"I'm writing this in hopes of preventing the same thing happening to someone else. I have used Yahoo shopping for a long time and this was my first encounter with fraud. I ordered a Canon EOS 20D 8.2 megapixel camera body from Royal Camera. I received a confirmation for $725 and then an email asking me to call a number to confirm. The person on the other end of the line asked me why I ordered that camera when they received a new shipment of an upgrade called a 350 Pro. I told them that I wasn't familiar with the model and couldn't find it on the Canon Website they assured me that it was a better camera, and they were Canons biggest distributor so were the first to get it. It sounded like bait and switch to me but he insured me I could return it 21 days, and I thought I could take a chance seeing it was a yahoo site.
They shipped me a Canon XT REBEL body and charged my card $1049.99.The Rebel is inferior to the Canon 20D So I called for a return authorization and was told , among other BS that my card would be charged $100 for shipping and restocking. "

"I called to order a Canon 20D with the "Travel"package for $1979. I asked if the camera was in stock and a US version and Max assured me it was and had a full US warranty. After he got my credit card number, he told me that the battery and charger were not included and would be $238 extra. If I wanted a Compact Flash card that would work with the camera it would be $299 for a 512MB or $399 for a 1Gig. I told him no thanks and he told me if I didn't use his card I would lose half of my pictures. He then said I could upgrade to the "Professional Travel" package which included the battery, charger and 512 MB card for only $199 extra. I told him I needed it in 10 days and he said "absolutely no problem". Two days later, I got the lenses and accessories and they charged me $1700. When I called to find out what was going on, they said it would cost another $200 to get what I ordered. I told Peter I wasn't going to pay any more and he told me it would be a long time before the camera came in, but if I paid the extra money, they would ship it the next day. I told him I wanted an RMA # to send the accessories back. He told me the shipping and restocking fee would be #300 and tried to get me to keep them by reducing the price. I told him to forget it. About an hour later called and said he could ship the camera to me for only $50 more and I again told him to forget it. I then called Mastercard and disputed the charges. I still have to straighten it all out and I'll never see the camera."

" Invoice number is merchant ID from my credit card. I ordered Canon digital camera body, lens, flash memory & 5 hour battery grip by phone. Royal camera overcharged my credit card by almost $200 & failed to deliver all items ordered. When I initially contacted them, they told me they sold the camera body too cheap & wanted to substitute an extra battery (~$60) for the $300 Cannon Battery Grip accessory. With the help of my credit card company I was able to recover my money, after several phone calls & a lot of hassle. I would not recommend this store to anyone for the purchase of any merchandise. "

"low price on the nikon d-70, ordered over internet and had to call, they said the camera was not the us version and wanted $400 more for that bringing the total to over $1000, just a bad, camera compay, switch and bait with hard sell do not do business with them. Did manage to cancell order."

"Like most people, I did a great deal of research on which camera and lens I wanted and little to no research on the vendor I would end up ordering from. The short story is I got the hard sell over the phone, the camera was not a US model, and I ended up paying about $150 too much because I tried to save a few dollars with this vendor. The longer story is the same pattern as most of the others - I ordered a Canon Digital EOS Rebel from Royal's web site and received the confirmation e-mail; "Please call Max @ 1718-336-4632 ext 240 or ***-***-**** ext 240 to confirm your order." When I called, Max informed me that I didn't want just the camera body or the Canon lens I ordered since it didn't come with the battery, or storage card. He would sell me a 256 CF card for $199. I told him that was way to high, and I would get one locally. He told me he would make me a deal and sell it for $99. I told him Circuit City had on for $19 after a rebate. Max informed me these cards were no good and I would lose half of my images. He also told me he could make me a deal on a Sigma lens that was much better. I asked for specifics and he directed me to the web site. I told him I would look at it and call him back. After reading some average reviews, I called him back and told him to keep my order the way it was. He told me I must not have read the correct reviews because this was a brand new release. I told him I wasn’t interested and to keep my order the way it was. He then told me that the camera I ordered would not have a manual in English and that the camera menu displays would also not be in English. I told him that it didn't say on the web site that this was a foreign model. He told me that it was listed on the Info page that some models were foreign, and told me I should have known this was not the US model. I told him I needed the displays to be in English, and to add on the cost of the US model (now that I have the camera, I can see that the language is selectable). Now that I had taken the bait, Max started reeling me in... He told me that I also had to have a battery and charger. Add on the cost again. He went on to tell me I needed cables, filters, and a card reader - I declined them all. He gave me the new price, which was very similar to what I would have paid locally. I told him to cancel the entire order. He then told me that they had the lowest prices I would find, but he would take off another $30. I told him to go ahead and place the order. My credit card was billed $20 more than what Max quoted me over the phone. After their 8% shipping costs, I ended up paying at least $150 more than I should have. I am not wasting another minute trying to get anything back from Royal. I did receive everything I ordered in a fairly short time period – A standard Canon kit with the 28-80mm lens removed. The shipment did not contain any type of bill of sale or inventory list. After reading the other reviews, I feel pretty lucky to be done with this nightmare, and have learned an extremely valuable lesson for only $150. Always check the vendors out as thoroughly as you do the product, and definitely avoid of Royal Camera!!"

"I ordered a sony camera, advertised for $1,099 (DCR-VX2100). They tried to sell me more equipment, which i wasn't interested in, except for a battery and a charger. They promised to deliver 2nd day UPS, and when i got the package, the camcord was missing. When i called, they said that the camera is not in stock, but somewhere "not in the country", but if i pay extra $900.00 (!!!), I can have the camera right now. Than, they insisted that this information was given to me (NOT true), and refused to give me the owner's name, and on top of, they guy who called himself Peter stevens, was unbelievably rude, and hang up the phone. NEVER deal with them."

"This company is committing outright intentional fraud. Beware! Ronnie Shy the owner lied to me and others on multiple occassions. I ordered a Panasonic AG-DVX100A which is a high end Digital Camera. Ronnie told me that I should "upgrade" to the AG-DVX100AP saying it was the newest model and the new model corrected a serious audio glitch. Something was off with the conversation and when I contacted Panosonic technical and legal team they confirmed it was a SCAM! The camera's were technically exactly the same and the only real difference was the warrenty and where the camera's were built. The company has NO ethics including trying to charge more than $299 for shipping on an approximately $50 UPS invoice. Panasonic also warns that Ronnie is NOT an authroized dealer of the camera I was ordering and that he sells grey market items. Be very careful!"

"I had a truly disastrous experience with this company. Ordered a Canon 20D with the 17-85mm IS lens. On getting a call back from the sales staff, I was hard-pitched to buy several accessories I recognized as over-priced. Then the salesman told me the 17-85mm lens has been discontinued (which is not true) and suggested replacing it with a Sigma lens. Regrettably, I agreed. The next day, I was informed the cheap 20D body was on back-order and also discovered my credit card had been charged $744 for a lens readily available elsewhere fo $269 dollars.

Ouch. I refused delivery on the shipment and was required to call back several times and threaten action with my credit card company to get a refund.

Michael"

"Great store. I got my Canon camera delivered to my door via fed-ex next day. Right on time. Also they had the best price on my camera, had it in stock as well as the accessories. I ordered over the phone and the sales rep was polite and knew the answers to my questions. I really needed the camera next day and they assured me it'd be there. I was kept up to date via the fed-ex tracking # that was e- mailed to me. I'd recommend them and will buy from them again."

"Its really disgusting to see some people demonize the likes of big corporations like WALMART, when their great return policys and attempts at customer satisfaction pamper you, and dont prepare you for when you DEAL WITH A REAL DEMONIC company bent on ripping you off to no end like ROYAL CAMERA does. Its also too bad if your reading this, because, most likely its probably too late, and you too have been taken for a ride by Royal Camera" ran by Roy Shin "President"(according to the BBB) Royal Camera has got to be THE biggest hole in the wall 2 bit operation I have ever dealt with. All the employees at Royal Camera including the likes of Ranita, Ronnie Shy, Beth, Isaac, and countless other salesmen without a conscious who couldnt tell the truth from a blantant lie, Led by one manager Ronnie Shy they really should be ashamed of themselves
Now to my order- I ordered back in January - 1 NIKON D1x, 1 GB Lexar CF card, and One extended warranty for the camera. I made sure to specifially ask WAS THE CAMERA AMERICAN and was it NEW or refursbished?!. I recieved. ONE USED AND ABUSED NIKON D1x. (NO IT WAS NOT NEW! it was a scratch and dent Royal Camera special!) wow "Great selling practices Royal"! I did not recieve the LEXAR CARD like I ordered, I did recieve the blistering fast Royal Camera PQI bait and switch off brand memory card! WOW! even better.... wait it gets worse. The extended warranty was a debit card with a supposide "tech center" I was to believe exsisted! LOL yeah right!.. to make a long story short and to sum my transaction all up. the salesman said the camera was new, they sent me a used one. they billed me 207.00 for shipping, when the initial salesman said shipping was 59.00. They wrote my credit card number down wrong the first time I placed the order. They told me 3 times my order was to be "shipped tonight" but all the items were never in stock, and the order wasnt shipped for a week. needless to say when I did recieve their junk they sent me. I sent the Garbage back to them the very same day. They NEVER CREDITED MY MONEY BACK! UNTIL I wrote up a CREDIT CARD DISPUTE. and of course the spineless cowards tried to fight it but quickly gave in and credit my card 56.00 dollars short of the 3,656.00. My advice. order from B&H or Adorama. theres alot of crooked camera companys in the Brooklyn NY area. beware!"

"This was hands down the worst experience I have ever had in purchases anything anywhere. You would get better treatment and more honest salesmen if you were purchasing a camera in a third world country. It was like a scene out of a bad movie. After 2 hours of getting the run around on the phone and getting transfered to what appeared to be 9 different people I demanded to speak to a manager. They informed me that no managers were there. I asked when I could speak to a manager the guy told me to call back tomorrow and then he promptly hung up. So I called back about 5 minutes later and immediately asked for a manager. He said that he was a manager. When I told him what I was told a minute ago, he had no reply. So I began to tell him of the situation, during which time he would cut me off with rude unsatisfactory "answers" to the problem. And during this conversation he began to sound exactly like the guy who just told me 5 minutes prior that there wasn't a manager around. This person (whoever he was), was clearly trying to disguise his voice. And he would fall out of character from time to time by either starting to laugh or by just forgetting to keep up the charade. I eventually ended the call by cancelling my order. Up to the very end I was friendly and polite(in hopes they wouldn't mess with my order) but I received no such treatment from them. I wasn't being critical or picky. I was just asking for the deal I agreed upon when making my purchase on line. Nothing was as they said. When I actually called them to get my tracking number, all sorts of new charges would pop up. Not only that, but the items promised to me when I ordered were not included. If this companies office was anywhere close to me I would be pickitting it. Bottom line, trust these reviews. I read them and thought that my experience might be different. It wasn't. Trust them. Royal Camera Are Crooks. Avoid them like the plague!!!!
"

"Ordered Wednesday AM, got the camera Thursday AM. Prompt answering of the phone, in stock, no bait and switch. A bit of pressure to buy the warranty, and some accessories, but that's how these guys make some profit on the sale. All in all, I'd order from them again."

"I almost purchsed Nikon D70 from them when I did not have enough knowledge about DSLR camera. They told me exactely same like, battery, BO'd, $300 for 1G CF card... and so on.

This kinds of company should be reported to Government agencies so that they can restrict them for future scam.

I found Better Business Bureau, and their e-mail is ****@**** or ****@****. And their web site is http://www.bbb.org.

Let's report this company to the BBB. We should show the power of Netizens."

"In looking for an SLR digital camera, I came upon Royal Camera's deal for a Nikon D70 for $519 plus 59.99 for shipping (rather high shipping cost I thought).
After three calls and two months, the camera had not been shipped.
I wanted just the Nikon body, since I have lenses and flash cards already. I was offered lots of "bait," but when the salesman said that would need a battery and charger for more than $250, I became very suspicious.
Fortunatley, their shipping delay allowed me time to bail out of the deal.

I am reminded that "if the deal is too good to be true, it probably isn't."

Caveat emptor."

"Had a great experience with ROYAL CAMERA purchasing a digital camera package. The 512 meg memory card that came with my package was on back order, but I was leaving for vacation with my new camera in just 2 days. The agent on the phone gladly shipped me two 256 meg cards instead, and I rec'd in time for my trip. Would definitely use ROYALCAMERA again"