The Digital Expo - J&J Digital - The Camera Whiz ripoff crooked scam artist selling refurb as new using bait and switch Brooklyn New York

I placed an order online and received an email stating I needed to call them to confirm the order. When I called (during their VERY limited business hours) the next day, I found out why you need to call. UPSELL. He tried to sell me batteries, memory card, case etc. I told him I had everything I needed and he started to question whether what I had would work with my new camera. I explained I was buying the same camera that I already owned but that I had broken my existing camera. He next told me I ordered a REFURB (though that hadn't been stated anywhere on the website) and would I be interested in new. I thought the original low price ($165) was too good to be true but figured a refurb would be ok so I said that would be fine. Then he told me that they were out of stock on the refurb but had a new one in stock. The new one was $219. I told him to cancel the order knowing that Amazon had it for only $209. He backed off on the price so that it beat Amazon and offered it to me for $199. I figured it was still a decent price so ok, sale was back on. Then all of a sudden the shipping and insurance costs were $20 (delivered price of $219). On the original order shipping was only $8.50. I told him to cancel the order and all of a sudden he was able to ship it for the original shipping cost. Ok. Still a SLIGHTLY better price than Amazon. Maybe saving $5 at this point.

Now the package arrived. It is most definitely NOT the original packaging. It came in a plain white cardboard box with a black and white photocopied picture of the camera pasted to the front of the box. Everything was included except the registration and warranty cards. The camera does not have any noticeable wear and it looks like all the pieces are made by the camera manufacturer. It does function and so far I've had no problems with it. Some of the plastic bags holding the cords etc. are all scratched. All of this leads me to believe it's a REFURB even though they were "out of stock" of the refurb and charged me $35 extra for the "new" camera.

So, it appears as if I got a refurb camera for about $5 less than buying the new one from a reputable retailer.

As added info, the purchase was from Digital Expo, the Invoice was from The Camera Whiz INC located at 83 ave o, Brooklyn, NY 11204 800-957-6628. The sales receipt was from The Camera Wiz Inc. The box was shipped from Patrick Wilson/J & J Digital (Same address as listed for Camera Whiz above).

Randy
Morrisville, North Carolina
U.S.A.