5/5

posted Dec-15-2006
I recommend Blue Stripe Photo. Digital camera was exactly as described, full US warranty, all included accessories, competently packed and amazing shipping -- two days even tho it was "budget". They smoothly corrected an error in the order (that was my fault) and were courteous & professional on the phone.
I will now say a few things about price. Blue Stripe had the lowest "real price". I say that for the following reasons.
(1) I tried to buy a camera on a "major" auction site and it it turned out to be a drop ship deal (seller did not possess the item and was using my money to buy it). When the drop shipper failed to deliver, seller would not return my money until he got it back from the drop shipper. This took weeks and weeks. This was a phony price because no delivery was made.
(2)I tried to buy a camera from an online source that had a lower price, but when I placed the item in the shopping cart, the cart listed the item but with a quantity of ZERO! I tried repeatedly to get the cart to say item one. Not possible. HOWEVER, if I placed a much higher (+$100) package deal that included the camera and a few very overpriced accessories -- guess what -- the shopping cart was happy to take my order in any quantity I wanted. This was a phony price because you couldn't actually order that item as described. Very clever and devious way to get a phony price listed at the top of major price/search engines.