"Samy's.com deserves all the negative reviews you read hear. I ordered 5 open box lenses from them, for a total of around 2K. I called them up the next day for confirmation. They told me they are processing the order, and would ship or call me if any problems. Days go by, so I am expecting my order any day. Oh by the way, they wouldn't let me pick up in person even though I'm local. Not a big deal though, because their shipping charge was reasonable. A week has gone by now. No order has been shipped to me, and no contact from Samy's. I called them, and had to leave a message since nobody answered their phone. They've never called back, and still no order has arrived. Remember, I am local to them, so it would only take 1 day to arrive once they've shipped. I'm going to look into filing a claim with the BBB. Last time I will ever attempt to buy from Samy's.com, and my boycott will extend to their retail store as well. Hope they go down in flames. Long live the reputable online sellers like B&H, Adorama, Beach Camera, etc.....and no sales tax from these places either."
"Do not deal with this company, EVER.
I never imagined that I would wind myself up in a customer service battle with Samy's when I ordered a camera from them in April.
A week after I ordered my camera, I still hadn't received a shipping confirmation and gave them call about it. They told me that they were out of stock on the camera I had ordered (this seems to be a common problem with this company), but would send me a newer model for the same price if I wanted to.
I said yes, which was a huge mistake in retrospect. After a few days, they still hadn't sent the camera, so I gave them a second call which finally made them ship it to me. By the way, I had to wait on hold for about 30 minutes every time I called them.
A week after, the camera arrived, but upon trying to use it, I found that it was broken. Extremely frustrated, I gave them a call and asked about returning it. Because their return mailing system wouldn't work for my address, and they couldn't provide me with a shipping label any other way, I ended up shipping the camera back at my expense.
Another week passed, and my return shipment showed up as "Delivered" on the USPS tracking website. So I called Samy's, waited on hold for almost an hour and asked them when I could expect my refund. The lady put me on hold for 20 minutes to look for the return, after which she said they hadn't processed my return and that I should call them later.
Over the following two weeks, I called Samy's at least six times, each time being put on hold for about half an hour, and being told that my return wasn't processed. On the third week, I demanded to be escalated, but the only person available could be reached only through voicemail, to which, of course, nobody replied. All the while constantly calling them, I had been sending them emails every week, to which nobody ever responded.
A month passed; no resolution. After about the twentieth call, they finally inform me that they had probably lost my return in their warehouse and that nothing could be done: They would contact me if they ever found the return. WTF!?
I get mad, especially since I've been making the last half of the calls from abroad, during my travels, often staying up at night because of time zone differences, but still, nothing. I couldn't believe this.
Then, I call Bank of America to file a dispute on my credit card charge claiming fraud with an uncooperative seller. I realize that I should have done this from the beginning. Bank of America is not famous for its customer service, but god, was it amazing compared to what I was getting at Samy's. I immediately receive temporary refund credit on my account, and after about a month the dispute is solved on my side.
I am so thankful that I finally managed to get my hard-earned money back from them, and all I want to say to potential Samy's customers is that you should AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE."
"Ordered Friday despite all the negative reviews here. Got e-mail late the next Wed saying they won't process credit payment because they "can't match name to my address." This is my main card, the shipping address is the billing address on file with credit card, and I've used it for all my transactions in store and online without any problems at all. Not sure what their issue is. They wanted payment by Paypal. Didn't want to risk it given all the negative reviews, since my Paypal payment (for $580) wouldn't be tied to any order. So if I run into any problems with the order, I wasn't sure I'd get Paypal to step in and refund. So cancelled it. Six days after placing my order with Samy's I'm back to square one. Told Gleb that reviews here all say you guys don't fulfil your orders. Says he's aware and they're trying to make it better, but nothing he can do right now. Avoid until they fix their process."
"First off, all the reviews over one star are easily Samy's employees. I have worked at web order store before and the employees used to leave great yelp reviews. With that said Samy's Amazon store is by the far the WORST THING EVER. Three times now I have tried to order the GF1 because it says it is in stock, the first few times a few days later I get a we are sold out email. On that second email they asked if I wanted the display model, I replied with some questions and didnt get a response. Now this last time I ordered it I ordered it mid week early afternoon on a Wednesday,they never updated the status of my order so for a week I was calling and no one would pick up. Finally today ( exactly a week later) I call and someone finally picks up, they put me on hold while they check my order and what do you know its sold out....best part they asked if I wanted to cancel my order.... yah I want to keep a live order up for something you dont have in stock.They are very rude on the phone and offer no solutions, this almost makes me want to never shop in a samys camera store again but I love their film department, they are some of the best people. So with all that said NEVER SHOP SAMY'S AMAZON STORE."
"Hi All,
This is the worst seller I have ever seen. I ordered a Panasonic Lumix ZS7A Camera online as it was showing as available.I called them the next day as I was not able to track the same on net. They told that I will be getting the same within another 3 working days and was waiting and on 5th day I called them back. They told product is no longer available and told Sorry. Here I lost my oppurtunity to buy the camera from other sites as well and even wasted too much off time believing their words. Even if we call them need to wait for min 15 min to reach a representative. Feel very much pity on this seller ..."
"Worst customer service ever. Defective product they won't replace. Told me to contact Amazon even though I purchased the item through their Amazon shop."
"I had a Nikon D7000 camera pre-ordered from Amazon, but due to serious backlog and a possible long wait, I continued to scan online stores for an actual "in stock" D7000.
The other night while scanning Amazon again, 4 D7000s showed up as being available from Samy's Camera through the Amazon marketplace. I refreshed the page a few minutes later and "Hurry, only two remaining" showed up on the Amazon page.
I took the plunge and ordered with the super fast one click ordering system and thought I was good to go. I refreshed the page again and sure enough it was down to "Only one remaining," so I figured I had one locked up. I even checked again in a half hour, and Samy's had posted 4 more D7000's as being available.
Today I found out that they actually oversold, and did not have any to ship to me, even though I had ordered well before they put four MORE units up for sale.
I called Samy's again and immediately canceled my order. The one bright spot was that Penny, the customer service agent I spoke with, was polite and quickly canceled my order with no trouble.
The thing that burns me is that I canceled my Amazon order and will now be at the back of the line when I re-order. I also had a chance to pick it up at Best Buy as they received a batch yesterday morning, but I trusted that Samy's would honor their promise of a 28 or 29 October ship date."
"I bought a D300s camera from this store at fairfax last january and the sales guy offered me to buy a warranty he convinced me to buy it on top of the manufacturers warranty because he said no matter what happen to it the store will either repair or replace it and last month i accidentally put the memory card backwards and it damaged the pins so i went to the store and ask them for repair but said they won't cover the repair since it was a negligence on my part but i insisted what the sales guy told me when i pay for the warranty i told them i want to talk to the manager his name was David and the example that he gave was exactly what had happen to my camera and according to him it was an accidental damaged he promised me that he will call the warranty company and will call me back but 2 weeks past he never call me back so i decided to give him a call and he seems like he forgot everything he told me it was not his department so he referred me to another guy. i was gonna buy another camera and lenses from this store but i changed my mind after this experienced i would rather get it from another store.anyway until now nobody call me about the status of my camera. "
"It is the worst store I had met. I purchase a Leica MP via their eBay store, and we talked about the price before purchase. They agreed the price. So I purchased this camera. Then they give me a call and told me the camera had problem and can’t sell it right now. So I cancel it. After a few days, I see they relist this camera and increase $400 from the original list. They are fraud me. And I tried to contact them again, they would not offer me the same price last time I purchased. DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THIS STORE!!!"
"Great in all aspects:Fast shipping,good prices and outstanding customer service."
"customer service is horrible/arrogant...especially in the photo & video(branch in fairfax). they'll judge you if you're a consumer they charge you more. go to simons camera 1213 N. highland they treat to nice and explained things clearly not trick you. Samys customer service are crooks. Or buy online www.bhphotovideo.com normally $100 cheaper than sammys."
"Brought back an old for store credit. On that day I purchased two Nikon Coolpix but did not have one of the attachments to my return item. I was told that with the attachment I would get $200 in credit & without it only $100. I left my item and said I would find the attachment and return. I paid for the cameras and left. My wife returned a few days later to bring the attachment in and to pick up the credit. She was informed by the store "MANAGER" that the credit would only be $150. Had I had the attachment the prior visit I would have received $200. This is most expensive $50 profit Samy's has ever made. I have purchased $6,000 to $10,000 of items over a period of more than ten years and referred many others including two recent purchases of your Nikon 3000 special package. I will never purchase another camera or item from you other than my $150 and I will steer away friends and clients from Samy's. The money is not the problem it is the business ethics of your manager. I am not a professional photographer but do use my cameras in my work daily and get comments on the camera and photos. Typically I would mention Samy's in my conversation - and I still will but just to say that your word is not trustworthy"
"I want to give a 10/10 to Samy's, I ordered my Gf1 by phone and in less than 2 days, with great customer service and no tax with free 2 day fedex I got my camera. When I was checking my order status i noticed how it kept me informed up to the minute as to the progress of my order. They shipped from a store to the warehouse to me and at one stage I freaked out because my status said "awaiting inventory" so I called and the guy was very helpful and pointed out that the status was reflective of them pulling the camera from a store to fill my order there at the warehouse, he told me they would never leave a customer hanging on an order without phoning first to let them know. "
"I ordered my new GF1 camera after Amazon couldn't ship (not their fault, Panasonic didn't give them cameras in time) and called Samy's to verify that the camera was in stock. The guy I talked to was very helpful, and told me the 14-45mm kit was in stock. I ordered online with 2 day shipping, and received it exactly as predicted. Very happy with Samy's!"
"The quick summary is, don't bother with them for at least online ordering. You're better off going to a larger and more reputable store like B&H to get what you need. If you're in LA and need local retail store then maybe it's okay.
Similar to a previous review, Samys refused my credit card and stated that they can only do it via wire transfer or check. They told me that I had failed their arbitrary confirmation system (which they won't talk about) despite my credit card being approved by the bank and being used for purchases across hundreds of other online retailers. It's possible that they are a reputable business but they should know that asking for these types of payment methods look very sketchy. I offered to pay via Paypal since even shady Chinese online merchants take that for secure transaction, but they refused. Samys management needs to learn about the online retailing business and how credit cards work. Sure they might need some security to protect themselves, but so do their customers and if they can't provide a semblance of that then it's no deal.
Worst part of the whole thing is that all of this happened over the course of more than a week. There was hardly any contact to notify me of the issues until I called or emailed everyday to ask what was taking so long. The emails were very unprofessional with no reference numbers or tracking similar to other online retailers. If it wasn't for the well spoken English you could've almost assumed this company is based in China."