GregHowley.com

PriceRitePhoto's Mafia Sales Tactics

December 1, 2005 -

Right now, this is the biggest URL in the blogosphere. I'm quoting the article below, (edited for size) but for updates, you can visit the site. To me, the biggest thing about this story is the power given to consumers by blogs and by The Internet.

"I will make sure you will never be able to place an order on the internet again." "I'm an attorney, I will sue you." "I will call the CEO of your company and play him the tape of this phone call." "I'm going to call your local police and have two officers come over and arrest you." "You'd better get this through your thick skull." "You have no idea who you are dealing with."

These are all direct threats that I received today from an individual who identified himself as Steve Phillips, the manager of PriceRitePhoto in Brooklyn, New York when I called to inquire about my order with them. My crime? Telling him that I planned to write an article about my unfortunate experience with his company regarding the camera order I had placed with him yesterday.

How are these people able to stay in business?

I suppose I should have been duly warned based on PC World's Camera Confidential expose written a few years back about unscrupulous camera operators operating out of New York, but I have never been so utterly offended by a retailer in my life. I guess in some ways this is my own fault, or as Steve Phillips reminded me, you're a "professional photographer you should know better than to buy things on the internet this way."

I have been keeping track of The new Canon EOS 5D for a while. As those of you who visit this site regularly know, photography is a passionate hobby of mine. I've told myself that I'd pick up a 5D as soon as the price dropped below $3,000. I've been regularly checking both Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber for a while waiting for one to drop. Well yesterday for the first time I saw that the 5D was for sale for $2,899 at PriceRitePhoto. I placed an order online and this is where my trouble began.

The first thing that happened was I received a call from an individual who identified himself as Joseph telling me that there was a "problem" with my order. He said he needed to "verify" the security code on my American Express. Although I had given that security code in the order I gave him this code again. He then tried to explain to me that I was going to need some accessories with this camera. For starters I was going to need a new memory card. When I told him that I already had a memory card he became somewhat insistent that mine was not good enough. After I wouldn't buy his memory card he said I'd need new batteries for the camera. Again I told him that I already had two batteries at home and would not be needing to purchase these from him. And of course he then tried to sell me the ever famous "extended warranty" that I politely declined. He then thanked me for my time, confirmed my order verbally, said that it would be shipping out in the next few days and hung up.

So today I checked on my order online again and saw that it had not been routed to shipping and called the company back again. Four times I was put on hold for a substantial amount of time and had to hang up and call the company again. Finally I was able to connect with an individual who said his name was Steve Phillips. Steve Phillips abruptly told me that the camera was out of stock. When I protested and told him that it was confirmed online yesterday and verbally by his sales rep he refused to budge. When I told him that even right now as we speak the camera was still showing online at that price on his website,(see below with today's date) he still insisted that he did not have the camera.

At this point I thanked him and informed him that I would be writing an article about my experience with his company. It was at this point that he went ballistic. He first told me that if I did this that he would not cancel my order but just never fill it. If I cancelled it he said he'd charge me a 15% restocking fee. When I told him that that would be unethical he went nuts. He accused me of trying to "extort" him and said that he was going to have two local police officers come over and arrest me. He then went on to say that as a "professional photographer" I should have known better than to try and buy a camera this way and that he was an attorney and would sue me if I wrote an article about my experience.

He told me that I had no idea who I was dealing with and that as he had my work contact info that he was going to call both my immediate supervisor and the CEO of my company and tell them that I was trying to extort him.

"I will take this very personally," he said. He claimed to have recorded our phone call and said that he would make sure that I would "never be able to order anything on the internet again."

Of course these threats only served to agitate me more. After about 20 minutes of this abuse I told him that I had to go and he refused to get off the line. He said that if I hung up that he would just charge me for the whole camera and never ship it. I hung up and he called me back. I left for my meeting and he called back asking to speak with my boss.

This is by far the most abusive situation I have ever encountered with any retailer on the internet.

One of the things that troubles me the most about this situation is that I found this retailer through Yahoo! shopping and they were perceived to have positive feedback. Is the feedback mechanism for Yahoo! Shopping broken? How could this horrible retailer have a four star rating with 858 ratings? I'm convinced that there is a possibility that many of the "reviews" for this company could be fake. I should though have sorted through the reviews to the worst to see that many others had fallen prey to similar fraud by this company.

How is this company still allowed to offer their products through Yahoo! Shopping?

PriceRitePhoto may also be doing business as C&A Marketing and TheCameraMall.com

I did post feedback to the feedback links provided by the customer describing the details of the transaction, including the forms I had been sent.

The day after posting the feedback describing my attempt to buy the video camera from PriceRitePhoto/CameraMall, I received a call from a "John Hancock", claiming to be the owner of the camera companies, and demanding that I remove the feedback I posted. He said that he would charge my credit card for the amount of the camera and and additional $250 for each posting. He also said that he was shipping a Malaysian version of the camera, without a lens, to me, and that he would make money on the deal, and I couldn't stop the shipment, or dispute the charge. My credit card company confirmed that a pending charge had been placed by PriceRite, but the charge was not yet posted, and once it was posted, I could dispute.

The next day, July 6, I received several calls from "John Hancock", demanding again that I remove the feedback I had posted, and when I agreed that I would remove anything that he felt was not accurate, but if he could not indicate any inaccuracy, then the feedback would remain. He screamed and swore at me over the phone, and said that he would post my credit card number on the internet if I didn't comply.

On July 8 a charge was posted to my credit card for $2139.99 and a second charge was posted for $100.00. I called my credit card company and initiated the dispute process. The security department of BankOne Credit strongly suggested that I cancel my credit card, and complete an internet fraud report.

Description of how you were defrauded:
My credit card has been charged $2238.99 for an cancelled order. I've been threatened with additional multiple charges against my credit card unless I change feedback posted to the Internet, and I've been threatened with having my credit card number posted to the Internet. I've had to cancel my credit card on the advice of my credit card provider."

There's another post by a Slashdot user with a similar story. It looks like PriceRitePhoto's business will be hurt badly if they remain in business at all.

Comments on PriceRitePhoto's Mafia Sales Tactics
 
Comment Thu, December 1 - 8:07 PM by Michelle
Ryan told me about this earlier - insane, which is good, cuz I wouldn't have read thru the whole thing myself.
 
Comment Fri, December 2 - 12:31 AM by pmd
C&A Marketing, d.b.a. PriceRitePhoto.com and TheCameraMall.com
1274 49th Street

Lets Go Digital
1643 McDonald Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11230

Better Business Page
http://www.bbbnewyork.org/businessreports/Default.aspx?id=1026

Pictures of Their Store Fronts
http://donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores/h0121.htm
http://donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores/h0026.htm
 
Comment Fri, December 2 - 12:36 AM by PMD
Missed 2 Store Fronts

Click (nice place)
Click