I person that discussed their discount because of a mistake was me.
ysultan and I have talked about it using PM's, and my mistake was pointed out to me.
I didn't receive an email stating to not discuss the make up offer.
So I spilled the beans on the price that I got.
From my experience, there's no harm in disclosing the dealer who is going to fulfill the order. IMO this might even bolsters the confidence for potential users of Greentoe. As for this being a courtesy/goodwill service, it's not true. This is a business arrangement b/w dealer, manufacturer and GT, all of whom know what others are doing at various stages of processing the orders. Some of GT "employees" may go overboard with offering discounts, such orders are quickly corrected. The PO number GT offers are mapped to dealer orders and they stay in a separate queue to be fulfilled. My A7R III buying experience working with multiple dealers via GT makes me skeptical of their abilities to get the dealers to fulfill orders on time. They are in the business of manually building an alternate order pipeline and work mostly with daily negotiated rates for the items from each dealer. Also, Sony has known to allow dealers to sell at their discretionary price when there's a stock surplus. This has led to few rare days of awesome deals on A9. I know some users here has reaped the benefits but don't want to disclose. To each their own!
fotografur wrote:
It’s zero risk. Just might be a longer than B&H ship wait.
And have fun with yours.....
Not zero risk. I am currently battling with a Greentoe vendor (a certain C Camera) to refund a A7R3 return that I tried to cancel before shipment (but was lied to and told that it had already shipped). The store received return almost ten days ago and there is no refund so far. Emails to the store, and greentoe are so far unanswered.
I should note that I paid with Paypal, so if there was a refund I would get instantaneous notification. I am not worried about the money yet, but the headache is definitely worth something.
Now I have purchased from this vendor via Greentoe before. but when the order was straightforward, there was no issue. It is only when there are exceptions that you know about these things.
indusphoto wrote:
Not zero risk. I am currently battling with a Greentoe vendor (a certain C Camera) to refund a A7R3 return that I tried to cancel before shipment (but was lied to and told that it had already shipped). The store received return almost ten days ago and there is no refund so far. Emails to the store, and greentoe are so far unanswered.
I should note that I paid with Paypal, so if there was a refund I would get instantaneous notification. I am not worried about the money yet, but the headache is definitely worth something.
Now I have purchased from this vendor via Greentoe before. but when the order was straightforward, there was no issue. It is only when there are exceptions that you know about these things.
Had similar issues with Cardinal Camera during A7R3 pre order! They lied multiple times on the phone about stock availability and offered to refund once I raised the concern with GT. So you are not alone. I should also acknowledge that several other members here have had good experiences with them via GT. So it depends on case but I'd avoid them dealing with them next time.
indusphoto wrote:
Not zero risk. I am currently battling with a Greentoe vendor (a certain C Camera) to refund a A7R3 return that I tried to cancel before shipment (but was lied to and told that it had already shipped). The store received return almost ten days ago and there is no refund so far. Emails to the store, and greentoe are so far unanswered.
I should note that I paid with Paypal, so if there was a refund I would get instantaneous notification. I am not worried about the money yet, but the headache is definitely worth something.
Now I have purchased from this vendor via Greentoe before. but when the order was straightforward, there was no issue. It is only when there are exceptions that you know about these things.
prosumerhacks wrote:
Had similar issues with Cardinal Camera during A7R3 pre order! They lied multiple times on the phone about stock availability and offered to refund once I raised the concern with GT. So you are not alone. I should also acknowledge that several other members here have had good experiences with them via GT. So it depends on case but I'd avoid them dealing with them next time.
How can we avoid them? The retailer is not disclosed until the order is accepted, and billed. You can't cancel the order according to GT terms of service. You can only return the item (tracked and insured at your expense).
fotografur wrote:
Good to know. We need to share these experiences, good and bad.
In my conversations with GT CEO, I've been told that they plan to or are spending money on affiliate marketing and/or advertising on social media including FM. At this time, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility and indeed for the sake of full disclosure, for them to publish a list of US retailers they work with. I'd assume that we are within our rights to ask them who they share our personal information with as it's our data and money being transacted on by GT. I believe this is how sites like CanonPriceWatch works too.
fotografur wrote:
How can we avoid them? The retailer is not disclosed until the order is accepted, and billed. You can't cancel the order according to GT terms of service. You can only return the item (tracked and insured at your expense).
You have the option to call and cancel if you do not wish to proceed.
prosumerhacks wrote:
You have the option to call and cancel if you do not wish to proceed.
They make no mention of that. They only have this
"Can I cancel my offer?
Unfortunately no. At this time, once an offer is submitted you cannot cancel it."
fotografur wrote:
They make no mention of that. They only have this
"Can I cancel my offer?
Unfortunately no. At this time, once an offer is submitted you cannot cancel it."
Once an offer is accepted, paid for but before the item is actually shipped, there's a window of opportunity to either call GT or retailer directly to cancel the order. Not saying this is encouraged but it is possible. This is same with any regular retailer. If I were to speculate, GT probably submits the order to a retailer and waits for shipping confirmation before it's relayed back to the customer. The turnaround time for a retailer to fulfilling an order is mostly dependent how soon they can pack and ship via their chosen carrier. This happens mostly before close of business hours each day or for orders placed before an actual cut off time which varies for each store depending on the volume they service. Most establishments GT works with are relatively smaller operations when compared to B&H or Adorama. So there's plenty of opportunity to call and cancel within few hours of placing the order should you need to. The reason this is discouraged is because of the hassle it creates for the retailer by whoever uses GT. So GT gets the rap if someone cancels.
prosumerhacks wrote:
In my conversations with GT CEO, I've been told that they plan to or are spending money on affiliate marketing and/or advertising on social media including FM. At this time, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility and indeed for the sake of full disclosure, for them to publish a list of US retailers they work with. I'd assume that we are within our rights to ask them who they share our personal information with as it's our data and money being transacted on by GT. I believe this is how sites like CanonPriceWatch works too.
I dont think they can do that. The GT model is a way to bypass manufacturer's minimum advertised and minimum selling price. Publicly announcing the dealers participating in this scheme will put the dealers at risk of action by manufacturers.
indusphoto wrote:
I dont think they can do that. The GT model is a way to bypass manufacturer's minimum advertised and minimum selling price. Publicly announcing the dealers participating in this scheme will put the dealers at risk of action by manufacturers.
Highly doubt this is the case. Manufacturers are most likely aware of this arrangement even though they don’t actively encourage or discourage it. Enforcing MAP would be counter productive to most manufacturer’s goal to pocket the discretionary spending by customers with so many competing models and products coming out in short span of time. One could also argue that grey market business could be countered by promoting selling models like GT provided they are allowed to grow and flourish. Only time will tell.
stflbn wrote:
It's not "price-fixing"... it's Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) which sellers much adhere to or lose their right to sell that manufacturers products.
However, they "can" add others items or such into a deal to add value to the sale.
Greentoe asks you to not disclose the SELLER. Disclosing the price motivates others to use the service.
Of course it is. Have you ever seen a price that is higher than msrp?
prosumerhacks wrote:
Highly doubt this is the case. Manufacturers are most likely aware of this arrangement even though they don’t actively encourage or discourage it. Enforcing MAP would be counter productive to most manufacturer’s goal to pocket the discretionary spending by customers with so many competing models and products coming out in short span of time. One could also argue that grey market business could be countered by promoting selling models like GT provided they are allowed to grow and flourish. Only time will tell.
If they wanted to, they would simply relax their MAP restrictions. There is a good reason GT stresses that their retailer names are not revealed. Their authorized status will be in jeopardy.
Right now, GT volume is low and they are flying under the Radar. Imagine if the competitors (B&H/Amazon) start complaining about this to manufacturers.
