Consumers report to the BBB that Yellow Bee Photo employs high pressure sales tactics to persuade customers to purchase extra and unneeded accessories for their products. The firm's website at www.yellowbeephoto.com states, "All merchandise is brand new and factory fresh! All items come with the manufacturers USA warranty, unless otherwise stated," but consumers allege that they are sold grey-market products without their knowledge. Consumers report incorrect orders, over-charging, and difficulty communicating with sales representatives. One consumer pointed out the company's incompetence and was told to "stop whining like a little kid."  
 
 
These complaints concerned:  
7 regarding Advertising Issues  
7 regarding Advertising Issues  
10 regarding Billing or Collection Issues  
10 regarding Billing or Collection Issues  
2 regarding Contract Disputes  
2 regarding Contract Disputes  
7 regarding Delivery Issues  
7 regarding Delivery Issues  
1 regarding Guarantee Or Warranty Issues  
1 regarding Guarantee Or Warranty Issues  
1 regarding Product Issues  
1 regarding Product Issues  
3 regarding Refund Or Exchange Issues  
3 regarding Refund Or Exchange Issues  
11 regarding Selling Practices  
11 regarding Selling Practices  
1 regarding Service Issues  
1 regarding Service Issues  
 
These complaints were closed as:  
19 No Response  
19 No Response  
22 Resolved  
7 Administratively Judged Resolved  
15 Resolved  
2 Unpursuable  
2 Unpursuable  
 

This review was modified by its author, overlandpark4me, on 7/12/09 3:02 PM.

I was overcharged $132.49 by YELLOWBEEPHOTO and when I tried to contact them the number has been disconnected. I attempted to mail the package back certified mail and it was returned to me. This has been a nightmare and would WARN anyone to NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!

This site and company is a scam, stay away! I ordered a camera because of price. I had to call to “confirm the order”, which was really a call to get a rude high pressure sales pitch for add-ons that were 3 to 5 times more expensive than the market prices. I said I did not want anything; my order got put on back-order for a month and then cancelled, even though their web site showed it in stock. I then went to Amazon who showed a price $68 higher, but when purchasing was only $2 higher with shipping $8 less and no haste, it’s Amazon!

This online store is the sort of thing like scams such other online stores as { www.yellowbeephoto.com | EnterprisePhoto.com | Stop4Camera.com }  
1. Some price comparation scan engines are worse which list those sites when I searched for Panasonic PV-GS320 Camcorders.  
2. Those sites list very good price; In fact, they dont carry out the products as their ads.  
3. The purpose of such sites : collecting customer personal information including creditcard info - should use the virtual creditcard# (as citi group does).  
4. The way they do with customers :  
(1). Play very good price for price scan engine.  
(2). After order, customers receive the email reply from the sellers.  
(3). When customer phone in for order status, the seller rep. play high pressure sales of their accessories including saying wrong stuff.  
(4). The sellers: either no respond and no shipping or leting you know the order being on back-order.  
 
Stay away! Beware!

This review was modified by its author, phimgiare, on 3/24/07 7:59 PM.

This store is a bullshit!  
Bad costumer service .Their policy is sucks!  
I ordered a camcorder told them i dont want anything extra.2 days later i got the box with extra battery and extra $ 200.I was on the phone for 2 hours to deal with this shit!  
So forget this store you lose your money anyway!!!!!

BEWARE!!!!  
Was told the camera I ordered only came with a 20 min. battery and offered to sell me a 4 hour battery for an additional $60+. when the package arrived, it only had one battery. after checking with sony, i found out the "twenty min." battery story was false. when i tried to contact customer service, i was told there was a "birthday party going on, and if you had been to brooklyn, then you'd know how good the pizza was, and thus too difficult to get a guy from customer service to answer the phone." on the positive note, i did spend $6 dollars more for ups 3 day shipping and the package arrived in 2 days. i'll try again monday morning, but VISA and SONY have already been advised.

My experience  
my 800$ loss  
 
AFTER ALMOST EVERY BAD COMMENT ON HERE THERE IS A GOOD ONE!....???? Get a REALY JOB YELLOBEE!  
 
CAlling and Verifying your billing adress means, They are trying to sell you more overpriced goods FAST AND DIRTY....try and get they to slow down there speach...I dare you  
 
I ordered two cameras . I was charged 300 over the website listed price per camera on my bill. The person on the phone clamed that there was a mail in rebate. no rebate was sent. The boxs didn't even have a UPC code  
 
DO NOT BUY THERE WARRENTIES  
 
The warrenty That was sold to me over the phone was suposed to "cover all damage to camera even if I dropped it" . All for 150$. I was achually charged 200$ The warrenty "through canon" which was really "through a third party I have never heard off" .....The warrent listed over 19 things it didn't cover including any damages by dropping, dust ...malfunction etc....  
 
I was sent a "100$" battery for the warrenty overcharge. They still have not fixed my rebate problem..It takes hours to get a CS rep...  
IT COST ME 600$ TO ORDER FROM Yellowbeephoto.com

Run! Do not order from this company! I ordered a camera 9 days ago. I promptly received an email stating my order was being processed. THEN I received an email stating that I had to call back with my "billing information." When I FINALLY reached someone, it was just a ploy to try to sell more product. My order has been listed as "will ship" since then. I can't reach ANYONE to find out when it might ship. I've called countless times and wasted hours on hold. I have emailed 3 times and gotten no response. I can't even CANCEL the order because you have to talk to customer service and get a cancellation number. H-E-L-L-O! If I could reach customer service I might not want to cancel my order. Do yourself a favor. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY!!! It reeks of S-C-A-M.

My girlfriend bought a camera from this store last on sunday 2/18/2007 and paid for 3 day shipping so it would be here on 2/21/07 for my birthday and they even were able to upsell her a extra battery. Well wednesday came and no camera. She called and they said it was still being processed and were very rude. They said it would ship thursday and they would overnight it so it would be here friday. Nope wrong again it shipped friday and came saturday. She was finally happy to give me my present well when I opened the box the entire order was wrong. She ordered an olympus camera and there was a cheaper canon in the box and instead of the extra battery there was a cheap memory card. I tried to call them to straighten this out cause she was tired of dealing with them, but no they dont take calls on the weekend like you would expect them to. only on certain hours during the week. So I sent an email to sales and cust serv. and still havent heard back so their manager is going to get an ear full from me today. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!

I ordered a Canon Powershot A640 first thing Friday morning, February 16th. I really was not in a hurry to get this camera. I went to the Yellow Bee Photo web site to check the status of my order on Tuesday, February 20. My order status was status was still “being processed”, so my item hadn’t been shipped—although on their website it states that most orders ship within 24 hours. I called them to get a status on my order. First of all, I waited on hold for over half an hour (I knew this wasn’t good), then when I finally talked to some one they looked up my order, gave me a status that my order was still being processed, and told me that is all he could tell me, to call back the next day, because “Mikey” was the guy that could help me was out for the day and hung up on me. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I waited until Wednesday morning and checked the status of my order again—my camera still had not shipped. I called my credit card company and had them deny the charges and canceled my order with yellowbee.  
 
I found a web store, beachcamera.com, and ordered my camera from there. My purchased was processed, shipped, and I had a FedEx shipping confirmation number (which I could actually track through the FedEx web site) within an hour of my purchase!  
 
These guys are SHADY at best—DON’T BUY FROM HERE!

This review was modified by its author, skydive069, on 2/22/07 9:23 PM.

We ordered a Canon A540. Six days later we get an email to call them to confirm billing info. My husband calls them and is totally badgered by the service rep to buy more equipment plus expensive memory cards etc.After he refused he was told they no longer sell the A540 as it is now discontinued.(even though is said IN STOCK) on their site. The customer service rep than tells my husband he will substitute a Cannon A550. My husband reluctantly agreed . I called them back to see if they could put a rush on it as I had already waited days and my daughters Birthday party was coming up. When I called and spoke to a different rep the woman says they dont have the A550 either and that the other customer service rep should not have been promised that. Now I freak out and ask for the manager who turns out to be the biggest bitch ever!!!!! She was very rude and extremely unprofessional!!!! She did not care to even attempt to make things right. She had a major attitude and told me I could go elsewhere and that they did not need my business!! I have never been treated so poorly by a company in my life. I only wish we found this site before this mess as it seems there are many others out there who were treated like crap by these people!!!!! IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A CAMERA GO ANYWHERE BUT TO THESE MORONS!!! THEY ADVERTISE ITEMS THEY DO NOT HAVE THAN TRY TO HARRASS YOU INTO BUYING SOMETHING MORE EXPENSIVE!! CROOKS LIKE THIS SHOULD BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This review was modified by its author, angison, on 2/22/07 8:22 PM.

The other comments about upselling, long hold times, suddenly out of stock items, etc. are all true. This is one of the first times I've had trouble buying on line. If I can't get through tomorrow, a certified demand letter is going their way.

Wow, I read the reviews and thought I could get through an order without the upsell. I was trying to order a DCR HC96 camcorder. I asked if it was in stock and the guy was asking where I was from, said he had just moved back from a town near me etc... They he went on and told me about the "Demo" battery that was in the camera. My response "I have read some reviews about you guys and I was worried I was going to be upsold. If we can't get through the order without an upsell then I am going to call somewhere else" The salesmen says "uh.. well ok.. no problem." and talks about tapes etc.. then says "Oh you don't want to be upsold so we will skip that" I say I would like the 3 day shipping and he says "No, we can't do that.. you don't want to be upsold" he goes on about how hes ordering me a camera with the demo battery and no additional accessories. It say again "You won't sell me the 3 day shipping" he says "No sir, I can't do that... you don't want to be upsold" so I say "Ok, I guess I will call somewher else then" and I hung up.  
 
BELIEVE the other reviews, these guys are rude and crooks. They show a low price online and try to upsell you before its all said and done!!

My letter to Yellowbeephoto.com:  
Good Afternoon,  
 
I am writing because I have just had the worst customer service/sales transaction I have ever had with your company. I waited on the phone fro 20 minutes, only to get a brief, hurried voice saying only "order number?". I expected a hello, or something after all of that. I told her the order number and got placed on hold without another word. 20 minutes later, another person asked me for my order number and proceeded to try to sell me more items. At this point I was sure that I would never buy from you again. BUT it got worse! After assuring the customer service (bah!) rep that I would only be spending the 300.00 for the camera, and not trusting this transaction at all, I decided to ask some more questions. It turns out that the camera I bought was in JAPANESE!! Not just the manual, but the camera it's self! This was mentioned nowhere in the online ad for this camera. I brought this up, and he told me that this is something they tell the customer when they call to confirm….which I was never told to do in the first place. I was merely calling because I was excited to get the camera and wanted an eta. So, I cancelled my order.  
 
It gets worse! Then, laughing a little, I asked if I could talk to a manager. The representative of you company simply said "no" and hung up. Let's hope this is the end of it.  
 
My advice to anyone planning on buying a camera from Yellow Bee Photo? AVOID THIS COMPANY!

WOW! EXACTLY THE SAME EXPERIENCE AS EVERYONE ELSE - REQUIRED A VERIFICATION BEFORE SENDING (READ UPSELL AND ACCESSORIZE) - WHEN I WOULDN'T ADD-ON I WAS TREATED RUDELY. THEY CANCELLED MY ORDER WITHOUT NOTICE - SUDDENLY THE ITEM "WASN'T AVAILABLE" AND WHEN I QUESTIONED THEM I WAS TOLD " I WAS ASKING ALL THE WRONG QUESTIONS!!!" MY QUESTION WAS WHY THE WEBSITE SAID THE ITEM WAS IN-STOCK AND THEY WERE TELLING ME THAT IT WAS NOT AVAILABLE. VERY VERY RUDE - TOTALLY FRAUDULENT IN THEIR OPERATION AND INTEGRITY - BUYER BEWARE!