Elbox Winter Promotion

[Trev]

They pulled the USD prices out of their ass. Seriously. It's quite misleading (criminally so in the United States--too bad they're in Poland). After you agree to purchase the product, you receive a notice saying that USD prices are "estimated," and that you'll be charged 169.95 EUR by their billing company, so current conversion rates will apply. (For those keeping track, that's referred to as a "bait and switch" in the US--very illegal.) Depending on how you pay (credit card, wire transfer, whatever), you may get stuck with currency conversion fees as well.

Anyhow, I bought a Mediator ZIV a few weeks before they lowered their prices and ended up paying over 300.00 USD (it was advertised as 249.95 USD--or something close to that). I was not happy. But it's not like there's anything I can do about it . . . unless Interpol deals with fraud.

Shoulda bought a used 3000 and a Prometheus. . . .

EDIT: Sweet. I've been corrected by Elbox (in a round-about sort of way). The original price was 287.95 USD, which was less than the advertised price in EUR given currency exchange rates at the time. However, at checkout (after submitting my credit card information, if I remember correctly, but before finalizing the transaction), I was charged in EUR, which converted to 296.92 USD. Granted, it was a small difference, but it still made me angry. While Elbox and PolCard claim to convert from the advertised price in USD to EUR using current curreny conversion rates, it my own personal experience that this is not the case. Buyer beware. Unfortunately, I only have my credit card statement and a back issue of the Wall Street Journal to support this claim, so clearly, I am mistaken. ;-)

EDIT2: Another correction. The product was on sale for 269.95 USD when I made the purchase (11/12/2004), for a difference of 26.97 USD--a 10% increase! That is *not* attributable to currency exchange rate fluctuations, which by the way, varied from 0.7705 to 0.7739 on 11/12/2004 and 0.7663 and 0.7719 on 11/17/2004 (the transaction posting date).

Trev

[Trev]

I've haven't asked them about it--my other experiences with them to date haven't been that great. I guess it never hurts to ask. (For example, most electronics retailers in the US would offer a refund of the price difference when such a daramatic price drop occurs within such a short period of time after a purchase.) But I'm still angry about it, so I'll wait a bit. :-) I suppose I shouldn't be mouthing off in public about it either. :-P

(Just to be fair, I should note that I haven't had any problems with the product itself.)

Trev

[Trev]

@Argo

That's exactly the point I was trying to make before I let my emotions get the best of me. :-) Price grievances aside, they do seem to make reliable products.

[Trev]

Here's an update for anyone's that interested. I've discussed the issue with Elbox, and I was in fact overcharged. Elbox is working with me to correct the mistake.

However, I don't know if Elbox or PolCard have corrected the apparent problem in their electronic payment system. If you purchase an Elbox product from outside Europe, I suggest you verify that the correct charges appear on your credit card statement.

Trev