[AstroDave]

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Moderators - if inappropriate, please delete and advise of other ways to warn potential buyer

Buyer Beware! Bait and Switch!?

It appears that there are 3 “watchers” for the “Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro HSM NEW Contemporary Lens” listed on eBay by seller Cambridgephoto: Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro HSM NEW Contemporary Lens for PENTAX CAMERAS | eBay

The listing proclaims it as the “last one” and shows “1 sold” - that sold one was to me!

If any of those watchers are here, I would advise - DO NOT BUY VIA THAT LISTING!

I bought this lens from them - so I thought! - less than two weeks ago in late August.

What I got, instead, was the older Sigma model which can be found new on eBay for less than half of the Cambridgephoto price! I did not get the “Contemporary” model, as prominently featured by Sigma in their nomenclature for the lens, and whose box is shown on the Cambridgephoto eBay listing.

When I queried them on it, I got brushed off. So, it is going back under eBay’s Money Back Guarantee.

The return label which eBay generated has the lens being returned to an addressee named “Lindenblatt” - that makes me suspicious of the only other eBay listing for this lens as new, in which it is offered by eBay seller “blattworld” (who has a rather poor feedback rating of 96.3 % - I take anything below about 97-98% to be a warning). That listing shows only a stock photo of the lens. I think I’d steer clear of this seller, too.

Guess I will go to our friends at B&H to order this lens, where they say it is on 2-4 weeks special order. Trying to avoid that wait just didn’t work!

[Unregistered User 8]

Moderators - if inappropriate, please delete and advise of other ways to warn potential buyer

There is no problem with the respectful way you have chosen to warn the members of your negative buying experience with this seller.

[aslyfox]

thanks for the heads up

[termy]

thanks a lot for the caution on Cambridgephoto and Blattworld.

Am glad my cautious stance towards them held out.

In the past 2years, there been a number of occasions they had something i was looking for.

But every time, i held back, cuz Blatt" feedback record wasnt that great (anything below 97.5%, 98%, my antennas are up) and the way Cambridge listed their items, made me wary.

On the other side of the spectrum, MPB are great, and CR Kennedy (of Australia).

[Wheatfield]

I recall a Cambridge Camera that used to advertise in Shutterbug magazine, among others in the 1980s. They had a terrible reputation for pulling fast ones on customers.
Probably no relation, but if there is a connection, it just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[AstroDave]

I recall a Cambridge Camera that used to advertise in Shutterbug magazine, among others in the 1980s. They had a terrible reputation for pulling fast ones on customers.
Probably no relation, but if there is a connection, it just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I think these are the same guys! Those ads always worried me a bit!

[Kyle_See]

I saw the exact eBay listing and fell for the same scam ....

I abandoned Nikon APS-C many years ago but picked up a used Z50 recently for an excellent price (which I think the high ISO performance has significantly improved from what I remembered). I want to buy just one "all-in-one" lens to use with FTZ adapter on this body. Cannikon are moving away from APS-C therefore price of APS-C lenses is dropping. I have a Sigma 18-200 contemporary Canon mount for my Fuji body (using Fringer adapter) as well as a Sigma 18-300 contemporary for my Pentax K70. I find that the long end of the 18-200 is significantly better than the 18-300 (not surprising given the difference in focal length in a megazoom).

Enough said .... the lens was listed as "seller refurbished" and "1 available" (I presume most people would interpret as "in stock available now"). The listing also states "include original manufacturer box". The estimated delivery time in the listing was between 1 to 3 weeks from the day of order: I didn't think about this much because shipping was by USPS and it may take a little while to ship from USA to Canada here.

The seller rating is "100%". I did not check the location of the seller.

I ordered on Jan 5 and my credit card was charged immediately. I must say I sort of forgot about this until the weekend of Jan 21/22 - it was still not shipped by then.

The strange thing was that late in the evening of Jan 25, one day before the last day of the 3-week estimated delivery time, I got a message saying "we cannot find the original box, can we send the item without box?" A big red flag pops up - I asked if I don't see the OEM box, how can I be sure it is not the listed item and not some cheaper item (yes I am also aware of at least two older versions of this lens!) - this coaxed him to say "the lens has been on display in our store, I can assure you it is in mint condition ....". Then I confront him that if (1) the listing says "1 available" ie. "available now" (2) "the lens has been on display in their store" - why would he choose to ship on the last day of the estimated delivery time and not immediately after I paid??

There are only two reasons - (1) seller never intend to ship the item, only to stall the buyer until the end of the eBay dispute period (2) same as the experience of the OP of this thread, he would ship a cheaper version of this lens - then buyer has to return the item (forced to pay for return shipping "or you dont get your money back"), plus deducting 30% "restocking fee" (is it still "30%" nowadays?) from the credit card refund. The second was also my eBay experience many years ago when the eBay dispute process was still rudimentary.

Instead of allowing the seller to proceed to ship me some garbage, or waiting for the eBay dispute process (all he needs to do is to change the status of the order to "shipped" to lock me into this cycle), I called my credit card company to cancel the payment immediately and got refunded.

Although the seller name is "cambridgephoto", the listing also shows "cambridge world" logo. I googled after the incident and find that their bad reputation have been reported in resellerratings and various photography forums. I should have been more careful and check first.