Silly Internet merchant: tricks are for kids.

So I go to order that sweet SD850is from Broadway Photo (item found here) I get an email saying that i need to call their customer support line to process my order. I figure that the billing address was wrong or something.

So I get connected to a customer representative after being forced to listen to Whitney Houston hold music (should be a crime punishable by death). He starts in with a sales pitch, and i immediately start thinking it was just because i didn't have anything but the camera on the order. So he offers me a case, and a battery, and a memory card, all of which i politely decline.

Then he asks me if i would like to purchase the extended service agreement, which i also politely decline. Then he hits me with something I have never been offered before. He asks me if i would like the USA manufacturer's warranty for the device.

Slightly baffled, i ask 'Why would I need that, it comes with a warranty, doesn't it?'.

He then proceeds to inform me that the model that i am purchasing is the 'international' version of the camera. This model not only doesn't come with a warranty that is valid in the U.S. but the screen is also unable to be changed to English (with a default of Japanese of course).

I say, 'Well that wasn't mentioned on your web site. Doesn't that seem kind of a big thing not to mention?'

He completely disregards my question and asks if i would like to purchase the US version of the phone, which is $349 ($60 more than the international version).

I tell him instead of that, i would like to cancel my order.

All this seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through to get somebody to pay the extra money for the camera that you should be selling anyway.

 

So now I'm looking for other sites to purchase this camera through, and if i can't find one in my price range, i will step down to the SD800is.