On 5/20/02 I contacted HotBuys after seeing the scanner I wanted to purchase on Ebay. This company has over 1000 positive feedbacks on Ebay, so I felt pretty safe. I now believe they have somehow found a way to cheat Ebay's feedback system, and have posted those feedbacks themselves.  
Anyway, the price was terrific, so I called to make sure the product advertised was brand new and to find out what the store policies were. "Frank" confirmed that it was a brand new scanner with warranty. I was told by Frank that if I bought it over the phone instead of Ebay, he would give me a discount on the shipping. I agreed and gave him my Visa number.  
 
The product arrived 5/21 and I opened it when I got home from work that evening. I knew I had been had when I saw the cheaply Xeroxed manual and the homemade CD label. There was no warranty card and no software licenses. The manual itself, which HotBuys Xeroxed, says that those items should be included.  
We videotaped those false documents. I did not actually take the scanner out of the packaging. I called my Visa company and informed them I would be disputing the charges. They told me the charge had not come through yet, but that they were noting my account.  
 
On the morning of 5/22/02, at 9:00 am EST, I called HotBuys and spoke to "Sidney". I explained that I had received a product different from what was represented by their salesperson and requested a Return Merchandise Authorization number. After I refused his offer to send me a “real” manual he agreed to fax me a form that I was to fill out in order to receive the Return Merchandise Authorization #. Three hours later I had not received the fax. I called again, waited on hold for ten minutes, and Sidney told me he “had just sent it”. I went to the fax machine and got the form, which was simply a statement that I agreed to pay a 15% restocking fee, $111.75. If I signed and faxed back the agreement, I would get the return authorization number. (I fully support a company’s right to charge a restocking fee, except when the return is a result of dishonesty on the part of the seller.) I called Sidney and told him I refused to pay the 15% due to the fact that I had received a product different from what was represented. I was told that I could not get a Return Authorization number. ( I have since read many complaints from customers who say that HotBuys refused to accept delivery of their returns even if they had a valid Return Authorization number. When I accused Sidney and HotBuys of being dishonest, he hung up on me.  
 
 
I have not been contacted by HotBuys and have not contacted them since. I am waiting until my credit card company gets the charge and will await instructions from them on how to proceed.  
 
If you do a search on the internet for HotBuysElectronics you will find scores of cases similar to mine. I always thought I was too smart to be taken advantage of this way, but I was wrong.  
 
 
Scott Gordon  

I've never been so disgusted by any retail business as I am with HotBuysElectronics.com. The salesman "Sidney" offered to sell me a Minolta Dimage 7i with US warranty, rather than gray market, for an extra $50. This seemed reasonable. What I received, however, was a gray market version with all material (including the on-screen menus on the camera!), in Japanese. "Sidney" assured me that was a mistake and offered to exchange it for the USA version that I had paid for. He apologized for the mistake and offered to refund my cost to return the camera to him. After I returned the camera, he kept stalling in sending out the replacement, and never did. When I finally told him to cancel the order, he promised that he'd refund the full price including shipping, as well as my cost to return the gray market camera back to him. I called back repeatedly to check on the credits and I was assured that they "were down in accounting" or "were to the bank for processing" and similar excuses. When my account did not properly reflect these credits, I called and talked to "Sidney". He told me that he hadn't originally sent me the wrong camera. He told me that since the camera existed in the US, it was the US version and I hadn't been deceived when I ordered. He went on to tell me that I was "just lucky" that he'd accepted that camera's return. When I asked for a manager, Sidney told me that he was a manager, and that he reported to no one. He became abusive on the telephone, and then finally hung up on me. Do not, under any circumstances, order ANYTHING from this company. I'm contacting my credit card company to try to get the promised credits, as well as various consumer agencies in NY. As a previous reviewer indicated, I may not get the refunds that were promised, but I hope that the trouble and my bad recommendation makes up for it. Bad HotBuysElectronics! Bad!

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THIS GUYS IS STILL IN BUSINESS. I BOUGHT A BINOCULAR FROM THIS GUY AND REALIZED LATER THAT THE CASE HE SOLD TO ME WAS PACKAGED WITH THE BINOCULARS AND THE COMPANY ADVISED ME THAT HOTBUY IS NOT AN AUTHORIZED SELLER AND THEY OVERCHARGED ME! HE TOOK MY CREDIT CARD NUMBER PRIOR TO LETTING ME MAKE A CHOICE AND BEGAN TO ARGUE WHEN I QUESTIONED HIM ABOUT THE CASE. THEY PUT A ON LINE AD FOR SUCH A VERY LOW PRICE, BUT AFTER THEY SCAMED ME ON THE PHONE; I PAID MORE THAN MANY OF THE OTHER BUSINESSES.  
 
PLEASE AVOID THIS BUSINESS!!!  
 
I filed a Complaint w/ NYC comsumer affairs after reading all these comments and their ebay complaints. The complaint form is On-line at:  
 
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dca/html/dcacompl.html  

This review was modified by its author, rater101, on 6/14/02 2:09 PM.

Pure bait and switch. They advetised Canon bionculars and I ordered 2 pair.  
A week later, I received an email "We don't not have this item available".  
 
You are wasting your time AND money by dealing with this company.  
 

After reading some of the comments about this vendor I had some trepidation about ordering from them but I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the promptness of the merchandise received and the politeness of the staff. I did call and tell them that one piece of merchandise was defective and they immediately gave me an RM # for exchange. My main priorities were satisfied...getting exactly what I asked for and at an excellent price. I was put under no pressure BTW to trade up. I will definitely do more business with them.

I ordered a Sea & Sea MX10 with YS40A strobe from the web site. I called by "Sidney" and told that for a $30.00 upgrade I could get the Sea & Sea from Japan that came with the optical cable (170.00 retail extra). He said that they Japanese Sea & Sea was much better than the version made in Japan as opposed to Taiwan. I told him I could care less about where it was made but I wanted the optical cable so go ahead.  
 
I recieved my camera minus the optical cable and I was charged $60.00 more and not $30.00.  
 
I made several phone calls and was told the "computers were down", "the manager is out", etc and always call back in an hour. On my 4 th call...a recording answered saying that they would be closed for the next 3 days!!! This was 2pm on a Wed.  
 
I called Sea & Sea. All cameras are made in Japan...no cameras have ever been made in Taiwan.HotBuysElectronics.com is not authorized to sell Sea & Sea.  
 
I complained to the BBB, NY State Attorney General, and asked for a charge back on my Visa. I may not get my 60.00 back but I am going to make it 60.00 worth of trouble for them. >:)  
 

I bought a referished Nikon N80 through eBay from them. They do not accept electronic payments, so I called and gave them my CC. While on the phone, the person said, "do you want to buy a new one for $40 more?"  
 
I asked if it had a 1 year warranty. He said yes. So I said OK.  
 
What I received was an gray market F80 (european verison), a xeroxed manual, and no warranty card.  
 
So I called and complained and they said they would send me a US manual and an 'international' warranty card. This still did not feel right so I contacted Nikon and they said this camera was not warrantied and they would not fix it if anything when wrong.  
 
So I called back and ask for an exchange for what I had orginally ordered. Got an RMA and sent it back. They rejected the package and it came back to me.  
 
So I called again and asked why they had rejected it - had to explain why I was returning it all over again (we warranty it for 12 months). Got another RMA and sent it again. This time they accepted it.  
 
Two weeks with out a word from them so I called them - "we have to order the camera, it will be here next Thurday of Friday." I called on Friday "It's not in yet, will be here on Monday."  
 
Called on Monday, "Still not here." I tell them that I've been pretty patient with them and ask what we can do. "If it's not here by Tuesday, we'll refund your money."  
 
Called Tuesday - and - you guess it, no camera. "Ok, we'll refund your money, just send the other things you bought back and we'll give you full credit." So I send the lens, batteries and strap back.  
 
On my next Visa statement there is no credit! I call again! They said they'd check on it and call you back. Did they call back (anyone taking bets yet)? No I called again and they said yes I would get credit and I finally did.  
 
So I'm out 3 months interest $20 in shipping and 20 calls to New York.  
 
I'm never doing business with them again. I hope you don't either.

From the reviews I see, these guys haven't cleaned up their act at all in the last few years.  
Please read my experience at:  
http://209.204.130.204/hotbuys/timeline.html

This review was modified by its author, calskate, on 11/17/06 2:05 PM.

 
 
yes.....not a pleasant experience....ordered a canoscan fs4000us and a couple other items. 1 item was backordered but they charged me for its shipping even tho they never shipped it...they also charged me 45.00 over their printed price then gave me some bs that thier quoted price was for a "made in tiawan" canoscan but they sent me a japanese made unit thats why it costs more.....wouldnt refund the difference unless i sent the entire order back...of course id pay the postage to send it back and they would not refund the postage that i paid to receive the order in the first place.......so i ate their FRAUD and regret ever looking at their page.......a 2000.00 purchase turned into a stressful mistake that cost me around a couple hundred bucks extra and a lot of irritation.