I want to buy Leica camera, I found Hotbuyselectronics was cheepest place . Have anyone bought anything from this company , as far as Leica equipment ,are they trustable? Please give me opinion . Thank you very much

-- Kazu T (semua@earthlink.net), April 24, 2001

Answers

Never heard of them. Check with the photo.net neighbor to neighbor section where they rate the merchants. My experience in buying equipment is that those with the lowest advertised price are usually not the best place to buy, and often you will not get the items you want at the price advertised. Have you actually tried to order anything at the prices advertised yet? Most of the low ball mail order houses use similar tactics and usually have a few surprises for those they lure into their web, such as very high shipping charges, and pushy sales people with extended warranties and overpriced add ons. When you decline the add ons, the item you wanted to buy is suddenly not in stock anymore. Quite often they just say the prices you saw are not the current prices anymore. There are many reputable Leica sellers and we have discussed are favorites here and they should be listed in the archives. My advise is to stick to someone who is a well known seller.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), April 24, 2001.

Just for fun I did some research on this company. Only 2 people at the photo.net site ever posted about them. Neither person ever posted anything else ever at photo.net before or after, and both reviews were positive. Makes me wonder. Their web site says 15% restocking fee on all items returned, and the items are gray market and sold without any warranty. Advertised prices are about the same as Chatterton, Jim Kuehl, Delta international and other well known Leica sellers for gray market cameras and lenses. They do not have any provision at the web site to let you know if the items are actually in stock and available to ship.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), April 24, 2001.

This company is very misleading. They lead you to believe that their products are covered by an US warrenty, but they are not. They also don't give you an original owners manual; it's a photocopied version instead. When you try to return an item, they say you must have a RMA number when you send it back or it will be rejected. In order to get a RMA number they make you sign a piece of paper agreeing to pay the 15% restocking fee. This is BS and this company should be reported to the BBB. Save yourself the hassle and buy from a reputable company.

-- Bobby Flay (iluv2fish@hotmail.com), September 05, 2001.

Thank you very much guys!!! I was planning to buy ELAN 7E from there looking at there cheap price, but I have decided against it after reading your reviews. Can any of you suggest a good and cheap place for ELAN 7e. Retail stores price them exorbitantly and the tax comes out pretty high overthat.

Thanks a lot again.

-- Novice to cameras (sreeakshay@hotmail.com), November 15, 2001.

hot buys NOT

I see you already decided to buy somewhere else. GOOD move. These guys are a rip off. They pass off grey market goods as US. No USA warranty, documentation copied from originals. When you receive and find out they charge %15 restock fee to return it.

If anyone sees this who has been ripped off, report it on the following form. (Also send me an email!)

New York AG online complaint form http://www.oag.state.ny.us/internet_complaint/

Regards, Scott

-- Scott Petler (scottp@sonic.net), March 20, 2002.

Thanks for the insight y'all. I was planning to buy a Sigma 170-500mm lens they advertised for $499, which was listed at B&H (which is about as reputable as you can get) for $609.

I think I'll pay the extra $110 at B&H.

Thanks again.

-- Jack Reddy (redjack62@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.

STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE. Read below.

I ordered a Canon Elan 7 camera kit with 28-105mm AutoFocus (AF) zoom lense from http://www.hotbuyelectronics.com . They told me the batteries doesn't come with the battery, so I placed an order for battery also. They charge $519.98 for the camera and lense, $15.96 for the batteries. The camera I recieved is not Canon Elan 7, but Canon EOS 33 (same as Elan 7, but international version. I can not get warranty service in US - it's a gray market item). The lense I recieved is not Canon lens, but Sigma lense (which is only half price of Canon lense). The camera is listed on their website for $348.00 (http://www.hotbuyelectronics.com/canon_35mm_slr_cameras.htm) and the lense (Sigma 28-105mm F3.8 - 5.6 UC Aspherical IF) for $108.98. If you add price of lense and camera together, it should only be $457.96, not $519.98. They also charged for the batteries that comes with the camera at no charge - they told me battery doesn't come with the camera, but it does as it clearly says on the box - they charge $15.98 for batteries that were already included with the price of camera. When I called them, they told me the the price on their website for the lense is for manual, not automatic focus. However, I am not convinced of this fact. I can buy the autofocus lense (one I recieded) at other merchants for $108.95 at http://www.focuscamera.com and $123.49 at http://www.amazon.com (which has highest price on the net). It appears that this merchant is engaging in fraud and there is a pattern, see http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1938.html Conclusion: They sent me wrong camera and lense, overcharged for the wrong lense, charged for batteries that comes with the camera, and when I aksed for a refund, they would charge 15% restocking fee (which will translate to $82.00 in profit for them).

-- Craig Ahn (craigahn@yahoo.com), May 24, 2002.