CAMERA BUYERS BEWARE!
Do not buy from SonicCamera.com: www.soniccameras.com/catalog/

September 23, 2008:

 I originally ordered a Nikon, D90 SLR 12.3 Megapixel Digital Camera (body only). The price marked on their site was $649.00.  After making this order on their Web site, I received the following email  at 9:41pm:

“Dear Ginger Cooley,

Thank you for shopping with Sonic Cameras.com. Your order number 35106 has been received.

This email is to confirm the receipt of your online order. We will contact you via email if there is any problem with your order.

Thanks again for choosing Sonic Cameras.com. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Sonic Cameras.com”

September 24, 2008:

While they supplied an order number, they did not supply the specifications of my order, such as the item and the price. The next day, at 10:22am, I received a second email. I didn’t expect an email because they said they said in the first one that they would contact me if there was a problem with my order. The following email does not state that there was a problem with my order, it was like a repeat of the first, except now I had to call to confirm the order:

“Dear Ginger Cooley,

Thank you for your order. Your order number is: 35106

This email is to confirm receipt of your online order with us. For your security, please call us at 1-888-450-4111, Option 1 to provide a verbal confirmation so that we can ship out your order. If you have already called and confirmed your order, you may disregard this request.

Thanks again for shopping with us.

Sincerely,
Sonic Cameras.com

Our Business Hours
9:30 AM - 7:00 PM MONDAY-THURSDAY
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM FRIDAY
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM SUNDAY
CLOSED SATURDAY
*All times are Eastern Standard Time”

I called within a few minutes of receiving this email and was prompted to use option one to confirm my order. Thereafter, I was connected to Eric at extension 223. Eric thanked me for my order and was fairly friendly (at first). He made a number of suggestions on enhancing my order, which served only to confuse me.

Eric said the camera I ordered did not come with a battery and that I should buy one. He also suggested that if I were to buy a battery, I should go for the 5-hour extended-life one (as compared to the 2-hour one he had offered me moments ago). In addition to the battery, I was told I needed a charger and Eric suggested the 90-minute express charger. He also told me I needed an extended warranty and if I did so, I could also upgrade to the deluxe case instead of the basic camera case.

Still confused, I asked him the cost and he said it would be around $1000.00 with an additional $40 in shipping. However, the item I ordered was clearly marked with “free shipping." I asked about it and Eric told me that the free shipping didn’t apply to me because I was in Alaska and they don’t ship to Alaska. Eric sensed I was still greatly confused, so he suggested he send an email with my old order and new order in comparison, to help me choose between the two. This sounded like a great idea to me, so I agreed to it. I then told Eric I needed to go on my lunch break and after reviewing the emails, I would call him back and tell him which order I wanted.

When I returned from lunch, I eagerly checked my email, only to find that Eric had not sent any. I decided to call him back. Upon my return call, Eric claimed that he had sent the emails. He was growing more agitated and I began to doubt the order. When I tried to back out of the situation, Eric grew more abrasive and began to fuss at me: “What don’t you understand?” he said harshly, “Look, I’m doing all of this for you! I don’t have to do any of this!” Again, I asked him to repeat what I had ordered, but already there were discrepancies between what he told me before and what he told me then. I excused these differences under the belief that SonicCameras.com likely had a lot of customers and he could not readily recall what we had discussed prior to my lunch break.

After fussing at me a bit more, Eric finally calmed down. He asked me to hit the refresh button on my Inbox to see if the new email had sent. I did as he asked and saw a new email from SonicCamera.com pop up. Eric asked if I received the email and before opening it, I naively said “yes.” Immediately, Eric said “Have a nice day ma’am, goodbye,” and hung up!

What follows is the email I received, which was not what I originally ordered! I was under the impression that Eric was sending me the email with the two order options inside (as we discussed on the phone). But what he sent instead was a bill, which charged my credit card for $1049.99.

“PLEASE NOTE: Since in most instances we begin processing your order shortly after you submit it on our website, If any changes are necessary you MUST contact us via PHONE ONLY, at 1-888-450-4111”

“We will follow up with another email when your order is being shipped. Orders are still subject to verification before shipment is made.
Thank you for your order.”

I was pretty upset and called back a third time. By this time, Eric was very angry and basically told me the order was complete and he didn’t understand what my problem was. “Is that not what you wanted? We already discussed this!” Defeated, I didn’t know where to turn so I dropped the conversation. Besides, I was at work and I couldn’t have a long, drawn-out conversation or argument in a cubicle without someone noticing or likely upsetting my supervisor.

September 30, 2008:

On Tuesday, I had still not received the confirmation email (which was supposed to follow shortly after my order), and grew worried. By this time I had a horrible feeling that I had been swindled. I was already upset over having my order changed, but at least at that time I thought I’d still get the camera. Now, I realized that not only was I mistreated and cheated out of my original order, I wasn’t going to get what I ordered at all.

I decided it would be best to call their service number at 1-888-450-4111 and ask if my order was shipped. Upon calling, I received an automated message that said: “Thank you for calling the camera store; we are closed for the holiday, thank you for calling.” What holiday are they celebrating?  The camera store is located in New York, I saw so on their Web site. In fact, their exact address is:

Sonic Cameras
3505 QUENTIN RD
MARINE PARK, NY, 11234

And their hours are:

Sales Hours:
9:30 AM - 7:00 PM EST Monday - Thursday
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM EST Friday
Closed Saturday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM EST Sunday

 Customer Service Hours:
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM Mon-Thur.
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM Friday
Sat & Sun - Closed

I dialed Eric at extension 223 and left a message requesting he call me back. Later, I called again and added to my message that I wanted to cancel my order. I also sent an email requesting a cancellation.

Worried about the security of my credit card, I called my bank (Wells Fargo) and asked if there had been a charge of $1049.99. The bank representative confirmed that there was a charge on the account, originating from Sonic Camera. I asked if the charge could be removed and she said “no,” but I could file a dispute. I asked if there was anything else I could do, but she was not very helpful.

I followed that call with another call, this time to the Visa credit card company and cancelled my card. I then called Wells Fargo again, and requested a new card. I was told that the $1049.99 would not require pay until the dispute passed. However, I still needed to receive a dispute package.

October 1, 2008:

The next day, I called Sonic Camera again, which still repeated the automated “holiday” message. I left yet another message for Eric, asking him to cancel my order and return my call.

I decided to conduct a bit of research on SonicCamera.com, something I should have done before my purchase. To my great dismay, the more research I conducted on the company, the more I realized they had done this to a number of people.  These reviews can be found here:

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Sonic_Cameras#reviews

Another Web site yielded a great amount of information on the men behind Sonic Camera, who have apparently started a number of camera-related, scam Web sites (listed here): thoughts-of-dave.blogspot.com/2008/02/update-on-sonic-cameras-soniccamerascom.html

October 2, 2008:

Still hoping that I had a chance to speak in person with a representative of Sonic Camera, I called yet again on Thursday morning. Delighted, the “holiday” message had been removed, and my call connected to Eric, who answered the phone.

The conversation started out cordially; I politely asked if Eric had received any of my phone messages. His answer was: “Yes, I did, but we were on holiday -- celebrating the new year in New York.” This, of course, was a lie, but I ignored it. (What kind of new year is celebrated on October 2^nd by an American company?) I moved on to the subject at hand: “I would like to cancel my order, order number 35106, please,” I said quickly. This is when the conversation went sour. I have tried to recall it to the best of my memory:

Eric: “What do you mean, cancel it?”

Ginger: “I’ve been trying to call and cancel my order.”

Eric: “Why are you doing this?”

Ginger: “Your order confirmation email says at the bottom that it would be followed by a shipment confirmation email, I never received it.”

Eric: “What are you talking about? That order is in transit to your house! It will arrive today!”

Ginger: “Well why wasn’t I sent a confirmation email, with a tracking number?”

Eric: “Look, I don’t know why you are troubling me like this. You keep calling and changing your mind. What is wrong with that order?”

Ginger: “Well, in the time the order was supposed to arrive, I managed to find a D90 here in town. I live in Alaska, these cameras are hard to find, but I managed to find one before your order had even shipped. I just want to cancel it, please.”

Eric: “That order is coming in today. We already sent it! You will be charged a 10% restocking fee if you cancel it.”

Ginger: “Where does it say I have to pay a fee?”

Eric: “Our company policy says 10%. But you will have to pay 15%.”

Ginger: “Why 15%? You just said 10%--“

Eric: “Because I said so. Look, you have caused a great deal of trouble. Send us a money order of 15% of your order and we’ll cancel it.”

Ginger: “Why do I have to send money? Can’t you credit the money back to my card, minus the restocking fee?”

Eric: “No, that’s policy. Send us a money order.”

Ginger: “How do I know you won’t just take that money order and not return the $1000? I would prefer you credit the money back to my card, minus the restocking fee.”

Eric: “You don’t like it? You won’t get your money back.”

Ginger: “Can you connect me to your manager please?”

Eric: “No! No I will not connect you to my manager. You know why? Because you don’t know what you are talking about. That order is done!”

Ginger: “Please connect me to your manager.”

Eric: “No, I’m not going to connect you!”

Ginger: “What your doing is poor customer service, please connect me to your manager.”

Eric: “All right, if that’s how you want it?! Fine, I’ll connect you to him.”

There was a brief pause, then the manager, Kevin, picked up the phone:

Ginger: “Hi, my name is Ginger Cooley, I would like to cancel my order please.”

Kevin: “What is your order number?”

Ginger: “35106.”

Kevin: “There will be a 15% restocking fee. Your return number is “R3556.”

Ginger: “I thought it was 10%? Eric just said it was 10% at first--“

Kevin: “Look miss, you have to send us a money order of 10% for the restocking fee, then we will cancel the order and return your money.”

Ginger: “Wait, then it’s not 15%?”

Kevin: “No, send us the money order and we will refund your order. We already sent you the camera.”

Ginger: “Wait, if you sent the camera, why didn’t I get a confirmation email for the shipment?”

Kevin: “We don’t do that, we don’t send out any emails like that!”

Ginger: “What do you mean? I have the email right here and at the bottom of the email it says ‘We will follow up with another email when your order is being shipped.’”

Kevin: “Well, emails are down right now.”

Ginger: “They are down…?”

Kevin: “Yeah, so send us the restocking fee and then we’ll return your money.”

Ginger: “But why do I have to mail you the money order? I would prefer you return the credit to my card—“

Kevin: “You HAVE to send us a money order for the restocking fee!”

Ginger: “But I don’t trust—“

Kevin: “You know what? It WILL be 15% now.”

Ginger: “Why?”

Kevin: “For agitation! You are wasting our time!”

Ginger: “Wait, I’m a customer, you need to be—“

Kevin: “You know what else? We’ll charge you for shipping too. That camera has been sent to you already. Now you’re going to have to pay for the shipping.”

Ginger: “If I get the camera, can’t I just send it back and cancel my order?”

Kevin: “If you do that--if you do that--not only will I charge you for shipping and the 15% restocking fee, I’ll charge you for shipping it back. AND, we’ll reject it and have it sent back to you again – you can pay for that shipping too! We will make you sign for that shipment.”

Ginger: “All I want to do is cancel my order! What is the big deal? Cancel my order and I’ll pay the restocking fee or whatever.”

Kevin: “That camera has been sent already. You either mail us the money or you won’t get anything back. Goodbye!”

Kevin hung up on me. I was livid: They said it was 10% fee to restock, then 15%. Their emails said they send confirmation of shipment, but they say on the phone they don’t do that. When I caught them in this lie, they claimed that emails were down. When I told them that I simply wanted to cancel the order, they threatened me with shipping charges and forcing me to take their product.

I took it upon myself to look up the “company policy” on the SonicCamera.com Web site (Attachment G). This “policy” clearly states several processes that were completely ignored over the course of this order and dispute:

·        Number 7 says “We do not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.” Yet, they charged me as soon as they put in the order on Wednesday, September 24^th, likely before I even opened the email to see what they had charged me for.

·        Number 9 says “Please call our customer service department to cancel an existing order.” Yet when I did this, they flatly refused my request to cancel.

·        Under “Returns & Exchanges,” they say: “Should it be necessary to return an item, you may return it for refund or exchange, excluding shipment charges and with a minimum 10% restocking fee.” However, Kevin (the manager) said that he would charge me not for one, but all forms of shipment, despite this policy.