GL2 purchase (OT)

boomhower wrote on 12/23/2004, 8:45 PM

I'm going to buy a GL2 but I've become caught in a strange dealer vs dealer issue.

I was ready to buy yesterday when I received an email from www.onecall.com (I bought my wife a digital still camera from them about 1yr ago and landed on the mailing list) They have a deal where they are offering the standard $250 rebate but they are also offering a onecall rebate of $250 plus some additional $$ off under a promotion. After all is said and done, the final price of the GL2 is roughly 1700 (US).

I brought this to the attention of the dealer I had planned to purchase from and he told me there must be a scam and asked me to send him some more info so he could get with Canon etc. I took a screenshot of the checkout page showing everything and sent it to him. He got back with me today and said he can't understand how they are doing this and mentioned again it must be a scam. I called Canon and OneCall is still an authorized dealer. I told the Canon rep about the deal and he said it was a good deal on the surface but could offer no Canon reason that would allow them to offer another $250 off.

Long story short, I like the dealer I planned to buy from but $250 is $250 (put towards extra stuff). He is checking with his rep but as of tonight has still heard nothing.

Anyone smell fish here on either side? I've only had one deal with OneCall but they have good ratings (resellerratings.com etc)....

Comments

vitamin_D wrote on 12/23/2004, 9:46 PM

Purchased my GL1 through OneCall and have nothing but high praises for them, their service, and their friendly, non-invasive follow-up calls. Ah, make that two purchases -- I bought a TRV-950 for a friend through them as well...

- jim

MyST wrote on 12/24/2004, 4:55 AM

There wouldn't happen to be a finely printed "refurbished" in their ad anywhere?
Maybe they just need to get rid of some inventory?

Mario

boomhower wrote on 12/24/2004, 8:06 AM

I thought about the refurb deal but they say they are brand new from the factory.....It's sad there are so many shady folks out there that when an actual deal comes around you find yourself taking a step back.

The only down side to OneCall that I've found is they ask you to pay the return shipping if the item is to be returned (even for DOA items)

Chanimal wrote on 12/24/2004, 12:46 PM

I ordered a GL2 from a "New York" online reseller at a VERY good price (at www.Bilibi.com). I had ordered a new GL2 when it first came out from the same place, but I purchased all the add ons (it was for GE so I wasn't as cost conscience).

I ordered another one for myself later, but I did not order the lens filters or any of their extra junk. The rep was "honest" with me and said, "They will never ship it." I asked if it was in stock and he said yes, but unless I order the other items (which they make massive margin on to compensate), it would never show up.

I ignored him, went online and ordered it standalone. It said it was in stock.

I got an e-mail about an hour later saying it was out of stock and wouldn't arrive for 2-4 weeks. This was their approach.

It was a scam - at least the phone rep let me in on their ploy.

I cancelled my order, reported them to the NY better business burea, to the NY district attorney's office, gave them a terrible rating on one of the on-line rating services (which I hadn't found previously, but was shocked to see that about 1/2 of the people reported the same exact thing I ran into.), and reported them to Canon (who never replied to me).

Bilibi was also an "authorized" Canon dealer. As such, I would be very cautious. I reordered elseware (can't remember - not as memoriable when they didn't try to scam me and they had great ratings online), paid about $200 more (but less than with all the junk) and got it in 2 days.

If it looks too good--it may just be. I hope this helps.

BillyBoy wrote on 12/24/2004, 2:30 PM

I went though similar things when I just purchased my Plasma big screen TV. I did the usual retail store shuffle and not really surprising, most retailers were close to the suggested retail selling price. Not wanting to pay full price plus a hefty sales tax hit on top of it, I researched the offers on the web. There was a fairly wide price swing, still almost everyone was at least a $1,000 cheaper then the retail price. even factoring in the hefty freight costs.

But...

Two things you should be aware of. While not black market, there is something called gray market. It applies to many electronic devices, TV's, cameras, etc.. Some web sites will sell you the genuine product and it comes in its original packaging, has all the manuals etc, but the dealer gets it in back channels.

The surprise comes when youtry to register and the manufacturor says sorry Charlie you didn't buy from one of our authorized dealers so you're out of luck as far as any warranty. That's why some prices are way below others.

So a word to the wise, if you see a extra good price, FIRST ask if they are a authorized dealer, then get their ID number or some such information that you can trace it back and confirm with the manufacturor they are indeed a authrozied dealer BEFORE you buy.

I generally avoid Ebay and similar "dealers" since this is home of the gray market. I rather may a little more a go with a big name dealer that's been in business several years and not buy from someone you never heard of.

Something else I tried today for last minute Christmas gift. Those of you that buy from BestBuy know you get to be a "preferred" customer and get 10% off coupons in the mail every so often for usually a 3 day period. The last one I got experied a couple weeks ago. So I just asked for the magager, told him I'll buy now but only if I still got the 10% off, which he agreed to with just a little bickering.