Butterflyphoto.com (Butterfly Photo, or DODmarketing) yep, they just need to fly away.

(also running as DODmarketing), this is an outfit to avoid at all costs. We wanted to purchase a small point and shoot camera for vacation.  We did our research, talked with people that had these types of cameras and decided on the Canon SD850 IS.

On The review for the Canon SD850 on DigitalCameraReview.com not only gives you some very good information, they also have a chart of a bunch of companies offering the camera for sale, the price and each company's shipping cost.

All good so far, we look at buying it through Butterflyphoto.com, in general the comments for the vendor tended to be positive, with a noticeable number of negative comments but it didn't seem way out of line, especially for an e-retailer.

Well, their negative number has since increased.  The order was placed with expedited shipping to ensure the camera got here before the vacation.  A preauthorization charge hit the charge account immediately.  The day after I had ordered it someone from Butteryflyphoto.com (Kevin Johnson) contacted me to try to upsell memory cards and batteries, but said nothing about any problems.  I reiterated we had paid for 2 day shipping and would appreciate the camera being shipped right out, he checked, it was in stock in their building (so it wouldn't have to be drop shipped), and he would push it to get shipped out that day.

The next morning (order + 3 Days) still no charge on the account, (preauthorization expires after 48 hours) and I call to speak to Butterflyphoto.com customer (insert lack-of) Service.  On hold for 45+minutes.  Side note, while I'm on hold with Butterflyphoto.com, the memory cards and the batteries that I ordered from two other vendors arrived.  After 45 minutes holding (no music just a "We can't wait to speak with you, please hold the line" message....yeah right...) I get a CSR, she looks up the order and says I have to transfer you to billing, and without so much as a second wait or getting a response from me, again puts me on hold, this time thankfully for less than 5 minutes.

The billing rep says the charge didn't go through because the expiration date was wrong.  I asked what she had for the date and the number was wrong.  I find this a bit tough to swallow, the preauthorization had gone through initially, maybe I'm missing something but wouldn't that have failed?  Also, I spend hours every day coding and doing data entry, and especially on forms like an order form I routinely double check everything before submitting.  So I'm thinking this is looking pretty much like BS from Butterflyphoto.com.  I asked the lady if in fact the charge had been denied why hadn't anyone tried to contact me, you have my email, you have my phone number, and also why when I spoke to Kevin previously hadn't he known or noticed that there was a card problem?  Silence..............Next words out of my mouth........CANCEL THE ORDER.  Now a terse, you will get a cancellation e-mail and she hangs up.

Well, needless to say, the email didn't arrive all that quickly.  But in looking at the charge account, there was a preauthorization charge for the full purchase amount from Butterflyphoto.com right after my call.

So now as if I wasn't mad before..... they are going to try to force the sale? I tried to send a backup order cancellation email by trying to reply to the email I had received from Kevin Johnson, that bounced back, bad address, I used the Butterflyphoto.com website contact form to inform them again in writing that the order had been canceled, and that running the charge after I had verbally canceled the order was not only rude but bordering on criminal. A third email was sent to a CSR email address I found embedded in one of their prior emails.

About 3 hours later I got the original order confirmation email this time with [Cancelled] appended to the front of the subject line, (I hope someone didn't break a nail).

Is that enough to sway you to use some other company for these types of products, don't you think?  Well if not, maybe this last tidbit will push you over the top. It turns out that upon reviewing the order confirmation email, there in plain text is all 16 digits of my card.  <forrest gump>My Mamma always said, stupid is as stupid does.....</forrest gump>

So now we do have the camera, (took 1 day start to finish) Thanks to Abe's of Maine, and it is pretty slick, more on that later.

I have closed the card account that Butterflyphoto.com has broadcast to the world via email.  Moral of the story, and there are two.  The cheapest is not always the cheapest, just the 1 hour on the phone with these morons is one example, now add to that the trouble and expense to change out a card and everything that goes along with that.  Lesson two, this is a perfect example of, from start to finish, how not to do business. Also, we've since found perhaps a better vendor review site, you might want to bookmark it so you too can prescreen vendors in the future, I know I will. http://www.resellerratings.com/store/ButterFly_Photo