Are Technikdirect really any good ?

andy1249

Hello Everybody ,
I am about to buy a Canon EOS 20D , I have researched this for months and this is the model Im gonna get , now the cheapest I can find it online is with Technikdirect , someone here recommended them , the price is around 1500 Euro which is about 500 cheaper than Irish shops.

Now , Obviously I thought Id test them first with a small order to make sure it arrived , so I ordered a Compact flash 512MB for 43 Euro , ( they want 22 euro shipping so the total was 65 euro ). I processed the order on the website , everything seemed to go well ,the item was shown as in stock , and I got an order confirmation , approx 20 minutes later I got a mail that said my order had been cancelled because the delivery time is completely unknown !!

I sent them a mail asking them to explain and I got a reply saying to ignore the first mail and that the order had been cancelled because the minimum order was 50 Euro !!

Now seeing as they are charging 22 for shipping I think this is a bit weird , does anyone have any real experience with these people , are they genuine and reliable !!
Please let me know ?

Oh by the way , in the stickies for this forum a site called www.ny-camera.com. ( in the address bar they appear as digiwo.net ) I tried these and the site is unsecure which in this day and age is totally unacceptable !! imo!!

bambam

I bought a 1 GB memory card and a spare battery off them with zero hassle. I also rang them up and had a chat about the 350D, unfortunatly the guy couldn't say when they would be getting stock in. So I ended up getting the camera from 7dayshop.com

Alun

I ordered an Olympus mju digital 500, 512MB xD card and spare battery off them, with no problems at all.

Streamload

www.bhphotovideo.com

20D + 18-55 kit lens = 1,399.95 $
Shipping = 76.50 $

Total = 1,476.45 $ = 1,218.60 €

say you got cought by customs (V.A.T = €256)

1,218.60 + 256 = € 1,474.60

Alun

Streamload wrote:

www.bhphotovideo.com

20D + 18-55 kit lens = 1,399.95 $
Shipping = 76.50 $

Total = 1,476.45 $ = 1,218.60 €

say you got cought by customs (V.A.T = €256)

1,218.60 + 256 = € 1,474.60

Assuming he pays the VAT like the fine upstanding citizen that he is (not "caught by customs" as you put it), this isn't much different from the technikdirekt price, plus he gets a proper EU warranty. No brainer.

dublinguy05

theres talk of a replacement of 20d at the end of august...hopefully the crop factor(1.6) will be reduced some are saying that it will be 1.3...

andy1249

Thanks for the replies lads , some good advice there , I,m going to try another order of them for a 1gb card and see how it goes , then buy the camera , I'll also probably wait until august to see how the new model shapes up as well ,
Thanks for the help.

FinoBlad

i just bought a film camera from them, no hassle, camera delivered 4 working days later. i'm just going to order inkjet cartridges now as they are great value there.

btw forget the "IF" you get caught for vat, the courier companies now get a fee for collecting vat and they present it to customs themselves so unless it comes by ordinary post, there is zero chance of slipping through.

rymus

dublinguy05 wrote:

theres talk of a replacement of 20d at the end of august...hopefully the crop factor(1.6) will be reduced some are saying that it will be 1.3...

Theres been speculation on the subject of a 20D replacement for some time, when it'll happen, only Canon knows. As for Technik, you couldnt go wrong with them.

JMcL

rymus wrote:

As for Technik, you couldnt go wrong with them.

I'll second that. We've ordered 4 or 5 times from them over the last year or so, and no problems really. The only thing to be aware of is that for high value orders, and I'd assume your 20D would fall into this category, they may request you to fax or email them scans of your credit card and photo ID. This was a bit of a pain as the fax was too dark when they received it, and I refused to email scans unencrypted, we eventually managed to get it sorted out. A lot of German online shops seem to request this, and it's usually only for the first (big?) order.

John

rymus

that's fairly standard practice these days. Just dont forget to cover 2 blocks of numbers on your credit card when you send it...