I ordered a pair of shorts from Nashbar that I had read some good reviews on (Louis Garneau Ergotex) and got them on sale so I was feeling pretty good. I get them in the mail and realize the Chamois is different then the pair on LG's website. It appears that Nashbar sells these shorts with a downgraded chamois and sells them at the same price as the "regular" pair and calls them an exclusive. I think that's a pretty crappy.

What other items do they do this too?

You sure it's not just a different year issue (i.e. 05 versus 06 shorts)?

I don't really see how that is possible since LG would still have to manufacture the shorts and wouldn't allow that. It is entirely possible that LG would manufacture a cheaper short for Nashbar to sell at a cheaper price but I don't see why they'd try to pull a fast one on anyone.
But I could be wrong.
Where did you get the information about the downgrade or was this just an assumption?

I ordered a set of Ultegra 6600 brakes. They sent me 6500 brakes instead. The ole switcheroo! Yesiree!

send them back.

Why don't you call Nashbar and tell them your problem first. They will be glad to give you a refund or exchange, I am sure. I would do this before complaining too much here. Nashbar didn't screw you, they gave you detailed info about the short.

I would understand your displeasure if they had misrepresented the shorts. But I wouldn't call this misrepresentation or a switcheroo, by any means. The Nashbar site lists these under the name Louis Garneau "Ergotex MMC Short" and says it has the "Ergo-MMC" chamois. The LG site lists just simply "Ergotex Shorts" with an "Ergo-G Improved" chamois. Clearly different. Furthermore, Nashbar says they are an exclusive product, which means it's obviously not the same as any other short offered by LG. I don't know about you, but when I see "exclusive product" I would make a point to do a tad of research and figure out what makes it different and exclusive.

I just returned a pair of the Ergotex MMC shorts because after 3 months of recreational riding (<100 mi/wk) the 8mm of padding in the chamois had compressed to about 2mm. Basically the chamois had disintegrated into nothing more than a sheet of microfiber cloth sewn to spandex. I realized this after noticing how badly my a$$ was hurting after my last 50 mile ride. I called LG, talked to them, and they said that large customers can spec out different pads for different short models, and that the MMC chamois is one of their lower end pads. Why Nashbar chose to marry a good short with a uber-cheapo pad I'll never understand, but they have.

I WOULD recommend the "real" Ergotex short, however. The material and cut of the spandex is awesome, at least on my body. These were, by far, my favorite short.. at least until the pad went to hell on them. Only time I'd wear something else is when these were still damp from washing. I'm definately going to replace the crappy MMC version with the genuine item as soon as I get my credit from Nashbar.

I am a little more comfoortable mail ordering bike parts but do not like to order clothing, especially if it seems to good to be true pricing.

The reviews I read on the short just refer to it as the "Ergotex" shorts and LG's web site doesn't refer to multiple models of Ergotex shorts so when I ordered them I assumed I was getting the same pair reviewed in Bicycling magazine. Since they were priced the same as the pair on LG's website why would I assume they were anything different. I don't think people are going to look that closely when ordering these shorts. I disagree with you about the screwing part, Nashbar is benefiting from the positive reviews of the product and then cutting corners by selling it with an inferior chamois. Now if Nashbar was selling them for $69.99 vs $89.99 I would have looked closer. They should have put something in the description about why it was exclusive, to be honest I just thought they were the only ones who sold Ergotex shorts.

I returned them but they hit me with 10% restocking fee because I removed the tags.

Be warned do your research with Nashbar products.

If you go to LG's website the Chamois that came with the shorts is sold in cheaper pairs of shorts and is not the same chamois that detailed with the Ergotex shorts.