Photographer Thomas Hawk is on top of the camera store scammers after his experiences with PriceRitePhoto. I had written about him before here and here.
Well today, he found out that they were bailing out of the old name and had reopened as a different company:
PriceRitePhoto Update #21, Changing Names at eBay to Barclay's PhotoScum. In my last post "More fun with cameras" I said:
Update #21: One of the things that these shady camera dealers seem to have a reputation for is carrying multiple different company identities and then changing names when things go wrong with an existing identity. So go figure that PriceRitePhoto has just changed their identity on on eBay on Monday of this week from PriceRitePhoto to "Barclay's Photo." Now barclaysphoto can welcome in a whole new round of suckers. Barclay's, like the bank, now that sounds catchy.
Of course Barclay's (formerly known as PriceRitePhoto) seems to have a bit better feedback on eBay than they've had on the other shopping comparison sites (where they've been bounced). My guess is that this is because it is harder to bait and switch on eBay. You can't make up fake feedback there like you can at Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber because each feedback must be tied to a specific transaction. Perhaps their behavior and treatment of eBay customers is better than the other comparison shopping sites. It is interesting though that almost everything that they've sold on eBay seems to be packaged with accessories. This might make it easier for them to be nice when they are making money on a transaction and not advertising rock bottom prices to then bait and switch.
They still do have some negative feedback on eBay of course with things like: "great product and great deal,but shipping took forever and alot of telemarketing," and "Terrible co. to deal with. Misrepresentation. Bait & Switch on their web site."
Why do some niche businesses have such entrenched pathologies?We can add BestBuy's lack of good prices and very pushy sales people. Buy any bit of technology and they try to run an extended warranty down your throat.
Oriental Carpet stores always seem to be having �Going out of Business� sales. The hassle of Car Dealerships �negotiating the deal and checking with the manager� bullshit. Th NY State deep-discount technology stores.
