"FYI:

Genius Cameras is a dba for Save Here Distribution, Inc., a New Jersey domestic profit corporation. This corporation also uses the dba Express Cameras, Jack's Photo, Photo King and Photo Distribution. "

"I have had the same experience as everyone else on this site. Ordered the Canon EOS Rebel XT body only. Didn't bite on the upsell. Sales guy was rude. Got the "out of stock" email. Called as a new customer, "No problem, plenty in stock." Emailed shipping that sales said they were plenty in stock. Shipping says still backordered.
What a scam. How can we put these crooks out of business? "

"I would like to add my experience with this operation as well. I also tried to purchase a Nikon D70s camera for $499. Got the email to call them and did so. Talked to a guy (NY accent, don't recall the name...) who said that yes, it was a US camera, and that it did not come with a battery or charger. I'm pretty certain that the camera comes with both items (at least the US version...). But, I asked him how much they would be - He said it would be $970 for the camera and batteries! While I was on the phone, I did a quick search, and found that the battery was about $37 and the charger goes for around $50-60. Some deal. When I mentioned this little fact to him, he claimed that those batteries would cause the camera to blow up (yeah, right said I, nikon batteries specified for the D70s would cause it to explode...). He also tried to upsell lens and memory at ridiculous prices. THings just seemed so shady with this guy (like seedy used car dealerships 20 years ago), that I finally just said to forget it. I wanted nothing to do with these shady characters.

I would STRONGLY urge others thinking about dealing with this company to do so with extreme caution.

Tom"

"I thought I would add my story to the fray. I ordered a Nikon D70s with lens for $679 (an insanely low price). I got the "Please Confirm" email, and gave them a call.

After refusing all the upselling of ridiculously overpriced accessories, I had this verbal transaction with them:

Me: "I just want to be sure that this is the US version of the Nikon package, and not a gray market item."
Them: "That's right, it's the same thing you would get if you went out and bought it at a retailer."
Me: "Full US warranty?
Them: "Yes sir."

After I hang up, I IMMEDIATELY get an email saying the item is back-ordered, and they have no idea when they will get more, and do I want to cancel my order.

Pretty strange, I think, so I called the sales line again (like a new customer) and asked them if they have any D70s, and if they are in stock:

Them: "Sure, we can overnight it if you want and have it there tomorrow."
Me: "Why did I just get an email saying they were out of stock?"
Him: "You're probably getting the International Version, and that comes out of our over-sea office."
Me: "I was told I was getting the US retail version."
Him: "Not at that price. If you want to upgrade your order to the US Retail version, I can do that and ship it a lot faster."
Me: "What's the price on that?"
Him: "$975"
Me: "Um, cancel my order please."

The bottom line with these folks is that you have to order their overpriced accessories before they will ship your camera. If you don't make your order over a certain pricing threshold, you get put down for gray market, and who knows if you'll ever get it.

I suspect that if I had ordered a memory card (2 Gig for $779?) and passed the $975 threshold, I would be snapping pictures right now.

Even better, don't do business with these people at all. They are nothing but liars and crooks."

"Called to order 2 Nikon D70s which were priced at 50% off regular price. I ordered online with the option to have it shipped overnight. After a few minutes, I received an e-mail confirming the online order and to give them a call to confirm over the phone. A person verified my credit card info and shipping address. After I declined to buy the optional battery and charger, I was told that they wouldn't be able to ship the products overnight because they came from their distributor which does not ship overnight, only ground which according to the person might take anywhere from 10 to 14 days plus 2 days to process the order. At that point, a little irritated and worried, I still aggreed to proceed with the order.

After surfing the net and stumbling across this site, I decided to cancel the order because the patterns were similar to my situation. I was worried!

The person I spoke to, was rude and played word games and it took about 15-20 minutes to cancel my order. I was put on hold twice for about 5 minutes at a time.

Moral of the story, do your homework first, make sure to research the company you're dealing with then make the purchase if it checks out right.

On Friday the 26th, a couple of days before this incident, I dealt with a similar company (usaphotonation.com) which had the same camera advertised for the same low price. I also had to cancel my order there because they wanted to ship me the "Chinese" version of the camera for that price. I canceled the order stating that I didn't speak/read Mandarin. Same treatment, the person was rude, trying to sell me the "English" body-only version for an obscene price. I had to argue with him about not charging me a 7% cancellation fee. Phone call took about 40 min until he finally canceled my order, without fees.

I was lucky, I came out of both incidents "alive", bruised and battered, but "alive"! GOOD LUCK!"

"Very bad experience.

These people are a bunch of crooks. Bait and switch. Unfortunately I didn't find this site until after I ordered. Tried to buy a Canon GL2 camcorder, they had it advertised for ~$1200, order online, get an email to call and confirm, then the same game you have read here over and over starts. "you need a battery - $279, oh, and you'll need a charger -$520 and so on and so on. The advertised $1200 camcorder total ends up being over $2100. I decided to cancel the order and then they want to argue about it. THey could check websites online and compare prices and argue prices while we talked on the phone but they "didn't have email capability to send me an itemized receipt of my purchase". It took about 3 hours of phone time to get my order cancelled. On hold for 30 minutes waiting to talk to customer service. Once on the phone with CS I hear other customers and operators arguing in the background. I hope they all get locked up and put in a cell with "Bubba". Don't do business with these people. Jerks, plain and simple. I was so worried I call my CC company and had my card cancelled and a new one with new # issued. Finally got my $$ back and learned a valuable lesson. I'll gladly pay more and buy local from a store I can trust.

Avoid this company. Rude criminals."

"Crooks as stated all around.
Please don't bother placing an order with these guys even if you are in no risk of losing money. Remember that your personal and credit card info is going into the hands of people that should looked up by the FBI.

Bait and switch like hell.
Rude, Mafia wannabe, dishonnest people.

If I had the time and energy, I would sue them.

Note that they have multiple websites including RoyalCamera.com.
Please look any website in whois.net to make sure you are not dealing with these guys."

"This is worst shopping experience I had on the net, very unprofessional company they advertised the Nikon D70s for 429 (body only) I purchased it online but they require a call to confirm the order. They start asking do you want a charger. Do you want a battery? And so on. So they try to sell you the free accessories that Nikon include with the body and brought the price to 799 for the camera body with all the free supplied accessories. How can you trust or deal with such a company? Do not go there BE AWARE. "

"I got a EOS 20D and Sigma 28-105 2.8-4 the 20D was 749.00 and the Sigma was 599.00 went I got home and check on the Cost Of the Sigma it was between 150-200 on the web so I sent it back but they only want to refund 299.00.
After doing a charge back with American Express I looked around some more and they are tied in with Save-Here.com PhotoKing.com and I think ExpressCamera.com They all have the same story in reviews but its about time somebody put a stop to them........."

"This was a blatent bait and switch scam. The price quaoted on the website was clearly never met to be delivered. They require a phonecall to confirm the order ( for no particular reason)and then said the item was backordered for FOUR MONTHS! But that upgrdes were available immeadiately. When I said I wanted to cancel my order, he said that was another line and the wait was currently at least 40 minutes. It had to be cancelled by phone and after several attemps on several days to get through I finally hung in for over 20 minutes and was able to cancel this bogus order. FIRMS LIKE THIS ARE RUINNG THE INTERNET AS A SHOPPING TOOL."

"This Company which a month ago was listed as a low priced source of the Canon EOS 20D digital SLR now has a new web page http:\\geniuscameras.com which touts extreemly low prices. I received nothing and was offered many extras' which were way overpriced. I waited two weeks and finally cancelled the order since reading ResellerRatings this was typical of this business."

"WOW -- what a great site! I have to admit I was worried about ordering from GeniusCameras.com (no mailing address listed on the site and all links for secure server certificates didn't actually link!) and put off the purchase for a few days. Deciding my VISA would give me some protection, I placed the order for the Nikon D70 and two lenses.... and received the email to confirm my order.

When I called to confirm they were overly nice, "How can I provide you with EXCELLENT customer service?" Odd, but ok...

I confirmed my order and declined the upselling of filters and such, confirmed this product was NEW and in the box with warranties. Confirmed the price and was told 10 days for my order.

Subsequently I found this site this AM and immediately called to cancel, expecting the worst. I also notified my card company to decline any charges from them.

When I spoke with "excellent" customer service, I gave my order number to cancel. I was then asked for my credit card # which I refused and said I would only give the last four digits to verify my purchase. That wasn't acceptable to them and thus I began my card #... only getting 8 digits out and the rep moved on to my address (even though the whole # was required) I confirmed my address completely and was told the order would be cancelled and to "expect a refund within 30 days."

I contacted my card again to advise them and immediately received an email from GeniusCamera's Shipping department -- advising me my order was backordered and cancelled.

This worries me two-fold... they're not automated to pull my order to verify my info as well as know it was automatically cancelled... and 2) are they just phishing for credit cards? The reason I suppose #2 is that they confirm the #, billing address, etc. to CANCEL an order, which is odd.

I am now reporting them to Bank of America to watch my card and ensure no fraudulent purchases are put on there just in case this is a phishing scam."

"I didn't get to make a purchase. Completely standard bait and switch. I tried to buy a Nikon D70 body. When I refused to purchase the batteries at the obscene price the quoted, suddenly the D70 was out of stock. Oddly it still appeared on their website. I reordered it, made the same call and inquired as to the stock out situation. The loser hung up on me. Any company that requires you to call and "confirm your order" is absolutely a scam. Don't be fooled (like me)."

"I tried to purchase the Nikon D70 kit including one lens. It was the same story repeated over and over agian on this site. When I tried to purchase the base line camera they tried to sell me marked up accessories that are suppose to be included with the unit like a battery and charger. I know this because I called Nikon and they stated that all models sold in the US come with a battery charger and battery. If you doubt me look on Nikons web site and check the supplied accessories section. It is my beliefe that these units are imported from a foreign market which voides the factory warrenty. I will never do business with these people agian and I suggeset you do the same. "

"Never trust a mail-order company that greets you with "Which credit card account number will you be using to pay for this order?"

After refusing to give it without answers to some very basic questions, I was given the standard digi-photo bait-and-switch, going from "I have one in my hand" to "that won't be in stock for several weeks". I offered to pick up the more expensive option, (their web address is 15 miles from me), I was told that orders could only be shipped via UPS for a minimum shipping fee of $50.

For those junior Don Quixote/Barnaby Jones consumer advocate champion wannabe's however, do your homework. This company's listed business address is NEW JERSEY, NOT New York. The provided links and reporting info on this thread are useless.

Furthermore, NJ has some very good discount camera retailers (not BH by any means, but more or less reputable), like Beach and its sister company Digibuy. While this doesn't keep apparent scam artists (though not quite artistic) like Genius from trying to make an unethical dollar, it's important to approach every source individually as to ensure those who DO provide excellent value and service have a fair chance to survive."