1/5

posted Apr-08-2011

"Ordered a camcorder from Fumfie, total came up to $314. Next day they sent me an email asking to call the store to expedite the order. The salesperson immediately started pushing accessories. After I refused he said that the order is ready to ship and that the total including the insurance is $357. I ended up canceling the order (I am yet to make sure they did not charge my credit card). Apparently the business model of this place is based on a simple bait and switch premise.

After canceling the order, I spoke to Henry, a customer support representative, who straightened things out and shipped the camcorder for the originally quoted price of $314.

The saga continued: after being promised a camcorder for $314 I waited for a shipping notice for few days. Having received none, I called the company. It turned out that unfortunately they oversold this model of the camcorder and it is completely out of stock. But the salesperson assured me that he would be happy to sell me a newer model just for extra $300.

What crooks!



Michael"

This review was modified by msmolyak on April 28 2011 07:44:23 PM

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1/5

posted Apr-17-2009

"I recently changed my review after speaking with a customer rep at fumfie.com directly. Originally, my wife had been working with the sales people, but after 3 or 4 attempts, I attempted as well. The price at fumfie was excellent and the initial callback was pleasant (per my wife). That was the extent of our good experience with this site.

From that point, my wife was informed multiple times of when the item would ship and a shipping confirmation would be sent. However, those promises never materialized. Additionally, tried to confirm towards close of business multiple days only to find that the office was closed with a voice recording stating office hours were 3 hours later than what we were calling.

Once I created this rating on reseller, I was personally contacted by fumfie regarding my review. I explained the situation, and I was promised the camera would ship by the week's end, but only if I changed my review. I explained I would change my review to 3 stars if the item shipped due to all of the hassle. I was informed that if I did not promise to change the rating to 5 stars, the order would be cancelled and I would be charged a restocking fee of 15% (even though the item had never shipped originally...).

The item finally shipped, and I received a confirmation. I changed my review as promised (not knowing this was against reseller ratings policy). Had I known this, I would have left the rating a 1 and did a chargeback for the 'restocking fee'.

Finally, we received the item and inside was a 'promotion' informing me that if we gave fumfie.com a 5star rating, we would receive a free tripod. I did not accept this offer, but I find that relevant to illustrate additional non-compliant business practice with relation to reseller rating's policy.

I would not shop with fumfie.com again in the future. Please note, this has been the only negative review I have written for any merchant I have shopped. Thanks and take care."

This review was modified by tbhodges on July 13 2009 06:01:43 PM

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1/5

posted May-21-2009

"I placed order that required that I call in to verify. On the phone they add on additional for insurance and try to sell you more items. They said the lens would ship the next day. After the order, no confirmation email was sent and I did not receive a tracking number. Also, their website does not have a order tracking system. Called to check on order 8 days later and get the tracking number. However, I was told the lens was backordered and they did not have in stock because Sigma just told them they no longer make the lens. I leave for overseas in two days and do not have time to order a different lens (and thus I am screwed). I would not trust them if you are on a schedule. They need to disclose their inventory status, send tracking numbers, and refund the customer automatically (who knows when they would have initiated the refund if I did not call). "

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1/5

posted Sep-13-2011

"Don't believe any of the positive comments mentioned below. This vendor is providing a product worth $5 to $10 to provide positive comments for this site. I have ordered a camcorder for $350 and the retail price was $400. When I saw that they are providing the same product for cheap price I have seen some one line positive comments and ordered the same. After I placed my order I got a call from the customer care saying the total price was $400 including the insurance.

You will not see the insurance and handling charges when you place the order. Nowhere mentioned in the site also. Even if we call and ask the final price before ordering, they will not say about the handling charges. Only when the order is placed they will inform about the hidden charges. When we call them they will speak in such a way to disconnect the call.

There is no answer for why they don't mention the hidden charges when we place the order. I don't recommend this site to anybody. If they are really honest, they can reply to this question here itself."

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3/5

posted Sep-19-2011

"UPDATE
Fumfie contacted me to offer the product to me without the insurance fee to resolve this issue. I did not accept, but I appreciate the offer. I have update my rating to reflect the effort made by their customer service team to resolve the issue.


PriceGrabber indicated that fumfie.com had the lowest total advertised price. I ordered a camcorder for $799, less a $5 promo code and free shipping. This price matched my order confirmation page from their web site.

However, a guy from Fumfie called me about an hour ago and asked if I'd like to purchase the extended battery, etc. I told him I would let him know by morning. He then confirmed that the order would go out via UPS ground when shipped. As I was getting off the phone he then mentioned that my total was $880. I told him he was mistaken, it was $794 with free shipping. He told me there is an $86 charge for insurance. This was not mentioned anywhere on their site.

I went to the UPS site and they charge $0.75 for each $100.00 (or portion of $100.00) of the total value declared, with a minimum charge of $2.25. http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/value_added/daily.html"

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5/5

posted Dec-30-2011

"Some things are too good to be true... and some things are TRULY GOOD!

I've been looking for a Nikon D700 camera body at a low price for months and any time I would find one, I would discover that it was a gray market camera. When I finally found this camera on Fumfie.com at $350 less than all other retailers sell it for, I had to call the company to make sure it was a U.S. Model.

The sales rep, Zak, reassured me that the camera was a U.S. model and it was brand new. On top of that, he offered me 5-year warranty at half of the advertised price.

He reassured me the camera would ship the same day (this was Monday after Christmas).

I bought both and played the waiting game. I received the camera, free shipping, just 3 days later!

I was a bit skeptical at first, but I was willing to take a gamble on a little known online retailer, and I'm so happy I did!

No bait and switch took place, and no pushy salesmanship. Zak, the sales rep, asked me if I needed any lenses, batteries and filters (an obvious attempt to sell more product), and when I told him I had everything I needed, he didn't push it, which I appreciated.

This website was a fantastic find!"

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5/5

posted Dec-16-2011

"Once a person talks to the staff at Fumfie you will find excellent service. Thank you Fumfie"

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1/5

posted Oct-14-2010

"Too good to be true... Placed the order on-line for a new camera body, and within a few minutes received another one to call back to confirm the order. After waiting quite some time and bouncing to a couple of sales reps., offered the spare battery, lens and extended warranty. All declined and everything seemed to be going ok, until... "the package needs to be sent insured and this costs $198...". Yeah, you are reading correctly - one hundred ninety eight US dollars - to have it shipped!! What a waste of time! Careful, this is the classic bait-and-switch technique... I will avoid them to all costs from now on. First experience and not good. I'm surprised their ratings are in the 8 range. Hmmm, something is not right here..."

This review was modified by 2hot2miss on October 14 2010 02:38:10 PM

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1/5

posted Mar-28-2011

"I purchased a Canon 60D Digital SLR from Fumfie.com via a link posted on CNET.com as a five-star seller.

This company is a bait-and-switch company. Within minutes of placing my order at the $795.00 stated price of the camera I also opted for faster shipping at an additional cost of $19.99. The grand total should have been $814.99.

A salesman calls a few minutes after placing the order and attempts to upsell me on "8-hour, high capacity batteries" and other accessories I do not need. I have been a pro photographer for more than twenty years and have all the ancillary gear already - that's why I only bought the body.

After hanging up with the salesman I received an emailed invoice a few minutes later stating that my account had been debited $886.54 - $71.55 over and above what I agreed to pay and which was NOT the amount displayed on the checkout screen at time of purchase.

There was NO indication at checkout that I was "required" to pay the additional $71.55 for "shipping insurance." Insurance is for the seller's assurance, not the customer. A customer should not have to pay such an outrageous surcharge without being warned beforehand and especially not, be automatically charged without prior full disclosure.

I immediately called the company and spoke to a woman in the fumfie.com billing department who proceeded to tell me I am obligated to pay the additional fee because it is stated in their Company Policies page, a text link at the very bottom of their web site and for which no direct link or reference to required shipping insurance surcharges is enabled from their checkout page.

According to the FumFie.com billing rep I should have read their company policy page prior to placing an order. No, total charges MUST be displayed on the final display at checkout. Any additional charges must be fully disclosed before applying any such charge to a customer's credit card. It is unethical to blame a customer for not being told about charges that are not plainly explained during the buying process.

At this point I tell the billing rep that I hereby am cancelling my order and that I want a full refund. She then tells me that the product had already been sent to shipping and that she cannot cancel the order. This is a deception as only 30 minutes have elapsed Since I placed the order.

Shortly afterwards I get an email that UPS has a shipping label ready but that the item is not yet in their posession. Hours latter I get another email from UPS that states that "an exception" has been filed on the delivery and that there wuill be a delay in shipping. Obviously, the item is still at FumFie and has indeed not actually been shipped. Another deception.

After this infuriating experience I discover dozens of virtually identical complaints have been filed with various online rating services by simply Googling "FumFie.com complaints." Others have reported that FumFie's goods are grey market and do not carry full USA warranties as they are made for foreign markets.

Update: After refusing delivery of their shipment I waited more than two weeks for a refund which was more than $210 SHORT.

These people are slick operators that get you coming and going. AVOID these people completely or you will be very sorry!
"

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1/5

posted Sep-07-2011

"I found an excellent price on a DSLR camera on this vendor's site via MySimon.com. Feedback was generally positive, so I placed an order, despite having not dealt with this vendor before. I had specifically seen on MySimon.com the "total price," inclusive of shipping and applicable taxes, and that figure was confirmed on the vendor's Web site when I placed my order.

Within a few hours of placing my order online, I got a call, ostensibly to verify my order. I was not terribly surprised to be given a sales pitch for batteries, filters, lenses, memory cards, and extended warranties. I had already confirmed on the vendor's site that prices on accessories were not particularly good, which made me suspect that I might well get a sales pitch for add-ons in an effort to make up for a rock-bottom price on the actual destination product.

Only after I politely declined the add-ons by pointing out that this is my fourth DSLR body and that I already have accessories aplenty, did the person on the other end of the phone indicate that my new total now reflected $120 of "shipping insurance." I indicated that I had not seen that disclosed on the site, and he responded that many other sites mark up the product price and then do not charge for shipping insurance, but that they cannot afford to do that at their low product prices. Somehow, I suspect that if I had agreed to $120+ in add-ons, I would have not had a new shipping insurance charge magically appear.

I tentatively indicated my approval of the order, as I wanted to double-check the referring Web site to make sure I had not made a mistake. When I confirmed that the $120 had not been disclosed anywhere and that I had multiple other options for a total purchase price lower than my new, higher total from Fumfie.com, I called back and left a voice mail, indicating I expected the online price to be honored or my order cancelled. I then called my credit card issuer to suspend that card, concerned that it would get charged, since I had already provided all card and billing information. I received an email an hour later, confirming cancellation of my order.

A customer who padded the vendor's profit margin with more profitable add-ons would likely not have this experience, but I found it fundamentally dishonest. I told the customer service person on the phone that I placed my order there because of the excellent pricing and generally favorable reviews of the merchant online. But I found this vendor blatantly dishonest in my attempted transaction and therefore strongly recommend steering clear."

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