"Well the previous reviews are a bit discouraging, here's to hoping I will not have a similar experience. I did research and found Thunder to have the best prices on my first SLR, the Canon T2i. I decided not to go with their package or other offers and take the base system (import) and lenses, see below.
Canon EOS Rebel Digital T2I 18.0MP Digital SLR Camera W/ 18-55MM IS Lens
Qty: 1
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Autofocus Lens
Qty: 1
Canon Zoom Super Wide Angle EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Autofocus Lens
Qty: 1
SUBTOTAL: $1,217.99
SHIPPING: $0.00
SHIPPING METHOD: Ground 12-15 Days
TAX: $0.00
TOTAL: $1,217.99
I did speak with them to verify my card information, which I took as a good practice. I do now see that I am on back order which has my spidey senses tingling a bit.
I ordered on 8/7 and it's now 8/14 and I am on back order. I am buying this camera for an Ireland trip in September and bought from what I hope to be an honest and truthful purveyor of goods on the Intarwebs. I have had great success with Internet purchases and have bought cars, motorcycles and numerous electronic goods. Let's hope this experience does not break the trust.
Update#1 - Spoke to Andy in customer service. He explained the reason I was on back order was due to the unavailability of the super wide angle zoom lens. I canceled that portion of the order and was up sold the USA model, which is really OK by me and I was going to ask for it anyway. The USA kit provides the manufacturer 1-yr warranty, charger and battery as well as instructions in English, not Chinglish.
I immediately received emails stating my order was being processed and I would receive my goods as agreed by 8/26. So far, so good. I will bump them up by one as thus far, other than a few unexpected items this vendor is doing what they promise. Keep it up guys, you can restore faith one customer and positive rating at a time!
Received my T2i, US Edition for a fantastic price, within 2-days of discussing the back order issue with Thunder. Turns out the ultra wide angle lens was the back order item and once straightened out, I had shipment confirmation and a tracking number within 24-hours.
The camera is just what I ordered for an excellent price. They had what others could not get their hands on. I held the same unit in my hands at Best Buy and HH Gregg and this was much less expensive.
I think these guys have their eyes on customer service and bettering the buyer experience. They have my business and I will recommend them to others and WILL buy again. "
"Bought a Digital Camera and a Memory card with the overnight shipping because I have a trip this weekend and I wanted the camera with me, everything worked fine until the package arrived today and there was nothing inside but the invoice and a different memory card.
*UPDATE*
I spoke today with costumer services and they offered me a refund for the camera which I never got I'll be able to see the refund in 7 days.
They gave me the memory card for free.
"
"Well, so far, so good, but I haven't received the order yet. Assuming that all goes well with that, then I can say that calling for info and placing the order went very smoothly, and the agent was very helpful in explaining all the options and making recommendations suited to me so that I could decide on a camera and extras."
"I like these guys.
In the beginning it was some misunderstanding, however they fixed it all 100% in my favor.[They cancel the order for full refund even if they lost some money on shipping. Thank you Josh]
I wish I did not make my mind so fast and not using them as my suppliers. Maybe in the future the communication will be better and I'll buy their products.
"
"A friend of mine ordered a camera for me. He's stationed in Iraq with the USMC so he listed the shipping address as mine. The camera was ordered at the end of July. I received a message saying that the camera was on back order. So after 2 weeks of waiting i called and was told it was still on back order. After another week of waiting, I've now been told that the order has been pushed back to the end of the month. Yet when we ordered the camera and checked out, there was no mention about their inventory being low or negative on the item. So when I called to day to find out if there was something else I could do, I was put on hold 4 times, routed back and forth between sales and customer service each time before ending up with the same person I was initially speaking to anyway! I'm seriously considering that I may have picked the wrong business to do my shopping with. And I'm EXTREMELY dissatisfied with their customer service and honesty on their website."
"I made a purchase of Canon PowerShot SD1200-IS, online price was $94.00. There is no information about out of stock. The Website offered a free 5 gift set with order. When I spoke to the sales Rep I was very fclear that I wanted a 2GB memory card and a Camera case with the order. As well as it beingreceived with 2 days. He made a package deal for $179.99 all included. I was told it would ship out that afternoon and I woulkd receive an e-mail with a UPS tracking number.
The next day, I called seller's representative to confirm my order since my credit card was charged right away, but no UPS tracking information. They indicated the package would ship that afternoon (day 2)and again I would receive a tracking number. I thought every thing went okay until, the next day I called again about my order and now was told we never ship out until at least 2 days later and it would take 3-5 busness days from that point in time.checked my order status on seller's website. I requested a manager who told me that it would definitely be out by 3pm and I would receive a tracking number at around 3:30 no e-mail I called again and was told the warhouse has everything and it would be sent soon (within a minute a confirmation e-mail was sent with a tracking number).
My wife stayed home all day (since it was Signature required delivery)when the package finally came the camera case was missing. I didn't receive any notification/email that it was out of stock/back ordered. I called again to speak with the representative and he said he don't have have the item and they upgraded my Memory card for free. I indicated that I did not need an upgrade memory card and only placed the order since they assured me that all of my items could be sent and received with 2 days. At this point he said I would have to return the memory card and then they would correct the order at my expense. I was furious and they located a manager who explain the item was on back order and they upgraded the memory card. I asked if a case could be sent (was told why are you complaining a bout a $4 case). The case is not $4 and was one of the items I requested upon making the purchase. I asked if he will deliver it within 2-3 days since my son was going out of the country. He said not sure. I threated to cancel the credit card payment. He told me he would sue me.
The seller did not say "out of stock" when I purchased the order and he never indicated that it would not be coming. Even in the delivered packe it does not say anything about the item not in stock and an upgrade memory card (which I did not want.
The seller probably only wants the transaction to whom willing to purchase other offers. "
"I made a purchase of Canon PowerShot SX200-IS online. There is no information about out of stock.
The next day, I called seller's representative to confirm my order. I refused to purchase any other offers and the reps did not say about out of stock. I thought every thing went okay until the next day I checked my order status on seller's website. They put my order as back order. I didn't receive any notification/email. I called again to speak with the representative and he said he don't have have the item and need about 2-3 week. I asked if he will deliver it within 2-3 week and said not sure. I cancelled the order right away.
The seller did not say "out of stock" when I purchased online. The seller probably only want the transaction to whom willing to purchase other offers. I gave my credit card information and felt awful. I will keep track if they charge my credit card.
This seller put my order as back order even though at the time I made the purchase "
"First, I am a health care provider not a random disgruntled customer. This was my first time using Thunder Cameras for any online purchases, and it will be my last. I have been ordering items on-line since the 90's and have never had any issues until now. First, I used Nextag to find the lowest price on a Nikon Coolpix s8000 camera. Thunder Cameras had the lowest price by some $35.00 so I ordered one from them. A few days later I get an e-mail stating that in order to process my purchase further that I needed to call them. This was a first in ordering on-line. Anyway, I called and talked to a guy named "Burt." Whom advised me that in fact the camera was actually $299.00 rather than the $260.00 that was advertised on line because the camera listed on line was actually not "the English version" so that the "English" version was "on sale" for 299.00. He then asked me if that was ok. He then advised me that I would need an extra long life battery that he had on sale for $75.00 I advised that the camera was already more than what was advertised and that I didn't want the battery. He then tried to sell me another item, a power cord, and a battery...etc...I finally told him to send me the cord etc. Well, then to complete the purchase I had to give him the security code on the card which I did to further process the order. 7 days later, I e-mailed them and asked why I had not received the camera...the next day I get an e-mail stating that it had been shipped. The box arrived with the camera and a "Camera Accessory Kit" which did not contain the items that I had requested on the phone, further the items were not listed on the enclosed receipt...and to top it all off I sent them THREE E-mails stating that I wanted to talk about the contents of the shipment. None of which were returned.
Now the camera is great...Consumer Reports Best Buy...but as for Thunder Cameras I will never do business with them again, and I would advise you to steer clear of this company. Period.
Update: Interesingly enough, about 5 hours after I posted this review, I got a call from Thunder Camera's attempting to rectify my aforementioned issue. Guys, let me make this perfectly clear, if you did things right the first time, and a customer gives you three chances to prevent the type of review that I wrote, you have no one to blame but yourself. Remember that the customer is in the drivers seat not you, and that the all- mightly green back should not be your sole motivation. If you make your bed, you have to lay in it. You had your chance, my review stands as is, it will not change, because it's the truth. I have cancelled my Credit Card after reading all the other negative reviews...which I might add sound very similiar... now Please Stop Calling My House."
"Very strange when u find the good comment very intensive just to say "We r great"
These site have put the logo "sort price merchant certified" but the truth is that they are not certified so they r cheating us
Check facebook after what happen to me below:find how many persons try to telling u do not buy from thunder cameras over than 300 of peoples:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Do-not-buy-from-Thunder-cameras/125036697539722?ref=ts
I place an order from them a canon T1i
what happens is that they got on my credit card and they charge me for 500$ and i didn't get any services from their part.
So don't trust the good reviews read carefully the bad ones and you 'll see that this what will exactly happen. (I found out that tooooo lateee)
See the true reviews on http://thoughts-of-dave.blogspot.com/2009/10/thunder-cameras-aka-thundercamerascom.html
And these site have put the logo "sort price merchant certified" but the truth is that they are not certified so they r cheating us
UPDATE: As per your reply , i can see as per ALL the other reviews that u don't try to cheat us, u never do it u always wait till we put our bad review to contact also there 's no site charge a part of the amount , they charge for all the money or they don't so they can get you your service or not. All that i have ask from the beginning even when i have to talk to Andy is to be refund it that 's it.
"
"When I was looking for a Canon lens I came across Thunder Camera online. The gentleman that helped me, Adam, was very knowledgeable and courteous. He suggested a different lens, and this was the first lens I purchased with my new camera so I decided to go ahead and get that one. After purchasing I went online to do some research on that particular lens, not knowing much about them, and found one cheaper. I called back and they honored the cheaper price.
The people that I dealt with were very professional and I would purchase from them again.
Cindy"
"July 7th: Placed an internet order for a Canon 100-400mm L lens and received an immediate confirmation of the order from Thunder Cameras via email.
July 8th: Received an email from Thunder Cameras asking for confirmation. I called and Thunder Cameras stated the import Canon had a plastic lens mount and suggested I purchase a Sigma 120-400mm lens instead. The salesman directed me to their web page where three Sigma 120-400mm lenses were listed. The prices ranged from $799 to $2700 for the same lens. He recommended the middle price which was in the $2200-$2400 range. This lens was listed as "New!", which implied it was a new offering from Sigma since the lessor price wasn't listed as "new!". The salesman informed me that the middle lens was the "professional" model he used whereas the lens for $799 was an import lens with a plastic mount. I requested to cancel my order while I found a review for the Sigma he suggested. The salesman said that if he did that he couldn't offer me the special price. I agreed to have him hold the order while I researched the lens. While I was reading a review, which was favorable, the salesman called back and wanted me to place the order for the "new"! lens and he would only charge me $1299 for the privilege plus $48 for insurance, as shipping was free. I placed the order. Two hours later after having time to do more research I discovered the Sigma 120-400mm lens was initially made in 2008 and no changes had been made since then. MSRP from Sigma was $1320 and other vendors were offering the lens for $899. I called Thunder Cameras back two hours and a few minutes from placement of the order to cancel it. I was told the order had already shipped and was redirected to Andy in customer service. Andy told me the order had been shipped. I told him I was unhappy being charged $400 more than the lens cost from competitive vendors and wished to cancel the order anyway. Andy said he would lower the price by $300 to make it $999 just to make me happy. I told Andy I would still like to cancel the order. Andy didn't like my attitude and said he would withdraw the offer if I didn't promise to write a 5 star rating to Nextag regarding the transaction. I asked why I couldn't just cancel the order since it had only been 2 hours since it was placed and I couldn't believe it had already been shipped. Andy told me I could cancel it but would pay restocking (10%)and shipping fees, which I calculated would cost me about $150. I immediately tried to "improve my attitude" and said I would like to receive the price reduction and would write anything he liked. As his final gesture of good faith Andy said he would throw in a set of three filters and well as reducing the price. I hung up feeling badly screwed. Checking my email I found two new ones from Thunder Cameras saying my order was billed and shipped but no tracking number and that a tracking number would be emailed shortly. Seven minutes later I received an email from Thunder Cameras telling me to post my review of the transaction with Nextag and ResellerRatings.
July 9: I sent Andy in customer service an email asking about the price reduction and the fact that I hadn't seen any email showing the price reduction and neither had I received a tracking number as a follow up to the email I had received the previous day. Having more and more bad feelings about the order and Thunder Cameras I called my credit card company and canceled my card. I then called Thunder Cameras customer service leaving a message informing them I wouldn't accept the order if it had actually been shipped and to cancel it if it had not been shipped. I told them I had canceled my credit card and would dispute any charges placed on it. I followed this phone message up with an email stating the same thing. About 10 minutes later I got an email from Thunder Cameras saying the refund had been credited to my card and the order had been shipped, but no tracking number was included. I carefully read Thunder Cameras policy and discovered that I could actually cancel the order with no penalty 4 hours from placement of the order. I also discovered Thunder Cameras considers "discounted sale packages are at final sale and nonrefundable". They had cleverly labeled my order as a "Special discounted sale package" and clearly would attempt to refuse to honor any return.
July 12th: Received an email from Thunder Cameras with a tracking number. It had actually shipped 4 days after the order was placed.
July 19th: Received the lens and elected not to return it as my credit card company didn't give me a lot of hope my dispute would gain me recovery of funds without lots more involvement with Thunder Cameras.
In summary, Thunder Cameras has been deceptive at every point of contact in this transaction. Initially there was the bait and switch tactic followed by false advertising implying the lens they were switching was a new offering warranting a price much higher than Sigma's actual MSRP for the lens they provide that isn't "new!". The salesman stated the lens was lighter and smaller than the Canon lens I wanted. Actually the Sigma is the same size but 0.8 pounds heavier than the Canon lens. After discovering what had actually happened to me Thunder Cameras refused to honor their own policy of a cancellation with no penalty within four hours of the order. Instead, they threatened me with restocking and shipping costs and promised me a price reduction that they had no intention of honoring in exchange for a 5 star rating. The plan was to coerce me into writing a favorable review four days before the lens was actually shipped. Further, Thunder Cameras wrote an order that was much higher priced than other competitive vendors and labeled it as a "special discount sale package" so they could point to their policy and deny a return. This was not a good experience.
"
"This company & their "supervisor," Andy are scandalous! Being new to the SLR world, I relied a lot on the advise of Andy. My fault, however, being ripped off is solely their responsibility. I was originally buying the Nikon D300S. After a lengthy package building phone order with Andy in which he was making sure I received all of the "promo" deals, he then said he wanted to make sure I was going to be happy with this purchase and advised me to buy a $1858 D90 package that would have everything and more than what I had already ordered. One item in particular, a NIKON 70-300 MM VR lens. He assured me that the memory cards & batteries that are $249 are the best...gave me specs (verbally) and said that "everything" we discussed would be in the email receipt. After providing my credit card info, I rec'd "the" email Immediatley noticed that the 70-300 lens was a SIGMA lens, not Nikon. The other information that he "promised" to include was absent and an additional item added. I immediately called back...told me he was giving me a better lens, it was the "PE" version. He told me to google it and that if I wanted, we could change it. Said he was going to send me another email with the other info. I googled the lens and found nothing to match the BS that came from his mouth. Tried calling back and they were closed (early). Sent them 3 emails from their site stating that I wanted to cancel the order. Called them first thing the next morning. Spoke to Andy. First he said that my order had not shipped and he would "only" charge me 7%. Then changed his tune and said that it had shipped and would charge me 15%. Amazing how quick they are to get the orders out the door. After having him yell at me (literally, he has anger issues), I hung up and called back. Asked to speak to the owner...was told that they could not reveal the name. Asked to speak to Andy's supervisor...told that they did not know who that was???!!! I wish I would have read up this company beforehand. After doing so, I actually found similar complaints which specifically named "Andy" as well. PAY THE EXTRA MONEY AND GO ELSEWHERE!!!!"
"The worst ever experience in online shopping. Stay away from this scammers. They will rip you off. They have one rip off scam and they earn on that even if you return the item, which probably you will as you will receive a different thing compared to what you think you ordered. They say refund takes max two weeks after you return the item. After you return the item you will receive email saying that the refund will take 30 days. They lie from the time you make the order until the last minute when you finally manage to get a factio of your money back. I have returned the item and still have not been refunded. Planning to sue them and take further actions. If you are a victim of this company please do not hesitate and file the compaint at the Federal Trade Union, Better Business Beaureu as well as FBI's white crime reporting site."
"Great prices on their website but buyer beware!! The price that was listed for the camera I wanted was for a non-US warranty camera. Although they did offer me a camera with a US warranty that was $30 more and is exactly what you would buy at a best buy or similar. I bought it as it was still $30 lower then Best Buy or pretty much anywhere else. Item came as promised with all regular accessories that should come with a new camera. If you don't buy a camera that has US warranty it may not come with a battery,etc...."
"Thunder Cameras and Josh went out of their way to work with me to resolve a misunderstanding with regards to the camera equipment that I ordered. I would order from them again."