I ordered my 20D and a zoom lens at the beginning of August from Amazon.com. My camera body was scheduled to be delivered no later than the 13th (yesterday) and the lens no later than the 8th (six days ago!). USPS tracking showed it went to Philadelphia (where I live) to Richmond, CA (NOT WHERE I LIVE) and now it's coming back (ARRGHH)!!
I'm leaving to go back to school on the 21st, and I wanted to get some nice shots so I can have something to apply as a photographer at the campus paper.
Fortunately, the lens worked out. Amazon said they would cancel my order and send a new one, next day shipping for free. However, the 20D body is through an outside merchant, and is therefore out of their control. I can't do anything without the camera body!!
I cancelled my order with amazon, and bought it from stop4camera.com, which I'm finding out has A LOT of bad reviews. However, each 1/5 review also has a 5/5 counterpart. I'm so confused, it looks like the best/worst store ever.
I'll never mess with a retailer other than B&H if I have a choice... For new camera gear, their prices are about as low as you can get for a legit one, anything much lower and you'll probably get the camera, but the battery, charger, manual, body cap, etc will be extra... and it might never arrive.
Adorama is OK too, but I've had some random delays in getting my stuff from them. NewEgg is great for computer stuff, but their selection of photo gear is pretty limited.
I'll never mess with a retailer other than B&H if I have a choice...
Totally agree....I've had half a dozen orders from B & H in the past year. I always order on Thursday AM (payday) and the item(s) have always arrived the next day and were when I got home from work. All have been on either two day or regular UPS shipping, haven't used overnight yet.
I've never had a problem with Amazon, and I order quite a bit from them. Love that place. But, I only purchase things that are from Amazon itself, not a 3rd party vendor. I bought their "Prime" membership so two day shipping is free, but use overnight a lot for only $3.95. Good luck with your camera, hope you get it in time.
i used to love amazon when it was amazon. now that you don't know who the hell you're ordering from via amazon, my love for them has decreased significantly.
i've given up on them completely because of incidents like this. now i shop exclusively with stores that are actually stores instead of megaconglomerates.
and it doesn't hurt to try and buy locally. often you can get them to come down in price and without the need to pay for shipping you can get close to the online price point.
So...
I cancelled my order with Stop4Camera.com, because they do apper to be a scam operation. I called them to confirm my order (and also so they could ship it out) but it apears they decided to take Friday off.
I'm going for 20D body #4 in a REAL store somewhere local. I don't see how anything can go wrong...
