"Purchased camcorder from this website...a sales rep. called and high pressured me into buying a battery charger, he decieved me and told me a charger was not included in the camcorder and the manufacturer did not recommend charging the battery through the camcorder. The camcorder was purchased as a Christmas gift. After Christmas day, when the camcorder was opened, it was determined a charger was indeed included, and the additional charger purchased was not needed, and was defective. When I contacted the company to get a return authorization number to return the defective charger, was told that it had passed the 14 day return policy and no return was allowed. Several emails attempting to get resolution have proofed unsuccessful."
"I called today to purchase a Sharp Aquos LCD flat panel TV because it was the cheapest price I could find online by $100. I would seem the previous reviewer was correct. When the slick salesman realized I wasn't going to buy any of their ridiculously overpriced accessories or warranties, suddenly the tv was on backorder for 3-5 weeks. They're just using low prices on high dollar items to suck people into buying their overpriced accessories and warranties.
Too shady for me."
"I've been in the market for a new notebook for some time now. I love my 800MHz TiBook, but it's almost 3 years old, and it's showing. My biggest regret is not getting AppleCare for it. Had I bought it, this notebook could have lasted me another 2 years.
So I've been eyeing Apple's latest notebooks for some time, specifically the 1.67GHz 15.2" Powerbook. This puppy has gorgeous specs, and retails for $2299, so looking for a price break was a priority for me. I went onto Google and did the usual checks, and found the cheapest price to be $1999! The website: http://www.buzz4digital.com/shop/Product.asp?ProdTypeList=2102&Sku=M9677
Now this place looked a little fishy to me, but I went ahead and ordered the notebook. On top of the $1999, there was a $49.99 charge for "ground shipping." High, I thought, but still the overall price was great.
I did not receive a confirmation email, just a screen saying my order was accepted. If you visit the site, you'll note the outlandish pricing on the 3 year warranty, USB floppy drive, USB hub and other peripherals. I saw immediately what this was... a way to hook you into buying a sub-retail priced notebook with inflated peripherals.
The next day, they called the house and left a message on the answering machine. It turns out they need to "verify" my Internet order. So the following day I called the toll-free number and got passed to a slick sounding salesman who tried desperately to sell me the $499 3 year "warranty" for the computer. I was insistent that I was only interested in the computer, in spite of his very insistent manner. No problem; he finally relented and told me that my order would ship in a couple of days.
Days went by, and I visited the web site, logged into my "customer account" and saw that the status of the order hadn't updated. I knew I was probably in for a long wait, if ever, to receive the notebook, but I wasn't in a great hurry, so I waited.
That was 8 days ago. I called yesterday and inquired about my order. The guy in customer service said that an email would be sent to me that afternoon with a status update -- of course, it never came. I called today, and this time I was told that the notebook was on back order and that it wouldn't ship for 2 to 3 weeks.
By that time, I had enough. I realized that these guys are true rip-off artists who only want to sell inflated services and peripherals. Had I agreed to purchase the $500 3 year warranty, I would have most probably gotten the notebook by now. Again, I was in no hurry, and had no problem waiting a week just to see what happened. But my suspicions were confirmed today when I was told about the 2-3 week wait.
With that, I sent a short email stating that I wished to cancel my order. I went onto the trusty amazon.com and got the same notebook for $2299. They also had free "super saver shipping" and a $150 mail in rebate. Plus I saved an additional $30 by applying for and receiving an amazon.com Visa account which I charged the notebook on.
All told, my total bill after rebate for the notebook will be $2119.99, some $70 above the cost of what I would have paid if I had a chance of getting it. But to me, the extra $70 is worth it, because it's still a great price.
The moral of the story: watch these low cost buzzard-bait on-line stores. They are set up to catch the vulnerable and the ignorant, and educated consumers just wind up never getting their order fulfilled.
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