"I am AMAZED that this company is still in business. The ripped me off so brazenly that my creditcard company reimbursed me what they charged to my card with the exception of their restocking fee which was a hefty amount (herein lies their profit). Stay away no matter what they say. How are they still in business????"

"Smile Photo played the ol' bait and switch with some Minolta products. When I called to question the order, a guy said "Sorry, Mr. Smile isn't here". Then he hung up on me.

nuff said."

"No response to email inquiries, nobody answers either their 212 or their 1-800 number. I ordered a camera from them and specifically asked them to ship something other than parcel post to my APO address, which they assured me they would (after giving me an order # and an invoice # and, it turns out, billing my credit card). After 2 weeks and no merchandise, I sent an email asking the status--no response. Another week, I sent another email, again no response. Since then I have tried to call them both at their local and their 800 number--phone rings, rings, rings and nobody answers. Today I talked to my credit card company and placed the charge 'in dispute'. If I thought I could get hold of these people, I'd cancel the order--as it is, what recourse is there?? I would advise definitely NOT to deal with these folks. (I shoulda read -- and heeded -- the advice posted here!!). "

"Placed order on Monday afternoon. I'm right in NJ, so figured I'd get it by the end of the week. In fact ordered something for another merchant only a few block from these guys, on Monday night, shipped ground and got it on Wed.

No confirmation.
No one answering their 800 or their local number.
(Called all times of day Mon - Thur.)
No response to my emails.

At least they didn't charge my card. Cancelled the order and called my credit card company to alert them, in case they try to charge me."

"I ordered a Nikon 80-400mm Zoom Lens. I was billed exactly the price for the product and shipping displayed on the web site. I received the USA model as ordered as well as the warranty cards and rebate forms. I have purchased several items in the past year without any problem. They are generally one of the cheapest sites that actually sell what is advertised. On the down side, shipping is a little on the high side and is not the fastest. A next day order takes 3-4 days. Second day shipping takes about 5 days. On the other hand they are less expensive and I got what I ordered. The sent the tracking number when they finally got around to it. Note that they observe Jewish traditions so if you order on Friday they won't work on the order till Monday and the big holidays will be slower. Fine. I have recommended this store to several others who were also pleased with the service. They called to check on my order, but only to verify the address and did not hard sell any extras. "

"hi, stay away from this guys.
i've ordered two canon eos 300 and never got one.
they are full of crap, i'm sick of his lies."

"I have used Smile Photo on two occations for purchasing camera equipment, and have been most satified with all aspects of Smile Photo. One of my orders was for a High-End Telephoto Lens which got to me in Hawaii in three days . Smile has saved me a ton of money and have had exactly what I was looking for. I will use these folks again.
M. Rogers"

"DO NOT EVEN RISK BUYING SOMETHING FROM THIS STORE!!!

I wanted to purchase an LCD screen so I placed my order. I called in about 3 hours later checking if the product was in stock because I had not recieved a e-mail after I placed my order, which I ALWAYS recieve when ordering anywhere else. I call and while tell him my story he cuts me off and tells my that I PROBABLY won't get an e-mail WTF!!! "PROBABLY"!?! So he connects me to so called "inventory" where a chinese lady picks up who can't speak a word of english and when I finally get her to understand and tell her the product number, I hear indistinct whispering to someone else and then she goes "Yea I think that should be alright" and then hangs up. So the next day I get an e-mail (like 30 hours later!!!) giving me the bill and they tacked on $17.00 for shipping, now I don't have a gripe about the expensive shipping but this amount is not what I authorized on my credit card at the time of purchase, the shipping was listed as free, this infuriates the hell outta me but I say no I don't wanna hassle with re-crediting the account so I take the screen and never come back. So later that day I get a call saying the product is not in stock and then he says he can give me 2 other LCDs and when I check on the web they are like around $100 each and I paid twice that for my screen (so they charge me more and then try to jip me out of my money) I tell him no I'll wait for my screen to come in. Then he says it's discontinued and I say I'll browse your sight and then call you back. So I call back 5 minutes later and some other guy picks up telling me they all went home an hour ago (whatever this is the most lieing unprofessional place ever) So I go to the bank and find out they've already charged me more than I authorized them to charge me for a product they don't even have!!!!! I canceled my order the next day and it's been 2 weeks and they still have not re-credited my account. STAY AWAY! CHECK BBB they have a bunch of complaints listed with them. THERE PHONE OPERATORS SEEM CONFUSED. DON"T EVEN RISK IT!! "

"It isn't very often that I go against the flow of personal experience, but I did, and I am glad. I recently ordered a Sigma 15-30 lens for my Canon D60 from Smile. I was prepared for a hard time after reading the reviews here. Was I lucky? or can a leopard change its spots? My experience was as I would have expected from my primary supplier (who was more than $80 higher). Everyone with whom I spoke was polite and no one tried to jam unwanted extras down my throat. I placed the order late on Friday afternoon. When I called Customer Service on Tuesday to follow up the rep said she thought it was in the shipping department, and offered to call me back when she received trhe paperwork that it had shipped. I declined as I am hard to reach by phone. On Thursday it was at my door. I would definately do business with Smile again."

"If you want to spare yourself some time and effort please stay away from these guys. I do not understand how they are still in business. Before I start with my story I would like to say that this is my first experience with such rude, inaccurate and quite frankly lying people in the US.
I ordered a Gitzo G1348 tripod from them on 4/12/2003. Their price in the April 2003 Outdoor Magazine ad was $554.95. I called them and I spoke with a sales person named Peter. He was definitely not the most polite person in the world. But the price was OK. So I decided to go ahead...
Peter said that their price was $560(Notice the $5.05 difference). That was OK. After all who can not tolerate 5 bucks. But wait... Then I happened to ask for their shipping price to 64131, and guess what it was $35! The same item ships for $16.20 at B&H. When I complained that the price was high, Peter managed to pull it down to $30. "And that's all I can do" he added...
OK. Still lower that some other stores I thought. Then I asked "Do you have the tripod in stock?". Peter was quick to answer: YES!
And then he added "You'll get the tripod in 3-5 business days". With that firm answer I was expecting the package no later than 4/18/2003. And I needed it badly.
Well I guess my mistake was not reading the postings in this forum before I made the purchase. Today is 4/25/2003 and I am still waiting for my tripod. I called them today and a guy who introduced himself as "SmilePhotoVideo Phone Operator"(I guess a person who operates a telephone, just like a computer operator, or a bulldozer operator...maybe???) told me that although they have shipped my tripod they can not provide a shipping number now. I have to call on Monday to get a shipping number!

The moral of the story is: Smile Photo does not keep merchandise in their warehouse. They do not have a healthy and reliable stock database. They automatically say YES to everything, and then they try to get it from their vendors and ship it to you. A smart strategy to avoid the burden of keeping stock. Kinda the Japanese strategy to keep the stocks at minimum. They just took it to the extreme of keeping nothing in their stocks.

So I ended up getting charged $589.95 on 4/12/03 and they are still trying to get my tripod. If the tripod is not shipped yet, that means at least a weeek or 10 days from today. Which brings the total waiting time to more than a month. Remember I was promised 3-5 business days!
Please do not make the same mistake as I did and stay away from them. For my next purchase I will happily pay few extra bucks at the more reliable store and buy some peace of mind."

"Tried to order from this company from their add in Popular Photography. They raised the price from the magazine add and the internet price. Guy was very rude and said price is going up again. Just hang up and shop somewhere else like I did."

"Hopefully you will find resellerratings.com before shopping with Smile Photo.

I shopped for months on the internet and in magazines looking for a good long zoom lens. I ended up settling on the Sigma 70 -200 f/2.8 EX HSM for Canon. I then found that Smile had the lowest price by about $100 on this lens compared to anybody else I could find. I made my order at the end of July because I was planning a trip (Aug 3 - 10) where I hoped to use the lens. I figured that if I ordered at least a week ahead of time then I would get the lens if it was shipped to my destination. So I ordered online and hoped for the best.

During a business trip before my real vacation I got an email from Smile saying that the price advertised ($535) and on their website they could not honor. I got the following email which I copy directly:

TO MR EVAN WILDER

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE SIGMA 70-200 2.8 EX APO HSM F EOS LENSE IS NOW
AVAILABLE ONLY WITH FOUR YEAR USA WARRANTY FOR $579.95.
SHIPPING HANDLING AND INSURANCE FOR YOUR TOTAL ORDER $35.00

PLEASE ADVISE IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE IT

THANK YOU
SMILE PHOTO
DEPT E

I respond via email Aug 2 asking why the price is higher then advertised, that I am annoyed and say that I can't find a better price anywhere, so they can bill me at the higher price and ship the lens.

So about 5 days later (Aug 7) I get a call on the answering machine from Smile saying that they have not been able to reach me and they wonder what to do about my order. I call back Aug 8 and say that I wrote an email and I didn't get a response...so I ask why *they* didn't respond. Customer Service says that they sent me three emails which bounced back as undeliverable(!) and they are trying to help me now. (I don't believe it because my email address is reliable and I think it is a lame "my dog at the homework" excuse.)

Anyway, I tell her I want the higher price and she says it is higher because I would be paying for a USA lens w/ 4-year warranty instead of a 1 year warranty ... and besides, the lens from Sigma with a cheaper price is not available because Sigma has not shipped any in a while. Besides, she says she will ship it right away.

So here's where it gets good. I get back home from vacation on Monday Aug 13 and expect the lens is flying on a UPS plane to Missouri. I wait a reasonable amount of time and on Thursday Aug 15 I get a package ... with a Nikon-mount lens!! They shipped me the wrong lens! After waiting so long, I was annoyed, to say the least.

I call on Friday Aug 16th and explain my situation. Smile Customer Service says that they will send the proper lens that same day because she checked and it was in stock. After I said it wasn't fair for *me* to pay return shipping, she says that the box will include a shipping label which I can use to send the wrong lens back at no cost to me. I say 'great' because this seems like decent customer service.

Then 3 days pass, then 4, then 5, then it is Aug 25...much too long for 3-day UPS service. I call to talk to customer service (the store is open Sundays) and a man says "they are closed today, call Monday through Friday" and he hangs up. I quickly call back, QUITE annoyed, and say I want to know when Customer Service is available. He tells me more specifically this time, but how RUDE for a sales person to just hang up after I ask one question. I call Monday and find out the tracking number and I discover that the lens was mailed on Aug 22...4 days later than I was told by Smile! Finally the proper lens arrived just two days ago on August 28 after so much time has passed.

Somehow a compete month has passed since I ordered the lens...all to save $100. I missed taking photos of my vacation and am late getting portraits taken for a friend's birthday. I'd agree with a previous person who said that smile is good if you know exactly what you want and you are OK dealing a rude, inconsiderate, blubbering company that somehow has good prices."

"Approximately two weeks ago (05/01/2002) I ordered a Tokina 80-200 f2.8 Eos lens by phone. I talked to a sales person called Peter, who assured me that this item was in stock and would be sent out immediately. After some enquiries elsewhere that day, I phoned back to cancel the order, as the shipping price I was quoted ($30) was three times the standard shipping price for this weight. I was told by Peter that the item had already shipped. When I asked for a tracking #, he told me he would call back the next day with a number. Needless to say, he did not.
I called again six days later (05/06/2002), was told, again by Peter, that the item had shipped, but again no tracking # was available. Waited three days this time, again no shipping # callback. When I called again, (05/09/2002) I was rudely told to call this number - ***-***-****, which is possibly your customer disservice number. I called that number, but this time I told them that I was checking on the order status of a back-ordered item. I was not surprised to find that the lens had been back-ordered for some time, and was expected in "a few days, possibly a week". This means that the salesman, Peter, had been quite deliberately LYING to me on each previous occasion that I called. Furthermore, I discovered that my credit card had been debited the full amount of the sale on 5/3/02, two days after my initial order was made.
This is totally unacceptable behavior, and bears out this company's almost 100% poor ratings on all the vendor rating sites I have visited.STAY CLEAR OF THIS LOT, THEY ARE LIARS!!.
"

"I ordered a Tokina 24-200/Nikon mt. lens. I was quoted a price of $239 (on their website) which was after a $30 rebate. I also asked for 2d day air which I was told would be $18. Smile immediately charged my credit card $299 for the lens plus a total of $58 for shipping and handling. After two phone calls and several emails I got them to refund $30. In the end I would have been much better off going to B&H. This company is not worth the trouble. It is very hard to make a non-defamatory comment. They are rude and they lie, what else is new..."