Scam alert: Broadway Photo (bwayphoto.com)
My family has needed a new digital camera for some time, and I’ve been holding out for a Nikon D40. With a little help from Uncle Sam, I decided to go ahead and buy one. I searched for the lowest prices online and Broadway Photo was among the lowest. I visited the site and read the description of the camera and the site terms. Everything seemed on the up-and-up so I placed my order.
The confirmation email from Broadway Photo was the first warning (emphasis mine):
Please allow a minimum of two days for order processing.
To expedite order processing, please give us a call.
If the address to which your package is being delivered is different then the address where you receive your monthly credit card statements (billing address). You must list that address as an alternate ship to with your credit card company by calling the customer service number on the back of your credit card. (This is simply a temporary note on your account that will allow us to ship to an alternate address)
They’ve got a high-tech website, why should it take them two days to process my order? Why should I have to call them to “expedite” order processing? See how convenient Internet shopping has become? Finally, poor English.
The second warning was the email I received from Broadway Photo the next day:
Due to verification issues with your order # Wxxxxxxx we are unable to process your order. In order for us to process your order, please contact our verification department at 1-800-307-1148 Extension 233.
I have used the same card to purchase items from several online merchants and never had a “verification issue.”
The third warning was when I actually called the 800 number, or the “verification department.” Nobody answered and I was sent to a voice mail system. Thinking that there might really be a problem, I actually left my telephone number! A few hours later, I received another email detailing the “verification problems,” so I called back and spoke with a human.
To call the person I spoke with human is probably too kind. The first thing he needed to do was “confirm” my mailing address. Next, he informed me that the battery that came with the camera was low capacity and would only last for 15-20 minutes, and that it would take 12 hours to charge each time. I knew this wasn’t true because I had read reviews of the camera and learned that the battery was good for several hundred shots; in fact, I knew that the D40x model’s battery lasted longer than the D40’s, but I still found it acceptable. When I told the guy I didn’t want the battery, he said I’d need to buy one anyway and it would cost a lot more somewhere else. How much do you figure he was selling it for? The bargain discount price of $99 (normally $199)! From my previous research I knew that I could buy a Nikon brand battery for under $40 on amazon.com; knockoffs are available starting around $10. $99 didn’t really seem like such a bargain. In addition, I was told I’d need a battery charger. I said I’d just use the battery charger that came with the camera. He said it didn’t come with a charger. I said it did, I know what’s in the kit. He said it was an AC adapter that you had to plug into the camera. (What?!) I re-emphasized the fact that I just wanted the standard kit with no extras.
At this point I’m thinking to myself that I can just refuse the high-pressure sales tactics of Broadway Photo and still get the camera. But then, he asked whether I wanted the 5- or 3-year warranty. I said I didn’t want to buy an extended warranty and that I’d just take my chances with the 1-year warranty that came with the camera. He said it didn’t come with a warranty. I said it did. Then he asked if I wanted the Japanese version or the US version, and if I even knew what the difference was (asked as if I were a total idiot). I said I guess I wanted the US version and he reiterated that the camera didn’t come with the warranty. At this point I was so angry with this worm that I said, “I’ll tell you what, let’s just cancel this order.” He said, “OK, I’m cancelling your order,” and hung up. Period.
I thought it was odd that he was willing to lose the sale despite the fact that I wouldn’t be buying the ridiculous battery, charger, and warranty. I decided to call Broadway Photo’s customer service to see if this was their business model or if I had just talked to a bad seed. Customer service wasn’t any better. I got him to admit that they sold grey market items (he didn’t deny it, it’s clearly stated in light grey text buried in the Warranty Coverage section of their About us page). I got him to admit that the sales rep I had talked to lied about the camera not coming with a charger. I got him to admit that the web site does not state that the camera I was trying to buy was grey market. I told him that their practices were deceptive. He apologized that the Broadway Photo web site did not specifically state that the Nikon D40 kit was a grey market item. He explained that the camera did in fact come with a one-year, in-store only warranty, but that Nikon would not honor it.
In the end, the Broadway Photo customer service representative wasn’t willing to make things right. Oh well, lesson learned.
After this experience, I decided to google Broadway Photo sucks and found lots of hits to forum posts of folks who had exactly the same experience I did. Luckily, I didn’t waste nearly as much time as some of those people who actually had their orders go through, only to be faced with all kinds of delays.
A little further digging revealed a seemingly incestuous relationship among some price comparison sites like lowpricedigital.com, shopcartusa.com, and everyprice.com and shady businesses like Broadway Photo. These comparison sites always list the shady businesses first with the lowest prices and the highest customer ratings. They throw in a few legitimate businesses for appearance, and it’s odd that the legitimate businesses have lower customer ratings. One site even says that the shady Broadway Photo has earned the “Customer’s Trust Award!”
If you want to see just how shady Broadway Photo is, see this post from the Consumerist with photos of the actual buildings of Broadway Photo. (found via Thomas Hawke’s blog)
OK, I know, I should have googled first.
Feel free to share your experiences with shady businesses like Broadway Photo.
May 2nd, 2008 - 8:56 am
A few years back someone published on Digg all their dealings with a similar company and ever since then I have been VERY wary of any price that sounds too good to be true or any place other than amazon/buy/B&H. I will say I have bought twice from butterfly photo and although they did call once it was only a verification call and the price was great.
I think it wouldn’t hurt to check with your credit card company and make sure you haven’t been charged.
As you said, Google is your friend.
May 2nd, 2008 - 10:43 am
[…] decided to place an order with another questionable online camera huckster (see earlier post on the shady Broadway Photo). Just like my previous experience, I received an email that I needed to call them to confirm my […]
November 13th, 2008 - 5:37 pm
I had a very recent similar experience. I was looking for a Pentax k200d. I had done a lot of research, and just like you, found that BroadwayPhoto had the lowest price. When I came home from work a day or two after placing the order there was a message saying I needed to call and confirm for shipping. So, I called. The jerk on the phone said his name was Bob Anderson. I didn’t know he was a jerk at that point, but it wasn’t going to take long. The background noise was suspicious too…I had the feeling he was in a room full of other ‘Bob Andersons’ on countless other phones, trying to sell countless other people things they hadn’t ordered to begin with. He listed off all the things I’d need for the camera to work, I won’t go into all the details, but he said a 1 gig memory card was a steal at 69.99 - steal is a good word for it, you can get them for under $10! He kept saying ‘they recommend’ blah blah blah, but he never specified who ‘they’ was). I told him I’d call him back in 20 minutes and I called Pentax. The rep there went over everything I knew about the camera, solidified in my mind that this guy was just trying to sell me a bunch of ridiculously overpriced crap so, like you, I figured I would just call back, resist his sales pitches and just get what I ordered to begin with. Now he wanted to confirm that I had ordered the Japanese version and that it had no English instructions, but if I wanted the American version it was going to cost about $150.00 more. I told him that information was not on their website. He said it was on a pop-up window and he was sure I had pop-up blocker. I told him to hold on, I’d undo my pop-up blocker, which I did…no pop-up saying I was ordering a Japanese model. At this point he got downright snarky and said he was just the processing plant and if I had a problem I needed to speak with customer service. I said, fine, I would. There was silence for a moment, I assumed he was going to connect me, and he said, “Well, do you want me to handle this or not?” I said, “No, I want to speak to someone who knows more than you.” He told me to call customer service. By now I was pretty sure it was a scam, but I was sick that they had my card info. I called customer service and a different guy answered, but, oddly (or not) there was the same background noise, like countless guys on countless phones… I told the guy my issue with the whole Japanese version thing and he said there must have been a malfunction on the site, was I sure my pop-up wasn’t blocked any more (yes, you idiot) and did I want to buy a rechargeable battery pack for the camera. Now I was just downright mad and told him to cancel the whole damn thing. He said fine and hung up. But I felt very unresolved and anxious. I went back on their site and saw that it said if you cancelled an order you had to get a
cancelation #, which I hadn’t. I called back requesting one. He said it was just my order # with a ‘c’ in front of it. To be safe, I called my cardmember services # who told me no charge had been made, but I told them what had happened and requested they close my account and issue me a new card with a new #.
November 19th, 2008 - 12:19 pm
All I can add here is to ALWAYS check http://www.resellerratings.com/ BEFORE you pull the trigger on any purchase online.
Broadway has an awesome rating of 1!
November 22nd, 2008 - 4:48 am
Sorry to hear that you are a recipient of a scam. A friend of mine was also caught up with the same organisation.
November 24th, 2008 - 6:45 pm
I wish I read your review yesterday before I purchased a Sony TG1 camcorder, it was listed price over $800 elsewhere but Broadway sold it for just $550. I thought it was odd, but why was it that it had over 5000 positive ratings on ShopUSA or some other internet referral addresses? So I trusted them and placed an order for a next-day delivery. I checked my order status online the next day saying i needed to call to verify. I called and our conversation was EXACTLY what you had! My GOD! I always consider myself a smart shopper, don’t get scammed, but this time, everything smelled so fishy. I too was wondering why he’d just happily cancel the order instead of persuading me to keep just buying that camera. #1: the camera is indeed very cheap, probably not much profit margin, so their loss of revenue is one thing, but loss of profit is another. #2, if they could’ve talked me into buying accessories, they would’ve been willing to sell the camera cheaply to me and make more money on accessories.
I made it clear to him that the website did NOT mention that the Sony TG1 was a Japanese made model, made for Japanese market, everything inthe camera would be in Japanese. I, for one, could read Japanese, I have absolutely no problem with it. But the very fact that he warned me, makes me very suspicious. Besides, the warranty won’t work in the US. Who knows, maybe it’s not even Japanese version (why would Japanese ones be cheaper? Things in japan are generally more expensive than in teh US, including the electronics). They probably just didn’t care b/c I didn’t buy enough accessories and might as well just let me cancel instead of telling their bosses that they coudln’t persuade people to buy the extras. Anyhow, I’m going to go everywhere on the internet about Broadway Photo. I still can’t believe I let myself into this kinda situation!! Luckily I confirmed with my bank account to make sure NOTHING’s been charged. For those who rated this company positive, they either bought very cheap stuff, or unaware of the differences.
July 30th, 2009 - 11:27 pm
You can add ButterFly Photo to the list of shitty online sellers. Annoying high-pressure sale tactics to buy extra craps. It is a type of BAIT-AND-SWITCH because they first bait you with the low prices then switch you to grey market versions or incomplete merchandise contents when you refused to buy the OVERPRICED extras.