"I shopped around all over to get my self a camera for a good price but i felt all these companies were ripping me off until i came across this wonderful company who had unbelievable prices and excellent salesperson who make you feel comfortable.I recommend this company to everyone. My camera came on time, it was well packed. I am going to do all my camera shopping from now on from Royal Camera its the people I trust."

"Here is my 1st letter to Royal. Letter body:


This letter will confirm my dealings with Royal Camera in reference my purchase of a camera, lens and accessories, order number R251468.
On Wednesday, December 29, 2004, I called Royal Camera and spoke to John at Extension 201 to inquire about the internet advertisement of a new Canon EOS 20D camera body for approximately $850. He said Royal had it in stock. I then inquired about a 24-70/2.8 EF-L USM Zoom Lens USA, which he priced for me at $1099.00. When I inquired about a Canon Macro lens, he suggested a Sigma 24-70/2.8 Macro for $1400.00, instead of two Canon lenses. I told him I would research it and call him back.
I searched online for the Sigma lens and found one meeting that description, except that the MSRP was about $500.00. I called him back and told him that this was all that I found online. John said the lens he was trying to sell me was a Pro and “so new that it was not online yet”. Nevertheless, having seen some bad reviews of the one I did locate online, I opted for the single Canon Zoom lens and camera body.
When I asked if the body included everything from the manufacturer, like battery, CD’s cables and Warranty, he said “No, it includes just the body. If you want the rest the price is $1099.00, to put it together”.
When I asked him about a memory card, John said I “should buy the 512MB for $299 or 1GB High Speed CF Type II High Speed Card for $399, both of which have a speed of 170x’s.” I was online at the time looking at CF cards, and I asked him the name of the manufacturer. He said, “Lexar.” Looking at Lexar’s CF High Speed, Type II’s, I responded that “the highest speed they are showing is 80x’s and it is priced at about $100.” His response was, “the card is so new, it is not even online yet”.
John reiterated that the card he was selling me was 170x’s speed and that I needed to get it if I was to enjoy my camera. I placed the order for the Lexar 170x’s CF High Speed Type II Card for $399.00.
Then I inquired about shipping and insurance. John said the charge was $160.00 for 3-day air, so it would all arrive today. The order was placed and my Visa charged over $3375.00. That night John’s statements to me about the new, expensive and better products Royal was selling folks, but so new that they were not yet on the internet, kept me from restful sleep.
The next morning, I called Lexar and the representative confirmed that they made no such card, that the highest speed CF Card they manufactured was 80x’s, as I had seen online, for about $100.00.
I then called your customer service and asked to speak to a supervisor. When I did, I explained the transaction and events, as detailed above. He looked up my order and said that the card was not a Lexar but was, in fact, a “PQI card manufactured especially for my camera which has a speed (as represented by John) of 170x’s.” I did not have ready access to the internet, so I accepted this possible explanation for the moment.
Later, I went to my office and looked up PQI. Seeing no such card, I called their headquarters in California and told them that you had sold me a PQI CF Type II Card with a speed of 170x’s. The representative laughed. PQI makes no such card, nor does any manufacturer.
I then called and asked for a supervisor and spoke to you. When I informed you about the card and the prior conversations with John and with the other manager, you stated that I was sold “the fastest card made, for which Royal paid $300.00.” You did not dispute that it was not 170x’s speed or that Royal represented that it was, but only repeated, over and over, that it was the fastest.
When I mentioned the Sigma Lens and the fact that I only found the $500 lens online, you stated that “Sigma also makes the 24-70/2.8 Macro in a Pro model, which cost $1399.”
I told you I might reject the whole order, but you said I could return just the card for a refund. You tried to give me a Speedlite, in lieu of any return of the card. When I inquired about the huge shipping costs and a refund for it, you initially said it was not refundable. When I said I was not going to pay shipping costs for a “scam”, you said you would refund the costs.
Today, I talked to a Sigma corporate representative and she confirmed, what is painfully obvious to me by now, i.e. that Royal is defrauding customers. The $1400 Sigma Pro lens Royal tried to sell me, which you said you had available, and which I am sure has sold to many unwary victims, does not exist. The only one of that description is the one I found online which costs about $500.00.
I have also emailed Royal anonymously about shipping and insurance costs for the camera, lens and accessories. Royal’s reply was $59.99. (See attached emails). The UPS tracking for my order shows it was sent by 5-day ground, and will not arrive until January 5th, contrary to representations.

Ran out for room for post...write if you want to know more.
"

"Ordered two electronic items online which arrived in a very timely manner with no hassles. My favorite part is how the units came shipped double-boxed in a very large box with lots of packing material (which I was not charge extra for). This would protect these items from most any incidents that may occur during shipping."

"I was amazed at the service that I received from Royal camera. The staff there is very knowledgable about their electronics. If I asked a question I was not transfered to someone else they always had the answers. The shippng came right on time to get the perfect holiday pictures with my canon powershot. I will be a regular customer for all my electronic purchases.""

"These guys are awesome. They are tops in every catagory of web shopping; easy to navigate website with plenty of product info, the pages are well thought out and not all cluttered like Amazon, up front pricing including shipping, great prices, fast shipping. The only thing I don't know is how they are with returns or customer service as I have yet to need either. I have ordered from them several times and the merchandise is always as I would buy from a brick and mortar store but cheaper and more convenient."

"Buyer beware! I ordered a Canon EOS 20d from these guys, didn't bite at any of the expensive 'upsell' that they try to do. Twice I was told that the order had shipped, then I call back again to find out why I hadn't received anything yet and they tell me that it hasn't been shipped, the item is backordered and they can't tell me when I might expect it. When I protested that I had twice been told by they're employees that it had already shipped last week, I was called a liar. Cancelled my order. Big waste of time and a lot of aggro! Avoid them."

"Royal Camera had a great price -too good to be true - on an AG-DVX100A. In fact, the next few days, the price got lower! I took a chance and ordered two, then read about them all over the Internet.

With the feeling that I would get the dreaded email to confirm my order, I reread all of the disclosures on their website and sure enough they do indeed just barely meet the legal setup of doing business legally, but very unethically!

In reading the description of the camcorder I ordered - they do not tell you what it comes with, and the info page does indeed state that the equipment comes with either an overseas warren tee, or some other and they do state that equipment with US warranties may cost more.

So - while I think they are shady as can be and a firm I would NEVER buy from, they do just squeak by the legal things that I can tell.

I did get the email and I did call them. I mentioned that I work in legal videography for court systems and they quickly and easily canceled my order with very little or low pressure sales techniques. I would assume that an non-legal field buyer might be subjected to higher pressure sales, but the guy who talked to me was low key fro a New York sales guy."

"Shady business practice. Placed an order for a Digital Rebel and agreed to a certain price but then read the fine print on a seperate page from my order and invoice that stated that the price stated was AFTER the $100 rebate from Canon. Huh?!? So I e-mailed to cancel my order and heard nothing back so I called. Rudest conversation I've ever experienced with any business transaction. Without even getting my name or order number the guy said my order was cancelled and then hung up on me- and I was FAR from rude! Bizarre. I'm taking my business to B&H or 17th St. where the prices are real and the people are honest. Great prices here but BEWARE!"

"Definitely not a reputable company to deal with. I ordered the Canon EOS-3 Kit - and the salesperson I had wanted to upgrade me to "better" 2.8 lenses and after asking them if they were Canon they assured me they were Canon lenses. So I paid extra for the supposed better lens upgrade. I also ordered a Canon 550 EX flash unit. The sales person tried to sell me a lithium 2cr5 battery (reg. retail $11) for 29.95, also tried to sell me an extended warranty - and after refusing them 3 times, they came down 1/2 in price and I accepted it. Shipping charges are very high - ground UPS for $120. Took 8 days to receive from NY to PA. Which they did not ship out my order until 6 days later, assuring that I would not receive it until the 8th day at which point I would need to pay a 5% restocking fee to return. I opened my boxes, not only were the lenses not Canon lenses, but the flash was not a Canon flash and when I contacted them, a very rude manager belittled me and was very rude about returning the products. 3 year warranty did not show up on the receipt and they said I never bought one, however the one line price included the charge. After about 30 min of arguing with him, he finally agreed to refund my money in full. I immediately filed a dispute with our card company, and we are still waiting for a refund 4 weeks later. All things aside, their prices seemed cheap, but considering the shipping charge and the hassle and the fact that you do not get what you order, their pricing is deceptive. I placed an order with B&H the same day that I returned the merchandise to Royal Camera, received the correct merchandise 2 days later and did not pay much more.
They really need to be put out of business.
Buyer BEWARE - do not buy from Royal Camera."

"Royal Camera – These guys are something else! Last week, I ordered a Nikon D70 with the Nikon lens from Royal Camera. They immediately tried to switch out a lens telling me other lenses are better and that they are getting these returned a lot because they are so cheap ????. The sales person was very rude and when I insisted I wanted the Nikon lens and told him I appreciated his suggestion he said, “Yeah, I can tell you appreciate it. So much you’re still getting that Nikon lens. Well anyway let’s go on with your order”. How weird for a sales person!!

He then told me the battery Nikon supplies is not a strong one and has no recharger. He then tried to sell me a 512 Mbyte CF for $149. Wow, COSTCO sells them for $49.

Anyway, I purchased the camera. A week later, something was just bugging me. First, I never received an order number, even though they promised they would email me and give me the order number. I called them today and got an order number for, as he said to me, “The Nikon D70 that is from overseas”. I said, “What?” He said the Nikon you bought was an overseas one, with no warranty and has the cheap battery and no recharger. That’s the one you ordered. I said, “No one told me that!” Anyway, by the time he wanted to sell me the US boxed Nikon D70 it was the same exact price as all the rest of the camera stores at $1199 with the rebate.

So these guys are truly rip-offs, and I would never attempt to buy ANYTHING from them. They are dishonest, unscrupulous, cheating, con-artists that have no concern about customers – just the bottom line. I have no idea how this company has staid in business for this long, but as long as they treat customers this way they won’t.

I think it's time we all write to the Better Business Bureau and get these guys out of businees before they rip-off more people. I know I will.

As an follow-up, I did receive my camera,with everything they said it would have in it and it did arrive within a week. HOWEVER, I also received the 512 MB CF, made by PQI - they charges me $179 for one. It is a CF that can be purchased for $42 - $49 on the web, if you, for some reason did not want to go with a reputable company such as Lexar or SanDisk for close to the same price. COSTCO on line seels the SanDisk Ultra II 60x dor less than $60. and we al know now that you can purcahse a 1 GB CF dor less than $99. $179 for a 512 MB?? THAT's how they make their money!!! I just dont' have the energy or time anymore to try to return it. I'll have to eat the difference! I'm glad I got the camera and everything it was supposed to have in it - I'm done with these guys!!

Buyer beware. Do NOT buy from Royal camera.
"

"This is a very disappointing store!!! Do not ever ever ever ever ever buy anything from this store. I was going to buy a DSC F828 from them because they have very good price; however, they called me for confirmming the order. They tried to trick me into getting more accesories, which I declined. The sale person was very rude, and asked me if I want to buy the battery for the camera!!! He stated that the camera does NOT come with the camera. I have bought at least 5 camera, they all came with a battery. He was rather rude when I asked him why do I need to buy battery for my camera. I cancelled my order and let everybody know not to make the same mistake!!"

"Please save yourself the time and trouble. Classic case of false advertising. Advertise Canon EOS 20D as "Lens Sold Seperately". They also sell the camera without any of the accessories that are supplied with the camera body from Canon. For an Extra $ 580, you can "buy" the camera complete.

Let the New York State Attorney General deal with these guys."

"Royal Camera uses a bait and switch technique to entice buyers into purchasing higher profit items. They don't have the "special" deals that they advertise and they don't deliver the products that you purchase.

They sold me a Sigma 500 DG Super Flash when the Canon 550 Flash that I wanted was not available. Then they delivered the much less expensive Sigma 500 DG Standard Flash and made me pay to return it to get the one I had ordered. They also increased the price.

Stay away from this online store. They are ripoff artists. "

"WOW! Just cancelled my credit card after reading this website. I had second thoughts becuase the price on the Canon 20D was too good to be true. I understand now why that is. "

"Ordered Nixon D70 w/Deluxe Package for $1019.00 Package Supposed to include: Nikon D70 Digital Camera Body, Nikon 28-80mm Auto Focus Lens, Nikon 70-300mm Auto Focus Lens, 128MB Memory Card, eluxe Case, Deluxe Lens Cleaning Kit, Tripod, High Speed Card Reader.
I added 5 year warranty for $149, and 512M High speed card for $149.00 and overnight shipping of 39.95
Instead of Nixon lenses, I received Tamron lenses, No deluxe case, cleaning kit, tripod or the high speed reader.
I am charged $1702.00 instead of 1356.95
I called customer service. It took longer than 3 hours. I asked to talked to the manager, guess who? the very same guy sold me the camera. He was extremely rude. He even had the nerve the call me a "cry baby". All extra charges were the shipping and handling fees!! also said, how they do the business.
I am filing complaints with my credit company. With a little luck, I will get my mony back.
I wish I have visited RESELLER RATINGS beforehand."