I was a bit skeptical about ordering from Sixth Avenue only because so many of the other NY/NJ camera and elctronic shops seem to employ high pressure sales techniques as well as bait and switch tactics. After researching 6th Ave's rep here on resellerratings.com my fears were eased a bit. Thus I submitted a bid of $279.00 for the Panasonic Lumix DSC-Fz35 digital camera. List price is $399.00, but most Amazon merchants sell it for around $320.00. I was willing to wait months for the price to drop below $300 but 6th Ave advertised a "Name Your Price" promotion. After e-mailing my bid, 6th Ave countered with a price of $299.00 and no charge for shippimg which was below my $300 threshold. I nearly cancelled my order when I went to checkout and saw $18 worth of tax tacked on. Amazon merchants don't pull that stunt.
Having waited so long for the camera I went ahead and ordered but with serious reservations. I got a prompt confirmation of my order and was notified they would contact me again when the camera shipped. It took 2 days to receive that confirmation. Clicking on the UPS tracking info provided no details of when the item would be arriving. In fact, for three days the only entry in UPS' log was that a shipping number was created. No info about the item being picked-up by UPS or sent to their warehouse. Again I considered cancelling the order and going with Amazon.com who usually gets stuff to me in 3 days or less. Finally, 6 days later I checked again and voila, the UPS tracking number showed the item being picked up two days before, its arrival at a main distribution warehouse, then being sent to another warehouse, then on to my local UPS. Best of all, the final entry said it was out on delivery that day. At 7:15 that night the UPS guy gave me the package. The camera is simply awesome and everything I expected. Perfectly new, plenty of documentation and more than a few follow-up e-mails from 6th Ave. Very professional.
All in all the experience proved to be quite positive and I recommend 6th Ave., but they certainly need to make some changes in the shipping department. As I became increasingly disastified with the lack of updated shipping info I went online and found countless reviews by others experiencing the same frustration. I am thrilled that my camera came in less than a week, but plenty of others have waited weeks to get things they ordered. They too cited a lack of communication regarding the whereabouts of their orders. Had they been a little more forthcoming with shipping details I'd have given them my highest recommendation.
