Cameraland is always my first choice, and I see nothing in this thread that would change that. Sure, things could have been done differently, but everyone has 20-20 hindsight. But hey, you buy a heavily-discounted demo item, don't get a working model and in exchange -- for not one penny more -- you get a brand-new item...well, that's still pretty dog-gone good in my books.
Cameraland has been terrific to both me and my wife. Just before Christmas, she called to get a pair of demo Meopta binos for my "Santa" present. Well, I had mentioned what a great price the demos were (something like $309), so she asked for those when placing her order. Unbeknownst to us, these had become a "deal of the day," so they promptly told her about the added discount and allowed her to save another $40 or $50.
Honesty like that means a lot to me.
Years ago, I bought a Minox scope, and it developed a problem. I had difficulty contacting Minox CS, so I called Doug to see if he had a direct # or a different # for them. He went above and beyond, contacting them himself and having a call tag sent for the defective scope (which I ahd for several months). He also had them immediately send out a new scope, which I had in just a few days. I had to do absolutely nothing more after the one call to Doug. It's hard to argue with customer service like that.
