CameraBox.co.uk > Reviews (103)

Oh boy, what can I say? I ordered a camera from these guys on August 1st. Their website says next working day delivery, which would have been August 3rd. The day came and went, no delivery. I called to chase and got told there was a backlog of orders and it would be delivered the next day. 4th August, nothing again - another call and another promise of delivery the next day. 5th August, again nothing - another call, asked for a tracking reference and got told that "Citylink's systems are down". Called again on 6th August, this time to cancel and got told I couldn't cancel as the camera was shipped - but they couldn't give me a tracking reference still. I called my local Citylink depot, they had no record of a parcel for me. CameraBox contradicted it and said Citylink did have it. I called Citylink's depot nearest Camerabox's office - they hadn't picked anything up for delivery to my address and said that they get lots of complaints about Camerabox doing this exact same thing.
So, 8th August and still no camera. Another call, more irate this time demanding they cancel my order as they could not prove they had shipped. This time, they provided a tracking reference and advised me to refuse delivery to return it. The delivery duely arrived on 9th August, I refused it with instructions to return to sender. I notified Camerabox I had rejected delivery and gave them the tracking reference for return.
The camera was returned to them on 11th August and tracking had confirmed it had been signed for. I called and asked for a refund. I got told it could take up to 30 days to refund me, hiding behind the distance selling regulations. I then read other reviews of CameraBox saying how other customers who had returned items had then had their cards cloned - I contacted my credit card company to report this and had my card cancelled, leaving me without a credit car for several days. I also opened a Merchant dispute at this point citing a failure to provide services paid for.

Camerabox were informed of this via email and I was notified that a refund would be issued in 2-5 days. Of course, that 5 days came and went with no refund. Over the course of several phone calls, I spoke to a variety of customer service reps who promised and failed to call me back. They refused to put me through to the Returns department (they don't speak to customers), the Accounts department (they aren't paid to speak to customers) and even refused to let me speak to the Customer Services Manager (apparently, it's not in his job description to speak to customers!!!!).

After this revelation, I lost faith in getting anything out of this company and left it in the hands of my credit card provider. Finally, 20 days after having confirmed the item to be returned, I chased one final time and reminded them of the open dispute. Lo-and-behold, a refund was issued the next day (2nd September).
In short, whilst this company have a good website it doesn't appear to show their true level of stock. Either that, or their dispatching system is so bad that it cannot keep up with their ordering system.

Their sales line staff are rude and unhelpful, and the only way to get anything out of them is to exact some leverage from an external third party!
Ironically, I chose CameraBox because they had the camera I wanted and other (better known) places didn't, and it was cheaper there than anywhere I had previously seen it - but then I saw the same camera on Dixons.co.uk, for £20 less than I'd be paying with CameraBox!

DO NOT EVER BE TEMPTED TO USE THIS COMPANY. You'll be drawn in by the website and left bitterly disappointed by the broken promises. Either pay that little bit more and buy from a proper player, or find an alternative product. Don't let these guys anywhere near your bank account, debit or credit card - you'll regret it.