Verbal abuse, deceptive in-stock claims, high-pressure upselling, and attempts to charge a credit card when a customer posts negative feedback about a business comprise this primer on actions that could reflect poorly on one’s business.
Quite a few people are familiar with photographer Thomas Hawk’s work, particularly those who have visited his photos on Flickr or regularly read his blog. His most recent entry, detailing his experience with a New York-based camera dealer called PriceRitePhoto, aka C&A Marketing and TheCameraMall.com.
Calling his experience unpleasant would be akin to saying the surface of the Sun may be uncomfortable to touch. After ordering with the company and turning down a series of upsell pitches for accessories, Hawk contacted the company to find out why his order had not yet been routed to shipping, and was told the camera was out of stock, despite the company’s web site showing it as in-stock:
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.
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.
The blog entry in whole offers a very instructional read, and I highly recommend any online retailer spend a few quality minutes over a cup of hot cocoa reading it. Comments from other people discussed similar experiences, and mentioned the company’s attempts to charge credit cards for posting negative feedback.
If an online retailer finds they conduct their business like the one Hawk unfortunately uncovered, it would be a good idea to make some changes. On the Internet, news like this spreads very fast.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
