Anyone Ever Buy Anything From Abe's of Maine

[njpilot 671]

They seem to have great prices on stuff but horrible reviews for "bait and switch."

 

I am looking at a discontinued TV, the Samsung Howard bought last year.

 

They have a cheap priced one, but say it's for Canada and doesn't have the full 1 yr warranty Like a TV for the US.

 

Tried online chatting with Samsung, but not sure they understood my questions.

 

For $400 more, they say they have the US TV with full warranty. Still a great price. Not sure if it's total bs or not.

 

The guy told me they sell a lot of TVs in Canada, which you would think, yeah, they're in Maine, but they're actually in Linden, NJ.

 

Anyone ever deal with them?

 

Thanks.

[Joe P. 4]

i have , i bought two 46" LCD Samsung tv's from them about 4 yrs ago .. the price was right , and they were close to me, i think somewhere in Linden or Raritan they had a store front in one of those large box buildings.  both tv's working great still no complaints.  

[njpilot 671]

Thanks Joe.

[Smokin .50 1,907]

You mean Abe's of Raritan Center in Edison?

 

I bought a couple things from them.  In person at Raritan Center location years ago now.  Last thing I bought was a SB-900 Nikon Strobe.  They wouldn't take my sales tax certificate, so I stopped buying from them.  They had what looked like a 200 - 300 sq ft "showroom" in front of a warehouse.  I used quotation marks for a reason, lol!

[njpilot 671]

Thanks Dave. They call them Self Abe's of Maine and have been around a long time. Never knew they were in NJ until I just looked them up.

 

Seems they play games with their sales tactics.

[Handyman 5,682]

Lot's of gray market stuff. If you like warranties be careful.

[Howard 538]

Samsung will not honor a warranty if not purchased from one of their authorized distributors.  They have a list on their web page listing all of them.  So, the question becomes do you want to buy a big ticket item with no coverage from the manufacturer.  Hopefully you never have problems, but if you do you are at the store's mercy or on your own.  On the plus side if these things work out of the box they probably won't have too many problems, but you never know.  I always buy stuff from PC Richard as they are a private company and will negotiate and their service is amazing.  When I bought an LG washer and dryer from them the dryer had been damaged in transit.  They immediately took it back, but there were no more in stock and it was going to be six weeks till another shipment came in from Korea.  They gave me a loaner dryer for those six week, hooked it up and when mine came in they took it out and delivered mine and hooked it up all at no charge.  Not many stores would do that.

[njpilot 671]

I hear you Howard. Unfortunately no PC Richards down here. Also, since these are being discontinued, tough to find them. UGH

[Melgamatic 66]

They are criminals.

[DargZ 5]

I was looking for a camera for my wife.  I have purchased from them in the past as they had great prices and had decent reviews.

 

When I looked at the camera prices, I noticed a a big gap between retailers which I could not understand why.  I noticed that Abe's was on the list of sellers that was selling significantly less than the big shops like B&H.  A little digging turned up that Abe's was sold and the new owners are a bit shady.  They practice the habit of bringing in container loads of merchandise from other markets and reselling it cheaper here.  What is very shady is they may not say it is a gray market item with no warranty.  You would have to ship it back to the home market for any repairs.

 

If nothing breaks, you got a great deal.  If something does, you are SOL.  With the amount of electronics on my wife's camera, I could not risk not being able to send it back for repairs.  It's just a peace of mind for me.

 

For the record, I did buy gray market camera items in the past but there was not much electronics back then to break either.

[glockamole 0]

Bait and switch but can also give deals. I ordered a canon 70d with lens. Next day I get a call as reviews all say... Hey you must have selected the Japan model... It only had Japanese writing and you can change it... I said bs and he could then cancel my order. He then offered me a deal for the us one for $100 cheaper than other retailers and said would ship overnight. I got it and the us warranty and everything was fine. So I could have went to best buy and paid $100 more or deal with them and save a bit. Order the Canada one and when they call to say you made a mistake see what deal they can give you.

[bennj 215]

might want to check them out on a site like resellerratings.com or something similar.

[njpilot 671]

Bait and switch but can also give deals. I ordered a canon 70d with lens. Next day I get a call as reviews all say... Hey you must have selected the Japan model... It only had Japanese writing and you can change it... I said bs and he could then cancel my order. He then offered me a deal for the us one for $100 cheaper than other retailers and said would ship overnight. I got it and the us warranty and everything was fine. So I could have went to best buy and paid $100 more or deal with them and save a bit. Order the Canada one and when they call to say you made a mistake see what deal they can give you.

They'd probably offer me the deal the guy did over the phone when I called, $400 more.

[W2MC 1,699]

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/27329775

[Sota 1,191]

I wouldn't piss on the store or the owners/employees if they were on fire and were giving me a billion dollars in cash.

 

Back in the 80s and 90s when I was REALLY big into photography (always loved shooting things ) their company would come up during research for gear. They'd talk a good game but when the time came to close the deal they'd bait and switch the shit out of you. Seems those tactics haven't changed. Calling them "criminals" would be an insult to actual criminals.

[Smokin .50 1,907]

I was looking for a camera for my wife.  I have purchased from them in the past as they had great prices and had decent reviews.

 

When I looked at the camera prices, I noticed a a big gap between retailers which I could not understand why.  I noticed that Abe's was on the list of sellers that was selling significantly less than the big shops like B&H.  A little digging turned up that Abe's was sold and the new owners are a bit shady.  They practice the habit of bringing in container loads of merchandise from other markets and reselling it cheaper here.  What is very shady is they may not say it is a gray market item with no warranty.  You would have to ship it back to the home market for any repairs.

 

If nothing breaks, you got a great deal.  If something does, you are SOL.  With the amount of electronics on my wife's camera, I could not risk not being able to send it back for repairs.  It's just a peace of mind for me.

 

For the record, I did buy gray market camera items in the past but there was not much electronics back then to break either.

We all did and most of the time it didn't matter.

 

Today cameras don't even exist (for the most part).  For CAMERAS (like my Hasselblads, Leicas, Speed Graphic) use FILM and will function completely w/o any batteries at all!  Today we have COMPUTERS that have a lens flange and mirror box, along with an electronic and battery-dependent shutter in front of an image plane.  One drop of moisture hits a printed circuit board and all you have in your hands is a paper weight, yet somehow we've all been duped into believing it's a wonderful way to capture images.  FOOLS ALL!

 

Dave

Pro Photog (F8 and BE THERE!) 

[Krdshrk 3,877]

Bait and switch but can also give deals. 

 

It's sony guts...

[Howard 538]

Good points about today's cameras Dave.  I recall way back when I bought my first Canon A1, which had what I thought was a strange sized battery.  I wondered if the camera would even be usable down the road if they stopped making those batteries.  That was my first experience with a camera that had electronics in it.  But alas things change.  Today our mechanical cars are also just computers on wheels, gone are the days of turning the distributor to adjust the timing

[njpilot 671]

Damn, what is it with Linden,NJ?

 

Another reseller who has a great price on this TV, East Coast TVS is also located in Linden and has very similar reviews as Abes. Different street address.

 

Think I will be paying more and just not dealing with any of these companies.

[glockamole 0]

It's sony guts...

https-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb_R1VZqLcE

Hahaha that's great.