First thing they did after i made my order was call me to make sure they got my order right. this entailed trying to sell me accessories and lying about the standard accessories. i was told the battery that came standard can only take about 20 pictures and i should buy a high density battery from them. they had two models, one with the same mAhrs rating as the provided battery, but somehow could take hundreds of pictures.
They subsequently called me to tell me the camera i ordered was out of stock, and i would have to wait for them to restock, but they would ship it expedited shipping. They told me a date it would ship and it was acceptable so i didnt complain. the product shipped two business days after they told me, this included a weekend, and went out ground. Horrible etailer and next time i will spend the extra $10 and buy from a reliable vendor.
Was worried after reading comments posted, and purchased a new camera with trepidation from site. Should not have worried -- within 16 hours, I had a call from the gentleman processing my order to verify shipping info. Camera arrived, exactly as promised.
I am extremely pleased with this company and highly recommend them for future purchases.
This review was modified by its author, sfevers, on
2/25/07 8:08 PM.
I placed a $12K order of photo and video equipment with a salesperson thinking that this will speed up the order process. Boy, was I wrong!! I had asked and paid for 2-day air delivery and was promptly charged $350.00 for shipping to which I readily agreed to. They tried to upsell me some overpriced stuff i.e. set of 77mm filters for $200.00 which I found in another site for $38.00. Took them awhile to actually send out the packages because they needed to verify my account which they had promptly charged within 2 days! Packages finally arrived 12/06/06 and when I saw the invoice, I was charged $400+ for COD charges??? my card was charged 2 days after I placed the order!! Packages were sent ground instead of 2-day air!! Please do not order from these crooks!!
Update: I was contacted by David who presented himself as the new store supervisor. He was very apologetic for my bad experience and had promised that things have changed from the way they do business and as a sign of good faith had made a $150.00 refund which I promptly received within a couple of days along with a promise to update my bad review of their store. The refund covers what I was overcharged for the shipping of my order which I would like to mention that all the items I ordered were received in good condition inspite of everything. I intend to put another order with this company thru David's promise that everything will be taken cared of in a responsible manner. One fact that cannot be denied about this company is that they do have the best prices. As for changes how they do business, I will have to defer to a later review when I put in another order.
This review was modified by its author, cdom, on
3/31/07 6:48 AM.
I Ordered a TV Sunday Morning. I got the email to call them a few hours later. It was a soft sell for accessories etc. I politely said no. Two hours later got a call to verify my order, I said yes. Monday afternoon I got a tracking number stating delivery next Tuesday. The TV arrived in perfect condition at the estimated date.
This review was modified by its author, CometB, on
3/7/07 3:14 PM.
My experience was almost exactly the same as MKSMITH before. They gave me bad information (eg. said it shipped when it didn't, gave me a phoney tracking #, etc.)
Do not do business with this company! They will drive you crazy.
I dropped $4,200 with Abe's Camera And Electronics, Inc. (d.b.a. Abe’s of Maine and Family Photo and Video) and specifically asked about their 30-day money back guarantee. Was told that it applied to the products I was purchasing.
I received the product, and it was bunk. When I tried to exercise my warrant rights, that was when the games began. I've called about 20 times, and each time I was immediately transferred to voicemail or told to try email. However, no one responds to voicemails or emails (as indicated on the other many, many complaints on this site).
Having worked for a fraudulent company before, trust me when I say that their tactics are textbook examples of consumer fraud.
I am drafting a class action lawsuit this weekend. Anyone want to join?
I ordered a Panasonic TH-42PX600U 42IN HD Plasma TV for $1,495 (including shipping). This was a very competetive price. Abe's shipped the product to me in a timely manner, using Manna Distribution. The product arrived in perfect shape. I set it up and have been very happy.
Abe's does email you asking you to followup with a call to complete your order. They _will_ try to sell you some extra stuff such as cables and warranty. This is highly annoying, after placing an internet order to have to followup with a phone call and talk to Sal about the warranty and HDMI cables he'd like to sell ya.
Were it not for the "upsell" followup phone call that they require to complete the order I'd give them a 10 out of 10. Due to that, though, I'll drop their rating to 6 out of 10 as I don't reward being treated as an upsell opportunity when bringing them $1,500 of business.
I have truly enjoyed purchasing both the Nikon SB-600 flash and my D50 DSLR outfit from Abes of Maine. They had great prices and the shipping was really quick. The transactions were both quick, and painless. I will be doing business with them again.
Only good thing about this company is that they finally returned my money. It took them 10 days
to credit my CC back . Shippment was lost ,
and they were stalling as much as they could.
Costumer service ( sic !) would tell you whatever you wanted to hear .
03/15/07
David from costumer service called me twice and was very appologetic. He offered to send ( as a gift ) surge protector. He seems to really care about costumers and too bad he was not there when I had a problem . Considering everything , at this point I could see myself going back to Abe's and giving them another chance :)
This review was modified by its author, senaidt, on
3/16/07 6:47 PM.
I am retracting the negative seller rating posted on January 25th 2007. While I was dissatisfied with my initial purchase from Abes, David agreed to have my damaged television picked up and credit was issued.
This review was modified by its author, mikehopkins1, on
3/7/07 4:34 PM.
STAY AWAY from these crooks. They wasted two weeks of my time. I ended up buying my TV from a local supplier.
Following is the summary I sent to them when finally canceling my order.
Summary of Bad Service:
Jan. 9, 2007: Placed order for $2,885 TV, which was labeled "Available" on the website. Credit Card account billed for full amount. Received urgent email from george@abesofmaine.com, which read:
Dear Valued Customer,
We need you to call us up for verification issues regarding the order you
placed online. Please call me at 800-992-2237 x. 225.
This was a joke. "George" was not verifying anything meaningful regarding the order. He used this tactic to try to hard-sell worthless services and overpriced products. This was the one of the most flagrant violations of good business practices I have ever encountered. It was downright funny in its complete lack of sophistication. I turned down all of the offers, much to George's dismay.
Jan. 10-17, 2007: Placed numerous calls to "customer service" for confirmation of order and estimated delivery date. One representative gave me a shipment number for Manna Transport and the address for the Manna website. I monitored the shipment status via the Manna website. The shipment number status was "acknowledged", and dates for ETD and ETA were given. Over time these dates moved on a daily basis, adding one day each day. I called Manna by phone on Jan. 17 and was informed that the item had not been released to them from AoM.
Jan. 18, 2007: Finally got in touch with "Kobe" by phone after 30 minutes on hold. He seemed pretty good, saying he would get to the bottom of the situation. On my request, he sent me the first order number associated with the transaction. He also committed to upgrade the shipment to 2-3 days because of problems with the order. To this day (Jan. 23), the order number is not recognized by AoM's order tracking system.
Jan. 18-22, 2007: Stayed in touch with Kobe by email, asking for order status and shipment date. His latest email (Jan. 22) blames the manufactor (sic) for not shipping the item. Still the order number is not recognized by AoM's tracking system. In addition, on the website, the item availability was revised to "Unavailable" and the price raised to $2,999.
Jan. 23, 2007: Still waiting for Kobe to contact me following his last promise to update the status of the order. Manna shipment ETD and ETA moved again. I contacted my credit card company to initiate a dispute, and sent email to AoM to cancel order. I will buy the TV from a real company.
This review was modified by its author, mksmth, on
1/23/07 4:09 PM.
