Royal Camera, CCI, Camera City, mislead, misquoted, mischarged, royal mistake! Brooklyn New York

I found a great price on the website for a Canon EOS 20D. I ordered it and a lens (with overnight shipping) and was not sent confirmation. So I called to confirm. I was informed that the price online was for the overseas model that takes 3-5 weeks to ship, but that the lens would ship overnight.

Why would I pay overnight shipping for a lens I won't be able to use for 3-5 weeks? So I asked why the web page didn't say anything about this being overseas pricing. They basically fumbled around the question pointing to a separate page that very loosely states that "some" models are overseas and take 3-5 weeks with no indication as to which.

Next I was told that the USA model could ship overnight, but costs about 2/3 of the price more! Since this final price turned out to be around the normal price of the camera on most sites I said ok. At this point I asked what the total charge on my credit card would be. I was quoted a total cost of $XXXX.XX.

The camera kit they sold me included a very overpriced battery and charger - which they told me cost $199 a piece. This is utterly untrue. They're actually about $45 and $70, respectively (directly from Canon, no less!).

I actually received the camera the next day, which shocked me. But then I noticed that the charge on my card was $XXXX.XX + $100! They had included a mail-in rebate which had never been mentioned to me. The price they quoted me and stated would be charged to my card was after a mail-in rebate! So they blatently lied about the charge on my card!

It gets better. The rebate form was outdated! I called them in a rage and demanded that they credit my card $100 and they refused saying that they would send a new rebate form. They pointed out that the invoice I received had been dated for Oct 18 2005 - more than a month later than I received the camera!

This indicates that they knew that the rebate was out of date and anticipated that I would be getting a later one. I have yet to receive the rebate and am growing more furious by the day.

Ron
Niles, Ohio
U.S.A.