i get so nervous doing mailorder..
 

i know lots of people do it. but i ordered my nikon D70 today (actually ordered two, one for friend), and just giving out all that info gives me the creeps. maybe all this ID theft, and crap going on has got me spooked. does it bug anyone else?

cliff

So how much did shipping from Nigeria cost?

There is probably a much greater likelyhood getting credit card info stolen by handing your credit card to the wait staff at a restaurant than ordering online through a reputable retailer.

Nah. Mail order brides and meat would scare me. Identity theft? As long as the place you ordered from has a good reputation, it should be alright.

It was better than free- they’re sending a $10,000 bank check & vash just has to wire them back $9,000 ;)

now how is that for some perspective! thanks.

cliff

Hilarious! :D

Exactly.

Work with known entities, your probably safer doing electronic transactions. I got a receipt from a gas pump today that printed out my full CC number. Last time I use that Shell.

I haven't looked recently, but are vendors still selling the D70 at $995 body only and $1295 with zoom lens? If so, I wonder how long they'll stick to MSRP.
I guess when the D70 something comes out.

After shipping charges and such, I've even seen them higher on ebay.

Sherwood

i got the kit with body and 18 to 70 lens for one penny shy of 1300. free shipping and no tax. i am going with the one gig card, but i found that cheaper locally in palo alto. i cannot wait. i am hoping to sell my hasselblad and some nikon 35 mm stuff. i will keep the leica's. seemed cheaper than building a darkroom in my garage, besides my SC has dibs. even with a full blown version of photoshop and new PC and printer.

D70. Good choice. I'm envious. Let us know about your vendor once you get it. There are a lot of reputable sources out there, and about as many shady ones.

Sherwood

sherwood, i searched high and low, and i ended up chickening out and going with RITZ. they have stores in cali, but they dont charge the sales tax. i dont know how they do it. i will let you know if i get the cameras hassle free. i hate spending money....but i did do alot of overtime.

FWIW I have purchased a HUGE amount of "stuff" online since consumer e-commerce was first available, somewhere around 10 years ago. (And some stuff well before that in the pre-WWW years.) In fact I buy just about everything except groceries and (sometimes) clothes that way. I have had virtually no problems or losses in that entire time, other than a ~$40 ripoff on ebay several years ago.

With today's encryption technology, credit card fraud protection monitoring, and other measures, I believe you are far more vulnerable to fraud or identity theft from "low-tech" perpetrators than from e-commerce transactions. For instance, many of us discard (or used to) credit card receipts, statements, old checkbooks, etc in our trash cans which sit out on the street all night! Or we leave our card for hours with a bar wench while we get drunk and she seriously contemplates a bonus on top of her $7.65/hr wage.

Bottom line is that as long as you use a major credit card and are careful about the vendors you deal with, the odds are very strong in your favor.

BTW - nice camera choice! I was leaning towards a D70 acquisition for my upcoming birthday but now I might wait awhile to see what happens for the xmas season. I rarely have time to shoot pics right now anyway. :(

On a couple occasions, we bought groceries online. I can't remember the vendor - they went out of business about five years ago - but they deliver the groceries right to your door.

They had by and far the largest tomatoes I ever saw. It was great stuff. You just had to be home to accept delivery, which was a bit of a problem.

Clothes? Not a problem. I've done my entire Xmas shopping online, too.

I've done a LOT of mail order online...well used to, anyway, when I had money. :rolleyes:

FWIW, the Navy Exchange has the D70 on sale soon at $1229.99 (no tax of course) with the 18-70mm zoom lens. Gosh...wish I didn't have to buy a new bumper for the 911; otherwise this would be on the shopping list. :mad:

Yep, there were WebVan and PeaPod; both tanked (at least in SoCal). I "think" that even now, some supermarket chains still offer order/delivery service; however, I do the shopping for the family and don't really mind as I do most of the eating too... (Plus the Pepperdine Malibu blondes shop at the same two stores I do, but that's not a factor... ;) )

My main issues with online clothes shopping are shoes, suits, or sunglasses. Those are 3 things that you just can't be sure are "right" without physically handling them and trying them on. I greatly dislike having to return online purchases so tend to only order stuff that I am 98% sure I'll keep.