Best Price Cameras ordered the Nikon D50 body only for a great price. They would not release my order until they talked to me. I told them to cancel the order and they hung up on me. They grossly lied about warranty and try to get you to buy Internet

Dear Kim:

I sell cameras retail for a living, so I hear your story a lot.

Most legitimate retailers, both online and off, pretty much have the same prices... especially on mainstream items like the Nikon D50.

So, when you find a price that is radically below others... buyer beware.

The Nikon D50 (Body Only) comes with battery, battery charger, strap, software, body cap, USB Cable and audio cable. All of these things are packaged at the factory.

Some outlets will advertise an extremely low price on the camera, the try to sell you the other things that come in the box at inflated prices.

The biggest thing to watch out for, on top of the above scam, is the gray market camera. These cameras are imported into the US through channels outside the proper distributor, which is NIKON USA (or Canon USA for Canon products). These cameras cost less because they do not have the United States warranty. This means that if your camera needs repair, you will have to find a service center outside of the United States for warranty service.

Gray market products often come with photocopied manuals because the ones that came with the actual camera were in Japanese or other language.

As a salesman for a brick and mortar camera store, I encourage you to buy locally. You will pay the sales tax, but you are going to get superior advise and service in the long run. If you are going to buy online, make sure you research the vendor on sites like this one. There are legitimate vendors online where you can avoid the problems you are having now.

In the long run... if it seems to good to be true... it usually is.

A client of mine just got ripped off for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Brooklyn NY where BestPriceCameras is based is the Mecca for these scams. The usual ways of doing business is to list the items with Price Grabber or a simular shopping portal. When you make a purchase you will be called or have an email sent you to try and get you to purchase over priced accessories. If you choose not to buy them your order will be canceled as "not in stock" yet the site clearly shows it is in stock.

There are many dozens of names they go by but all seem to be run by Orthodox Jews which proliferate the area. They use alias' and it difficult to run them down. The New York Attorney General will not do much nor will the DA. I think I know who the head of this is. I hope to have a copy of a check they cashed so I can subpeona the bank records to get to the correct parties. Google priceritecamera, which is not the object of my investigation. It will give you some insight as to the problem.