SKdigi - Watch Out!

If you've come across SKDIGI on eBay or the Internet, watch out. To cut a long story short, 3 months after I sent back my brand new 40D under guarantee, I am $1300 down and have nothing to show for it. They refuse to reimburse me, won't let me communicate with Canon directly and have now stopped replying to mails.

The long story? I bought a Canon 40D in September last year. Soon after I bought it, I started getting ERR99. It was an intermittent error which I initially tried to resolve myself and with their online help. By November I'd had enough and decided to send the camera back to SKDIGI in Hong Kong under my one year guarantee. The return cost me 100 Euros in shipping.

When they got it, SKDIGI told me that the camera was working fine but eventually promised to send it off to Canon for repair. Weeks went by. I contacted them and in reply they told me that the main board of the camera had water damage and that I had to pay 100 Euros for the repairs. I refused saying that ERR99 was a shutter problem, that they had confirmed that the camera worked fine when they received it and that any water damage must be their doing. They agreed to pay for the repairs.

SKDIGI have now had my camera for more than 3 months - longer than I ever had the for. They refuse to reimburse me. They won't replace the camera. They won't even communicate with me anymore. I have no choice now but to instruct Hong Kong lawyers to sue them. If you're thinking about buying from them, I'd say don't and if you must, be aware that their guarantee isn't worth anything at all.

if you paid with credit card dispute the charge immediately and get your money back that way

it is a long time now but you'd be surprised how long after purchase you can dispute charges

make sure to send them all the material you have in terms of communicating with the vendor

--
Michael Salzlechner
http://www.Salzlechner.com
http://www.PalmsWestPhoto.com

Unfortunately, I paid with PayPal. In any event, the problem is with a claim under warranty rather than with the sale itself.

I just got hold of Canon Hong Kong who confirm that my camera was never sent to them for repair. They have no service record for it.

This might help:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/securitycenter/sell/ChargebackFAQ-outside

If you paid with your credit card using paypal - chargeback the credit card with your card issuer. Paypal will then have to chase their money from the vendor.

• Daniel

shaynekrige said:

Unfortunately, I paid with PayPal. In any event, the problem is with
a claim under warranty rather than with the sale itself.

I just got hold of Canon Hong Kong who confirm that my camera was
never sent to them for repair. They have no service record for it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that info, Daniel. I have been in touch with Paypal and will get in touch with my bank as well.

I've always shied away from making purchases using PayPal due to the way I read some of the PayPal dispute resolution documents... It always seemed to me, that you had less protection for your purchases then you would get under a normal credit card purchase. That is, I thought you more or less signed away your ability to dispute your credit card charges in a situation such as happened with the OP here... Now after reading the PayPal info on 'charge backs', I'm thinking now that the whole process is more risky for the seller then it is for the buyer...

Thanks for your contribution to my knowledge base today... I had never heard of the 'charge back' thing and/or the differences between that and the PayPal dispute resolution scheme.

Kickboxa said:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/securitycenter/sell/ChargebackFAQ-outside

If you paid with your credit card using paypal - chargeback the
credit card with your card issuer. Paypal will then have to chase
their money from the vendor.

• Daniel

shaynekrige said:

Unfortunately, I paid with PayPal. In any event, the problem is with
a claim under warranty rather than with the sale itself.

I just got hold of Canon Hong Kong who confirm that my camera was
never sent to them for repair. They have no service record for it.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Item bought & paid for with Paypal.
Item is received by purchaser & is as advertised.

The fact that a mechanical piece of equipment develops problems after the sale is probably not a paypal disputable event.

--
Dave Patterson
---------------------
Midwestshutterbug.com
----------------------------------
'When the light and composition are strong, nobody
notices things like resolution or pincushion distortion'
Gary Friedman

I thought this was just a general error and not shutter specific.

I'm just curious why you sent the camera to Hong Kong rather than having Canon France deal with it? I don't know the warranty conditions for equipment bought outside France so I'm just curious.

Not that it helps your situation now I realize - sorry to hear about your troubles.

Paul

The issue is not the fact that the equipment developed problems after the sale.

The issue is the fact that the camera was returned to the vendor under their own one year warranty/guarantee which was part of the sale. The vendor kept the merchandise and did not reimburse the buyer, or offer to repair or replace the defective item as would be expected under the terms of their warranty/guarantee.

At the very least they should be forced to return the camera.

Just another reason why I refuse to deal with sellers halfway around the planet from me.

Midwest Shutterbug said:

Item bought & paid for with Paypal.
Item is received by purchaser & is as advertised.

The fact that a mechanical piece of equipment develops problems after
the sale is probably not a paypal disputable event.

--
Dave Patterson
---------------------
Midwestshutterbug.com
----------------------------------
'When the light and composition are strong, nobody
notices things like resolution or pincushion distortion'
Gary Friedman

Click to expand...

shawn finger said:

I thought this was just a general error and not shutter specific.

Click to expand...

The explanation of ERR 99 is that it's an error that isn't any of the other listed errors. In this case, I eliminated everything else, i.e. flash, battery, card etc. Plus, you could hear the shutter stuttering.

Paul Ch. Kierkus said:

I'm just curious why you sent the camera to Hong Kong rather than
having Canon France deal with it? I don't know the warranty
conditions for equipment bought outside France so I'm just curious.

Not that it helps your situation now I realize - sorry to hear about
your troubles.

Paul

Click to expand...

Yes, I learned something on this score too! The deal is that Canon offers worldwide guarantees on their lenses but not on the camera bodies. If I had had Canon France repair the camera, they would have charged me for it. I checked what the price would be of a shutter replacement and it seemed to be quite a costly exercise. SKdigi had a lot of positive comments on eBay so I thought it best to send it back to them.

I'm not sure what has happened to the camera but Canon themselves have no record of ever receiving it for repair. If SKdigi have actually sent the camera for repair, it's probably to some back-alley chop shop. They have now finally got back to me and say they will send the camera in 3 weeks time. I believe this is simply another delay tactic. It's already been three months of these games.

I've told them that I've cancelled the sale and want my money back. The question is whether they do the honourable thing or not. In the interim, I am trying to resolve the issue through Paypal and my bank.

Hi,

Your case is very interesting for me, as I also live in France and have bought my 40D in Hong-Kong, but from another seller, "Purnima Digital FR". It was quite cheap, 990 euros, and it was delivered to France in 4 days ! Fortunately, so far I've got no problem with it...

I believe that Paypal can help you in that case. It happened to me once as I sold an object on ebay, which was paid via Paypal. The transaction went fine, but after 6 months, I received an e-mail from Paypal, stating that "one of your buyers filed a chargeback stating unauthorized use of a credit card", and they withdrew the corresponding amount from my Paypal account. It was in fact an error from the buyer's bank (!!!), and we were able to solve it quickly, but it shows that Paypal is able to get back your money if needed.

Bonne chance !

--
Patrick Jollain

Thanks Patrick, I used Purnima once and they were great. If I remember correctly, the guarantee from Purnima could be used in France, so you might be better off.

I normally wouldn't buy a camera from Hong Kong but I was going on holiday and really wanted the camera before I left. I didn't want to buy a 30D when the 40D had already been launched and couldn't get one in France, so I ordered it from skdigi.

My experiences with Hong Kong sellers have always been good and skdigi certainly had a lot of positive evaluations. If they do reimburse me, some of my faith would be restored and I will let you all know!

In the interim, my legal advisors tell me that the contract is subject to French law (I paid in France and the delivery was in France). So if I don't get a refund fast, I will launch an action in the French courts.

This one bad experience has tainted a lot of those good experiences with Hong Kong for me. If you add up the customs duty I had to pay and the costs of shipping the broken camera back to Hong Kong, I paid the same price I would have paid for a 40D in France. And the French camera comes with a 2 year local guarantee!

The mechanical problem with the camera is not the issue here, but the return of the camera to the seller and subsequent refusal of the seller to either replace the item or reimburse the buyer's money that is at issue.

Get agressive with PayPal here and work to get your account credited back. Make sure you have all documentation, emails, copy of the final auction page, etc...

This is why I refuse to purchase from Ebay anymore - too many hack sellers and little to no support from the auction site. Fortunately, PayPal should come through on this one though.

Good luck!

dwalby said:

The issue is the fact that the camera was returned to the vendor
under their own one year warranty/guarantee which was part of the
sale. The vendor kept the merchandise and did not reimburse the
buyer, or offer to repair or replace the defective item as would be
expected under the terms of their warranty/guarantee.

At the very least they should be forced to return the camera.

Just another reason why I refuse to deal with sellers halfway around
the planet from me.

Midwest Shutterbug said:

Item bought & paid for with Paypal.
Item is received by purchaser & is as advertised.

The fact that a mechanical piece of equipment develops problems after
the sale is probably not a paypal disputable event.

--
Dave Patterson
---------------------
Midwestshutterbug.com
----------------------------------
'When the light and composition are strong, nobody
notices things like resolution or pincushion distortion'
Gary Friedman

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
bryan
--------
Oak & Acorn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oakandacorns/sets/

G9 ISO 3200 Gallery: http://bryanw.zenfolio.com/p706413854/

New Zenfolio Gallery: http://bryanw.zenfolio.com/

Canon G9 Gallery: http://bryanw.zenfolio.com/f836894562/

Thanks everyone. I will try the PayPal route as that seems the fastest solution at this stage. I have, however, also taken legal steps against SKDigi.

In the meantime, I told them that I would set up a website publicising my story. I've set it up on blogspot. If you could all click on it, I understand that the page's Google rating would improve.

http://skdigi.blogspot.com/

Well, no dice with PayPal. They won't deal with complaints after 45 days. The bank also won't reverse the credit card transaction. They say that they will only reverse a transaction if you did not authorise it. They won't get involved in a commercial dispute. In any event, they say that you only have 2 months to cancel the transaction.

My options now are limited to Internet vigilantism and legal action - both of which I'm pursuing.

Someone tries to to buy an item for less than what the reliable retailers sell it for, in an effort to save a few pennies, and be able to brag about their 50 cent conquest over the price that most mortals pay. When they get screwed, they cry. They cry like wounded dogs.

I think that people who get screwed trying to get a deal that seems too good to be true, should have to pay a fine that equals twice the value they tried to save if they get burned, and then complain about it. The proceeds of the fine should be distributed to everyone who had to listen to the tale of woe where the potential scammer ended up being scammed...

--
Voyager

Voyager13b said:

Someone tries to to buy an item for less than what the reliable
retailers sell it for, in an effort to save a few pennies, and be
able to brag about their 50 cent conquest over the price that most
mortals pay.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly why people do it. Haven't you seen the full colour, double page spreads that they take out in the Sunday paper telling all the mere mortals how little they paid? You'll find them in the section right next to the ads from people who want the world to know that they paid more than anyone else.

I don't know about other people's reasons for buying through eBay but my reasons had little to do with price. I needed a new camera before I went on holiday and the 40D wasn't yet available in any of the shops in town.

Voyager13b said:

I think that people who get screwed trying to get a deal that seems
too good to be true,

Click to expand...

The deal was not too good to be true. I paid my 1,400 Euros and I got the camera. Perhaps you didn't read the thread before posting. This particular dealer has more than 15,000 happy customers. The point of posting was simply to warn people about poor after sales service from a particular dealer. This could have happened (and has happened) to people who buy from Amazon or B&H and anyone else.

I think there is an intrinsic value in sharing experiences of poor service but if you don't think there is, then I'm confused as to why you spent 5 minutes of your life posting.

Voyager13b said:

Someone tries to to buy an item for less than what the reliable
retailers sell it for, in an effort to save a few pennies, and be
able to brag about their 50 cent conquest over the price that most
mortals pay. When they get screwed, they cry. They cry like wounded
dogs.

I think that people who get screwed trying to get a deal that seems
too good to be true, should have to pay a fine that equals twice the
value they tried to save if they get burned, and then complain about
it. The proceeds of the fine should be distributed to everyone who
had to listen to the tale of woe where the potential scammer ended up
being scammed...

Click to expand...

I don't think this is about buying less than retail price. Using reputable vendors, coupon codes, specials, eBates, and store ratings like on ResellerRatings/PriceGrabber/Epinions, you can buy legit and easily under retail. I got a Dyson last year for over $100 off! Newest model the price of one from several years ago!

I think this is about people not willing to do the work/research and using eBay in general so they can save time. If you're not willing to really dig, it's only a matter of time till you're burned. You may save some money, but you're taking the risk of grey/black market items, counterfeits, no warranty, and getting scammed. Having to deal with an individual on eBay will be much harder as well. That's why I never buy expensive items on eBay. Even the small things I am skeptical about.