I searched on the internet for a Canon camera lens 17-85 mm is for my Canon Rebel XTI 400 camera and found the lens for a great price of $305, it usually goes for $700-$800.
So I ordered the lens and a lens hood also for $59 from Best Price Cameras located in NY, April 12, 2008, Saturday. Ralph emailed me Apr. 13, Sunday to call him.
I called Ralph and he said he wondered why I didn't order the better lens for $399. I said I didn't know there were two lens. He said one was plastic and one was glass. Most of his customers got the glass. So I said yes I would, it was still a fair price. Then he tried to get me to order some filters. I said no but he said at least get the high resolution UV filter for $29. I agreed and he gave me the total of $539. I said why so high, and he said tax and shipping. I thought it said free but knew I could look it up. So we hung up.
The next day I emailed him because I was going to get the 3 filters for $59, but he never contacted me. I called also and left a message and emailed him again but he never got back to me. Now I know he propably thought I was going to cancel.
The package arrived on Monday, Apr. 21 as expected. When I opened the package, the lens was wrapped in bubble wrap and no box or warranty card, just the lens in bubble wrap. Also the filter was not high resolution, just a regular UV filter by Merkury Optics. At least it was in a box, but it was from the year 2005, and still no paper describing the item.
The lens hood was also in an open box and no paper about it. The lens hood was Bower 67mm.
I emailed Ralph about my concern about the lens not including a box for it and I also called and could not get ahold of him. I called again on Apr. 22 and got ahold of Ralph after tring for two hours. When I said the lens didn't come in a box, he quickly said Okay, let me transfer you and before I could say anything he transfered me. No one picked up and I hung up and tried calling again for several hours and it was always a busy signal.
I finally calmed down a bit and emailed him and explained that I had looked up on the internet and found that the filter could have been bought for cheaper, and that the $59 lens hood was found for as low as $4.99 plus shipping to about $15. His item looked like they were from clearance. He just kept coming up with excused and said things were more expensive now, etc., etc.....I said you just have an excuse for everything. Now about the lens, I said I found out that there was only one lens of this type, 17-85mm is by Canon. He then told me that the mounting on the one from Japan was stainless steel and the cheaper one was a pc mount from Taiwan. He said I could call Canon. He told me he could send me a free 1g memory card or a polarize filter.
I said I still wasn't satisified but to send me the filter, which I doubt he will.
After I got off the phone, I called Canon and talked to a very nice man. He said the man lied to me about the mounts and that they only make their lens in Japan. He referred me to the web site: Resellerrating.com and said I could contact the BBB and write a complaint on the internet also.
I also contacted my Credit Card company and they are sending me out a form to fill.
On the resellerrating.com, I found out some interesting information on Best Price Cameras. They have pulled this on lots of people. Also some other companies that pull this are: Broadway Photo, and I can't think of the names now but most of them are from the Brooklyn, NY area.
They also call this the bait and switch scheme.
Also I forgot to mention that when I tried to pull up info on the filter and lens hood, they didn't have any information listed about the things.
Please do something about these people. They need to be stopped.
Thanks for your time and help.
Mary Aston
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