Scam Artists - Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!!!
Written: Aug 07 '04
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| Full Review |
It appears that the same merchant operates under several names. A google search came up with a letter on complaints.com that showed the merchant to be the same as US1Digital.com US1Camera.com and WorldTradeDigital.com. A review on mysimon.com also shows another customer who had their phone call answered by US1Camera when they were looking PCandPlasma.
Looked at each of the websites: world trade doesn't appear to exist anymore. US1Digital, US1Camera and PCandPlasma each appear to be different merchants. Online price searches even show up the same item with slightly different prices but they all have one thing in common... low ball prices.. so my search for a 50" Sony Plasma came up with all three merchants (PCandPlasma, US1Digital, US1Camera) at the top of the list with the price different being about $300. Lowest price was PCandplasma.com at $6755 for the KDE-50XBR950
Here's why I believe they are all the same SCAM artists with different online store fronts:
Scroll down to the bottom of each website and you will find that the same small font rip off terms, legal disclaimer, return policy are all worded the same and after having read other epinions reviews on these merchants, they have now changed their tactics to be more of a rip off and yet try to fall within the letter of the law and what are "acceptable charges" by the credit card companies by tell you insurance is "optional" instead of mandatory.
They get you on the newly added paragraphs that say "special insurance and handling up to 9.9%" under privacy (although what this has to do with privacy is beyond me) and also "10% cancellation fee" under return policy (this I would understand if they had to special order the item).
After shopping for the lowest overall price (including taxes and shipping), PCandPlasma appeared to offer the best deal. Since I had a specific model I was shopping for, the layout of the search was not a major consideration for me. They had minimal information on the TV model but I have already done my research at the Sony website.
Placed the order online thru their website. Checkout was easy. I got an email confirmation in 5 minutes, checked the website for status and was suprised to see "order in process, call to expedite". This is in contrast to previous epinion reviews that state they received emails asking them to call. I did not have that experience since I received an email confirming my order and to expect delivery in 10-14 business days. The simplicity of the email confirmation led me to question the order which is why I checked the website. I felt uneasy and wanted to check that they wouldn't ship me the wrong TV. Now I think that they probably would have left me alone for 2 weeks or called and hassled me. I think that if I did not give them the security code on the CC, they may not have been able so easily get an approval code for my credit card.
Called their toll free number, pressed "3" for online order confirmations, waited on hold for 20 minutes, salesman answered the phone as US1Digital (first clue). I was a little confused and asked if this was PCandplasma and he replied yes it was. He pulled up my order, confirmed the item and address details and asked for the x digit security number on the back of my CC(which I foolishly gave him). Then told me he had the approval code for my tv and started to talk about warranty options which I declined several times. He was very pushy but I was adamant about keeping the total cost down. I was already being charged $199 for UPS ground shipping as I was not in a rush. I assumed shipping included insurance as checking on the UPS website for a quote for 110 pds (dimenions from Sony website allowing for packaging) and insured to $7000 delivered to my home address was $101.50 I assumed the extra $$$ was built-in for their handling which is okay by me since the total cost was still cheaper than the next website (alas... also the same outfit). Then the salesguy appeared to give up on pushing warranty and started reading back the total amount of the order adding on an extra $600 on top of the $199 UPS shipping. When I protested, he explained that UPS stopped insuring plasmas recently and that they had switched to a trucking company at their discretion. Then he said that it was "clearly stated" on their website allowing them to charge up to 9.9% for insurance. Previous reviews have been told that insurance was mandatory. Here is where their ruse is different... I was told that it was optional. They will still ship but without insurance since I was "declining". He seemed to be an expert at putting words in your mouth. I told him that at $199 was including insurance but that if we differed on the definition of shipping terms, we should void the order. His tone changed and he then started saying that I was playing games and wasting his time. He "is now processing the order without the insurance change and if I wanted to cancel he would be charging me a $700 cancellation fee" pointing out that it was "clearly stated" on the website and then proceeded to tell me that since I had placed the order online, I must have agreed to all the terms on the website. I know it looks like alot of writing but honestly he was able to say all of the above in one sentence. I was rather shocked by now but did say that since he had pointed out I could cancel my order, he should void the order instead without a cancellation fee and sounded like he was reading more abusive things from a preset script. I stated again that since he had changed the shipping conditions, I could not agree to the order and expected no charges on my CC and hung up at this point since it appeared he wasn't going to give up his verbal tirade.
I have been anxiously checking my credit card but so far no charges have appeared. Other reviewers have had worse experiences and have actually been charged the 10% cancellation fee or spent more time calling in a checking on items etc... My overall experience from coming across their website, checking the price, glancing at reviews (for PCandPlasma.com) and calling, speaking to the person and finally hanging up (from beginning to end) was no more than 1 hr. Actual conversation time lasted 5 minutes at most and went from pleasant sounding guy to nasty and pushy in a heartbeat. In my opinion the cheaper price was not worth the anxiety it is now putting me thru. I would not touch these SCAM ARTISTS with a 100 ft pole but it appears they keep changing their name and operation so it's hard to pinpoint. Just be on the lookout for the same crooks with newer websites. Their modus operandi appears to be the same. So far, I've lost a little time but lots of sleep over this whole experience. I usually never generalize anything and like to believe that there are many honest merchants doing business out there but that 5 minute conversation really shook me up and just reinforces a widely held opinion about the crooks running all those camera outfits in New York. If even one person learns from my one bad online shopping experience, then sharing this will have been worth it.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Location: Fremont, CA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
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