HDV Tools - Has anyone used this company?

S

Simon Shasha

Well-known member
I stumbled along a Chicago based reseller called HDVTools (http://www.hdvtools.com) - their prices are really amazing, but I'm not sure if this site is legit, or if it's simply too good to be true...

Has anyone on here had any dealings with this company?
 
I had never heard of them before, but a few things seem suspicious. The address given (70 West Madison St., Chicago, IL, 60602) is a 57-story office building known as Three First National Plaza -- not a place you'd expect to find either a warehouse or a retail store. The official tenant directory for Three First National Plaza (http://www.property-website.com/pws/sites/14/live/propertydirectory/tenantdirectory.jsp) does not include anything remotely like "B & L Photo Video" or "HDV Tools." And this address doesn't match the telephone area code (224) on their page -- that area covers the northeastern suburbs of Chicago, but not the city itself. Their "hours of operation" page includes a list of dates for closures which looks like an exact copy of B&H's calendar, including all the Jewish holidays. Some of the page footers refer to "B & L Photo Video Inc." I could find no meaningful information on the web about that company, although there is a "B & L Photo" in Carbondale, Illinois, at the extreme other end of the state, which looks like a legitimate mom'n'pop type camera store. And finally, their product listings are not entirely up to date -- the Panasonic AC90 is not included, for example.

Taken as a whole, this just don't smell quite right, especially since no one seems to have heard of this company before. What it looks like is that somebody has grabbed a huge amount of content from the B&H site and reformatted it -- although that must have been a massive job. I'd remain totally skeptical about this operation unless someone here can vouch for having a good experience buying from them.

And I'm interested -- and did this checking -- because the prices are pretty great, probably unrealistically so, and I'm in the market for an AC90 and maybe an HPX370 in the near future. So if they are legit, I'd love to know about this new option.

- Greg
 
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Greg Smith said:
I had never heard of them before, but a few things seem suspicious. The address given (70 West Madison St., Chicago, IL, 60602) is a 57-story office building known as Three First National Plaza -- not a place you'd expect to find either a warehouse or a retail store. The official tenant directory for Three First National Plaza (http://www.property-website.com/pws/sites/14/live/propertydirectory/tenantdirectory.jsp) does not include anything remotely like "B & L Photo Video" or "HDV Tools." And this address doesn't match the telephone area code (224) on their page -- that area covers the northeastern suburbs of Chicago, but not the city itself. Their "hours of operation" page includes a list of dates for closures which looks like an exact copy of B&H's calendar, including all the Jewish holidays. Some of the page footers refer to "B & L Photo Video Inc." I could find no meaningful information on the web about that company, although there is a "B & L Photo" in Carbondale, Illinois, at the extreme other end of the state, which looks like a legitimate mom'n'pop type camera store. And finally, their product listings are not entirely up to date -- the Panasonic AC90 is not included, for example.

Taken as a whole, this just don't smell quite right, especially since no one seems to have heard of this company before. What it looks like is that somebody has grabbed a huge amount of content from the B&H site and reformatted it -- although that must have been a massive job. I'd remain totally skeptical about this operation unless someone here can vouch for having a good experience buying from them.

And I'm interested -- and did this checking -- because the prices are pretty great, probably unrealistically so, and I'm in the market for an AC90 and maybe an HPX370 in the near future. So if they are legit, I'd love to know about this new option.

- Greg
Click to expand...

Awesome analysis, Greg! I came to pretty much the same conclusion, also noticing the B&H similarities. For a moment I thought that maybe all their stock is grey-market...

The reason the site caught my attention was because they're selling an FS700 body for $6000.

But when I saw this price on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera ($2145.00), and the fact that it says "usually ships in 3-5 business days", something was definitely wrong: http://www.hdvtools.com/proddetail.php?prod=BLCINECAM
 
Yes, PHONY SITE. I stupidly ordered a lens from them at a price $200 less than anybody else, thinking I was taking advantage of somebody. They cancelled the order, didn't charge my card, and took down the listing for the lens and now it is back up again. I don't know what their game is, but they have put a lot of work into simulating a real site. Call any of their numbers and it goes to a foreign accented voice mail. I found a similar web site in Thai. Are they gathering credit card numbers?

UPDATE 3/20/13: Visa fraud dept. called, said there were 4 suspicious charges on my card. Cancelled the card.
 
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Tom Foolery said:
Yes, PHONY SITE. I stupidly ordered a lens from them at a price $200 less than anybody else, thinking I was taking advantage of somebody. They cancelled the order, didn't charge my card, and took down the listing for the lens and now it is back up again. I don't know what their game is, but they have put a lot of work into simulating a real site. Call any of their numbers and it goes to a foreign accented voice mail. I found a similar web site in Thai. Are they gathering credit card numbers?
Click to expand...

I think that is precisely what they're doing. Have you cancelled your card since?
 
OK, here's their scam: They now don't take credit cards, all payments go through a company called Liberty Reserve which takes wire transfers, western union, etc. so my guess is you pays your money and you gets NOTHING in return, and you have no recourse at all, the money is just gone like you sent it to a guy in Nigeria or Russia. Wow.

UPDATE 3/20/13: Visa fraud dept. called, said there were 4 suspicious charges on my card. Cancelled the card.
 
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Tom Foolery said:
OK, here's their scam: They now don't take credit cards, all payments go through a company called Liberty Reserve which takes wire transfers, western union, etc. so my guess is you pays your money and you gets NOTHING in return, and you have no recourse at all, the money is just gone like you sent it to a guy in Nigeria or Russia. Wow.
Click to expand...

Probably the credit card companies got a whiff of what they were doing and cut them off, so they've had to find a different way to steal your money. But the new one is so obvious I can't imagine many people will fall for it (I hope).

- Greg
 
That's what people said about SLRHut but they are a legitimate store.

I ordered a £2500 camera. Spoke to several customer service staff. In the end I got so nervous I thought i'd better cancel and hope I get my money back. But, guess what? Every penny was returned as promised. And now im using a UK company and paying £250 more for my order as I need it asap.

Im sure HDVTools are legit. Place a small order yourself, see what happens.
 
CinematicFanatic said:
That's what people said about SLRHut but they are a legitimate store.

I ordered a £2500 camera. Spoke to several customer service staff. In the end I got so nervous I thought i'd better cancel and hope I get my money back. But, guess what? Every penny was returned as promised. And now im using a UK company and paying £250 more for my order as I need it asap.

Im sure HDVTools are legit. Place a small order yourself, see what happens.
Click to expand...

SlrHut is just as phony. It took about three minutes of research to discover this. If it sounds to good to be true it usually is.
 
Call 911, or the FBI, or the justice dept?

They're advertising on Australian websites (probably think we're real suckers and harder for us to get our money back). There's no way they can be legitimately selling the BMCC for $2145 or any other camera at the advertised prices.
 
CinematicFanatic said:
That's what people said about SLRHut but they are a legitimate store.

I ordered a £2500 camera. Spoke to several customer service staff. In the end I got so nervous I thought i'd better cancel and hope I get my money back. But, guess what? Every penny was returned as promised. And now im using a UK company and paying £250 more for my order as I need it asap.

Im sure HDVTools are legit. Place a small order yourself, see what happens.
Click to expand...

Better yet, why don't you place an order and see what happens? If most of these places can't upsell you with rediculous prices on accesories, they cancell the order. I'm guess this is what happened to cinematic fanatic. Other wise, why would they need to send back "every penny". It's amazing how others try to get people to risk using their hard earned money, very bad form.
 
I found another fake account, please share..

Remit payment in GBP to:
ACCOUNT NAME : Roberto Eduardo BALLON PERALES

ACCOUNT NUMBER : 66473894
Currency
GBP
IBAN : GB84HLFX11048266473894
SWIFTBIC : HLFXGB21N95
BANK NAME : HALIFAX PLC
MESSAGE TO BENEFICIARY: PID51589, CID766464567
 
I paid $1481 for Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck Studio Pro .
He gave me a fake tracking number but didn't ship anything.

This is another fake account, please share….



Subtotal1,420.00
PAYMENT TERMSTaxable1,420.00
Payment type: Bank Wire TransferTax rate0.000%
Remit payment in USD to:Tax-
ACCOUNT NAME : CAMILO JOSE MARTINEZ UTIELFreight61.15
IBAN : ES09 0019 0511 4340 1013 7264TOTAL1,481.15$
SWIFTBIC : DEUTESBBXXXCurrencyUSD
BANK NAME : DEUTSCHE BANK
MESSAGE TO BENEFICIARY: PID52695, CID76643675
BANK ADDRESS: PLAZA DEL AYUNTAMIENTO 20, 46002 VALENCIA, SPAIN



 
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