2/5

posted May-03-2012

"Bought a lens and returned it. Took FOREVER for them to process my refund. 30+ minute on hold time in the middle of the day on a Thursday before I even got a hold of anyone. Was not informed of the 15% restocking fee when I asked for a RMA - had they told me that I'd have kept it since the price has gone up.

The first guy I initially spoke to was a rock star, but later didn't want to be bothered by my once a week emails.

Oh well will stick with B&H."

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5/5

posted Feb-10-2012

"I got a good deal from samy's camera. I had read the reviews' of samy and they were not so good. I was not sure if I should get it from samy's or not. I decided to try my chance and I am so happy that I did that. I got my camera four days after I ordered it and I am happy with doing business with samy's."

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4/5

posted Jan-08-2012

"I ordered over a holiday weekend and because of that they were slow to process my order and the website didn't provide much feedback. Because the item (a hard to find camera) was listed as out of stock almost as soon as i'd ordered it I figured I might be in trouble. I wasn't. I called and they apologized for the slow shipping and overnighted my camera for free! The guy said an issue was that they were expanding and it took time to catch up. He was very friendly on the phone and I ended up being satisfied. The camera is great and the guys was nice. I think a real problem is that they still aren't set up to handle the volume of orders that might come in over a holiday weekend and that the website doesn't give good status updates. The customer service made up for that though. "

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2/5

posted Jan-04-2012

"Frustrating experience with fraud verification, but ultimately they found a solution."

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5/5

posted Dec-17-2011

"Was trying to find a rare Canon super telephoto lens. I called every big operator in the US or checked their websites. No one had it. Then I found Samy's Camera. One Samy site said they had none and the other said two. So I called. The gal, after checking inventory, said that they had one. So I ordered it expecting that this was a ruse to hold me on a line until they got one in. But what the heck, I decided to give Samy's a try. But it arrived right away, Fed Ex, with free shipping! Couldn't belive it. Didn't spend a lot of time on the telephone waiting. Thought they had good service. The only downside is that they don't have an order tracking system so if you are concerned, you can just log on and find out what's happening. But once they ship, they do send a tracking number."

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5/5

posted Oct-03-2011

"I've been looking for a particular film camera and Samys.com happened to have it in stock and in the exact camera I wanted. It was an easy site to navigate and FAST shipping! Love my new Lomography camera!!"

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1/5

posted Aug-20-2011

"Samy's.com deserves all the negative reviews you read hear. I ordered 5 open box lenses from them, for a total of around 2K. I called them up the next day for confirmation. They told me they are processing the order, and would ship or call me if any problems. Days go by, so I am expecting my order any day. Oh by the way, they wouldn't let me pick up in person even though I'm local. Not a big deal though, because their shipping charge was reasonable. A week has gone by now. No order has been shipped to me, and no contact from Samy's. I called them, and had to leave a message since nobody answered their phone. They've never called back, and still no order has arrived. Remember, I am local to them, so it would only take 1 day to arrive once they've shipped. I'm going to look into filing a claim with the BBB. Last time I will ever attempt to buy from Samy's.com, and my boycott will extend to their retail store as well. Hope they go down in flames. Long live the reputable online sellers like B&H, Adorama, Beach Camera, etc.....and no sales tax from these places either."

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1/5

posted Aug-19-2011

"Do not deal with this company, EVER.

I never imagined that I would wind myself up in a customer service battle with Samy's when I ordered a camera from them in April.

A week after I ordered my camera, I still hadn't received a shipping confirmation and gave them call about it. They told me that they were out of stock on the camera I had ordered (this seems to be a common problem with this company), but would send me a newer model for the same price if I wanted to.

I said yes, which was a huge mistake in retrospect. After a few days, they still hadn't sent the camera, so I gave them a second call which finally made them ship it to me. By the way, I had to wait on hold for about 30 minutes every time I called them.

A week after, the camera arrived, but upon trying to use it, I found that it was broken. Extremely frustrated, I gave them a call and asked about returning it. Because their return mailing system wouldn't work for my address, and they couldn't provide me with a shipping label any other way, I ended up shipping the camera back at my expense.

Another week passed, and my return shipment showed up as "Delivered" on the USPS tracking website. So I called Samy's, waited on hold for almost an hour and asked them when I could expect my refund. The lady put me on hold for 20 minutes to look for the return, after which she said they hadn't processed my return and that I should call them later.

Over the following two weeks, I called Samy's at least six times, each time being put on hold for about half an hour, and being told that my return wasn't processed. On the third week, I demanded to be escalated, but the only person available could be reached only through voicemail, to which, of course, nobody replied. All the while constantly calling them, I had been sending them emails every week, to which nobody ever responded.

A month passed; no resolution. After about the twentieth call, they finally inform me that they had probably lost my return in their warehouse and that nothing could be done: They would contact me if they ever found the return. WTF!?

I get mad, especially since I've been making the last half of the calls from abroad, during my travels, often staying up at night because of time zone differences, but still, nothing. I couldn't believe this.

Then, I call Bank of America to file a dispute on my credit card charge claiming fraud with an uncooperative seller. I realize that I should have done this from the beginning. Bank of America is not famous for its customer service, but god, was it amazing compared to what I was getting at Samy's. I immediately receive temporary refund credit on my account, and after about a month the dispute is solved on my side.

I am so thankful that I finally managed to get my hard-earned money back from them, and all I want to say to potential Samy's customers is that you should AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE."

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1/5

posted Aug-18-2011

"Ordered Friday despite all the negative reviews here. Got e-mail late the next Wed saying they won't process credit payment because they "can't match name to my address." This is my main card, the shipping address is the billing address on file with credit card, and I've used it for all my transactions in store and online without any problems at all. Not sure what their issue is. They wanted payment by Paypal. Didn't want to risk it given all the negative reviews, since my Paypal payment (for $580) wouldn't be tied to any order. So if I run into any problems with the order, I wasn't sure I'd get Paypal to step in and refund. So cancelled it. Six days after placing my order with Samy's I'm back to square one. Told Gleb that reviews here all say you guys don't fulfil your orders. Says he's aware and they're trying to make it better, but nothing he can do right now. Avoid until they fix their process."

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1/5

posted Jul-06-2011

"First off, all the reviews over one star are easily Samy's employees. I have worked at web order store before and the employees used to leave great yelp reviews. With that said Samy's Amazon store is by the far the WORST THING EVER. Three times now I have tried to order the GF1 because it says it is in stock, the first few times a few days later I get a we are sold out email. On that second email they asked if I wanted the display model, I replied with some questions and didnt get a response. Now this last time I ordered it I ordered it mid week early afternoon on a Wednesday,they never updated the status of my order so for a week I was calling and no one would pick up. Finally today ( exactly a week later) I call and someone finally picks up, they put me on hold while they check my order and what do you know its sold out....best part they asked if I wanted to cancel my order.... yah I want to keep a live order up for something you dont have in stock.They are very rude on the phone and offer no solutions, this almost makes me want to never shop in a samys camera store again but I love their film department, they are some of the best people. So with all that said NEVER SHOP SAMY'S AMAZON STORE."

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