p.9 #1 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I can see interactions going both ways with the owner of Cardinal. I will explain by telling you a little story.
As a preface I will say that I have bought two items from Cardinal Camera. In both cases I got a good price, and prompt service.
On to the story.
In May, in response to an email offering a discount if I called, I pre-ordered the new Tamron 70-180mm f2.8. He did in fact give me a nice discount, and said that I was #5 on the list so my order would go out with the first shipment. I paid in full at the time of the order.
All good so far.
I never did receive a confirmation receipt for my order, or any other form of acknowledgement. I did see the transaction against my credit card.
Tamron announced that shipments would begin on Friday May 15th. In absence of a confirmation from Cardinal, I called on Monday May 11th to confirm that all was OK with my order, and I would still be shipped in the first batch.
Everytime I called the phone would be picked up and slammed down before I could say a word. Over the next few days I called more and more frequently, all with the same result. I really started to get worried. But I kept up with my attempts to get through.
Finally, on Wednesday May 13th in response to a slammed down phone call, I got a text message. I won't quote it here because it consisted mainly of swearing, and name calling. It also said I had already been refunded on my order. Confused, I checked with my CC, and no refund. Now I was really getting confused and concerned.
Still unable to get through by phone I responded to the text saying I didn't understand his anger, and didn't receive any sort of refund. After some more back and forth texts it became apparent that he had me mixed up with some other customer because our phone numbers were similar.
Thankfully I had kept my part of the conversations polite and professional through some pretty rude texts, even though I was angry about being treated this way. To his credit, he did profusely apologize when his error became clear to him.
As far as my transaction was concerned, it turns out my lens had shipped the preceding Monday, and arrived on Thursday the 14th. Almost a week earlier than promised. Had I not called to get status I would have considered the whole transaction exceptionally good service. It is not often you get a discount, and early shipping on a preorder for a high demand item.
I don't know the details of the transaction with the guy I was mistaken for. But I am guessing he would come down on the never do business with these guys. For sure a customer should never be spoken to in the manner he did when he thought I was him.
While this experience does show me that in a problematic transaction management at Cardinal may be a bit volatile and not handle things in a way that would be called professional.
Maybe these opposite kinds of customer experiences are the reason for the strongly polarized views that are being expressed so strongly in this thread.
p.9 #2 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
1bwana1 wrote:
I can see interactions going both ways with he owner of Cardinal. I will explain by telling you a little story.
As a preface I will say that I have bought two items from Cardinal Camera. In both cases I got a good price, and prompt service.
On to the story.
In May, in response to an email offering a discount if I called, I pre-ordered the new Tamron 70-180mm f2.8. He did in fact give me a nice discount, and said that I was #5 on the list so my order would go out with the first shipment. I paid in full at the time of the order.
All good so far.
I never did receive a confirmation receipt for my order, or any other form of acknowledgement. I did see the transaction against my credit card.
Tamron announced that shipments would begin on Friday May 15th. In absence of a confirmation from Cardinal, I called on Monday May 11th to confirm that all was OK with my order, and I would still be shipped in the first batch.
Everytime I called the phone would be picked up and slammed down before I could say a word. Over the next few days I called more and more frequently, all with the same result. I really started to get worried. But I kept up with my attempts to get through.
Finally, on Wednesday May 13th in response to a slammed down phone call, I got a text message. I won't quote it here because it consisted mainly of swearing, and name calling. It also said I had already been refunded on my order. Confused, I checked with my CC, and no refund. Now I was really getting confused and concerned.
Still unable to get through by phone I responded to the text saying I didn't understand his anger, and didn't receive any sort of refund. After some more back and forth texts it became apparent that he had me mixed up with some other customer because our phone numbers were similar.
Thankfully I had kept my part of the conversations polite and professional through some pretty rude texts, even though I was angry about being treated this way. To his credit, he did profusely apologize when his error became clear to him.
As far as my transaction was concerned, it turns out my lens had shipped the preceding Monday, and arrived on Thursday the 14th. Almost a week earlier than promised. Had I not called to get status I would have considered the whole transaction exceptionally good service. It is not often you get a discount, and early shipping on a preorder for a high demand item.
I don't know the details of the transaction with the guy I was mistaken for. But I am guessing he would come down on the never do business with these guys. For sure a customer should never be spoken to in the manner he did when he thought I was him.
While this experience does show me that in a problematic transaction management at Cardinal may be a bit volatile and not handle things in a way that would be called professional.
Maybe these opposite kinds of customer experiences are the reason for the strongly polarized views that are being expressed so strongly in this thread....Show more →
This sounds exactly like the guys I know at this store. If your transaction goes smoothly, you will be happy and feel like you got a good deal. If there is a problem with the transaction, be prepared to be treated VERY poorly. It seems your politeness carried you through the experience with a positive outcome.
p.9 #3 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
galenapass wrote:
I am saying that if someone here has a bad experience (especially if that is mirrored by others on the same thread) then that experience is just as valid as yours. In general, I don't see FM people outright lying. If someone has a beef here I take it at face value. That was their experience....and it is valid one. It might be different than mine but it never works to marginalize someone else's opinion because you think yours is better.
My experience was that I used to live just down the street in Lansdale so this was my local photo store while I was at Merck for 7 years. I am not claiming that every transaction with this store will go bad, I just happen to personally know these guys and I can see why some will complain. They can be rude and irritating. So yes, if you have had a good experience then great. I acknowledge that. I have as well. On the other hand, I have also had some really bad in-person experiences physically at the store. If someone calls them a crook...I get that as well. There is room here for all opinions to be correct. By the way, I still order from these guys occasionally, but I don't expect good customer service if there is an issue. So you take a chance in my experience.
Point is you have your opinion, others have theirs. We should all respect that....Show more →
Calling an entity a crook based on few experiences out of thousands is a little more than sharing an experience. And I've never discounted his experience, I just think he's making much ado about nothing. Mistakes happen. We move on.
I've never had these issues. When I place an order through GT (whether it be preorder or not), I know I'm getting a good discount and I'm fine waiting. If I needed the item immediately, I would take a different route. I've called Cardinal once to check on an order and the lady gave me a valid update, and I had my camera in a week.
Anyway, by all means, stop using them. Save that cheap stock for the rest of us.
p.9 #4 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I had an unsatisfactory experience with Cardinal to the point that Greentoe had to intervene. It's easy enough to exclude them from your bid responses although they seem to be among the very few Sony retailers that now participate with Greentoe. While I would personally be reluctant to patronize them again they do seem to be heavily involved in photography (as distinguished from simply selling cameras), offering a wide range of classes, events, promotions, etc.
p.9 #5 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
Man, I should have read these threads before. I was thinking of buying Tamron 28-200mm and right when clicking on the B&H submit button I somehow remembered about Greentoe, so I put an offer there for less price. Surprise surprise today morning I see my card is charged and it say cardinal camera. Now just hope there are no issues like some where mention and I get the lens hopefully within a week.
p.9 #6 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
bobby350z wrote:
Man, I should have read these threads before. I was thinking of buying Tamron 28-200mm and right when clicking on the B&H submit button I somehow remembered about Greentoe, so I put an offer there for less price. Surprise surprise today morning I see my card is charged and it say cardinal camera. Now just hope there are no issues like some where mention and I get the lens hopefully within a week.
Bobby, I would say the odds are very much in your favor for having a good smooth transaction. Cardinal is a large dealer in Tamron products. They tend to have a good inventory on hand, and the ability to give great prices.
p.9 #7 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
1bwana1 wrote:
Bobby, I would say the odds are very much in your favor for having a good smooth transaction. Cardinal is a large dealer in Tamron products. They tend to have a good inventory on hand, and the ability to give great prices.
p.9 #10 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I put in a bid for the Tamron 70-180 a month or so after it came out and they wouldn't negotiate. My wife and I head out on a week long RV excursion on Monday and after setting up our camp I get an email from Greentoe that there had been a price reduction so I put in near my original bid. Cardinal countered $19 higher so I took it. It arrived 2 hours after I returned home yesterday. I have always had good service from both.
p.9 #11 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I'd like to add another "do not buy" suggestion for Cardinal/Greentoe, as well. I purchased a Tamron 70-180 earlier this year and needed to return it. It took several months of emailing to get Kurt/Cheryl there to address the refund after receiving my return a month earlier. I ended up having Amex challenge the charge and was refunded through them. Greentoe was great while making the purchase, but was of no help once the purchase was complete. I highly do not recommend either and will gladly just pay retail through B&H, Adorama, Local Shop, etc. It's not worth the headache and gamble.
p.9 #12 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I would like to share a positive experience I had with Cardinal Camera via Greentoe. I purchased a Canon RF 50 f1.8 lens at a great price. It arrived and was a very poor copy of the lens with some serious softness issues. Canon's issue, not Cardinal or Greentoe. I setup and exchange for a replacement via Cardinal and it went very quickly and without much more than an email or two. The replacement was much, much better. They get a double thumbs up from me and I have purchased three or four lenses through them.
p.9 #17 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I’ve bought from Cardinal four or five times in the last few years and had a great experience each time. Had a return on one item and they were great about it. Two of my purchases were just made there.
p.9 #19 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I've had 4 transactions with Cardinal through Greentoe.
Two went fine, another one eventually worked out.
The last one was just as bad as many people here experienced.
It's now over 2 months since my card was charged and still no camera and a complete lack of communication from them (tried email and phone multiple times). Currently doing a credit card dispute to get my money back.
p.9 #20 · Do not buy from Cardinal Camera / Greentoe! You have been warned.
I have had some good experiences with Cardinal through GreenToe however the last two were bad and I have decided to not even use GreenToe again. It seems there is little GreenToe can do when you have a bad experience.
