Darntoothysam

I purchased $100 worth of merchandise from his website and never received the items. I called, emailed, facebook-ed, linkedin-ed this guy every way possible and have not heard back. PayPal would not refund me as the 45 day period for refunds had expired.

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM HIM.

If you google "Thomas Drayton" or DarnToothySam, you will see a TON of complaints., including some television reports of how bad this guy is. I have a call into his web hosting (gator.com) and name hosting (godaddy.com) companies to complain about him. Hopefully they will pull his website to prevent more fraud against other consumers.

I broke my Canon flash on 9/30 and needed a replacement part. I ordered the part from Darntoothysam the following day and paid for priority shipping. When I hadn't received the part by the following week, I called the company and left a voicemail. I also sent an email to check the status of the order. After hearing nothing, I was forced to go elsewhere for the part (turns out the part direct from Canon was cheaper and arrived in two days). I again emailed to cancel the order from Darntoothysam (no response) and called my credit card company on 10/11 to cancel the charge with them. That seems to be the only thing that got the attention of the company. Today (10/24), I received an auto-generated email that the part had shipped. I wanted to reply and see if the shipment could be stopped, since the charge had already been cancelled and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of a return. Wow, that set off a hornet's nest I was unprepared for! Rather than try and convey in my own words, I think I'll let the emails from the company do the talking:

Here's my initial response to the shipment email today (18 business days after the initial order was placed!)

"I contacted you to cancel this order weeks ago. I've also disputed the credit

charge because this was taking so long. I've already ordered the part elsewhere. I will not be responsible for these charges."

Here's the response from the company:

"Sorry for not gouging my customers so I could make millions of dollars and have a

call center in India for you. After 6 years of trying to provide people with digital

camera repair at a reasonable price, I give up. I no longer run this as a full time

business and I fell behind in shipping though I'm almost caught up now. I will not be responsible for you wasting money on Apple products. LOL."

Now, look, I understand the challenges of running a small business and I didn't expect a response to my queries about the status and cancellation the minute they were received, but I wouldn't expect them to take weeks to get back... I also didn't appreciate the rudeness of this email. But the part was more expensive through them, and not delivered as quickly (or politely) as through Canon. I don't mind paying "the little guy" extra, but I would expect the part in a reasonable amount of time, and certainly not with all this attitude. When I communicated this to the company, here are the follow up responses:

"Go to Best Buy and grab yourself a shiny new $70 HDMI cable to plug into your DVD

player. The "Geek" will tell you that it's "certified" and "you have to have it".

Guess what, it's a $1 cable made by a 12yr old in China that gets paid 60 cents per

hour and works 14 hours per day. Guess how they can afford their millions in

advertising and their fancy stores and Geek Squad cars?

I wouldn't do that to my customers. I gave free estimates, and shipped back cameras

for free if they turned down the estimate or it wasn't repairable so I lost money. I

charged $30 including shipping for repairs, plus the part. Most places start at $100

labor, plus shipping, plus parts. I thought I would be nice and charge reasonable

amounts instead. Wow, what a bad idea.

After 6 years of repairing cameras for people all around the world, I give up. I

tried, but people want to be gouged, they want to be exploited so they think they

are getting something really valuable.

Know that diamond ring you have? Diamonds are so plentiful that they never have to

mine another diamond ever and they will never run out. If all the diamonds that

DeBeers currently has (DeBeers controls the world diamond supply) were released you

could buy them for $2 a karat. They tell you they are valuable on TV, so you fall

for it. I really don't care if you don't believe me, educate yourself, it's not my

job.

I know I will keep the part, thanks. Have a super day."

"Phone 5!! I can't wait to pay Apple $500 for a phone!! Ever hear of Foxconn in

Shenzhen China? No, of course not, Apple products are made by magical fairies not in

China by people who get paid 60 cents per hour because Apple loves me!"

Wow - who does this guy think he is? He's the one DOING the gauging on the price - it was MORE with him than through Canon, and A LOT bigger hassle! I didn't ask for a lecture on best buy, diamonds or apple products; I don't even know how he started on that topic - I certainly didn't bring it up (although maybe he took offense to my using an iPhone to email him?) I did expect to receive the Canon part I ordered and paid for priority shipping to arrive in a reasonable amount of time, with followup communication if there's a significant delay (especially after I inquired), and a certain amount of decorum in handling customer relations. I will not be a repeat customer and I encourage everyone else to stay far away. This company is not worth your time or money.

This guy Thomas has ripped of so many honest people to include my wife and I. We have found countless victims throughout the Internet of people Darntoothysam has ripped off. And what a *** name for a website, we should have know it was a scam. He is almost impossible to reach and if you ever reach the guy he either makes up a world of excuses and if you get upset he rants on how he's a small shop and he can't afford to hire a call center in Indua to answer the calls and how he could charge us $100 more it he did. Well blah blah and blah, you have stringed us along with your lies, NO MORE, GIVE US BACK OUR *** CAMERA.

Don't go through what we did! Here is the information you need to know:

Thomas has changed to a new website called www.easycamerarepair.com since he has ripped off too many people already with the Darntoothysam name. How did we find out about the new name? The Better Business Bureau already has a file on the new name. Read his BBB report on the old new and all of the complaints on the new name already, the Better Business Bureau doesn't lie!

To file a complaint on him (I'd suggest doing this fast if he has your camera), the BBB is used to helping victims of this guy, just get a BBB complaint made fast. Do this if he doesn't respond or if he makes excuses on delays.

You can notify the BBB at this link: http://www.bbb.org/minnesota/business-reviews/internet-shopping/easy-digital-camera-repair-in-burnsville-mn-9605****

I'm here to help people who need it. The guy screamed at me telling me how it's all my fault and how he can't do everything and it's just him and one guy that helps him. Yet he keeps taking more people's cameras. Also, there are reports all over the web that he charges the customers credit cards and doesn't send the parts and just ignores the customers once he has their payment. TELL YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY AND THEY WILL GET YOUR MONEY BACK FAST AND DOCUMENT THIS AWFUL EXCUSE OF A BUSINESS.

Darntoothysam has had my camera for many months with just a lot of excuses if I can ever talk to the guy.

Some examples of the excuses he's given me:

It was a mistake a the camera was put to the side.

Parts forgot to get ordered

The wrong parts arrived

Parts arrived broken so they had to re-order

Hurricanes it something about a crisis where the parts were ordered from

IT'S BEEN MANY MONTHS OF HIS STORIES, RETURN MY CAMERA ALREADY, PLEASE! Refund my money to or I'm going to have my credit card company reverse the payment. Send it back the way I sent it to you. YOUR SERVICE IS A SCAM!

By the way, due to all the complaints he gets, he made s new site called www.easycamerarepair.com

I WANT MY CAMERA BACK NOW!

Avoid like the plague. This dude is so sly he thinks.

He will get your camera and then you will be lucky if ou ever see it again according to some of his past customers. . I tried to order a part from him. Got no response after he got my money.

Canceled the payment and suddenly he wants to talk and get all defensive.

You are better off trying to repair your own cameras etc. I ordered the part directly from the company and was treated nicely.

They even sent emails telling me they got my order and another saying it had been shipped. Some people just don't know how to do business or treat customers!