{"id":8386,"date":"2005-11-30T10:37:01","date_gmt":"2005-11-30T17:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/11\/30\/why-it-pays-to-do-internet-research-before-you-buy.html"},"modified":"2005-11-30T10:37:01","modified_gmt":"2005-11-30T17:37:01","slug":"why_it_pays_to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/30\/why_it_pays_to.html","title":{"rendered":"Why it pays to do Internet research before you buy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not what <\/em>you’re buying (though that’s a good idea), but who <\/em>you’re buying from — such as PriceRitePhoto: Abusive Bait and Switch Camera Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At this point I thanked him and informed him that I would be writing an article about my experience with his company. It was at this point that he went ballistic. He first told me that if I did this that he would not cancel my order but just never fill it. If I cancelled it he said he’d charge me a 15% restocking fee. When I told him that that would be unethical he went nuts. He accused me of trying to “extort” him and said that he was going to have two local police officers come over and arrest me. He then went on to say that as a “professional photographer” I should have known better than to try and buy a camera this way and that he was an attorney and would sue me if I wrote an article about my experience.<\/p>\n

He told me that I had no idea who I was dealing with and that as he had my work contact info that he was going to call both my immediate supervisor and the CEO of my company and tell them that I was trying to extort him.<\/p>\n

“I will take this very personally,” he said. He claimed to have recorded our phone call and said that he would make sure that I would “never be able to order anything on the internet again.”<\/p>\n

[…] Update: Well I just received a call back from Steve Phillips at PriceRitePhoto. He said that I should be expecting a call from the “FBI” shortly and that “my tactics” of flooding his store’s phone lines was “illegal.” When I asked him to hold on as I wanted to turn on my recorder to record our conversation he hung up on me.<\/em> […] My boss did have a conversation with me about the fact that this guy called him yesterday and was very understanding about the situation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeesh. Sounds like Caveat emptor<\/em> meets Fatal Attraction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(via J-Walk<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not what you’re buying (though that’s a good idea), but who you’re buying from — such as PriceRitePhoto: Abusive Bait and Switch Camera Store. At this point I thanked him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31458,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/21\/getting-the-picture.html","url_meta":{"origin":8386,"position":0},"title":"Getting the Picture","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Nov-12 5:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I'm looking (SPOILERS, except she already knows) to buy Margie and myself new\u00a0compact travel zoom cameras in prep for our African safari next summer. \u00a0Both the\u00a0Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30 (a\/k\/a ZS20) and the\u00a0Canon PowerShot SX260 HS look good -- the right price range, the right features (some marginal differences in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133957,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/26\/money-can-buy-happiness-by-buying-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":8386,"position":1},"title":"Money can buy happiness — by buying time","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Jul-17 5:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently spending money on services that save time leads to greater personal satisfaction than spending money on material things -- and, more importantly, is something people are a lot less likely to do, even if they complain about never having enough time.Something to think about, next time some disposable income\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6817,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/26\/hi_tech_purchas.html","url_meta":{"origin":8386,"position":2},"title":"Hi-tech purchases","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 26-Dec-04 12:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Decrepit Old Fool has a very good post on how retail electronics folks should very much consider how they are falling way short of the online purchasing experience, and what...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130866,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/13\/microsoft-is-buying-linkedin.html","url_meta":{"origin":8386,"position":3},"title":"Microsoft is buying LinkedIn","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Jun-16 7:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Welp, sounds like it's time to land a job.But seriously ... having been so freaking immersed in LinkedIn over the last 10 months, I'll be curious to see what changes this leads to. It feels like a very different kind of acquisition -- a service \/ site \/ destination, rather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45066,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/09\/microsoft-is-buying-minecraft-nooooooooooo.html","url_meta":{"origin":8386,"position":4},"title":"Microsoft is buying … Minecraft? NOOOOOOOOOOO!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Sep-14 6:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So help me, if they start popping up Bing apps in-game, I'll be quite cross. Microsoft said to be buying the maker of 'Minecraft' for $2 billion Microsoft is nearing a deal to buy Mojang AB, makers of the Minecraft video game franchise, according to a new report. According to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8358,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/06\/oh_what_a_good.html","url_meta":{"origin":8386,"position":5},"title":"Oh What A Good Boy Am I","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Dec-05 8:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's December. That means it's officially No Buying Stuff For Myself Month. Folks in Margie's family who buy things for themselves during December get lumps of coal. 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