Never again
Written: May 05 '05 (Updated May 06 '05)
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The selection of merchandise on the web site looked OK. I knew exactly what camcorder I wanted to buy, so I haven't been browsing too much. They had what I wanted, and the price was good ($37 less than Adorama or B&H). Plus Adorama and B&H were closed for entire Passover week, and Abes was open for business on Tuesday. So I said great, I'll pay less and with a little bit of luck, I might have the camera by the end of the week. I was wrong on both accounts.
The checkout process was more or less standard one. Nothing too fancy. There was only one small stupidity. Abes is shipping to US&Canada only, and in state/province field it is possible to select US states or "international". No way to enter Canadian province information. Since only "international" destination is Canada, they could have Canadian provinces listed there... Oh well...
On Tuesday evening, instead of receiving email with shipping details, I got email requesting me to call them to confirm my order. I saw the email too late, so I called next day. Clearly I'm not going to see my camera this week. The call had nothing to do with confirming the order. It was rather pathetic attempt to try to sell me things I don't need. The "extended warranty" for incredibly "low" price of $75 (just for me), and protective lens filter for $20. I knew better than to buy overpriced in-store warranties and protective lens filters that are not needed for any lens produced in last 20 years or so (the very old lenses used different, much softer glass, and back than there was a point in having protective filter, but today they are useless), so I declined both standard cheap store tricks to get more money from unsuspecting customers. The sales person was extremely pushy about the filter. I had to tell him no at least half dozen times, and at the end he told me "so, I'll be adding the filter to the order, right?". "NO!". Surprisingly, only one "no" was sufficient for the extended warranty.
At the end of conversation, with me rather tired from defending myself, the salesperson told me shipping price and method, in almost "by the way" manner (which I expected to be the same as quoted on the web, but it wasn't). Due to the office noise at my place, I misunderstood the shipping price part to be 15.99 instead of unheard of 59.90 for standard UPS 7-day ground shipping. Since I thought I'm going to get much more reasonable shipping price after all (the original $29.90 was a rip-off for standard UPS 7-day delivery, UPS web site quotes $13.40 from New York where the shop is to my location in Canada), I OK'ed it. Of course, $59.90 was charged to my credit card. And needless to say, it did not include brokerage fee, that I had to pay separately (a piece of advice, avoid UPS if ordering to Canada). Well, OK, I'm mostly to blame for wanting to end that call quickly, and not rechecking everything. On the other hand, nobody before played "let change the shipping price" trick on me.
When I called back to check what is going on, customer service redirected me to the salesperson immediately. The salesperson was extremely rude. At most places where I conducted business before, if something like this happened, at least they were polite. I'm not a rude person, and I keep my part of conversation extremely calm and polite, always, and usually the other side responds the same. At some places, they would even make refund even if it wasn't really their fault (especially if "real" price was overinflated to begin with). To make long story short, the salesperson told me "not to waste his time" right away, as soon as we started talking, using exactly those words (or very similar, I don't have transcript of conversation). Needless to say, he continued conversation in the same tone.
So, in a nutshell, I would recommend avoiding the place. Not because I made mistake and paid more than the service was really worth. There are many other places to choose from that will not try to ambush you into buying stuff you do not need (and that will not make you call them, so that they can bully you into buying additional stuff). There are many other places where you will be told about changes to final price using words "we are very sorry, but the original qoute was incorrect", instead of making it look as if they are just repeating the original quote. There are many other places that have realistic shipping prices. There are many other places customer service and/or salespersons will be at least polite, even if you are to blame. Abes doesn't fit into any of those categories.
Also don't be fooled with "low" prices they have. The prices might look low, but after you pay inflated and totally unrealistic shipping price ($13.40 is what shipping cost really was, $59.90 was what I was charged), they are not really that low. Plus, for Canadians, choice of UPS courier is really poor. The brokerage fee that you'll pay C.O.D. when using UPS is a killer. I paid aprox. $60 CAD GST/PST plus almost the same amount for brokerage fee. Choose shop with better choice of couriers (I remember paying no brokerage fee or symbolic fee on my orders from US until now, and I don't recall UPS was courier for any of those past orders).
I'm relatively frequent electronics and photo equipment buyer, and the stuff I buy is more often high-end than low-end. I guess they are going to loose way more money than that shipment was worth from not seeing me ever again, very very soon. But, that is their problem now, not mine.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Panasonic PV-GS35
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Epinions.com ID:
amiliv
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Reviews written: 3
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