Royal Camera Sony Handicam BAIT AND SWITCH

Royal Camera Sony Handicam BAIT AND SWITCH

Royal Camera (royalcamera.com). I surfed the web and found the best price on a Sony Handicam was at Royal Camera. I ordered it and within 24 hours or so, I received a telephone call asking to confirm my order. I called them back and got voicemail. They called me back and left a message (at home, while I was at work). I called them back and finally managed to speak to someone. It is a tired story by now (after having read the string of complaints against these guys), but it was a bait and switch. They basically engaged in high pressure sales to sell me an extra battery, a pack of DV tapes, a lens cleaning kit, and some other items. As I was talking to him, I searched on line to see what the going prices were for things he was offering, and they were all ballpark, so I went ahead and ordered it. It arrived, and the “extra” battery was not the larger one promised. Now here’s where it gets interesting . .

I called and told them they sent the wrong battery, but before I could really get anywhere with them, they cut me off and said “Just return the whole thing.” I protested and said I just wanted the larger battery, but they would have none of it. I knew I had been had right there, so I asked, politely, “Why are you doing this? Why are you taking advantage of me like this?” I eventually called him a d**khead and he finally snapped. He said . . . and I swear to this . . . “Fu** you. F**k you. Where do you live? Atlanta? I’ll come down there and f**king cut your throat. I’ll f**king kill you. I’ll f**k your grandmother in her a**.” ABSOLUTELY NO KIDDING WHATSOEVER. Honestly, he said he would cut my throat and do my grandma in her rear end. Oddly enough, I just started laughing because it was so absurd. And it wasn’t nervous laughter; it was genuine laughter and it still gets me chuckling even today. VERY IMPORTANT: I called my credit card company because I wanted to return everything except the camera. The problem is that Royal Camera has an all-or-nothing return policy. If you don’t like any part of the purchase, you have to return everything. The credit card companies can get around this, so that’s why these guys send you an invoice that says something to the effect of “Sony Handicam Kit” with a SINGLE price. The way I see it, they are taking advantage of some form of loophole: if the individual piece you are complaining about to the credit card company (in my case, all the extra crap) does not have its own price, the credit card company cannot withhold payment for that one item. Hence, the all-or-nothing return policy. Royal Camera just takes everything back and waits for another sucker to come along (after charging an exorbitant shipping and handling fee and return fee (neither of which is refundable)). A WAY AROUND IT? For anyone else caught in this twilight zone like situation, I offer this possibility: I’m a lawyer, so I’m always looking for a way around things. In this case, I asked very detailed questions of the credit card guy and we more or less came to the conclusion that I would have to return everything because the invoice was for a “kit” at a single price (i.e., no line item prices). But then I remembered that I printed the confirmation page of the order . . . WHICH HAD THE PRICE OF THE CAMERA ONLY on it. I asked if that would be good enough and the guy said it probably would be, because the credit card company could assume that the price for the camera was what it was on the confirmation page, the price for the whole “kit” was on the invoice, so . . . everything that was shipped to me made up for the difference in the prices. I thought I had them . . . In the end, however, I got tired of dealing with it, and overall, I made out like a bandit on the deal. Even though I spent more than I wanted to, I still got all that I got for a better price than I would have if I had bought somewhere else. Everything was in top-notch condition, so I sacrificed my principles and let it go. But if you really got hammered, you might want to try my scheme up there with the confirmation page price and the invoice price. It may work, although I’m not sure. DO NOT BUY FROM ROYAL CAMERA. I cannot say it enough . . . DO NOT BUY FROM ROYAL CAMERA. Finally, a note about Yahoo Shopping. I noted that Royal Camera was referenced under the Yahoo Shopping pages, so I did trust that it would be legitimate, if only because I never suspected Yahoo would allow such a freaking scam to coexist with its trademark. I can only assume that Yahoo does not care so much about its branding if it allows such scum to be associated with their mark and to tarnish it so horribly in the eyes of a well-paid consumer. It just goes to show you that you never know what you’re getting into on the net.

Tim B

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