Beach Camera.com

Full review
We spent weeks researching our next camera purchase, and had decided what we wanted. Then we started checking around for a good deal on it.

Beach Camera had a fantastic price, and it was the only low-cost vendor that had the model and color that we wanted in stock. The online reviews about them are mostly positive, and while we read some negative ones they didn't worry me. Any business will end up with some unhappy customers, we decided to go with the majority.

Their website claimed that our camera would ship in 1-2 days, and said that we would receive shipping notification and a tracking number. After 5 days, we still hadn't heard back from Beach Camera. Logging in to their site showed our order as "processing." So I called their customer service number.

I had to wait about fifteen minutes to get a service rep. She was very polite and helpful, but informed me that the item was currently on backorder. I explained that their website had said (and still said) that the camera was in stock. She apologized and said that the site must not have been updated, and that she'd notify someone in the web department. Then she told me that they were expecting the cameras in within the next 1-2 days.

My worry was that this 1-2 days estimate would be no more accurate than what we were told when we placed our order. I also didn't appreciate that the information on the site was wrong. After our order was processed, we should have been informed of the backordered status of the camera. Instead, I had to wait several days and then contact them. I guess they hoped that we wouldn't notice before they were able to get them in and send our order out.

After talking it over, my husband and I decided to cancel our order with Beach Camera. Even if the backordered item would have been in soon (which I just didn't trust at this point), I just didn't want to give money to them. Their carelessness about keeping their web inventory updated wasted five days of our time, and I thought it was poor customer service that we weren't notified about the backorder.

I called and easily cancelled the order. The second service rep that I spoke with was also helpful, and the wait to talk with her was a less than my first call but still too long (about 8 minutes). I won't try Beach Camera again, because I don't feel like I can trust the information on their website.

We decided to order through Amazon. It was about $25 more, but they actually had them and the camera shipped the next day.