1/5

posted Dec-02-2010

1. I originally ordered the SB-900 flash manufactured by Nikon w/ free shipping on 25OCT10.
2. A technician named Dave called me within 2 hours to clarify my order. I returned the phone call on 26OCT10 but he talked so fast and over the top of my head that I did not understand what he was trying to tell me.
3. I received no email confirmation of either of these parts.
4. When I received the order on 01NOV10 what I received was an ef-530 Sigma flash.
a. Seeing as this was not the flash that I originally ordered I looked up the stats for this flash.
b. This was a subpar flash compared to the one that I ordered and in fact you could find this same flash for $200 less than what I paid for it through SPD.
c. I also noticed that there was also a $23 dollar charge on my invoice for shipping insurance. See #1 above.
5. I called SPD and again talked to Dave on 01NOV10. He started to become argumentative with me about my order and I explained to him all of the above from #3. I simply asked to have a full refund of my purchase and an RMA number. He would not give me RMA # but insisted that I got a great deal. He described that the flash he sold me would have a “PE” on the box for Professional Edition and that this flash was not sold by anyone else under this moniker. I insisted that I talk to a rep that could give me an RMA number. After several minutes of this he finally transferred me.
a. NOTE: I have ordered the same product from Adorama.com with great customer service and it also has the “PE” stamped on the box. This Item was $200 cheaper than the one SPD scammed me with. So Dave lied to me about the “PE” mark.
6. Upon transfer I explained #3 to Kevin and he told me there would be a 15% restock fee. I told him that the paper I had specified a 10% restock fee on it and besides that I did not believe I had to accept any restock fee as I did not order to part in question. He said he could knock $97 dollars off of the price and I did not agree with that and explained to him that I would be disputing the charges with my credit card company.
7. There was also a dispute on my credit card for this total purchase of $422.92 the November 2010.
8. Since this conversation there was a $97 dollar credit to the account which I did not ask for.
9. Capital One had called back on 01DEC10 and said that SPD was resubmitting the charges. I asked what I could do and they said to get back in touch with SPD and see about returning the parts for refund and to end this all.
10. I called back to SPD on 01DEC10 and talked with Kevin again and he immediately became argumentative with me. He said that he would not return the parts as they are “useless” to him. He also tried to refund an additional $25 to my account. I asked only to have to have an RMA with a full refund. He refused this. Upon hanging up he called me back about 2 minutes later and offered me $50 refund off my purchase. I again refused and asked for a full refund with a RMA. He said again that the parts were worthless to him and that he did not care about them. He told me that if I did not take this offer and if I continued to dispute the charges he would reinstate the $97 that he had already attempted to return to me.

After this experience I did some online research of SPD and it looks as this is their scam. A customer puts in an order for a product, they call back to confirm the order but talk the customer into purchasing a subpar product for a overly inflated price, then extort the customer when they call to complain. I have also tried to look up my order history from the SPD website but as you can see from the evidence provided all my order history has been removed. SPD failed to provide me with any confirmation of my original order and have since deleted all my account information from their database. I tried all steps in good faith to resolve this issue but at every attempt SPD has refused to refund my money. I still have the parts in the original packaging that SPD will not accept back.

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