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Shop Smart:
Save money on the Internet without getting burned

There's no question that you can save big money by shopping on the internet, but it's also true that you need to shop carefully to avoid the con artists and bad actors out there. To that end, here are a few tips for Imaging Resource readers, to help you make the most of the shopping tools we provide:

Wow! That's cheap! How can they sell it that low?
Some prices you'll find advertised will just seem to be too good to be true. That's because they probably are too good to be true. Prices far below the levels being offered by most other merchants almost invariably involve some sort of "deal" that isn't what it appears. Read our "Tricks & Traps" section below to learn about some of the more common tricks, and how to recognize them.

When you see prices that are $100 (or more) lower than what reputable dealers are charging, you should probably just pass them by. There's almost certainly some catch. They could be gray market goods with no warranty, "refurbished" units, come with "mandatory accessory packs," or some similar scam.

Read the ratings! (And submit ratings yourself!)
Our comparison-shopping partners (PriceGrabber and Bizrate) let readers post ratings and feedback on the vendors. Pay attention to these postings! (And leave a rating of your own after you've purchased a product to help the next person!) If you see more than a (very) few negative ratings, give that vendor a pass. (Read our "Reading Between the Lines" section below for more info on what to watch out for.)

Fortunately, you'll find relatively few truly bad merchants on any of the price-comparison pages here, because we here at IR have been very aggressive about having our partners delist merchants who mistreated our readers. Over time, this has weeded out a majority of the really bad players. (In the interest of the public good though, PriceGrabber keeps the ratings for these companies online, so others can be warned. You can see a complete listing of PriceGrabber's merchant rating archives at: http://imaging-resource.pricegrabber.com/rating_summary.php?)

 

Reading Between the Lines

How to read the customer ratings on our comparison-shopping pages

It takes a little practice to properly interpret what you read in the customer ratings listings provided for online resellers. You need to look closely to see what the problem areas are, and then decide whether or not those problems are likely to affect your purchase. A "four star" rating on a merchant isn't by itself a guarantee that you won't have a problem with them,. Dozens of people may have had rosy experiences with a given reseller, but if you fall into one of that company's "problem" areas, you could be in for a rough ride. Among the "mid-tier" resellers (those with good but not excellent ratings), there are two key problem areas to watch out for:

1) Not really in stock. Among the most common problems we see reported in customer ratings are complaints about products that are not in stock, even though they're listed as such on the reseller's web page. (A phone call may not provide any more assurance, since some resellers aren't above lying about availability.) If the product is in stock, no problem, you'll probably get it promptly, and possibly with excellent customer service and follow-through. If it isn't in stock, however, you could be in for a lengthy wait.

If you're in a hurry to receive a product, you should pay careful attention to any signs of the "not really in stock" syndrome. Check the customer feedback from the reseller to see if there are any reports of people not receiving their merchandise in time. If the reseller misled other customers about delivery times, they may do the same to you. If you need a camera in time for a trip, birthday, or other event, a potential savings of $20 may not be worth the risk of not receiving it on time.

2) Merchandise return problems. This is another major complaint that crops up in the online ratings listings. Many otherwise excellent Internet resellers have bad track records when it comes to accepting returned merchandise. Here again, read the customer feedback postings carefully. If you see more than a few percent of the postings complaining of product-return problems, find another merchant. (Like most other consumer electronic products, digital cameras are complex, delicate gadgets. There's a small but finite possibility that you'll need to return yours, so you should make sure that you're dealing with an outfit where that won't be a problem.)

 

Tricks & Traps: Separating sheep from sharks . . .

At the outset, we said that deals that look too good to be true probably are. Often times, what happens is that you get a phone call from a merchant after you've placed the order online. While there are certainly legitimate reasons why a merchant may need to call you after you've placed your order online (credit card problem, unexpected (but legitimate) out-of-stock situation, etc), a phone call from the merchant is almost never a good thing. Here's a quick rundown of the ways unscrupulous vendors try to take advantage of the unwary.

1) Bait and Switch. This is the oldest trick in the book. The vendor lists an absurdly low price for a popular product, but when you try to buy it, you discover you can't. They call you up with some tale of woe: "The last one just left the store. . . It's a special demo unit that won't be available for another four weeks. . . It was just here, but Frank the stock boy dropped it on the floor. Etc, etc. BUT, we have this WhizBang 680 right over here that I can sell you for almost the same price. . ." You get the idea: The "bait" brought you in the door (figuratively speaking), at which point they "switch" you to what they actually intended to sell you all along. The moment you get a whiff of this, get off the phone!

What to ask: Don't ask, just walk away! - There are enough good dealers with good prices out there that you don't need to put up with this sort of tactic.

2) "Gray Market" Goods, no US Warranty. Thanks to the differences in exchange rates between countries, and differing manufacturer strategies in various markets, cameras often sell cheaper in one country than in another. Some dealers (especially in the United States) make a business from this, importing products through unofficial channels and reselling them at below-market prices to US buyers. If you buy these "Gray Market" products, you could be letting yourself in for a variety of problems. For example, manuals and even camera menu screens may appear in foreign languages, and software normally bundled with the US product will most likely be missing. The worst problem, though, is that Gray Market products don't come with a US warranty. If they break, you'll have to find a way to get them back to their country of origin (if you even know what that is) to be repaired. A bad deal all around.

What to ask: "Is there a US warranty? Is it a manufacturer warranty?" If there isn't, look elsewhere. (And don't accept a third-party warranty in lieu of one from the manufacturer, either. The feedback we've had on non-manufacturer warranties has been pretty negative.)

3) Mandatory "accessory" packages. This one takes the cake, for sheer brazen gall. When you try to order a camera at the advertised price, you discover that you have to buy a mandatory "accessory package" along with it, boosting the actual price by $100 or more. The scam? It's not an "accessory package" at all, it's all the stuff the manufacturer normally ships in the box with the camera! The shady reseller advertises an absurdly low price for the camera, but won't sell it to you (for obvious reasons) without all the other stuff the manufacturer ships with it.

What to ask: You won't need to ask. As soon as you hear anything about a "required accessory package," bail out and find a better merchant. (There are plenty of good ones out there.)

4) "Remanufactured" goods sold as new. Over a product's lifetime, manufacturers accept a lot of returned units from legitimate dealers' customers. The manufacturer checks them out, re-packs them with a fresh kit of accessories and a clean instruction manual, and sells them as "remanufactured" or "refurbished" products, usually with a shorter warranty period. They're generally resold at a substantial discount. (A great way to get a bargain on a formerly hot model, as long as you know what you're getting.) Some unscrupulous dealers latch onto these remanufactured units and resell them as new. A user duped into buying one of these products ends up with a (slightly) used product with a greatly reduced warranty coverage.

What to ask: "How long a warranty is included with this unit?" If you're quoted anything shorter than the normal warranty period (usually a year), find another dealer.

5) Open-box goods sold as new. Unfortunately, there's no way to guard against this one in advance, other than by carefully reading the reseller's customer ratings to see if they've pulled it on someone else in the past. When an unauthorized dealer is finally forced to take a product back, they generally can't return it to the distributor or manufacturer. They're stuck with it. Guess who ultimately gets stuck? Another unsuspecting customer, which may be you! When you first open the box, make sure everything is packed inside neatly (as it was when it left the factory), and that all the manuals, cables, software, and warranty cards are present and intact. If they aren't, get on the phone immediately with the vendor. If you don't get satisfaction, get on the phone with your credit card company. (You did pay with a credit card, didn't you?)

What to ask: Not much to ask ("Are you honest?") Just check the vendor's customer ratings carefully up front!

Not quite scams, but watch out for:

1) Needless accessories. This is a standard technique used by many resellers to jack up the total amount and profit margin on a sale. Accessories like lens filters, cleaning cloths, overpriced memory cards, or batteries can make the dealer a lot of money. A standard technique is to list the cameras for ultra-low prices, then pressure the customers into buying a lot of expensive, low-quality accessories they don't really need.

What to watch for: If you get a high-pressure sales job to buy a slew of lens filters, camera cases, or expensive memory cards, hang up. (A polite query asking if you'd like batteries and a charger with your camera is fine, but watch the price. Take our advice and shop prices for memory and batteries ahead of time, so you'll know the difference between good prices and bad ones.)

2) Absurd "shipping costs." This is another very common tactic. The reseller lists a very low price for a product -- it has a US warranty, it's actually new goods, and everything looks legitimate. The scam doesn't show up until you're checking out, and you discover that there's a $40 shipping charge for ground delivery. What?! This trick is surprisingly effective, because some people don't notice the charge until it's too late; others may not know what a fair rate is for shipping electronics; and still others may be so tired of the ordering process that they are unwilling to search out another vendor and start all over again. (Fortunately, this tactic has become less workable, now that PriceGrabber can list estimated shipping charges for each item, based on your zip code.)

What to watch for: There's usually no way to know what the shipping cost will be until you're well into the ordering process. The PriceGrabber price-comparison pages now optionally display shipping costs, which helps greatly. The shipping charges shown on the comparison-shopping pages may not match the final figures exactly, but the should be within 10-15% of the final value. If you see something much higher when you get to the vendor's checkout page, go back and file a price-error report on the shopping page, and then go find another merchant.


 

Good deals are actually easy to find!