Danger! Buying a Digital Camera from a Private Online Discounter

Horror stories abound, many of them true, about consumers who have been ripped off by private online digital SLR camera discounters. The usual entry point starts with an ad on a private discounter's web site offering a digital SLR for $50 to $100 less than the same model being sold by the big name online digital SLR camera dealers such as B&H Photo-Video, Adorama, Cameta, Henrys, Vistek, Camera Canada and so on.

The major online retailers originate mainly from major brick & mortar dealers. They are entitled to and take advantage of the best volume pricing breaks from the camera distributors. The majors also negotiate shipping deals with carriers such as the postal service, FedEx and UPS. So how is it possible for much smaller online retailers to undersell the big boys? The answer is obvious. Either the discounters are selling everything at a slight loss, or more likely, the discounters are making up the price difference somewhere else. That last part is the key.

Recently on the DPReview discussion forums poster named PixelDave asked "Have any of you ever used these guys [CentralDigital.com]? Seems like they have an OK rating on reseller ratings and are selling the D300 for $1629 - 4%. Just wondering if they are safe." I responded to Dave with the following (edited slightly here for context).

"You've really got to read their D300 info page carefully. Note that the so-called Starter accessory package includes the camera battery . . . for an additional $90. The Starter accessory package does not supply an extra battery — just the one that is supposed to be in the camera box. That means the camera box itself does NOT contain the standard (excellent) battery that is supposed to be there. CentralDigital is a complete ripoff in my opinion. The other items in the Starter accessory kit seem to be all garbage including what I'll bet is a useless/glacially slow no-name 4GB CF card.

$1629 + $90 (you NEED a battery for the camera) works out to $1739, but OOPS — B&H Photo is selling a real D300 package (complete with the proper battery, charger and cables as supplied by Nikon) for only $1699. I wonder if CentralDigital will also try to sell you the stock cables and the charger as 'extras' too?

Who knows what other additional charges CentralDigital might try to add to your credit card for packing, handling and shipping."

In the same thread, DavidH wrote to point out that "Amazon reseller, Ray M. supervisor $1650, have over 50 D300s in stock. (orig over 100 a few days back-all USA). We were leary of NY [discount online] camera stores, but trusted Amazon. Fast extra courteous service, no lip or hard sell. These guys want business and good reputation."

Okay . . . maybe. But if these units are grey market items without a Nikon USA warranty, it's not a deal for the US-based customer. If the units are in fact domestic market inventory and supplied with the full Nikon USA warranty then it's a good deal. The original poster has to compare warranty, shipping & handling, all the items supplied in the box, the total retail price and the return policy (in case he receives a defective unit) in order to do an accurate comparison. The major US and Canadian online retailers make it easy to sort this stuff out. The discount guys don't. Neither do Amazon and eBay with their rather limited amount of space for resellers, retailers and private sellers to list product details. On eBay, half or more of almost every listing is composed of endless disclaimers and threats to potential false or flaky bidders.

Adorama (on Amazon) currently shows what looks like a great Nikon D300 package which includes all the usual stuff in the box (camera, battery, charger, USB cable, A/V cable, manual, LCD shield) plus a value pack containing a 2GB CF memory card, a spare EN-EL3e Lithium-Ion battery, Lowepro holster-style case, Mack 3 year extended warranty, digital remote shutter release, and Nikon Understanding Digital Photography with Nikon SLRs DVD, all for $1829.

There's lots to compare, but it's clearly a better deal than anything offered by the private online discounters.

I don't blame or fault small businesses in any way — guys who are flogging excess inventories at low prices, legitimate small camera dealers who are cutting margins razor thin to try to build some market share and so on. But if any problems arise, I think consumers are often not as well served by the private online discounters because the discounters can't (and often won't) handle two-way traffic of any kind (returns, refunds, missing items). The hard sell you may receive from a private online discounter trying to force you to purchase a battery (sometimes at an inflated price!) that is supposed to be included with the camera, service delays or non-existent service (in the event of delivery problems or receipt of a defective camera) can end up turning what initially appeared to be a $50 or $100 'saving' into an aggravating mess.

If consumers insist on saving every possible dollar, good for them. But when dealing with private discounters, deal locally — or at least some place close enough to where you live so that in the event of problems you can reach out and touch someone.

Check every online digital SLR camera deal carefully. Use the well-established online retailers as a baseline.

1. Go to the camera manufacturer's web site to find out exactly what is supposed to be included in the package
2. Go to B&H, Adorama, Cameta, Henrys, Vistek and Camera Canada to find out how the big guys are competing on price.
   
3. Check the package contents list on each of the major sites you're using for comparison.
   
4. Check the shipping fee to your address. Note that the major online retailers don't charge any sort of handling or packaging fee.
   
5. Armed with all of the foregoing start comparing prices at the private discounter sites. Add any and all the 'extras' to the listed price to get to the real item cost. Then add the private discounters' typical packaging (that's right - some private discounters want to charge you for the shipping box), handling (again - some private discounters try to charge you a fee to actually pack the camera for shipment), and shipping fees.
   
6. Last, if you ever find a private discounter or a smaller corporate online retailer who can legitimately beat the big guys, visit reseller ratings and the BBB web sites (among others) to see if there have been any serious complaints.
   
7. When reading complaints about retailers, try to filter out the complaints which are obviously made by uninformed consumers or outright liars who tried to con a retailer but couldn't get away with it.

BIG IMPORTANT NOTE: A major digital SLR camera purchase can cost upwards of $2,000. That's a lotta dough. If you're going to spend 8-10 hours or more trying to sort out the best price online, ask yourself if the time will be better spent driving/traveling to the nearest major shopping city in order to personally visit a bunch of camera stores. Armed with your best legitimate online price, you may be able to get the retailer to meet or beat the deal. If so, you'll also be able to try out in-store the camera you're actually taking home.

The best way to set up a personal comparison shopping tour of local or regional camera stores is to get on the telephone and ask each store if the product you want is in stock. Check the store hours of operation, then use a map to set up the most logical route from store to store. Set aside some time for lunch. Smart consumers do everything possible to put their hands on the expensive item they're considering buying. In the process, talking to as many retailers face-to-face as possible and previously interacting online in some of the great discussion forums at DPReview and Nikonians (there are many others), you'll be able to make an informed confident, affordable purchasing decision.

Buyer Beware!

Start 2008 the Right Way . . . Buy Smart

On the DPReview discussion forums this week there was a hot thread about the variety and number of fly-by-night online digital camera dealers. One of the posters, Don Wiss, has done a terrific amount of cycling around New York City/Brooklin taking photos of the street addresses of dozens of online merchants. Some of the storefronts are shockingly awful. Dozens of online merchants are traced back to mailbox stores. Some of them trace back to false addresses. The general feeling among many of the respondents to the Don's post was simply that they'd rather see low prices on merchandise than merchants plowing money into nicer looking storefronts. Well boys, it doesn't work that way!

A well kept store demonstrates how much a storekeeper wants to present his customers with a pleasant place to shop. The effort that goes into a well kept store is also often reflected in the storekeeper's bookkeeping and, most important, his customer service. Most often too, the best kept stores are populated by owners and staff who are generally better informed. Smart, energetic and informed people generally want to work in a pleasant environment. Exceptions may exist, but those are the rules.

Any half-witted schmuck can create a snappy looking web site that leaves visitors with the impression that they're dealing with a serious business. The fact remains though that online purchasing can be a snake pit. The BBB and dozens of other consumer protection organizations are overloaded with screeching complaints from literally tens of thousands of customers who have been ripped off by horrible online merchants.

The best thing about shopping for quality & service rather than price alone is that it may force people necessarily into formal business relationships with brick & mortar local merchants. I think that's the best relationship to create if we want to ensure the best possible service and support from knowledgeable dealers. Some online merchants are safe, obviously, because they're big enough to carry the weight and overhead of exceedingly expensive online operations. Almost all the other online players are either kibitzers or outright thieves. Buyer beware.

We frequently hear complaints from ripped off consumers about the difficulty of checking out the quality and/or honesty of online merchants. My response is simply that absence of good quality information about any online merchant should be a big red flag in the first place. Don't deal with such a merchant. The better the ridiculously low priced deal, the lousier the merchant - another rule which applies 95% of the time. Figuring out which of the remaining 5% are legitimate deals is too much of a headache for most people, and the personal time consumed by people trying to figure out which witch is which is often worth more than any possible saving on a purchase. Buyer beware.