This can't be summarized in 15 words. It was too terrible...
Written: Jan 27 '06 (Updated Jan 28 '06)
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BEWARE! I should have read these reviews before buying from Abe's b/c my experience is playing out EXACTLY as others stated theirs' did. And all those with bad experiences, PLEASE REPORT TO THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU. It can be done online (www.bbb.com) so that Abe’s can’t keep taking advantage of people!
Sorry this is long but I wanted to tell you the entire story with all the details so you don’t get taken like so many of us have… As it is, I could have gone on and on...
My story: I called to place an order for a digital camera on 1/18/06. Rude, rude rude salespeople, high pressure to buy a $100 'high speed' memory card, shipping stated at $14.90 and a big rush for me to just purchase it. He even said “So do you want to buy it or not?” I held off and then called the following day to place the order. When I declined the memory card, I was very rudely asked if I could explain why I didn't need it and did I even know the difference in cards. "Geo" was suddenly able to offer the ‘top of the line’ card for only $79 so I said fine and purchased it along with the camera which was IN STOCK (or so I was told and so the website showed). On this day, however, shipping jumped to $19.95! When I questioned him about it being cheaper the previous day, he (again, very rudely) said, "Well, you want insurance don't you??"
After one week of no delivery (Geo stated 3-5 days), I called. After the ridiculous wait time to speak with someone and being transferred from Susan to Lisa, Lisa told me my order wasn't verified (sound familiar from other posts?) and that "Norma" had been calling and leaving messages for me to call back. No one EVER called and left a message. So Lisa 'verified' me by hanging up and calling me back and said, in her rehearsed manner, that she would overnight the camera to me at no additonal charge to compensate for my inconvenience.
The following day (1/27/06): Being nervous b/c of other reviews, I called and requested a tracking number. Once again, Susan “Suzy” spoke to me and said, "Oh, we have been needing to verify your order and that's why you haven't gotten it yet." Oops Susan, you already used that excuse on me. I told her we'd been through that and she placed me on hold for close to 5 minutes before returning to tell me that oh yes, I HAD been verified but that UPS hadn't delivered the camera to THEM until after hours so the camera didn't ship. Wasn’t it supposedly in stock? She assured me that "even though it isn't typical", she would overnight it to me tonight for a Saturday delivery. I know good and well that camera won't arrive tomorrow and that of course I can't reach Abe's if it doesn't b/c they close at 3pm Fridays and don't reopen until Monday.
My husband then tried to cancel the order and demand the refund be put through immediately (we know the difficulties others had receiving theirs' even though Abe's can run the charge to purchase through immediately). Suzy claimed it couldn’t be cancelled b/c it was in the warehouse to be shipped yet she still could not provide a tracking number. She said it would be emailed to me after 7pm (even though they are closed then). After telling her what a poor business they run and how badly others report being treated, my husband finally told her fine but that if the camera wasn’t here tomorrow, he was having the credit card company stop payment. She then got angry telling him not to do that (gee, b/c then they wouldn’t get paid!) and that the camera would arrive tomorrow. We’ll see.
I also found this as part of another review and also had my suspicions: *As an interesting side note. When I checked these online reviews again, I noticed that a majority of the positive ones were INCREDIBLY glowing with first lines like, “Abe's is an authorized and reputable dealer that delivers.” And “Great prices - great service!” and, “Everything went fine (This is not a scam company - read on)”. Becoming a little suspicious of how defensive these sounded, I clicked on the top of the page to sort by rating. Out of the top 25 ratings received, only TWO people have written more then this one review. I am not saying that all these reviews were written under sneaky circumstances…but I DO find it ironic that the only people who LOVE Abe’s of Maine have not decided to write another review on anything else on epinions.com…something to think about…* I also noticed that if you sort by ratings with highest first, the last high rating was from 2004!!
So let’s review:
HORRIBLE phone service with rude, pushy, ill-tempered and high pressure salespeople.
Runaround regarding products being in stock, on a truck, back ordered.
Blatant lies about so many issues I can’t even list them all.
Questionable merchandise at best
Inflated shipping charges, often not made known to the buyer
Poor return policy (they don’t want their junk sent back to them and YOU have to pay)- read the small print. There’s a lot of it…
Lousy, busy, website
They take your payment right away but good luck obtaining a refund
I would like to recommend to you Beach Camera for any photo needs (I have no affiliation with them, just good experiences). Their prices are highly competitive, shipping is fast, and they are highly rated among users. We (as well as friends) have purchased there before and they were fabulous. Should have gone there this time but Abe's seemed a better deal. I guess you get what you pay for (and sometimes not even that!). It makes me sick to think people like this are allowed to continue to run a business and can go to sleep at night knowing they are con artists to good, honest people.
Please fight back!
UPDATE 1/28/06: Camera DID arrive today as promised and appears to be fine. The memory card is sealed and is a recognized name, all camera parts/accessories are in the box as well as all paperwork. The box and the items inside were NOT sealed in any way but that could very well be Canon's packaging as everything appears intact- no marks, scratches, etc. We might keep the camera to avoid Abe's hassle of a return policy (and for fear of not getting our refund) but I still highly advise people to shop elsewhere. This has been a complete nightmare of a buying experience.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? digital camera
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Epinions.com ID:
ldjack
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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