BEWARE: BROADWAY PHOTO

[microflyer]

Dear friends,

The internet electronics market is populated by a few notoriously troublesome retailers. ]None seems to have a worse reputation than BROADWAY PHOTO[/b]. Rather than share my own experience, I believe it is more informative to provide you with a compendium of other negative reports on the net (they were remarkably easy to find). BROADWAY PHOTO's negative feedback is so extensive, it's almost hard to believe.[/b] Make your purchase decisions accordingly. I also urge you to share your experiences online. That way the power of the internet can be turned against those who use the web to their own deceitful advantage.


BROADWAY PHOTO has 1166 consumer ratings on Resellers.com and receives a near record low rating of 0.8 out of 10 !!!:

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/BROADWAY PHOTO

PC World presented a great investigative report called "Camera Confidential: Web buyer beware: Our undercover shopping expedition revealed doubtful deals, padded prices, and pushy salespeople. Here's how to avoid getting burned.: BROADWAY PHOTO is featured prominently::

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,107855-page,1/article.html

The Consumerist investigated BROADWAY PHOTO's locations and presents some amusing (disturbing?) photos and details the alias used by the principals:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/BROADWAY PHOTO-photo/BROADWAY PHOTO-photos-sheistylooking-business-addresses-230560.php


The Better Business Bureau of New York received 692 complaints about BROADWAY PHOTO in a 36 month period:http://www.bbbnewyork.org/reports/businessreports.aspx?id=68047

The New York Times reported on the tactics that BROADWAY PHOTO uses to achieve top billing on online search lists:


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01EEDC103BF933A25751C0A9659C8B 63


This article outlines BROADWAY PHOTOS's questionable business practices and lists some of the aliases they do business under:

http://www.newstarget.com/020780.html



BROADWAY PHOTO manages a 1.5 out of 5 on Epinions out of 305 reviews:

http://www99.epinions.com/webs-Web_Services-All-Merchants-BROADWAY PHOTO_Photo


There are many forums and blogs where consumers and photographers share their overwhelmingly negative experiences with BROADWAY PHOTO:

http://photo.net/neighbor/view-one-about?about=BROADWAY PHOTO+Photo%2C+Brooklyn+NY&id=2


http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=4873



http://photography-on-the.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-25451.html

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=22670994


I hope this helps. I also urge you to share your own experiences with BROADWAY PHOTO online. That way the power of the internet can be turned against those who use the web to their own deceitful advantage.
Have a nice day.

[Corpsy]

A lot of people come to this site asking whether this or that online retailer is reputable and the most common response is to look them up on resellerratings.com. Broadway Photo (aka: A&M Photo World, Regal Camera, Prestige Camera, Preferred Photo, more...) is only one of a lot of retailers worth avoiding. Because there are so many out there, and because they change names on a regular basis, keeping track of them all through the forums is not a practical feat so it's best to just do your research at resellerratings, epinions, google, and by using some common sense.

[meanstreak]

Corpsy wrote:

A lot of people come to this site asking whether this or that online retailer is reputable and the most common response is to look them up on resellerratings.com. Broadway Photo (aka: A&M Photo World, Regal Camera, Prestige Camera, Preferred Photo, more...) is only one of a lot of retailers worth avoiding. Because there are so many out there, and because they change names on a regular basis, keeping track of them all through the forums is not a practical feat so it's best to just do your research at resellerratings, epinions, google, and by using some common sense.

Actually.... it's quite simple. When a camera is advertised for substantially less it's generallya phony deal with a few exceptions. There are some shops in New York and New Jersey that you can buy a camera that is going for let's say 5-6 hundreddollarsin places like the big box stores and if you shop around, you might might be able to save 50-100 dollars and possibly the tax, but when it's hundreds less, there is usually a catch. Another easy way to tell on some websites is to take a look at the prices on their website for accessories. If a memory card that normally sells for 50 dollars is selling for 150, you can rest assured the game is to call you for order verification and when you turn done the extras, you will get notifed that they are out of stock and your order cancelled.

Even some of the reputable ones will pull a shrewdy sometimes in that they might sell you a camera as new that was returned by a customer. Sometimes you can't tell the difference if was handled well and packaged properly. Sometimes it is in such good shape that it really doesn't matter. From personal experiance I once returmed a camera that I though had a loose rubber grip when in fact it was normal. They agreed to inspectit and exchange it if defective.While they were processing the return I found out that what I thought was defective was normal, but they had already exchanged it. That would have been OK by me except the exchange was used and obviously so. Fingerprints in places you wouldn't expect, a couple of scratches. The battery was fully charged and the clock and date had already been set unlike the way they come from the factory. I was able to get my money back but they never refunded my shipping back and forth as they promised they would do seperatlyso I stopped payment on the American Express Card.