Matt Agnello
Member
After doing the research and reading these forums for a while, I'm seriously considering purchasing this camera. My only problem is where to buy it. Price is certainly a consideration, but I'm looking for a place to protect my investment: that is, a solid protection plan, good customer service, and minimal cost. After two or four years, I want to have a camera in tip-top shape that I can sell in the best condition possible. Right now, I'm torn between Circuit City, Best Buy and Amazon.
So far I've had very good experiences purchasing electronics from Amazon but never something as expensive as this camera, and I don't have experience with the quality of their repairs. They provide basically the same coverage as Circuit City and Best Buy but at a lower price. One rather vague clause is damage incurred through "normal wear and tear," which could mean almost anything. The price of the camera is also lower than both.
I've been reading a lot of horror stories about Circuit City lately, but those exist for everybody. Circuit City has a good plan to protects against damage incurred during "normal use" which could also mean just about anything, although they claim it covers things like dropping it and other accidents. CC tends to have a cheap camera price but very expensive protection plans ($100 more than Amazon). I'm pretty sure if I went to a store and talked to an associate, I could get the plan dropped in price by about $30-50.
I know the least about Best Buy since I've only ever bought accessories and CDs from them. They have the most expensive camera price (by only a dozen dollars or so) but a protection plan about the same as Amazon's ("normal wear and tear," not accidental damage) plus a couple dollars. The advantage over Amazon is that I can take it in to an actual store to have work done on it with the ability to talk to people face to face instead of over the phone (had some nightmares with that in the past). But I don't know the quality of the work or their commitment to keeping the equipment in good-as-new condition.
If anyone has experience purchasing cameras from these guys or you have some other suggestions, I'd love to hear about it.
So far I've had very good experiences purchasing electronics from Amazon but never something as expensive as this camera, and I don't have experience with the quality of their repairs. They provide basically the same coverage as Circuit City and Best Buy but at a lower price. One rather vague clause is damage incurred through "normal wear and tear," which could mean almost anything. The price of the camera is also lower than both.
I've been reading a lot of horror stories about Circuit City lately, but those exist for everybody. Circuit City has a good plan to protects against damage incurred during "normal use" which could also mean just about anything, although they claim it covers things like dropping it and other accidents. CC tends to have a cheap camera price but very expensive protection plans ($100 more than Amazon). I'm pretty sure if I went to a store and talked to an associate, I could get the plan dropped in price by about $30-50.
I know the least about Best Buy since I've only ever bought accessories and CDs from them. They have the most expensive camera price (by only a dozen dollars or so) but a protection plan about the same as Amazon's ("normal wear and tear," not accidental damage) plus a couple dollars. The advantage over Amazon is that I can take it in to an actual store to have work done on it with the ability to talk to people face to face instead of over the phone (had some nightmares with that in the past). But I don't know the quality of the work or their commitment to keeping the equipment in good-as-new condition.
If anyone has experience purchasing cameras from these guys or you have some other suggestions, I'd love to hear about it.
