RE: 24hrdigital.com

[pjlent]

Since I was smart enough not to actually give this scammer my credit card info, I evidentally can't write a "review", because I didn't actually buy anything, but let me say this. If ordering a Canon T2I from them they will first try to up-sell you on very expensive batteries and/or "upgrade" the lens, and whatnot.

Then, if you don't buy their very expensive 3 or 5 year extended warranty, they then want to charge 7 to 10% extra for "insurance" or "handling fee", or possibly, they just cancel your order and hang up on you.

On a camera listed at $854, at only 7% that's $59.78 which would buy you about $8540.00 worth of insurance via UPS shipping. I know, I have a UPS account, and I import certain items from overseas myself.

While technically they are not baiting and switching the products per se, they are definitely doing that on their prices.

If you read the fine print in their return policies, you'll find that they even charge 5% for a canceled order, even if the product hasn't shipped(read cancellation processing fee). Much more (like 10 to 20%) if it has shipped.

There are several other websites listed in the Canon T2I reviews that are doing similar things (Fumfie & Photovideosuperstore are two that comes to mind). Unfortunately, RR does not include any "insurance" or "handling fees" in their "true price" calculations.

I think the real problem is that RR needs to include such hidden fees in their pricing calculations (ask merchants about any additional/misc. "required" fees). A USA/Grey market filter or column would also be nice...

[24hrdigital]

Dear Sir

We are not trying to scam you, we clearly post on our companies shipping policy page that we will charge a processing handling and insurance fee. We charge this fee because it costs our company 3% to 4 % just for billing your credit card, on top of the actual insurance and handling cost of the order. We clearly advertise USA models especially for the canon t2i, and if you are not happy or simply if you do not want to pay the amount that we ask there is no need to write a nasty review and call us scammers. We have many satisfied customers, that have no problem paying the P.H.I fee and even if you added that fee we are still lower then any other online retailer, not to mention that other companies out their try to upsell you the whole world and if you don't buy then they will not ship out your camera. We on the other hand do offer additional equipment for the camera just like bhphoto and adorama and cameta camera as it is necessary to have a memory card and a spare battery and a uv filter to protect the lens. Now you were not pressured in any way shape or form to buy anything as a matter of fact when you called you indicated that you were not intersted in any extra equipment and we simply told you no problem sir we will gladly ship you the camera however this is what we charge. If you call that a scam then I guess every camera company on the internet is a scam and I guess ritz camera Best Buy are the ultimate scammers because their price is about 150 dollars higher then ours, so please understand that there are costs involved for processing an online order and that we are not able to calculate those costs when customers are checking out as different customers use different credit cards purchase different cameras of different value.


Kindest Regards
Customer Support Team

[pjlent]

Adorama list the camera @ $899.99 complete, including free shipping & shipping insurance, no other fees (actual price). At the time of my phone call your stated price of $854.00 with a 7% "insurance" fee (as I was told over the phone) which actually comes to $913.78. I don't think your the lowest price by anyone's measure. At least "best buy" and the like are HONEST about what they charge, and I would expect to pay state/local taxes on any item bought there. Yes they do offer an extended warranty too (for much less BTW), but they don't refuse to sell the camera, or charge an outrageous shipping insurance/processing fee to you if you don't buy the extended warranty.

When I questioned your salesman about the 7% "insurance" fee, telling him that UPS/Fedex doesn't charge that much, he changed tactics and then said that I can call it a "handling fee" or whatever I wanted, just that it costs that much, take it or leave it. And that "insurance fee/ handling fee" was only tacked onto the bill ONLY when I wouldn't buy the overly priced extended warranty. I was first told "If you don't buy an extended warranty, we have to insure it for shipping".

Again, NO CARRIER, charges that much for something that costs $854.00! And that sir IS a SALES PRESSURE TACTIC; in that you won't actually ship the product unless the sucker you have on the phone either buys the overly expensive extended warranty, or at the very least shells out the $59.78 extra for "insurance" (which BTW negates any "savings" he/she thought they were getting).....

And your excuse of "please understand that there are costs involved for processing an online order and that we are not able to calculate those costs when customers are checking out as different customers use different credit cards purchase different cameras of different value." is laughable. What, you can't get the computer to do basic math? The card processing fees for Visa, MC, Discover, and AMEX may be different, bu tthey are fairly static, and don't change from day to day or month to month. And before you even go there.... Fraud detection costs almost nothing (like $0.30), as all modern merchant processing does an AVS check automatically during card validation. BTW, canceling an already charged credit card order might cost all of $0.50, and that's for the per processing fee charged from the merchant account processor.

That, and no "REPUTABLE" store charges extra for processing credit cards (it's called overhead, already computed into the price offered for the product). In fact, it's against standard credit card merchant rules! Yea, I process credit cards too! ALL major credit card merchant processing contracts (THAT I'VE EVER SEEN) specifically state that you may NOT charge a processing fee (or whatever your calling it this week) to your customers. Maybe I should let Visa/MC know what you're doing.

I stand by my statements. You may not be switching the product(s), but you are surely baiting and switching the prices.

[24hrdigital]

We do not charge for processing of your credit card we charge a P.H.I. Fee for all orders which is for processing of the order handling of the order as well as insuring the order through PIP and not through ups or fedex. You were not obligated to buy any extended warranty or anything extra, the rep offered you an extended warranty which you declined and he did not say oh because you are not buying the warranty we have to charge you for Insurance, because we charge the P.H.I. fee on all orders since it is mandatory as stated in our shipping policy. (pressure tactics would of been if the rep kept on forcing the warranty upon you or saying oh you can only get the camera if you buy the warranty). If you would of asked what is my total we would of told you the total including our P.H.I fee, and yes we include credit card fees into our advertised price, our processing fee is what we charge for processing of the order actually it is for packing of the order so the last time we checked it was not illegal to charge for packing or processing or whatever it is you would like to call it, furthermore your right it does not cost that much to insure with the ups or fedex however we did not tell you that it is simply for insurance it is a fee that we charge for packing processing providing a service handling insuring advertising and the fact is that instead of hanging up the phone on the sales rep you could of simply said you know thats higher that what most retailers are charging and we could of worked out a better price for you perhaps we could of done it for 875 or 890 or 854 and waived the insurance handling processing fee, however you decided to go ahead and bad mouth us for no other reason than you must be really bored!!!! Bottom Line we disclose all of our charges clearly we don't hide anything in fine print like all the bait and switch companies out there we sell cameras and your comments were just completely wrong about how you were treated, and im not sure about pressure tactics but last time I checked and listened to the recorded sales call you had with the rep you were not told oh we only have this package available for this price you called up and said your price is 854 and I do not want anything else the rep said no problem how about the extended warranty are you sure you do not want that for such an expensive camera and you said no thank you and then he said no problem sir we will gladly process the order for you, and did you calculate the P.H.I fee into your total and gave you a price around 913 dollars delivered with in 3 days, you then said arrogantly said I can insure 8500 dollars worth of equipment for that price and hung up.

Look lets not get carried away here and if you would like the canon t2i which im sure you already purchased give us a call and we can gladly sell you one for a total price of 879 including all of our fees.


Kindest Regards
David Ringle
Customer Support Rep
www.24hrdigital.com

[pjlent]

Well, I had a long nice thought out reply to all your lies, but the "token" expired and I lost it. Here's someone else's opinion....

Gee, first you say "We charge this fee because it costs our company 3% to 4 % just for billing your credit card". Then in your latest post, after I pointed out that card companies don't allow that, you do a 180 and say "We do not charge for processing of your credit card".

Pick a lie and stick with it, will ya?

And tell Mr. Gimelfarb that we're on to his latest scam company.

So is google, as I see his account is under review. Evidently, they took Dave's advice and are actually vetting their sponsored links....