"Usual and expected as per reviews made earlier at this site. I make an order, few days later receive and e-mail to call and confirm, so I call. Let me put it this way, I call and get put on hold for a while, so I called a handful of times, just to end up on hold. I get passed from person to person, who claim to be operators. Then I finally end up with the final guy who introduces as supervisor, stating that my order was cancelled due to item sold out.
I check out their site, all is same there, item is available, same price, etc.
I am glad it was cancelled, because I would have been asking to cancel it anyway.
Bottom line, avoid these guys, and all those hasidic jewish places (close early on Friday, closed Saturday) who are very rude on the phone, and sell items they don't have.
I am watching my card, just to be safe, I always do.
Enjoy, and avoid this seller (or non-seller) and any other place like it.
UPDATE: Reseller Ratings asked me to do an update, so here we are.
Sonic Cameras is a completely fake store. You call them, they never identify their business of name of the person, they start out with “How can I help you?” If you get that, then you know it is time to hang up and walk away, go to a reputable dealer, pay a little more and have a peace of mind. Sonic Cameras appeared few months ago, and they will go away shortly, just watch. Here is a nice link that will give a better idea about those clowns who take advantage of uninformed people, check it out donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores/
Remember, closed early on Friday and no business on Saturday, it’s a dead giveaway – avoid them.
"
"Got an e-mail from them this morning asking to call them. I did to confirm the order... Then the guy was telling me (Danny) that the camera doesn't come with a battery and that he'll throw one in for 199. I thought he meant 1.99... 200$ for a battery? WTF?
I said no thanks I'll just take what I ordered. He keeps trying to upsell. Tells me he'll throw in a 90 minute charger, and 5 hours battery, full size tripod, hispeed 2GB CF Card, and hispeed reader along with a NEW AMAZING 28-70mm f/2.8-4 DG Compact High Speed Aspherical Zoom Autofocus Lense. I started looking online and found the lense for like 70-130$ They have it on their website for 600! Really felt uncomfortable with him trying to sell me something I couldn't find online. Kept telling me it was the PE which stood for Professional something.
Guy was full of it.
This store is full of it.
"
"The worst shopping experience in my life!
They sent me two SIGMA lenses instead of two NIKON lenses stated on their website. And I called to ask about it, and NICK, the sales person, told me that either I pay more money to get Nikon, or I return the 2 SIGMA lenses to get 1 NIKON lenses! He threatened to hang up the phone several times when I asked why they can not sell me things posted on the website.
Don't know wheter I can get a refund if I return the entire order. If I do get a refund, I would lose big chunk of money for shipping, 6% insurance they charged originally, and 10% restocking fee.
Stay away from them!"
"If they can't upsell you, or talk you into buying something else, you get the cane in the form of an "Order Canceled Due To Back Order" email. If you enter your credit card number for a purchase, you will notice that there is no place to enter your CVV information. Next day you will get an email to call them about your order, and they will tell you that you forgot to enter that info...oh and by the way we offer these items which you must have and are priced rather high. I would avoid these people as much as possible, I had to cancel the credit card number I gave them. Hopefully this BAIT-AND-SWITCH operation will be shutdown soon."
"I have been delighted with my Nikon D-80 purchased from Sonic Camera. There was a problem with wrong address for shipping. A gentleman by the name Robert fixed it on a Sunday morning, almost 2 weeks ago. Wonderful camera! Great price. Thank you, Robert, for correcting the order! I am pleased. W. Paul Miller."
"IGNORE THE FAKE 'VERY SATISFIED' REVIEWS FROM THIS COMPANY. This company uses the same bait and switch, grey-market tactics as the other fly by night websites. Tomorrow Sonic Cameras will close and reopen under a new name.
THE DEAD GIVEAWAY FOR THESE SCAM SITES IS THEY REQUIRE YOU TO 'CALL AND CONFIRM YOUR ORDER'. This is their opportunity to pressure sell you overpriced accessories.
SCAM!"
"Bait and switch for me too! When they called me to confirm the package that I ordered they tried to sell me a rechargeable battery, diferent lenses and something else that I can't remember. I told them I only wantedt what I ordered. Today I received an email stating my order was cancelled because it is out of stock, no mention of this when I spokje to them on Friday!"
"It's a big time scam... Stay away, and don't let the 'very satisfied' reviews fool you. They're written by those crooks. They're not even interested in pretending they're legitimate, just want to capture your credit card number..."
"My order shows in their system as "cancelled." This is very interesting because I wanted that camera at the agreed-upon price and did NOT agree to cancel the sale. The fact is, I don't think they ever had that camera at that price and they pulled a very straightforward (and illegal) bait and switch.
The salesperson called me today to tell me that I did NOT, in fact, want that camera. That what they were selling was not actually what was on the website - that the lens was plastic and horrible and he'd had many returns of this lens, but, for another $170, he could sell me that same lens in "glass."
He did, OF COURSE, ask first if I was a professional or amateur photographer so that he could impress me with lines like "the firmware isn't even included in this package and that'll cost you another $249!"
He did not give me time to say that I did not want to cancel - obviously, he could not GET the camera at that price. He wanted to sell me a point and shoot of the same brand - which I already have!!! And he wanted to sell it to me for $100 more than in my local box store.
I felt less violated when I found burglars in my home!
If you can help it, do NOT do business with this company!!!"
"Looking for best prices for a Nikon D300, this company was the best price. I was very nervous about making a huge purchase like this online...Came here to see what the rating was for Sonic Camera. A few negative's but overall a good rating. After considering, I called and talked to a sales rep, I then asked questions about them and the D300 kit offered (trying to be intellegent), none the less still nervous...The sales rep was very nice and informative. Now I had to think about actually purchasing the product, sat a day on it...Completely calm when I put order in and did not second guess...Few hours later they sent a confirmation order and after that an email sent saying my order has been shipped, I couldn't beleve it...Put order in on sat and received it tuesday...When I put order in I chose the 3-6 day shipping, by now just utter anticipation on recieving my new toy...I just wondered if I would of needed the faster shipping, but that's me after having read here how quick service was on normal delivery...I would recommend"
"WARNING soniccameras.com is doing ILLEGITIMATE BUSINESS in New York. Read Carefully because I talked to people working in the state of New York.
I had a similar experience with them trying to change the order and were also very rude so I decided to investigate a little further. Unfortunately I did not read this website first. I also canceled my credit card.
I talked to The NY Department of State and they had no information for the business name as a corporation or LLC operating in new york. I also talked to the Kings county clerks office business department, the county where the business is located and here is what they said.
The business address they list 3505 Quentin Rd with zip code 11234 does not match the business name. There is no business registered at all for that address. The name sonic cameras is not registered for that address. They have not filed any paperwork. They were doing extensive searches and COULD NOT FIND INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COMPANY.
They are NOT DOING LEGITIMATE BUSINESS IN New York and are illegally operating in the county.
I also decided to look at their domain name registration. Their domain name has only been registered 4 months ago. It was created on december 4th, 2007.
This is a business that is supposedly operating in New York, but they hide their registration through a company in Arizona. Any legitimate company will not hide their domain registration unless they are up to no good.
http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=soniccameras.com&tld=com
As others stated, this is definitely a BAIT AND SWITCH operation. DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY.
Feel free to call the New York Department of State and Kings County Clerks Office to verify what I said is the truth. They won't really be able to help you though.
"
"Total bait and switch operation. I placed an order for their Nikon D80 Gold Package, which included a Nikon D80 and a 18-200 VR lens among other things. They called me the day after to confirm the order, and tried to make me purchase a Sigma lens instead of the Nikon lens. They also told me that the camera didn't come with a rechargeable battery or a battery charger, and they recommended that I also purchase a high speed memory card.
I told them that I wasn't interested in any of their other offerings, and that I wanted what was in the package that I had already ordered, and nothing else. The guy I talked to said: "Fine, enjoy your package".
Today, I received an email from Sonic Cameras, stating that what I had ordered was no longer in stock, and that it would take 6-8 weeks until it would be in stock again. Therefore they had cancelled my order. The guy I talked to yesterday didn't say a single thing about the product being out of stock. This was simply a way for them to get out of a sale they didn't want.
I checked my credit cards, and at least they have not charged anything to them."
"Stay Away! This place is a bait and switch operation. You will be lured in with their exceptional prices, but the following day you will be required to call them only for the rep to tell you that your item is either out of stock or not what you thought that you had ordered. This place is about as professional as my son's lemonade stand. The only difference is my son is honest. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS RETAILER! I don't want to go into details about what I bought because they have my credit card information and I'm already sick that I got suckered in. After a mini-argument with the rep he said that he would cancel the order. I mentioned the horrible review online and he said that it was all competition. This is total BS. I'm a regular old customer that got screwed."
"Second Invoice # 2185 on 2/25/08 when corrected order was sent.
After ordering a $399 CANON zoom lens, NICHOLAS Ext 226 called me and talked me into buying a SIGMA 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 APO DG MACRO lens (of better quality?) advertised on their website for $599 which would include a filter kit and lens pouch. “Try it and return it if your not satisfied,” he said. “What have you got to lose?”
Simple web searches determined that this SIGMA lens has two identical offerings, one quality and one budget, the quality APO version going for about $200-$225 and the budget lens for about $125. Guess which I received! After bringing it to NICHOLAS’ attention, he sent me the corrected APO lens.
The quality professional “$599” lens (actually $225) I determined was not a bad lens but obviously not of CANON quality and requested my originally ordered CANON 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM lens. Suddenly the friendliness ended and the CANON needed a mount for $150 and there would be 2 restocking fees of about $120 if I wanted an exchange or a refund. Then NICHOLAS solved the problem in his gutless, cowardly way by hanging up the phone.
This transaction for the CANON which I initiated on line for $399 (nothing stated about needing a mount) would cost me an additional $270 because I fell for his ploy of “trying the SIGMA since I would have nothing to lose?” Don’t make the same mistakes I made. These are duplicitous people! I took a hit but I learned. The NICHOLAS' out there will never dupe me again. Buyer beware of Sonic Cameras!"
"Sonic Cameras is a bait and switch fraudulent outfit. They even rigged "Pricing Depot" to give them a five star rating with over 5,000 positive reviews, which is the reason why I placed an order with them. I placed an order for a normally priced $1,400 item for only $900. Such a deal, right? WRONG!!!
When I called to confirm my order, they tried to switch me to a $1,300 item that would normally sell for $1,000 elsewhere. I refused to change my order. Of course they lied about the switched item being much better in every way over the item I wanted.
A few days later, they sent an email saying the the original item was out of stock.
Do not deal with these crooks."