"I just have to say that reading all these negative reviews frightened me so much, but it was not the same experience with me. I purchased a digital camera and shopped based on price, this store won. I do feel like they are legitimate and was very pleased with the results of my shopping experience. I don't like to hear how you don't want their accessories because you can find them cheaper elsewhere. They made a great deal package for me and I was very satisfied. If you don't realize they are a business and want to make a sale, and suggest additional products you will need, then maybe you don't understand how a business is run. I hope people will take a chance with this store, even if they are a little rough around the edges."

"Simply the worst customer service I ever got. When I told the sales rep on the phone I don’t want to buy an extra battery (cause I knew I could find it for half the price) He hung up on me. When I called back and said “we must have gotten disconnected” He assured me that he hung up on me, and “To go buy the camera some other place” then hung up again. And there were several curse word coming out of his mouth… I WAS BUYING A $1000 CAMERA! You think he’d be a little nicer. Three words BUY FROM CRUTCHFIELD! "

"Horrible. Just Horrible.

My son wanted a Pentax Optio WPI underwater camera for his birthday, and that is all. He helped me fill out the order form online, & submitted it. They wanted me to call for confirmation, so I did. An Indian overseas in a one-man company answered the "customer service phone" by saying What. We told him we would like to confirm our order, and there came the sales attempts. We said yes to the $30 camera case, but he kept offering stuff. Finally he offered a battery, telling us we needed to get it for the camera to work. We said BULL! IT COMES WITH A BATTERY! He said this package didnt. Overall:

It was a chinese import with no battery or anything else at all. It dosnt say that on the site. He refused to cancel the order so we had to tell the credit card company we didn't order it and go to court to get our money back.
THIS COMPANY SUCKS!"

"I have read many of these reviews and have the same sad story to tell. I too have been a victim of "LARRY" and his bate and switch tactics, etc, etc, etc. But I am also afraid that I have been victimized more so than what I have read. I can't confirm this but I believe that this company has taken a turn for the worse in that I believe they are now using illegal tactics. My card info was "somehow" used by "somebody" to make many purchases of which it has taken me sometime to clear up. Started out with small amounts and at last count was up to $1500 purchases from Coaches!!!! Now obviously I am not liable for these as VISA covers it, and I did cancel the card but it sure has been a headache and a pain in the ____! Dealing with this company is like dealling with thugs, thieves, mafia, or whatever.
Buyer definitely needs to BEWARE!!!!!
NEVER again. I have found this web site through a friend of mine and that is how I found out so much about this company. From now on I will always us this web page to check out a company first.
EXCELLENT!!!
Remember to never do business with LARRY!!!!! "

"This company is a total fraud! I ordered cameras from them and they called me and said I would have to give him an extra $100 per camera if I wanted what I ordered. He said they have an offshore model with no battery or charger to send for the amount I paid online. However, the invoice clearly states it included these items.

THIS COMPANY IS A FRAUD!"

"I am truely beside myself with the level of service and my experience with this company. I placed and order for a video camera, the salesman was a litle pushy and I didn't feel real comfortable for some reason, but I went with it anyway. He promised that I would have it by Dec 22. Well the camera never came I finally got thru to them the day after Christmas and they told me the camera was never shipped they didn't have it in stock. They never called or emailed me but they did take the money out of my bank account. They were horrible and rude when I called to question and not even apologic. Thanks to Camera City I did not get my kids on video Christmas morning. I you think your getting a great deal think again before ording from Camera City. "

"The reviews for this site as well as it's sister sites (google ccicameracity for a list-they're too numerous to list...) are sadly all true. We too were victimized by Larry and their(un)merry band of miscreants.

We had ordered a camera for Christmas and then the upsell call came. When we finally told them we only wanted the original item ordered they became abusive and suddenly our order became for a Grey List item (which wasn't stated on the sales page or in prior calls)that was suddenly out of stock for 4-6 weeks and couldn't be expedited w/out additional purchases. We cancelled the order - we think(no confirmation was ever sent).
Mentions of credit card related fraud on these reviews aren't necessarily unfounded as well, but that's a story for another venue...."

"BUYERS BEWARE - This store is a scam. Ordered Canon 20d digital camera kit online on 12/17/05. Within 12 hours, my same credit card had 2 fraudulent international plane tickets booked - coincidental?.

Paid extra for three day shipping to ensure Christmas arrival but, as it turns out, the camera was never even shipped! Received "Customer confirmation of Sale" email on 17th. Starting on the 21st, I made several calls trying to inquire where my camera was, but could never get through. Finally got them on the 26th and was placed on hold many times and transferred to several different people who kept asking if I had called in to confirm my sale - each time I explained that nothing in my transaction ever indicated that I was supposed to call in - including the email that clearly indicated it was complete transaction. If you don't want your card # stolen and you actually want to buy a camera, choose a real merchant. Would NEVER even consider this outfit again and will be sure to tell all who will listen to NOT do business with this outfit.
"

"I placed an order for a Fuji S5200 camera on this stores website, and got an email that someone may contact me to verify my order. (seemed odd to me, never had that happen before w/online ordering). When they called, I asked what came with the camera. I was told, "Camera and lens only." No lens cap?
"Camera and lens only" I was told. Then the guy (Larry) starts pushing me to buy all this other stuff, batteries, charger, additional memory cards (Grossly overpriced, 299 for a 512m card, available locally for less than 100 bucks) on and on this guy went, very pushy, bordering on nasty. I finally told the guy to forget it and cancelled the order. He hung up on me. NEVER waste your time ordering anything from CCI Camera City, they are bums and shouldn't be in business."

"I orderd a digital camera. I received an e-mail confirmation. I never heard any more and called about it. after being transfered from person to person, said he would call me back in a few. They finally found the order. Said it was for body and lens only. I also requestred 3 day delivery. He was very pushy and wanted to sell me all kinds of things anywhere from 99 dollarss to several hundred. Then said the delivery would be about 4 weeks, had to come from overseas. I finally got fed up and told him to cancel the order. He was not very nice after that and thanked me for wasting his time. I will never do any kind of business with them nor recomend them to any of my friends. All he did was also make me mad and wasted my time. I consider them to be unethical and a rip off.
I also received a call from credit card company about suspicious activity on my account for over $600.00 that I did not make. Like the other reviews, I can't confirm it was them, but I did make my suspicions made to my credit card fraud investigation unit.
I did receive another call from a Larry on the 22nd or 23rd. I think Larry is the same person I talked to on my first call to them. He wanted to try to resell me the camera again, but I had advised him the day of the first call to cancel the order. The price was still higher than the one in the add because it was the one with all the cables and stuff that should have been included. I advised him I wanted to cancel the order and he finally gave me a cancellation number. He was a little nicer on the last call than on the first. I also told him about my suspicions of credit card fraud."

"Bait and switch cons.

I order a canon rebel 350D with 28-80 canon lens from the web. They featured a cleaning kit and tripod with the deal. The web ad is deceptive. It doesn't tell you the price is after rebate and they don't include the battery, cables, charge etc. They don't process the order until you talk to them so they can upsell you the other items at inflated prices.

I received the camera but they switched out the lens for a cheap Tamaron brand and never sent the other items. But they hit my credit card for the full amount. Plus in the same week I've been hit with an additonal fraudulent charge on my card. I can't prove the source was CCI but the coincidence is too telling.

"

"The following letter is what I filed with the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs about Camera City Inc. aka CCI. I would like to share my experience with your magazine in hopes that somehow your magazine may help prevent this type of scam from happening to it’s readers in the future. The sales clerk deceived me about my purchase. I did not get what I ordered and they refused to correct my order. I placed my order over the phone and was told that I was ordering a Nikon D70s digital camera kit with a US warranty for 699 dollars, Instead I received a grey market camera, which are products that manufacturers intend to be sold cheaply in countries other than the United States where prices are lower (due to differences in exchange rates and in what the market will bear). But instead of heading to the destination country, the gray-market goods are rerouted to the United States, which means Nikon USA won't honor a gray- market warranty in the United States. I also ordered a 4 gigabyte memory card for 189 dollars, but instead I received a 1 gigabyte memory card for 189 dollars which usually sell for around 90 dollars. During the phone order I asked the sales rep twice about the total shipping cost and both times he said that shipping was only 29 dollars, but only to find out they billed me 124 dollars for UPS standard ground shipping. All and all, along with the items mentioned the rest of the accessories I ordered were, a 4 year extended warranty for 189, a power grip for 129, and a 5hr battery for 89, so the total purchase should have been 1324 dollars, but instead they billed my credit card for 1419 dollars. On 12-2- 2005 I called Camera City Inc, and spoke to Peter about the unauthorized charge on my credit card and he said that the sales rep was quoting the 29 dollars because it was the amount in excess of their standard 6 percent shipping and handling which the rep should have made me aware of it, and that he would have a talk with him, but he could not remove the charge because it's company policy. On 12-7-05 I received my package with an invoice showing the total charges, but no break down on of individual charges. On 12-8-05 I called CCI and spoke with Ronney about the items I received and he offered to send me a US warranty for the camera, but I know it's not valid, also he offered to give me a number of unnecessary items to try a make things right, but since the camera was not a US camera and because of all the other deception so far, I opted to return the camera and all the other accessories, which Ronnie said that their company policy requires him to charge a 5 percent restocking fee. So my total charges for shipping and handling and the restocking fee is going to be 175 dollars. I contacted my credit card company which informed me that they do not dispute shipping and handling or restocking charges. I didn't realize the this type of fraud and scams are still happening to unwary consumers in this day and age, especially here in the United States. Obviously this stores scam is to make their money off the shipping and handling, plus they hope to screw your order so bad that you would return it and they can make more money on the restocking fee then turn around and make more money off the items you send back by doing the same cycle all over again to another consumer."

"I have been price searching for the Nikon D70s (with no lenses) to find a decent price for it. On one of the websites that did a price listing on the camera for the different stores it listed CCI camera city.
I had been finding that a lot of the websites have been listing cheap prices for the camera only and not including the camera battery, cables, or manual in their price and when you ask for the "manufacturers kit" it is $350 more. So I called to ask them if their price included these things. They said yes it did but, then they tried to say that the Nikon D50 is better and I should buy that. Well,I didn't want the D50 I felt that the D70s was a better camera.
So, I told them no then proceded to ask them if it had a warranty and they told me only a 21 day one. Well then I had to explain that I meant a U.S. manufacturers warranty. They said yes it came with a one year one.
I asked if they had it in stock and they said yes. I then gave them the information for placing my order and they tried to tell me that the battery that came with the camera would only last 20 min and take only 3 to 5 pictures and that I could buy the 2 hr (for $90) or 5 hr battery (for $110) when I told them no they proceeded to give me the salesman tactic. They asked me if I was sure that the 20 min battery was enouh for me and if I was willing to only be able to take 3-5 pictures. Well, to state a fact, my step-father has the D70 version camera and his battery that came with the camera lasts for weeks and the battery that comes with the D70s is supposed to be better! I had enough at that point and had to get back to work so I cancelled the order until I could decide about the battery or not.
When I got a break from work again, I called them back (approx. 20 mn later). I had then decided to order the camera as it was and not add anything on. I placed the order again and then they told me "oh by the way the camera just sold out a few minutes ago it will take until mid January before you get your order". I was willing to deal with this so I continued with the order.
Today (12/12/05) I happened to stumble across this website. Reading the reviews for the company made me nervous especially when I read that the company sold mostly international cameras and some people had said it was more money for a U.S. one. So I decided to call and make sure that it was a U.S. camera due to the fact that their website didn't say if it was or not. When I did call them they told me it was an international camera. When I heard that I told them to cancel my order. What I don't understand is how can it have a U.S. warranty and be an international camera?
All this made me question their trustworthiness and from the reviews I've seen it seems like I got by easy. Now I just hope they don't charge my credit card even though I've cancelled my order..."

"this is added to my prior reveiw:
I have ordered from online stores for many many years now, after purchasing from CCI (then cancelling my order because they jacked up the cost) my credit card has had over 1200.00 spent on purchases I have not made, I have no proof YET, but I have reason to believe that the purchases were the result of me cancelling my order with the RUDE people at cci, I had never EVER had a problem with my bank cards or any other card online until purchasing with cci.
I WARN anyone out there thinking of ordering with this company.... DON'T DO IT... you could end up like me having to go through all the hastle with the bank to stop all these charges.
This is the worst company out there BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!"

"This was the worst experience I have ever had with any retailer. They have high pressure sales tactics to get you to purchase accessories which are not worth anywhere near what they charge. When my order arrived it did not contain anything like what I was told I would receive outside of the camera. The high speed memory card was a $22 generic card. The $90 camera bag retails elsewhere for less than $15. The extended life battery was the one that came with the camera as were all the "extra" cables and software. They make their money by overcharging and then charging a 5% restocking fee when you return your items."