Has anyone been bold enough to buy from these guys? They have an amazing price and supposedly on brand new products.

http://froogle.google.com/froogle_clust ... 4025961061

I'm wondering if my credit card company would protect me if this ended up being a scam.

Call you CC company and find out specifically if they will protect you.

If they will, great! Go buy it and and be sure to tell us if it is new and not a scam.

If it is a scam, then you have your CC company to fall back on. Just make sure you don't miss the deadline to file for the chargeback.

looks pretty fishy to me. by the looks of their website and lack of a contact number, id stay away.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to check with the CC company just to make sure.
I also sent the seller an email and asked them to confirm that it is a brand new product, undamaged, unopened box and to also fully explain their return policy in case the product is damaged in shipment.

I noticed that they're running through Google Checkout which I've never used before. Says on the Google site that they will protect me from fraudulent charges. Perhaps that would be an extra little layer of protection.

I was also planning to use the temporary credit card numbers that my CC web site is able to issue so I'm not all that worried about giving out the card number anyway. I think my main concern is either not getting the product or it is damaged or non-functional.

If I do decide to go with these guys and it works out, I'll let everyone know.

jmoney715 said:

looks pretty fishy to me. by the looks of their website and lack of a contact number, id stay away.

I disagree.

If they really wanted to scam people, they could just go on eBay. Scammers don't take the time to make a nice presentable website like this place has. It actually pretty legit to me.

Everything you've said regarding protection soulds like a good idea. The temp CC #s is also good; never thought of doing that before. Check out Google's protection level. I know PayPal offers $1000 if the seller meets certain criteria.

Their Web site says "Full Manufacturer's Warranty", and we all know that isn't true, but for that price, if the item is new, unopened, and not refurb, it might be worth it.

Their reply:

From: will lewis

Hi,

Yes all of our products are brand new, unopened and we never sell any refurbished or returned items. I really can't tell you why we don't have a rating. If you have any other questions please let us know.

Thank You.

(Hmmm. I don't know what to think)

Here's the reply I received...



Hi Richard,

I completely understand, what we do is we buy from companies that are closing (Car Audio stores, catalog companies, etc...), we also buy from companies that may have a lot of dead stock and need some working capital, etc.. It is a great offer but after our halloween specials they will be going up higher than the 1214.00 original price. Our pricing ALWAYS depends on what we buy the products for and we always make sure we are lower than everyone else (we make less than everyone else also) we enjoy having a great customer base and strive in keeping each and everyone of our customers satisfied and want them to continue shopping with us. We also do a lot of wholesale orders for Ebay sellers, internet sellers, etc.. so we have to have rock bottom prices. YES all of our items are unopened, not damaged and no returns. We do offer a money back guarantee for 7 days after you receive the item, for any reason we don't ask questions as long as the product is in its original packaging and has not been opened. We also guarantee none of our items are dead on arrival (if you receive the unit and it does not work) we will send out another one to you asap and also pay for you to send us the defective unit back. Well I hope I have answered all of your quetions and eased your mind a bit. If you have anymore questions please don't hesitate to contact us, and we hope to be serving you soon.

Thank You.



Richard wrote:
I’m interested in your Pioneer Avic Z1 that you posted up. This is several hundred lower than any other online vendor that I’ve seen. That makes me a little hesitant to order though.
This is for the product listed and is completely new, undamaged, and unopened box? If the product is damaged, how long do I have to return the product and will I be able to have it replaced?

I sincerely appreciate your time and your response. I would like to be able to take you up on this great deal, so I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks.

I just ordered one - yikes!!! I guess I'll put my faith in Google and Electronic Treasures. The site said there was only 7 units in stock, so you guys might not want to wait until my unit comes in to know how it makes out. I will post something as soon as it does come in.

BTW, I noticed on some of the harddrive posts that I should Ghost my drive before booting up if I want to use a clone. Is that still correct?

I did a domain name search and it appears that the domain was just registered on 09/02/2006. How long have they been in business?

I also did a google search on the PO box listed in the domain information and find a lot of them dealing in electronics and it turned out to be scamers on almost every link I clicked on.
Be carefull man...

Domain Name.......... electronictreasures.com
Creation Date........ 2006-09-02
Registration Date.... 2006-09-02
Expiry Date.......... 2007-09-02
Organisation Name.... will lewis
Organisation Address. P O Box 99800
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. EmeryVille
Organisation Address. 94662
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. US

Admin Name........... PrivateRegContact Admin
Admin Address........ P O Box 99800
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ EmeryVille
Admin Address........ 94662
Admin Address........ CA
Admin Address........ US
Admin Email.......... [email protected]
Admin Phone.......... +1.5105952002
Admin Fax............

Tech Name............ PrivateRegContact TECH
Tech Address......... P O Box 99800
Tech Address.........
Tech Address......... EmeryVille
Tech Address......... 94662
Tech Address......... CA
Tech Address......... US
Tech Email........... [email protected]
Tech Phone........... +1.5105952002
Tech Fax.............
Name Server.......... yns1.yahoo.com
Name Server.......... yns2.yahoo.com

Current Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
IP Address: 68.142.212.127 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location: US(UNITED STATES)-CALIFORNIA-SUNNYVALE
Lock Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
DMOZ no listings
Y! Directory: see listings
Web Site Title: Home
Data as of: 14-Jun-2005

OK - thanks! Well, I used my Amex on top of everything else, so hopefully I have some CYA. If not, I guess I'll take a bullet for the team :(

uhh yeah, ok right. manufactures warranty from some shop they dont know of? Pioneer sure as hell aint warranting anything like that. I am not to far from the city address listed in the domain search above. And, just how many shops you think are closing AND have z1's? in addition, why would pioneer have a HALLOWEEN sale? cuz they dont. would like to know how this turns out though.

The address in the domain registration doesn't really mean much, found this about another registration with the same PO box:

"The Emeryville address is revealing: It shows that the domain was
registered through an anoymizing service offered by Yahoo under the
name "Yahoo! Private Domain Registration". Only registrations done
through that service have that P.O. Box address. It is a fact that
reputable companies have no reason to conceal their identities and
actual locations. Only the owner's name remains unchanged, but nothing
is easier than to register a domain with a fake name. Only fraudsters
have reason to hide behind a such mask, because they don't want to be
tracked by their victims."

That said, it could still be a legit business that just happened to use Yahoo private registration.

I hope so, because the deals seem to be too good to be true. No warranty is an issue, but seems to be with most internet sellers anyway.

Good luck Paul, I look forward to hearing good news soon.


p.s. It appears that Google doesn't protect you from online scammers, only from "non-authorized transactions".

I have to say...I wouldn't walk away from this company...I'd run! But I hope it all works out for you.

PaulWatkins said:

The site said there was only 7 units in stock, so you guys might not want to wait until my unit comes in to know how it makes out.

Paul:

Where do you see inventory on the site? I'm curious if the number decreased after your purchase. I can't find anything that indicates how many of anything in stock.

I saw 2 on the Qty 2 days ago, and then there was 8 in the Qty today.... Smells fishy...
I hope it isnt

I just clicked on the link now (Friday 10/20/06 12:30PM EST) in the original post, and I got this:

Invalid Listing Number 

This listing has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure that you've entered the listing number correctly. 

Please let us know how you made out if you received it, or at least a tracking #!

Here's their website since that first link is now dead. I'm going back and forth on whether to get one from them or not. I'm kind of starting to lean towards picking one up at Abes of Maine.

http://www.electronictreasures.com/

Vette11 said:

I'm kind of starting to lean towards picking one up at Abes of Maine.

I bought 2 from there and had no problems with them. A little hard sell for the extended warranty, but got the units no problem.

Vette11 said:

Here's their website since that first link is now dead. I'm going back and forth on whether to get one from them or not. I'm kind of starting to lean towards picking one up at Abes of Maine.

http://www.electronictreasures.com/

I know the first link is "dead", but why? It's not that the item was sold out. Obviously he made a new page on Froogle/Google selling the Z1, but why make the new page? And why is the original page now "invalid" as Google/Froogle states? The seller did have the ability to change quantity available as we all saw.

I have no idea, but it all seems weird which is making me way too suspicious to want to order from them.
I want to get the unit before I take a trip at the end of this month so I think I'm going to go ahead with Abes. I'm thinking it's not worth the heartburn to wait on this place.
Thanks for the head's up Ducati that your order went through well with Abes.
A quick question. After you ordered, how long did it take before they shipped your product? I'll probably just do ground, but I would like them to ship out in a day or two instead of a week.

This place looks like a joke almost. They offer 20 iPods for like 115 each. Playstation 3 10 at a time. Playstation 2 for 75 each. Why don't they just give the stuff away. I would find a place and pay a little more and know that I will get a new product and not get burned.

Wow prices went up $100 in just the three hours since I looked last!

PIONEER AVIC-N3 IN-DASH NAVIGATION UNIT
$1,099.00/EA. (was 999.00)

PIONEER AVIC-Z1 IN-DASH NAVIGATION UNIT
$1,214.00/EA. (was 1,114.00)

http://www.electronictreasures.com/carvideo.html

You have to click on the Halloween Specials button to see the cheaper prices.

I ordered one, and waited. And waited.

In short, "Will Lewis" is a fake name.

His company does not exist.

The address does not exist.

He tried to keep me "talking" about UPS shipping problems, blah, blah... long enough to clear the $ from my VISA out of his account.

I was lucky and got my card company to commit to a refund. And, when I called him on his scam via eMail he just quit writing to me... :-(

STAY AWAY FROM DEALS THAT ARE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. BECAUSE THEY ARE!!!

(I did find the unit for $1,449 at www.mytaxfree.com).