olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

If you do any business with Walmart - on-line and in store - they do this stuff all the time - computer says it is in stock at local store, go to store, no stock. Order it on-line, it will eventually show up, but might come from across the country. If this is the first time this has happened after thousands in purchases, it was probably human error/computer aided human error. I ordered a used Nikon battery from one of the big 3 (A,B&H, C) and received a Fuji battery that looked identical and worked (but didn't have the Nikon chip), called them and told them, they sent me another used Nikon battery in better condition (a 10!!) and told me to keep the Fuji. An error, yes, made right, Yes.

Bait and switch....well, maybe if it was 42nd Street, or one of those places, but if one of our highly credible sites we all use, I really doubt it. I have never been treated badly or short changed or been tricked by the big 6 - Adorama, B&H, Cameta, KEH, Roberts/UsedPhotoPro, and new favorite MPB.com. All other big retailers have let me down a time or two, most make it right, but the ones with third party sellers are more difficult. AND a lot of the stores on Ebay bend over backward to make things right, if there is a problem. I don't know about Cameta and Adorama, but B&H folks are on this forum and will help out. Hey, give em a chance to make right..

epd1947

Several points - no operation is 100% perfect and it is entirely possible that the first camera you ordered was misplaced, got put on a wrong shelf in the stockroom etc. if that did happen then wasn’t it reasonable to try to offer an alternative? As to bait and switch- doesn’t seem like it for two reasons- 1) along with the new item at a reduced price they also offered another used item at less than what you were going to pay and 2) regarding the substitution of a new item, the mark up on new items is very often less than that on used items. Were you offered the opportunity to return the lesser condition used item for the one (now found) that is in better condition?

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

While I do not disagree with you, it is also just as probable that the person who originally took the order and said the item was not located, never took the time to take it out of the computer system, listing it for sale. Possibly it was a busy day and the original listing is still there. There are many possibilities.

A call to the business should sort this out.

I also disagree with others claiming this might be a bait and switch scam. If the original item had been located then there is no reason not to sell it. The offer of a new item at a lower price could have been trying to make up for the error of not finding the original item.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

And sometimes companies (people) just make mistakes. Good companies try to rectify the problem. Very possibly that is what happened in this situation.

Dennis

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Only way to tell is if others have experienced the same thing. Do they have a yelp page? If not, maybe start one.

BebuLamar

To be fair since the OP didn't name names so I think it's the OP fault in accepting to buy something else he/she didn't want to buy. If I called and they said they don't have what I want any more I simply not buying it. I do not think it's a bait and switch.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

"Only the Shadow knows........"

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Lots of replies here but not even one from OP since the first post. Just saying...

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

I have a hunch this not as hypothetical as thought. Lets have a contest as to who is XYZ.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

They used to be ABC, but they were forced to close down because of so much bait and switch. They reopened as XYZ.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I bet it begins with "B."

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Troll, perhaps????????

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

The problem is that I DON'T KNOW if I am blowing this out of proportion or if they tried to scam me. I will continue to do business with them, very carefully, for a while. If we work this out, and I have been offered the chance to, and I have no similar problems, I will revive this thread and post a public apology. If they continue questionable business practices, I will name them.

I asked for feedback on the situation - opinions as to whether I was right or wrong in my assessment. Until I know, beyond a reasonable doubt, I will NOT "man up" and name the company!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Some years ago I ordered a set of portable studio lights from "ABC", with whom I'd done lots of business over the years. I had a wedding job coming up in a few months, on the other side of the country, and wanted to get the gear in and practice with it before the shoot. I needed the portable gear for this and other trips, didn't want to haul around the big, heavy gear I had.

I waited and waited an waited, getting several back ordered notifications from ABC...

Finally, 2 weeks before the wedding, a big brown truck dropped off a couple large boxes on my doorstep! I sighed relief and quickly tore into the packages.

THEY SENT THE WRONG THING! I'd ordered studio strobes... But what they sent were a similar design "hot lights" from the same manufacturer. And to make matters worse, these particular hot lights didn't come with bulbs, so they weren't even functional.

I immediately contacted them, they apologized profusely, arranged to send me the correct items rushed to me and to have the incorrect ones picked up from my location. I had to pay for the replacements being sent out, but not for shipping and I'd be reimbursed for my initial cost once the incorrect items were returned to them.

A few days later, the big brown truck delivered another set of boxes and picked up the ones I was returning. Now only a week and a half from the wedding date (with a holiday in the middle), I sighed relief once again... Until I opened the 2nd set of boxes and found they'd SENT THE WRONG ITEMS AGAIN! Got on the phone, got apologies, promises to straighten things out and we went through the whole process again. Problem was, I was hopping on an airplane in less than 48 hours and there was no way to get the replacement gear to me in time. So we instead arranged to have it overnight delivered to my hotel at the destination.

I made the flight and was relieved to find a couple large boxes waiting for me. Tore into them and found THE WRONG ITEMS AGAIN! Got on the phone to ABC immediately.... but knew I was screwed. I'd now paid for the items I wanted three times (five monolights... times three "purchases"... I was running low on credit card balance!) Worse yet, we were now just a few days out from the weekend wedding and there was a holiday coming up even sooner. I got more apologies and arranged yet another return, but no replacement this time. Pickup of the incorrect items couldn't happen until after the holiday and a weekend, when I was supposed to have returned home. Fortunately I had a relative in the area who would hold onto the incorrect items until pickup could be arranged.

But I still didn't have the lighting gear I needed for the formal wedding photos that were planned. I called some local pro photographers listed in the Yellow Pages (remember those?) and they recommend a shop that rented lighting gear. Called them and arranged for a more primitive, but usable set of strobes.... Except that they were 30 miles away and closing for the holiday weekend in a little over an hour! It was a bit frantic, but we made it there with 15 or 20 minutes to spare and got the gear. Shot the wedding (with two lights instead of five... and with very little opportunity to test and prepare). Arranged for the local relative to return the rental gear (also added to my credit card charges) and hold onto the return items until they were picked up.

I ended up buying the lighting gear from another source.... and finally got the right stuff. And everything got returned okay, so eventually all the refunds I was due, including all shipping costs, were issued to my credit card. Talking to folks at ABC, who I'd done business with without any problems for many years prior to this nightmare, it turned out their warehouse had the rather similar model numbers swapped on the items and that was why they kept shipping out the wrong things.

Oh, and the lab that processed the 20 rolls of film informed me when I went to pick it up, "Whoops! We had the processor set to ASA/ISO 200". The film was ASA/ISO 160.

Two lessons from this....
1. $*%^ happens!
2. $*%^ ALWAYS happens A LOT when shooting weddings.

My solution... don't shoot weddings!

I still do business with ABC and recommend them without concern. They're long-established, have never let me down before or since, and dealt with the problems professionally, taking full responsibility and ultimately making me whole. It caused a lot of panic at the time, yes. But was just a dumb typo in a warehouse inventory system that caused it all. That can happen to any business! (Ahem... I've made a print for clients from the wrong image once or twice. I also had a client who placed a large order where we had to do reprints four times, for prints that got damaged either in shipping or by poor handling at the lab I was using. Finally got it right... and sent them a couple freebies for all the inconvenience.)

Could be worse... too. There was someone on a forum who ordered a pricey new full frame camera from a company I'll call AMZ.... When it arrived they opened the box to find no camera... Instead it was filled with pieces of wood that someone had actually cut to fit! Apparently they either had a problem with theft from their warehouse or didn't check customer returns very closely. When they called to deal with the situation, the person at AMZ wasn't surprised (maybe had seen it happen before?). It got straightened out quickly, but is another example how folks in the warehouse and order fulfillment end of things can torpedo what should be a simple transaction!

In your case, unless the camera you got is in really sub-par condition or isn't working properly, I'd just go shoot with it and enjoy it. Any camera that sees normal use will eventually look "experienced" anyway!

It could be an honest mistake... or it might have been a scam (except why would they "scam you" into buying something that cost LESS?). There's really no way to know.

Dannj

To the OP:

You’ve been given a few suggestions on how you might work this out and my guess is that the only way you’ll “know beyond a reasonable doubt” is to work with the company to solve your problem. Just my 2 cents😊