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| Older merchandise will be pushed on customers for ridiculous prices |
Bait and switch is an unethical sales technique that shady camera and electronic gadget retailers have used for decades. They will advertise an item at a ridiculously low price. The average uninformed consumer is excited about the prices and purchases the item. The retailer will then contact the customer and use a very hard-sell technique, sometimes being very rude. The sales person will inform the customer that they "need" to buy an extra battery, bag, filter, flash, etc... This sounds innocent, it's just typical salesmanship right? Well not exactly. The catch is that those accessories are ALWAYS marked up in price, sometimes double or triple their actual value. Additionally the accessories are usually very old products or off brand garbage that is worth EVEN less than a genuine product. If the customer refuses to "upgrade" their purchase, the sales person becomes very angry with the customer and tells them that the product is back ordered for months. The customer will never receive the product unless they add on a bunch of over-priced low quality accessories. Those who fall for these schemes end up paying much more money for the product they saw advertised at a low price.
2. Avoiding the Temptation
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| Digital Camera retail is cut throat competition, there is no way someone is selling this kit for $1,530 when the best price right now is $1,699 |
Even though many people are becoming much more savy when it comes to online shopping, this has only led to bait and switch retailers to become more clever with their presentation. They have gone the extra mile to make their websites look more respectable. Be careful you will see bait and switch sellers even on a service like Google Shopping. You used to see cameras listed at ridiculously low prices, sometimes half off MSRP.
People caught on quickly and now many B/S retailers list at a significantly lower price, but not so much that it would stick out like a sore thumb amongst legitimate retailer's listings. Be weary of products that are hard to find. Let's use the Canon t2i as an example. This is a very popular camera and it has been hard for retailers to keep in stock. This kind of scenario is a dream for B/S retailers. They will list the product as in-stock and this alone attracts a lot of attention.
3. Do your homework!
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| A screen grab on resellerratings.com for an obvious B/S retailer. |
So if B/S retailers are listing on popular services such as Google Shopping AND listing the products at "believable" prices, how are you supposed to know if the retailer is legit? To complicate things even further, B/S retailers have infested Google Shopping and other search engines with bogus positive reviews. While Google has worked to address this kind of situation, they can be on top of every retailer listing all of the time. The answer is to use a reliable rating website like ResellerRatings.com. Reseller ratings has a very good reputation for providing accurate customer assessment of a business. If you see a bad rating from a customer it doesn't mean the retailer is a B/S company. No retailer is perfect and people make mistakes. However if you see a complaint involving any of the bait and switch practices that I listed above, avoid the retailer at all costs! When these guys are caught and the word spreads around, they simply take down their website and relaunch it under a different name. Resellerratings.com has done an excellent job tracking these crooks down and grouping their companies together so the listings for their new companies will include their old aliases as well.
4. The Brick and Mortar Backbone
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| A typical B/S physical "Storefront" Photo Credit: Don Wiss |
In this day and age, it isn't that uncommon for major online retailers to not have a physical brick and mortar store front. However when you are purchasing from a company that DOES have a brick and mortar store, there is a lot more security in knowing that you are buying from a legitimate company that runs a successful local business in addition to their online store. Many B/S retailers have faux storefront addresses, almost all of them in Brooklyn, NY. I am not suggesting you drive to Brooklyn or Manhattan to try finding these scoundrels, but luckily for us an informed photographer (and watch dog) Don Wiss has posted pictures of many retailer's physical locations on his website. Some retailers work exclusively as an online business and their only physical location is a warehouse and maybe some office space. This doesn't mean they are illegitimate sellers. Take a look at the picture on the left, would you go there to buy an expensive camera?
5. Spread the Word
Even though bait and switch practices have been common for decades, people are still getting tricked all of the time. Many of you may say to yourselves, "Oh that would never happen to me, I know how to shop online." This may be true, but what about your Aunt Carol or Grandma Maddy? The whole concept of buying online is new to them and they are fish in shark infested waters. Bad companies are looking to take away their hard earned money. That's who these scammers are targeting. If it wasn't still working, they would move on to another type of scheme. Please share this information with anyone you know who is looking to purchase a camera. I hope that you will take a moment to send this link to your friends and family.