- STORE REVIEWS
- PRODUCT REVIEWS
2009-03-05
1/5
"SONICCAMERAS.COM
This internet retailer is a scam. They are engaging in the oldest deceptive sales practice known. Pre-internet days this practice was known as “Bait and Switch” where the seller pressures the buyer into buying a product that is different and more expensive than the buyer was interested in purchasing. These days the practice is called “Up-selling”.
In up-selling the seller (Soniccameras.com and similar businesses) use a deceptively low price in their ads to “hook” the buyer. Once the order is placed and agent from Soniccameras.com will call the buyer, supposedly to get the credit card security code. Once he has that number, the high pressure up-selling process begins. The caller tries to convince the purchaser that the product the purchaser is interested in is not a good quality product. He then tries to sell a different and more expensive product. If that does not work, he then purports to put together a “special deal” at some ridiculously low price.
Don’t try to say no or try to cancel the order because the salesperson will then use the ploy that the order cannot be cancelled as it has been entered in their system. He will tell you that he will have to charge you at least 3% of the purchase price or more to cancel the order.
The practice described above is exactly what recently happened to my wife and I in dealing with this company when I attempted to purchase a Canon EOS-1Ds, Mark III camera with an 18-200mm lens. Before it was over, the Soniccameras.com salesperson tried to sell us a Canon 5D MarkII with two Sigma lens, 4 G High Speed card, High speed card reader, 5 hour battery and external charger that was supposedly valued at $4,980.94 for $4,699.00. He claimed the Sigma lens was superior to the Canon lens. Despite my continuously telling the salesperson that I was not interested in this package and did not need these items. He persisted. When we tried to cancel our original internet order, the salesperson refused to do so, telling us that we would be charged about $300 to cancel the order. We had at least three heated conversations with representatives of this company trying to cancel the order both within an hour of purchase and over the next two days.
We conducted our own researched and found that the order could have been cancelled the night we told the representative to cancel it. In fact the package had not been shipped at the time the salesperson said it had been shipped. Even if the package had been shipped it could have been intercepted from UPS even after it had been delivered to UPS.
We ended up instituting the intercept process through UPS before it was delivered to our home, keeping us from having to accept the package and send it back to Soniccamera.com at our expense.
We then had to contact our credit company for assistance in making sure we received full credit for the refused purchase.
Finally, we filed a formal complaint with the New York State Attorney General’s Office. I would recommend anyone who has had contact with this company file a formal complaint with the New York Attorney General’s Office of Internet Business.
Maybe if there are sufficient complaints on file, this business can be forced to either go out of business or at the very least discontinue their deceptive business practices."
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