Who said: "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is"? #132 Careful what you wish for... This is one of those stories you hear more and more from people who shop on the web. My story begins when my Olympus camera disappeared in Toronto last year. I'm getting ready for my annual trip out and about and wanted another 400 series camera to take along. Rather then just buying one, I thought I'd try the online auctions site and see what's buzzing. All of them were showing the Olympus D-490z very near the retail price. It can be had at Costco or other discounters for between $300 and $385. But wait... here's just what I'm looking for at the Amazon.com Auction area. ___ This auction says "No Reserve" which means the top bidder gets the prize even if the top bid is only two bucks! So I place my bid. The nice thing about Amazon auctions is you place the top dollar ceiling you're willing to pay for the product. Amazon then bids for you, upping the bid by a few dollar increments each time someone bids against you, quitting when the price hits your ceiling. I posted $250, and marked the calendar to within ten minutes of the auction close date and time. On Sunday at ten-til-three I returned to check out my bid with only nine minutes to go. Amazingly, it was up to only $170. Wow! I might get this. I watched, hitting the refresh button every minute or so to pull down the latest bids. The price crept up. Higher and higher until it hit $180. When the closing bell rang, I had bought myself a camera. ___ The auction said Factory Packed, brand new, with a $25 shipping charge. Okay, $205, still $45 under my ceiling. So I clicked "Pay". Now the problems begin. Amazon takes me to the payments page, but then informs me that "this store is not set up to accept Amazon payments yet. You may use PayPal, or contact the vendor to arrange payment." ___ Well that was okay with me, so off to PayPal I went. PayPal is really easy and secure too, all I have to do is instruct PayPal to pay the guy. They use my charge card. But then PayPal says "We have no account for this vendor." Hmmmmmm. ___ On Monday morning I had the customary Amazon.com notice alerting that I had, indeed won the auction and that I should contact the vendor to arrange payment. Rather than emailing, I picked up the phone and called. The sales person had no knowledge of any auctions, but after some time on hold, returned to the phone to say, yes indeed you won the auction, just go to PayPal and pay. I resisted for a moment, but then decided to try again. Perhaps it was a little glitch as the person had claimed. Nope. Same story. No account. ___ So I called again. This time another rep chatted with me, saying, there is no PayPal account, that I must send a cashiers' check for the full amount, and they would ship. At this point I balked. A cashier's check is just like money. There's no recourse what so ever for the buyer. I dropped the issue, and decided these people are deadbeats and went shopping. ___ This time I found a camera dealer in New York City with the exact item marked at $329. Okay, that's close enough, so I called. I spoke with a brusque young who said "Yes, we have them in stock and we're happy to ship. But you'll have to order at our web site." Again, I was happy to find a good deal, and was ready to buy. But this time, a little voice told me to pick up the phone and call our good friend Doug Clifford, owner and operator of the AceCam.com Camera Index. If anyone knew, he would. ___ While we talked, Doug scooted out to Photo.net, to look the vendor up in the bulletin boards there. "Fred, you're not going to want to buy from them." He said, then directed me the URL for the discussion about that particular camera store. Here are just a few of the several hundred posts I found there: ___ Another frustrated victim of lies, bait & switch, etc... Lied, and I was charged for cancelled merchandise... Lets put these crooks out of business!... Dont order from these scumbags!!!!!... Took money, never sent anything... Screwed by AAA Camera Exchange ... Liars/cheaters and cons... One more BAD story!!! The moral of this story is: always check consumer comments about the vendor. Had I not been infatuated with getting the camera so cheaply at Auction, maybe I would have looked in the Amazon "Feedback" area about this vendor. Guess what I did find when I finally looked? Six others had been ripped off by the very same low price, no charge card-send cashier's check routine. WOW -- I sure was glad I hadn't sent that cashier's check. Next time, you can bet I'll look at the recommendations, and will ask "Does it look like it's too good to be true?" Good day. Fred Showker is a designer, consultant, writer and speaker. He has published 60-Second Window and DT&G Magazine online since 1990, and is director of The Graphic Design Network which includes The Design & Publishing Center at www.Graphic-Design.com. (1994) He was a co-founder of both The User Group Forum on America Online (1987), The User Group Network at www.User-Groups.net, (1994) and the Designers' Bookshelf (1996) He originally founded Showker Graphic Arts & Design in 1972, has been an avid computer activist and supporter since 1984. Got Comments??? back to the 60-Second Window Index, 60-Second Lobby . . . or: The Design & Publishing Center. / . The User Group Network. / . Design University. / . The Designers' Bookshelf. / Would you like to carry the 60-Second Windows column in your newsletter or web site? Ask us about our syndication program... join hundreds of others who now publish 60-Second Windows! 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