extra battery to $19.95 from $9.95). I told her that I refused to pay either in light of their deceptive business practices and that I would simply return the merchandise and dispute the entire charge with Discover. After receiving a series of harassing calls from her, I finally agreed to pay the shipping charges but not the restocking fee. (I am enclosing a copy of the note I sent with the return reflecting this agreement.) However, they did not honor the agreement—they credited me the amount of the original purchase then entered a wholly new charge for the restocking fee and shipping and handling, i.e., $67.94.

[kingfisherbb]

Absolutely avoid this company. My situation was the same. After I placed an order on line for just the camera I got a call to "confirm" my order. The fellow asked for address which was same info I gave on line. He then said he noticed that I hadn't ordered a battery and extra memory, etc, which they were offering a sale on. I said I didn't need any of it and he said it was back ordered and I would get it "soon". Website said nothing about backorder.

Absolute crooks. Can anyone provide an address or base of operations. I want to see what can be done about them.

thanks

[nomaxim]

Per the BBB report it's a aka for Wisetronics.

Business Contact Information
Name:
WISETRONICS.COM
Additional Business Names:
86th Street Photo & Video
My Wireless Deal
Wise Tronics
Y.E.S. International
Address:
2845 86th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11223

Original Business Start Date:
10/1/2004

Principal:
Shlomi Albaydadi, Owner
Phone Number:
(877) 678-8990
Additional Phone Numbers:
(718) 373-7820

Fax Number:
(718) 373-7822
Website:
Wisetronics - Bringing you the latest in TVs, Digital Cameras & GPS Systems.
Additional Websites:
86th Street Photo & Video
motorola wireless cell phone prepaid at mywirelessdeal.com
Type of Business:
Electronic Equipment & Supplies-Dealers

Nature of Business
According to complaints filed with the BBB, WiseTronics employs bait and switch sales tactics in order to sell more merchandise. After placing an order on-line, consumers receive an e-mail instructing them to call the company to "confirm" their order. Once on the phone, sales representatives try to sell consumers extra batteries, accessories, and warranties, some of which are included with the camera. When consumers decline, their order is cancelled or they are told that their item is not in stock.

Customer Experience
Based on BBB files, this business has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau, because there is a pattern of complaints, and the business has not corrected the underlying reason for the complaints.

You can file a complaint with the BBB at https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx.
You can also try the NYAG's Office.

The Review Page here at RR gives them a 0.44/10 rating with 205 reviews.

[IMINCOGNEETO]

Someone needs to go down to this store with a baseball bat and beat the bloody hell out of this guy.

Also, file a report at the Internet Crime Complaint Center, http://www.ic3.com the FBI should do something about this. Bait and Switch is illegal.

[robinh]

Stay far away from these people. They try to sell accessories you do not need and refuse returns. Customer service is rude and unwilling to help.

[ExposeTheScum]

April 24, 2009...BUYER BEWARE - I purchased a Garmin GPS on Wednesday afternoon on the 86th Street Photo & Video website. The GPS unit was showing "in stock". Wednesday evening I received a call from 86th Street Photo customer service. The person said they needed to "verify" the order. "Verify" apparently means high pressure sells tactics to upsell accessories that are grossly overpriced (500% in this case). I was told I would receive an email with tracking information by Thursday morning. The email never came. I called Thursday evening and the extremely rude 86th Street employee informed me that I would need to call back Friday morning. I logged back on their website Friday morning and the status on the order was showing "back ordered". I cancelled the order online.

I called the credit card company to flag this company in case they try to charge. The person from the credit card company was familiar with the unethical business practices of 86th Street Photo. Additionally, the credit card company requested I keep a hard copy of the transactions so they could aggressively pursue 86th Street Photo, if necessary.

Several interesting observations regarding 86th Street's website;
1) They have a "Five Star Certified Merchant" declaration posted on their home page. This means tuck-tail, grab your wallet and run. Any merchant that displays this in the future is automatically avoided.
2) They have "5 Reasons to Buy From Us" posted on their home page. All five reasons do not apply to this merchant. They should change this to "5 Reasons to Buy From Anyone But Us" and the list could be much longer.
3) They have "Customer Testimonials" on their home page. The single testimonial must be the owner or a family member of the owner.

Buyer beware,

Expose the Merchant Scum

[BobVerde]

These guys will get you, they got me. It's the same old story sell you (junk for dollars). I purchase a GPS it's great that's the enticement, but then the accessory are The Dollar Store stuff at high prices and they don''t work. They said Satisfaction Guarantee that's a joke, they come up with a bunch of reasons NOT to guarantee. And it seem like a one man show when you call.