Donnie H.

First off, all the 4 & 5 star reviews here have been created by Abe's of Maine employees. Easy to spot that once you read a couple as they obviously are not bright authors. I was screwed over on two orders in a row. A $1,000 camera order and a $300 tripod order.

Here is how Abe's of Maine works as of 2020. This reflects my experience I just had, twice.

1) You place an order online thinking you found a deal (but really you are a victim-to-be). You are going to feel yourself die a little through this process, so expect that especially when your package arrives. This feeling is because you watch theft happen in front of you but it is too late by the time you realize they are con artists and you have been cheated.

2) After you place your online order, the order gets frozen until you answer your phone from a nice, but nagging sales person. You answer because you want to get things moving and resolve any issues. Who wouldn't be excited for a new Nikon camera or a new $300 tripod?

3) The sales person urgently warns you the camera is out of stock or it is some gray market version only, and then offers an alternative that is as expensive as getting the product from any other vendor. In my case it was a $1,000 Nikon camera they sold me when Nikon sells it for $1,000 too. If you push back they pad the deal with extra stuff like camera lens, SD cards and batteries to make it feel worth it. Some stuff comes with the camera anyway lol! WTF. So you put trust them since it is your first time and you believe no scammers are this up front but the sales guys are crafty, fast and pushy. So when the package arrives I find that they removed the factory Nikon warranty and sold me one of their own (probably fraudulent) 3rd party warranties. Nikon's website did not know the serial number even existed when I checked it on their registry! That cannot be good. The camera did appear new and original so I will take this just as a painful lesson. The accessoires I all found on amazon for a fractions of Abe's price. For example the cheap chinese lenses they provide sell for $399.00 (yup, that's four hundred USD) on Abe's but are $24.99 on Amazon, same part numbers. The battery they sold me for a $49 value on Abe's but is a $4.99 import battery that dies in 30 minutes.

For my second beating it got worse. I placed a second $150 order in because I didn't question the first order yet. I ordered a tripod online and they again followed up with their order stall and scripted procedure phone call. Again, they claimed the tripod I ordered is not good. So I said give me your best tripod and I paid $300 for a 72" high quality one. Well to my "big surprise" it was a cheap plastic Ultimaxx one. It is not even on their website as it is not available, so what did they sell me! I found it online for $18 and $30 on amazon and Rakuten. I stopped looking after about 5 sources of under $40 because it made me sick. They keep hanging up on me when I call for help about any of this. Adam the sales guy is quite a player. I emailed Lisa Berry, some account specialist but havent had any sign of life there.

So they way they work is they attract orders by offering low prices but they never plan to commit to that price. The whole purpose is to get your phone number and credit card number and persuade you into ordering cheap junk from them. How do these people sleep at night?

I am sure they will try to take this review down because it is too truthful. Then they will spin another bunch of fake employee made reviews online. This is so anti-american. Hopefully their business dies from deceit. If they fix this order I will retract this review but I do not expect much.