1/5

posted Jul-20-2008

"I am AMAZED that this company is still in business. The ripped me off so brazenly that my creditcard company reimbursed me what they charged to my card with the exception of their restocking fee which was a hefty amount (herein lies their profit). Stay away no matter what they say. How are they still in business????"

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1/5

posted Dec-26-2005

"Smile Photo played the ol' bait and switch with some Minolta products. When I called to question the order, a guy said "Sorry, Mr. Smile isn't here". Then he hung up on me.

nuff said."

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1/5

posted Nov-12-2004

"No response to email inquiries, nobody answers either their 212 or their 1-800 number. I ordered a camera from them and specifically asked them to ship something other than parcel post to my APO address, which they assured me they would (after giving me an order # and an invoice # and, it turns out, billing my credit card). After 2 weeks and no merchandise, I sent an email asking the status--no response. Another week, I sent another email, again no response. Since then I have tried to call them both at their local and their 800 number--phone rings, rings, rings and nobody answers. Today I talked to my credit card company and placed the charge 'in dispute'. If I thought I could get hold of these people, I'd cancel the order--as it is, what recourse is there?? I would advise definitely NOT to deal with these folks. (I shoulda read -- and heeded -- the advice posted here!!). "

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1/5

posted Nov-04-2004

"Placed order on Monday afternoon. I'm right in NJ, so figured I'd get it by the end of the week. In fact ordered something for another merchant only a few block from these guys, on Monday night, shipped ground and got it on Wed.

No confirmation.
No one answering their 800 or their local number.
(Called all times of day Mon - Thur.)
No response to my emails.

At least they didn't charge my card. Cancelled the order and called my credit card company to alert them, in case they try to charge me."

This review was modified by grunzster on November 20 2004 10:48:29 PM

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5/5

posted Sep-22-2004

"I ordered a Nikon 80-400mm Zoom Lens. I was billed exactly the price for the product and shipping displayed on the web site. I received the USA model as ordered as well as the warranty cards and rebate forms. I have purchased several items in the past year without any problem. They are generally one of the cheapest sites that actually sell what is advertised. On the down side, shipping is a little on the high side and is not the fastest. A next day order takes 3-4 days. Second day shipping takes about 5 days. On the other hand they are less expensive and I got what I ordered. The sent the tracking number when they finally got around to it. Note that they observe Jewish traditions so if you order on Friday they won't work on the order till Monday and the big holidays will be slower. Fine. I have recommended this store to several others who were also pleased with the service. They called to check on my order, but only to verify the address and did not hard sell any extras. "

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1/5

posted Nov-06-2003

"hi, stay away from this guys.
i've ordered two canon eos 300 and never got one.
they are full of crap, i'm sick of his lies."

This review was modified by bistuik on November 06 2003 06:53:25 PM

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5/5

posted Oct-25-2003

"I have used Smile Photo on two occations for purchasing camera equipment, and have been most satified with all aspects of Smile Photo. One of my orders was for a High-End Telephoto Lens which got to me in Hawaii in three days . Smile has saved me a ton of money and have had exactly what I was looking for. I will use these folks again.
M. Rogers"

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1/5

posted Oct-18-2003

"DO NOT EVEN RISK BUYING SOMETHING FROM THIS STORE!!!

I wanted to purchase an LCD screen so I placed my order. I called in about 3 hours later checking if the product was in stock because I had not recieved a e-mail after I placed my order, which I ALWAYS recieve when ordering anywhere else. I call and while tell him my story he cuts me off and tells my that I PROBABLY won't get an e-mail WTF!!! "PROBABLY"!?! So he connects me to so called "inventory" where a chinese lady picks up who can't speak a word of english and when I finally get her to understand and tell her the product number, I hear indistinct whispering to someone else and then she goes "Yea I think that should be alright" and then hangs up. So the next day I get an e-mail (like 30 hours later!!!) giving me the bill and they tacked on $17.00 for shipping, now I don't have a gripe about the expensive shipping but this amount is not what I authorized on my credit card at the time of purchase, the shipping was listed as free, this infuriates the hell outta me but I say no I don't wanna hassle with re-crediting the account so I take the screen and never come back. So later that day I get a call saying the product is not in stock and then he says he can give me 2 other LCDs and when I check on the web they are like around $100 each and I paid twice that for my screen (so they charge me more and then try to jip me out of my money) I tell him no I'll wait for my screen to come in. Then he says it's discontinued and I say I'll browse your sight and then call you back. So I call back 5 minutes later and some other guy picks up telling me they all went home an hour ago (whatever this is the most lieing unprofessional place ever) So I go to the bank and find out they've already charged me more than I authorized them to charge me for a product they don't even have!!!!! I canceled my order the next day and it's been 2 weeks and they still have not re-credited my account. STAY AWAY! CHECK BBB they have a bunch of complaints listed with them. THERE PHONE OPERATORS SEEM CONFUSED. DON"T EVEN RISK IT!! "

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5/5

posted Sep-16-2003

"It isn't very often that I go against the flow of personal experience, but I did, and I am glad. I recently ordered a Sigma 15-30 lens for my Canon D60 from Smile. I was prepared for a hard time after reading the reviews here. Was I lucky? or can a leopard change its spots? My experience was as I would have expected from my primary supplier (who was more than $80 higher). Everyone with whom I spoke was polite and no one tried to jam unwanted extras down my throat. I placed the order late on Friday afternoon. When I called Customer Service on Tuesday to follow up the rep said she thought it was in the shipping department, and offered to call me back when she received trhe paperwork that it had shipped. I declined as I am hard to reach by phone. On Thursday it was at my door. I would definately do business with Smile again."

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1/5

posted Apr-25-2003

"If you want to spare yourself some time and effort please stay away from these guys. I do not understand how they are still in business. Before I start with my story I would like to say that this is my first experience with such rude, inaccurate and quite frankly lying people in the US.
I ordered a Gitzo G1348 tripod from them on 4/12/2003. Their price in the April 2003 Outdoor Magazine ad was $554.95. I called them and I spoke with a sales person named Peter. He was definitely not the most polite person in the world. But the price was OK. So I decided to go ahead...
Peter said that their price was $560(Notice the $5.05 difference). That was OK. After all who can not tolerate 5 bucks. But wait... Then I happened to ask for their shipping price to 64131, and guess what it was $35! The same item ships for $16.20 at B&H. When I complained that the price was high, Peter managed to pull it down to $30. "And that's all I can do" he added...
OK. Still lower that some other stores I thought. Then I asked "Do you have the tripod in stock?". Peter was quick to answer: YES!
And then he added "You'll get the tripod in 3-5 business days". With that firm answer I was expecting the package no later than 4/18/2003. And I needed it badly.
Well I guess my mistake was not reading the postings in this forum before I made the purchase. Today is 4/25/2003 and I am still waiting for my tripod. I called them today and a guy who introduced himself as "SmilePhotoVideo Phone Operator"(I guess a person who operates a telephone, just like a computer operator, or a bulldozer operator...maybe???) told me that although they have shipped my tripod they can not provide a shipping number now. I have to call on Monday to get a shipping number!

The moral of the story is: Smile Photo does not keep merchandise in their warehouse. They do not have a healthy and reliable stock database. They automatically say YES to everything, and then they try to get it from their vendors and ship it to you. A smart strategy to avoid the burden of keeping stock. Kinda the Japanese strategy to keep the stocks at minimum. They just took it to the extreme of keeping nothing in their stocks.

So I ended up getting charged $589.95 on 4/12/03 and they are still trying to get my tripod. If the tripod is not shipped yet, that means at least a weeek or 10 days from today. Which brings the total waiting time to more than a month. Remember I was promised 3-5 business days!
Please do not make the same mistake as I did and stay away from them. For my next purchase I will happily pay few extra bucks at the more reliable store and buy some peace of mind."

This review was modified by gursesl on April 25 2003 10:56:38 AM

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