In Closing........

Well, I can now put my RitzCamera ordeal to bed. The pending charges on my credit card dropped. Whew! I will now be MUCH more careful with "unknown" companies. It was a good lesson in patience for me. Those of you who know me know that patience is not my strong suit.
So, I guess now it's just hurry up and wait for OneCall to get theirs in again....."sigh".

"The Lens" continued.......

Well, the saga continues.
When I got home a few minutes ago I checked my email and found another message from Ritz Camera to call and confirm my order. In case you missed yesterday's episode, we've already been through this. So, I called them back and got some guy with an incredibly thick accent who said his name was "John". Last night I got "Daniel". Come on Punjab, you're not fooling anyone here...... I'm not racist by any means but I hate it when companies outsource and then their CS reps tell you, in incredibly broken English, that their name is something like "Matthew" "Brenda" or "Christopher". Like that's going to fool you into thinking that you haven't just gotten some mass call center in India. Yeah, ok....I'm fooled. Whatever. Why can't they just say "My name is Rajib" or whatever it is? Is that a mandate from their company? I kind of feel sorry for them, actually. Anyway, I got "John" and he said that we needed to go through this little song and dance again. I asked if my order had been processed yet and he said "No, it ship tomorrow." This is what "Daniel" told me yesterday. At this point I'm getting a little cranky. I told him that I had been told the same thing yesterday. He just repeated "No, it ship tomorrow." I asked to cancel the order and he said ok. I also requested a cancellation number and he said he didn't have one. Something about just checking the order status on the web site in a few hours. I'm not totally confident that "John" and I communicated, but I'm praying he at least understood "CANCEL" and got it done. I plan to watch that credit card and if I see a charge I'll have to put a stop payment on it I guess. At this point I really don't have any other options.
So, feeling a little better about the whole thing I hopped over to OneCall to buy my lens. Guess what........ON ORDER!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!! NO NO NO!!!! I have to believe it was an error last night on the site that said it was in stock. I'm on their list to receive an email when it comes in and I never heard a peep and now the status is on order again. This sucks!
In the mean time, I checked my credit card online and I see there is a pending transaction for $1800. I called them to stop it and they said I can't do anything until the transaction is processed by the vendor. They said if I canceled the order I should see the pending trans disappear in 2 to 3 days. You can bet I'll be watching that one!!!
I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now........ :(

I think I'm going to vomit.........

Ok. I can't decide if I'm going vomit, cry, scream or just slit my wrists right now and have it over with!!! What led me to this place? A bit of history.......
I've been chasing the Nikon 70-200mm VR 2.8 for 2 weeks now. It's been out of stock EVERYWHERE!!!! I've tried OneCall (my first choice), Adorama, B&H Photo, and The Camera Corral in CDA. On order, on order, on order...... When asking when they would be in stock again, the same answer. "We don't know. They're flying out of here like nothing we've seen." Ok fine. I'll wait and just keep checking. I have checked for them daily for 2 weeks and they're still "on order". I even tried to buy the demo lens at Huppin's but they wouldn't budge. I even offered to buy a D300 body at the same time (seriously, I would have). They still wouldn't budge. This lens is a sweet lens. I mean, I have never seen such a nice lens. The clarity and bokeh are BEAUTIFUL! Not to mention the solid construction. I MUST have this lens. It's not an option anymore. It's become an obsession.
So, last night I was reading some reviews on Ken Rockwell's site. He has a link on his site to Ritz Camera, Adorama and Amazon for this lens. Of course, I already know that Amazon and Adorama don't have one. I clicked on the link for Ritz Camera.........drum roll please! (insert light from heaven and the Hallelujah chorus here).......THEY HAVE IT!!!! It's even the same price as it was at Huppin's. Fantabulous!!!! I'll take one! Usually, I have to agonize over a purchase like this ($1800.00) for days, sometimes weeks before committing. BUT I've done my homework, I know the value and this is the lens for me. So, I bought it. Here's where it starts to slide. This morning I checked my email and I have one from Ritz saying that I need to call their 800 number to confirm my order. Huh??? Didn't I just do that last night? You know, that little button that says "CONFIRM". The one you push after you give them your billing address, your shipping address, your mother's address, your credit card number and 4 or 5 secret codes relating to your credit card, your home phone, work phone, cell phone, neighbor's phone....and on we go. I thought we'd been through this already. So anyway, I called the 800 to see what the deal was. The deal is that they don't speak English. No, I'm sorry, that's not English. If English speaking Americans can't understand you, it doesn't count. So, I muddled through that conversation. What they want is the customer service phone number off the back of your credit card. I've never been asked for this before. So before giving them the number I called my CC company and asked them if that was "normal". They said that for large purchases online some companies call to verify the funds and such. Ok, that's fine. However, in the mean time I'm surfing the web looking for consumer reviews on RitzCamera. Bad idea. Why do I torment myself like this???? It's about 50/50 good and bad, but the bad is pretty bad. But, no one else has this lens and I'm dying for it. So, I press on. I called back to confirm, gave them the cust serv number for my card and checked yet again to be sure it was in stock. Yes, it will ship tomorrow.
So, by the time I got home from work today I had really been stewing about it. What if they're a scammy kind of outfit? What if the lens is damaged? What if it ends up to be a big ordeal? What if what if what if.....? My only saving grace in the whole thing is that no one else has the lens in stock. If I just keep telling myself this it will be ok. Right? WRONG!!!! I came home today and checked OneCall, just to torment myself I guess....... IT'S BACK IN STOCK!!!! I checked last night and it wasn't there. AAAAHHH!!!! What was I thinking????? I should have just waited. So now, I'm hooked up with some unknown, sketchy place with customer service in India. I could have ordered it today from OneCall. I even could have gone down to the store (Huppin's) and talked to Doug, my favorite sales rep, and taken one home tomorrow. WHY? WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYYY?
I'm crossing my fingers and praying that it arrives with no further issue. This is all so out of character for me. I NEVER buy from places I'm not familiar with. Usually, I'll make a small purchase or two to check them out. If all goes well, I'll buy something more significant. I don't know what I was thinking.............just shoot me!!!!
I'll keep you posted.