I'm looking for a digital camera, specifically a Nikon D50 digital SLR camera. It's my latest tech-obsession ... well ... at least the one that I am most likely to indulge. I've been reading all of the reviews at Steve's Digicams, Digital Photography Review, Digital Camera Resource page, Epinions, Amazon.com, and Consumer Reports ... so I think I have it narrowed down to the one that I want to buy. Unless someone knows of a better camera for the money?
At any rate, the real story is the search for the best price. I've got a few favorite sites that I like to check into as far as pricing goes ... but this time around I thought I would check froogle.google.com as well. Usually google doesn't steer me wrong, but this time I have cause to question. When performing a search in froogle.google.com it will return your results like normal, then a list of paid search "ads" on the right column. Whoopee I thought ...
I used the search term "D50" and the top 2 ads on the right coulmn were ExpressCamera and BestPriceCamera - both of which were "new" to me. Being click happy, I thought I would check them out. I started poking around and everything looked okay to me. I thought I would check out each place on resellerratings.com which I have used in the past to get feedback for online stores that I haven't heard of. Well ... come to find out that each store has HORRIBLE ratings. They are both being accused of bait-and-switch and trying to upsell customers on things that are supposed to come with the item you are purchasing.
I read Google's policy on the ads that it shows, and they attempt to distance themselves from any responsiblity for the ads they show. I wonder how long that will last. Hmm ... so many issues with that.
The lesson I took is, as is most often true with anything, let the buyer beware and use ALL of the tools at your fingertips to ensure you are purchasing from a reputible seller.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
