Tri-State Camera - Red Hook — Local services in New York

THIS REVIEW IS TO GIVE YOU MY EXPERIENCE. I wanted to purchase a copy of the Sony 18-105mm F4 lens. I usually try to order everything from B&H, but they wanted $648 plus tax (which would have come to $686). I was slightly uncomfortable paying that much, so I looked around at a few different places. I looked on Adorama and they also wanted $648 plus tax too. Then I started to look at used lenses. I looked on MPB and KEH and the best deal I found was $477 for a lens in 9+ condition. A friend suggested I looked at Amazon warehouse, but The deals weren’t good enough and you get no warranty, and you could literally be receiving anything. So then I found Tristate Camera on eBay, but I didn’t want to order through eBay. So I went on Tristate cameras website and found that they wanted flat out $499 for the lens with free shipping & no tax!! I know it has to be a grey market lens, but I’m okay with that! It still comes with a 1 year warranty, just not a manufacturers warranty. I received a tristate camera warranty card that offers a 1 year warranty that’s similar to the manufacturers warranty (which is okay by me). So, price was great and I noticed that they ship out all items within 1-2 days. Now, this is the BEST part! I ordered the lens on a Wednesday morning at 4:50am. NO LIE, the lens came the very next day (Thursday) at 11:50am. It took exactly 31 hours from me ordering, for me to have my lens in my hands!! It came in original packaging, with all paperwork inside too!! I’ve seen some pretty bad reviews here and I’m not discrediting any of them. All I’m saying is, I had an amazing experience. I‘ve had such a good experience that I’ll DEFINITELY be ordering from them again! I hope this helps everyone who reads it and I hope you have an experience as...

Unfortunately they wont honor their own prices on their website. I purchased a lens from their website thinking I was getting a great deal. Got a confirmation email and everything. No call, no email. I called to check on the status of my order and was told they weren't going to fill it because of a "price glitch" in the system. Seems pretty shady all around. I have ordered from Tristate before and had no issues with them. The right thing from a customer service perspective would have been to honor the price and for them to fix their "error" going forward. Shop elsewhere, its not worth the hassle.

Update following response :

I was offered a slight discount, not a substantial discount. The right thing to do from a customer service perspective would have been to honor the price and correct the price error thereafter. I would be surprised if there were a “substantial” amount of orders on such a specific niche lens. I didn’t find the good price on a search engine. I went to Tristates website on my own to look for the lens since I had purchased from them before. I never saw the price from tristate in any searches I did...

I'm unable to leave a positive review due to poor communications and overwhelming uncertainty that my order would be fulfilled.

Order confirmation received. Credit card charged (full amount). Patiently waited for shipping confirmation, but after 4 business days nothing was received. Called for shipping information on 5th day and was told the tracking information would be e-mailed to me. Another 24 hours pass and no tracking information. I patiently waited one more day and no tracking information. Three attempts to call produced produced the same results, "you're #1 on customer service wait list and nobody answers (after more than 5 minute wait - it was timed).

I disputed my credit card charges. Shipment notifications from an unknown vendor began arriving. My order was waiting for me when I returned home.

In the end, order received. It's unfortunate I don't have the confidence in Tri-State Camera to return

**All attempts to find a "retail store" led to a run down warehouse. My best assumption is Tri-State Camera is...