Well, with all this crazyness going on at work, I sorta somehow neglected to mention that on Wednesday, during lunchtime, I ordered the Canon Powershot G3! (You can read an in-depth review of the G3 here).
After reviewing online-retailer-digital-camera-prices-and-availabiliy through (As The Apple Turns sponsor and great resource) dealcam, I discovered dbuys.com had the best price — $724 plus $24 shipping/insurance. Most places are selling this camera for $799 or more! Ordering from online retailers can be a haphazard proposition, though, so I read reviews of dbuys through (another great consumer resource) epinions.com. My summary of the reviews? “Dbuys will sell you a base product at a good price, but will follow up with a phone call to try and push expensive accessories on you. Their customer service, especially their phone support, could use some work.”
My intention was to buy just the camera. I called dbuys’ 800 number instead of ordering through website, because I wanted to see just how bad their customer service could be. “Jim” answered the phone. I explained that I’d like to order the Canon Powershot G3. I heard a few clicks on a keyboard, and a few moments later he said, “that’ll be $724.” He asked me for a daytime telephone number, a credit card number, expiration date, the first line of street address (!) and my zip code. He told me the total, including the expedited shipping that I requested. “That’ll be $763, enjoy.” Click! That was the end of the call! The whole transaction took about a minute and a half.
I read on epinions that it was hard to get a tracking number from dbuys. On dbuys’ website, under “Customer Service”, is a form you can fill out with your name and email address. Presumably they’ll email you the information. They ask you to allow them one day to get your orders out the door, but after one day I still wasn’t in their system. I tried again the next day — Friday morning. Still nothing.
“Well, as soon as I get home, I’m going to email them and ask for a tracking number.” On Friday I came home to find that Fedex had tried to deliver the G3 to my door at lunchtime!
Yesterday, during my self-assigned “lunch hour” at work (I was there from 10:40 until 9:30), I picked up my package from Fedex’s branch outlet. Aww yeah! I also picked up a camera bag from Best Buy.
I’ve only had the chance to take a couple of shots indoors. The plan today is to take a few pictures outside with it. We’ll see how it goes — so far, I’m very impressed! There’s so much for me to learn!