Regency Camera Bad News! Misrepresentation, Fraud, Bait & Switch

First off thank you Rip Off Report for your information. This site saved my butt.

On 8/20/2001 I contacted Regency Camera to purchase a Sony S75 with some accessories, all told $855. They were accomodating with the prices and it seemed too good to be true. Order was going to ship next day and be 2 day shipped.

I got a little concerned and started looking out on the internet for reports on them. Then I found this site. I called the very next morning and spoke with a sales person, indicating that I wanted to cancel my order. They became very abrasive and the cancellation and insisted that I wait till I got my camera to see if I liked it. I insisted on canceling my order.
When he repeated my order back to me, they swapped Sony brand parts for generics and lesser sized parts (memory cards) at original prices.

I went through 3 more people who all got very abusive back at me. They argued that the products had already been shipped, mind you this was 8/21/2001 at 8am EST, but refused to give me a shipping/tracking number for UPS. "Trust me!" was the quote of the day here. After much arguement, he finally said it had not shipped but it would ship tomorrow and wait for the product.

This is where they get you, takes 7 days to ship to you and you only have 7 days to return the item at a MINIMUM of 10% restocking fee. I told them to forget it, cancel the order.
Then he insisted that I was going to pay regardless, a minimum of $238 for no order at all.

I laughed at him and said try it, American Express would be contacting them today.

On 8/24/2001 they charged my AMEX $1042 ($187 more than what the original order quote). I promptly filed a complaint with AMEX who removed the charge. It took 4 months time before Regency Camera removed the charge. American Express threatened to sue them because they made the error of emailing me my order with a quote price and then overcharged me.

Needless to say, thank you AMEX and the 1 time use credit card numbers for saving my butt and to Regency Camera reports for sheding some light on this so called business!
2 weeks ago I was in the NYC area and decided to visit Regency Camera and wouldn't you know it, they are a hole in the wall dealing with 'hot' items, black/gray market items and just be aware.