From morgana.mat.uc.pt!news.rccn.net!Portugal.EU.net!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!hunter.premier.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!ix.netcom.com!netcomsv!uu3news.netcom.com!awaiter!darrell.lee Sun Jul 28 12:22:09 1996 From: darrell.lee@awaiter.com (Darrell Lee) Path: morgana.mat.uc.pt!news.rccn.net!Portugal.EU.net!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!hunter.premier.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!ix.netcom.com!netcomsv!uu3news.netcom.com!awaiter!darrell.lee Newsgroups: rec.photo.misc Subject: Pop Photo "Check Rated" Message-ID: <838355659@awaiter.com> Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 04:34:16 GMT Distribution: world Organization: Awaiter BBS 510-939-9992 Lines: 47 I thought I'd share my experience with Popular Photography Magazine's meaningless "Check Rated" Program. Last November, I ordered a Minolta Maxxum 7xi from 'Honest Abe's' Focus Camera & Video. There have been enough posts in this forum about the kind of service that store has, and my experience was no exception. I ordered an outfit at the advertised price, within the advertised dates, and was told the price had been raised. When I pointed out the advertisement, the clerk agreed to sell it to me for that price, took my credit card information, and closed the deal. That afternoon, he called back and asked me to call him back. When I did, the next day, he put Mark, the sales manager, on the line. Mark made a number of ridiculous statements, such as claiming the price was a typo (when the _same_ price had been in its ads for roughly the preceding five months), that nobody in New York City sold cameras at the advertised prices, etc. To make a long story short, he refused to sell me the outfit at the advertised price, in direct violation of Pop Photo's "Check Rated" Program. Well, I realized he must not be making much money on the deal if he wasn't willing to sell it to me, so I decided to wait him out. I wrote letters to the NY State Consumer Protection Board, and to Popular Photography's CR*P. Say or think what you will about government, but it exists to protect us little guys from false advertising such as I experienced from Focus Camera & Video. The NY State CPB wrote several letters to Focus Camera & Video, with copies to me. Not a single response did they or I receive until their final letter, in late January or early February, which threatened to take Focus Camera & Video into court (or take some other legal sanction, as I recall). Then, and only then, did Focus Camera agree to sell me the camera at the advertised price. Meanwhile, I'd pursued the same course with Pop Photo's CR*P. I received absolutely NO response from them despite repeated letters. Finally, I tracked down a Pop Photo rep over the Internet, and threatened to post a message about the poor quality of his CR*P in this forum and others. He promised to have the CR*P rep call me. True to his word, I got a call the next day, promising action on Pop Photo's part. Unfortunately for Pop Photo, when Focus Camera's reps called me to settle the impending state CPB action against them/it, they made a point of telling me that they had _not_ been contacted by any Pop Photo CR*P reps. So if you have problems with a Pop Photo advertiser, don't expect much from Pop Photo's CR*P. * SLMR 2.1a * Uncle Ben's Perverted Rice: in the leather box.