Now that you have the correct country SKU#, contact the best stores that you’ve found and ask them what the product SKU# for the specific country you live in will be. If the SKU# they provide doesn’t line up with the SKU# you got from the company, don’t deal with them. (Now, some companies will give you the generic SKU# because they misunderstood what you were asking. Make sure you specify that you want the SKU# for the product that will be shipped to you in the country you live in. If they still send you the generic SKU#, then don’t deal with them.)
8.
Before ordering, verify the cost of shipping for the seller(s) you are most interested in, as shipping can vary radically from company to company. A number of sites don’t tell you the shipping cost until you’ve already put in your credit card number, which can lead to some nasty issues if you discover that shipping is way more expensive than you expected. If there is no info on the specific shipping rate for things outside of the checkout cart, then contact the company to verify the cost or check one of the total cost comparison websites that shows shipping for the site you’re interested in. (A lot of the new cost comparison websites will let you see a product from a number of different sellers and the shipping cost for each company to your zip code.)
9.
Once you’ve received your camera, make sure that the SKU# on the box is the SKU# you were supposed to receive before you open it. Opening the camera box can make you susceptible to restocking fees if you realize that it’s the wrong camera after you’ve opened it up and then want the company to replace the camera. Immediately contact the company to get a replacement if they’ve sent you the wrong SKU# camera.
10.
Thoroughly test your camera within five days of receiving it. That goes for shooting footage with it in a variety of shooting modes, plugging in mics to test sound quality, playing back footage, and exporting footage to your editing system. Most people think they have thirty days to try out things they buy, but cameras usually have no more than ten to fifteen days for you to alert the seller of any issues. As such, if you get everything tested in five days, you won’t be pushing things to the wire if there are problems and you need to get the company to replace it.
11.
Finally, register your camera and any extended warranties you have as soon as you know everything is in good working order. Most extended warranties require that you register them within 30 days of receiving your camera, so don’t put it off and risk forgetting, thus voiding the warranty you spent good money on.
Following all these things in more or less this order, we ended up going with The Camera Box, due to their high ratings, low prices, and the fact that Anna and their sales team were very prompt in responding to our questions. (If you want to check out their selection of cameras, you can go to: http://www.thecamerabox.com)
Here’s the breakdown for the DVX100BP (MSRP: $3999):
TheCameraBox Price: $2649.99
4 Year Mack Warranty $169.99 Shipping $89.00 Total $2909.00
So, even with a four year warranty and shipping, we came out nearly $1100 below MSRP. (Plus the camera shipped to us in two days with standard shipping!)
Hopefully this article with give you some ideas for getting good deals yourself, while avoiding those deals that will bite you in the butt because they really are too good to be true!
God Bless,
Jeremy
The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted.
