Complaint Review: Primotronix

My children bought me a Sony rx100. The only good thing, and when I say only I mean only, about this website is that they are indeed the cheapest price. HOWEVER, let me state at the outset that I would NEVER order from them again, and I am still contemplating if I will take any other action against them. My son ordered the camera in mid December. By January, after not having received it he tried several times to call the company, and like the other reviewers, was placed on hold interminably. The last time he tried to contact them was the morning he was leaving out of the country. He waited on hold about 20 minutes and finally had to leave to the airport so he forwarded me the email "confirmation" and put it in my lap (even though it was supposed to be my bday present,lol). It did take me considerable time to get through, but I finally did reach a gentleman in sales (i figured they would be more likely to answer the call if they thought it was a new order rather than trying customer service again which never pick up). It was a long and irritating conversation but he basically told me that the item was out of stock when my son ordered it but now it was in so if I still wanted it they would ship it out and due to the extended delay they would upgrade the shipping to "express". I wont bore you with the details but their express could probably be beat by the Pony Express of yesteryear. You would think that the problems ended there, but you would be WRONG. A letter accompanied the package pleading that before you post negative reviews you contact their customer service department because " we are here to always assist you in any way possible, we are eager to be there for you". Well, I had two issues, one was the incredible delay in shipping and the second was a $48 charge on the invoice for "tax". Regarding the first issue they told many LIES. First they said that an automated response went out AT THE TIME THE ORDER WAS PLACED notifying us that the item was out of stock. NOT TRUE no such email. Then they said that THEY CONTACTED US ON JANUARY 2, to let us know there would be a delay and did we still want the item. AGAIN ABSOLUTE LIE. The call on January 2 was the one I mentioned earlier when I CALLED THEM to see where my missing item was and it was then that the rep asked me if I still wanted it. Regarding my second issue about the tax: I questioned them about it due to the fact that their company shows an address in Connecticut (and no other location!) and since they shipped to me in NY, no sales tax should have been charged. They said that their website states as "company policy" that they charge tax for the tri-state area. I believe that this is ANOTHER LIE. Although I will not read through every area of their website, I did read their company policy area and no where there does it state that. Furthermore company policy aside, the LAW STATES that if they are located in another state they may not charge sales tax. All of a sudden he tells me that their warehouse is in NY (will do more research shortly to verify)Regardless, what came next is what was really the icing on the cake!!! Because my last name is "Jewish sounding", the manager got on the phone and started ranting at me (keep in mind I was just inquiring about the legality of charging state sales tax when the item was, ostensibly, shipped out of state)about that he recognizes from my name that I am a Jew, as was he, and accused me in a loud rant of insulting my religion and my G-d, and simply being out for trying to get something for free (for the record I never asked for something for free or anything for free for that matter, and indeed turned down his offer of a free battery to satisfy my desire to "get something for nothing (which was) clearly what I was after" (his words not mine!). Now it happens that I am Jewish, and because I am I am highly offended by this COMPLETELY UNPROFESSIONAL, DEROGATORY, AND perhaps even ILLEGAL encounter. And it is this last bit that has spurred me on to explore my options vis a vis this company. At the very least there should be some business licensing ramifications, and luckily my son (an adult, and a lawyer) was in on the call so it won't just be my word against theirs!"