5/5

posted Mar-22-2008

"After canceling an order from Amazon.com (I won't get into that on this review), I began to Google for the same product at a comparable price. The only source that I was able to locate in my 20 minute search was Norman Camera. I placed the order in the cart and went to pay. I chose the PayPal method and began to sign in to that service when I realized that I had forgotten my recently changed password. Now, I know better than this but instead of canceling the transaction through Norman's site and re entering the item into my cart. I hit the "Back" button... I didn't even refresh the page! I chose "Credit Card" as my payment source and completed my transaction. Not to my surprise, the following page instead of saying "Purchase Complete" or something to that affect. It showed "PayPal Purchase Pending", OH CR~P!!! Now, I do most of my Internet surfing in the middle of the night and this was no different. The store hours in MI were 9:00am - 7:00pm. Well needless to say, I called them the first chance I had on Friday (which happened to be at 4:20pm!). I explained my situation about my carelessness during last nights purchase and asked if I could complete the order over the phone... "NO PROBLEM SIR..." "Yeah, but not only that, I really need the item by tomorrow, Saturday..." "Well for $10.00 more, I'll get it to you tomorrow morning!" WOW!!!

Bottom line, I was extremely happy and satisfied with their level of service and have effectively won me over as a customer from Amazon.com!

Here is the current tracking from FedEx:

Mar 22, 2008 6:16 AM At dest sort facility TAMPA, FL

4:16 AM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

12:34 AM Arrived at FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

Mar 21, 2008 8:55 PM Left origin PORTAGE, MI

5:18 PM Picked up PORTAGE, MI

3:20 PM Package data transmitted to FedEx
"

This review was modified by DigitalScar on April 02 2008 05:52:39 PM

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1/5

posted Nov-01-2005

"I ordered a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Lens from Norman Camera for $159.95 + $31.70 FedEx next day as I needed the camera ASAP. The order was put in on a Thursday. I did not hear anything from Norman Camera for a couple of days. I thought perhaps FedEx had it. No. Sent Norman Camera an e-mail on Sunday. As I still had not received any reply by Monday afternoon I decided to call at approx. 4:00 pm, spoke to a young man (didn't state his name) who transferred me to shipping as he could not find my order. I spoke to Virginia, a friendly young lady from shipping, who apologized and explained that there was a problem with the order and that management had put a hold on it (5 days later!). She said that per company policy, they have to call the credit card issuing institution to verify information. My Bank would not very any of it (security measure). So Norman Camera decided to sit on the order without any communication to me about the issue. I explained that I needed the lens right away and asked if they would send it COD? No they would not, said Virginia. When I asked why, she told me it was their company policy.

I am not so much upset about the issue with verifying information (although I have purchased many items with the same credit card without any friction) or even their company policy that prohibits shipping from sending any items COD. I, however, believe Norman Camera fell short and therefore caused me trouble by failing to communicate the aforementioned to me (especially since I was under time constraints). Had this issue been relayed to me in a timely manner I could have immediately cancelled the order and found another reseller. At this point, I do not have that option anymore. That, in my opinion, is unprofessional business behavior."

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5/5

posted Apr-16-2005

ResellerRatings.com TOP REVIEWER!

"Best price, photo expertise, fast shipping. No problems."

This review was modified by bilofsky on April 27 2005 09:23:21 AM

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5/5

posted Mar-19-2009

"Wow!!! Norman Camera is a superior camera supplier. I was looking for a Canon 5D Mark II and everywhere I looked, vedors were out of inventory. Norman Camera had one in stock. I ordered and it arrived promptly. There was no upsell, no added accessories, no after the sale phone calls to "verify" the order...just plain old-fashioned fantastic customer service. They did exactly what they said they would do. Norman has now become one of my favorite dealers. I highly recommend this dealer for their honesty.

JP Owens"

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5/5

posted Aug-17-2005

"I recently purchased my Minolta Maxxum 7D online through Norman and everything went smoothly. I had previously purchased the same camera from Dbuys.com and got a defective product with bad customer service.

Norman Camera's pricing was very competitive and what I liked was that their Better Business Bureau report was clean. They were also one of a few distributors acutally listed on Konica Minolta's website as authorized online dealers. A very comforting thought.

After having gone through 2 stores to get my product, my advice would be to stay away from the NYC camera shops who don't treat customers with a lot of respect, regardless of how much money you are spending. If you have to pay just a little more for the product or shipping it's probably worth it.
"

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5/5

posted Jul-01-2006

"I ordered a Canon Macro lens. The delivery was swift, but the first lens was DOA (auto-focus did not work). A quick call to the store and they quickly dispatched another unit (i.e. cross-shipped) without even requiring me to secure it with a credit card (by then, of course, I had paid for the lens that did not work - but they of course had no way to know I was telling the truth). Trust is good. The replacement lens (which was ok) arrived swiftly. Then I noticed I had strangely missed the fact that their price for the lens in question was about $100 above the average on PriceGrabber. I must've not paid attention to the sales person when I inquired the price as I had checked the price on PriceGrabber before placing the order (I have ordered from Norman Camera couple times previously and had a good experience so I am a repeat customer). Again, after a quick call to point out the fact that B&H was selling the same item for $100 less, and they quickly issued credit for the difference.

So.. not a totally event-free transaction, but I'm very satisified with the way the issues were handled, and will order from them again in the future. Sales people were very polite and responsive. "

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5/5

posted Mar-03-2009

"I have been looking for a particular lens for about 4 months (Tokina 11-16/2.8 Nikon mount). In the past couple months, I found & ordered the lens from two other websites that reported it as "in stock" - but after my order went through I found out the lens wasn't in stock. Yesterday I came across Norman Camera - they showed the lens in stock and I decided to try one more time.

I placed my order on 2/2/09 at ~10am. The order was processed and queued to Fed Ex within 3 hours.

Norman's price on this lens was ~$40 higher than B&H and Adorama (where the lens has been out of stock since I started looking for it) *but* it was also $60 cheaper than Amazon (who currently has the lens "in stock").

In summary, my opinion of Norman Camera is:
"Small-town" brick & mortar camera shop with a "big city" inventory, fully-functional website and fairly competitive prices.

I would buy from them again (and plan to do so soon). "

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5/5

posted Apr-08-2010

"Norman Camera had stock of a camera that all of the large NYC camera stores had on backorder. Their pricing was competitive and their customer service was top-notch. The camera shipped the day I placed the order and I had it two days later. I will definitely order from them again!!"

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5/5

posted Sep-06-2011

"Good lens. Shipping on time."

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5/5

posted May-10-2012

"Wow! such a great sales team with outstanding customer service. 5 stars across the board! I ordered a 5d mark iii, which is OUT OF STOCK everywhere except for Norman Camera, and they were able to ship it out THE SAME DAY! Without going into detail, these guys went out of their way to satisfy my order. They were polite enough to wait for my bank to approve of the purchase, even with a product in such high demand and i'm sure they could have sold in seconds to someone else. This is my first time buying with norman camera and their will be many more purchases to come. THANKS!

"

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