I am very close to going back to Canon after spending tens of thousands of dollars on Nikon cameras through the years (starting with who knows what film camera and lenses several decades ago).
My story:
After reading about people periodically finding the "buy now" button available for the D800 in the Nikon USA online store, I decided the play the game (yes, I have an order in with B&H, Amazon, a local store or two, etc). Sunday night I finally succeeded in snagging a D800 . . . or so I thought. I submitted the order and waited for the confirmation. Hours later I received an email from Digital River saying that my purchase was denied. Let me add that I started a new job on Monday and am staying in a hotel until I find a house to buy. Therefore, my shipping address and my billing address is not the same.
Over the last few days, I have called my credit card company who says that according to their records, there was no purchase requested for $3200 plus from any vendor in the last few days and had they received such a request, it would have gone through immediately. (My jobs over the years have required me to travel extensively, so it's not a big deal as far as my credit card company is concerned if my shipping and billing addresses are different.)
Digital River, although they appear to have something to do with the denial of my purchase periodically responds to my emails writing that I need to call Nikon customer service to see what the problem is. Oh, and by the way, one of the emails from Digital River included an admission that they changed some of the settings associated with my Nikon account and I should try to purchase the camera again (good luck with that).
And when I call Nikon USA store customer service, they can see that I ordered the camera, but there are none available at the moment, so they can't help me. When I ask whether my order will be denied if the camera becomes available and I purchase it again, they told me to contact Digital River and ask them why the purchase was denied. And as I wrote earlier, Digital River refers me to Nikon customer support.
Are you dizzy yet? I sure am. And disgusted, too. I've been on this not so merry-go-round for 3 days.
