B&H international sales responsibility?

<p>I am wondering if anybody had similar experience with B&H Photo. Or any other international sales/shipping.</p>

<p>Usually PNetters can't stop praising their service when the topic comes up -- as BHPhoto are seemingly very careful about customers satisfaction. They are much less so when it comes to international customers -- at least from my experience.</p>

<p>I bought a 1999$ Arca Swiss from their Used Dept in August. As I live in Poland, the package had obviously to go through Customs, so it was 27 days after purchase date (and after 500$ in customs fees) that I was only able to pick it up.</p>

<p>The big box is filled with bubble foil and these air-filled bags but somehow the camera itself is just lying on the bottom without any protection save for single layer of bubblefoil (the box is unopened). And you guessed it. The camera is messed up. The precision mechanism of micrometric focusing is bent on both bearers plus the front standard rise is so sluggish it surely is bent as well.</p>

<p>So I am writing to the B&H describing the problem (it is already 29 days past purchase) and this is where fun part begins. They say <strong>We can offer 100$ as a compensation</strong>! Ha ha ha. "Compensation" for what? The shipping itself cost 73$.</p>

<p>No, wait! It isn't funny, you're over 2500$ shorter and all you have is a seriously broken camera! -- I said to myself. I can't though advise myself anything better than just laugh at the B&H incompetence -- which isn't that profound, after all they got the money and don't need to bother with somebody far there -- everything is fine, they only offer 30-day returns!</p>

<p>To sum up this frustration: I bought a good camera and they destroyed it in such a stupid way. What is even worse is I chose to buy from them based on their reputation. As they say: learning is costly.</p>

<p>It is vital to pay via credit card or PayPal to have protection in cases such as this. Also take pictures of any problems with packaging or transit damage. </p>

<p>This may be a dumb question, but I didn't see it above. If you are in Poland, how did you pay if you didn't using a credit card or pay pal? just curious?</p>

 

<p>Sure I paid by credit card. But the card itself doesn't protect from wrong packaging and 30-days returns.</p>

<p>If you did pay through a credit card or Paypal, you can try to get a refund from them.</p>

<p>I have sometimes seen packing as you described--bubble wrap protecting the purchase on top but not the bottom--from B&H, but nothing was damaged. I'm not saying that it should be done this way, and I'm sorry this happened to you.</p>

Had the package been opened by customs?

<p>Boy, the situation sucks. That's (shipping and custom) the reason I don't buy or sell internationally... </p>

 

<p>With the amount of product that is bought by phone, mail or internet you'd think they'd have good packing down to a science. I've seen the "throw it in a box and throw plenty of stuffing on top" too many times. Amazon does it all the time. Fortunately I've seen nothing broken, but the possibility is there. Sorry you had the misfortune of broken merchandise.</p>

<p>This is a clear case of seller negligence - poor packaging. in Britain you have automatic consumer protection with any purchase of one hundred pounds or more made with a credit card. Any talk of a 30 day limit is total BS. It would have been ideal to take a picture of the package immediately on opening, you still should do this, but in any case talk to your credit card provider immediately.</p>

A $2K investment deserves perfect packaging. The bubble wrap crap doesn't cut it unless it's taped around the item and then that item put

in a box that's put in another box with more insulation. Whoever packed it should be taught better.

I've bought from B&H many times and occasionally wondered what the heck they were thinking when they packed my box. Especially given

that they use UPS for delivery and i've received more then one box crushed in one way or another.

I would just,-- if you have not raised the level of discussion-, suggest you send a photo and complaint personally to Henry Posner c/o B and H with more details and dates. he is the store customer rep and can offer more help I am sure. Strange to hear that an item valued at $2000.00 would warrant a 25% custom duty also. I mean for international sales, that hurts, holy smoke. Let us know what happens for sure if you get a better resolution .... And if you find out, how B and H manages international shipments as to packing and boxing. And what happen in this kind of failure. What carriers as well. It just doesn't sound right what you describe, since the item is insured for shipment loss I expect, and it was hot handling like eggs or sure not packed like eggs. I know they have been pretty good in overseas to Hawaii as a rule, not always in the past. But lately, pretty good and boxes have not gotten rough treatment by air freight.

<p>Hopefully B&H will respond and satisfy your need for a replacement, and compensate you for mailing costs. It is also very frustrating to have to experience long waiting periods to get such things resolved. While their service to Canada is very good in recent years, I too have seen some of their skimpy packaging before and hesitate to buy fragile optical and camera bodies by mail or courier service unless I am confident about the way the seller packages shipped items.</p>

<p>Blazej<br />Thank you for your order and this feedback. We regret your dissatisfaction. I believe the person here with whom you corresponded did not understand the extent of the damage you were reporting. I have escalated this to the manager of the used department who will address this.<br>

<em>Reminder: B&H is closed Oct 17^th through Oct 25^th.</em><br>

<em><br /></em>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>Blazej:<br />I've been informed the used dept manager spoke to you by phone and the matter is in the process of being resolved amicably. Thank you for shopping with us and for your patience. <br>

<em>Reminder: B&H is closed Oct 17^th through Oct 25^th.</em><br /> <em><br /></em>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>Thank you, Henry, for your help. Yes we had a chat and we are on the way to sort out the situation.</p>

<p>I had an eBay seller--a reputable company in business long before the Internet--ship a Sinar monorail <em>fully assembled</em> and single boxed with packing paper only. Front standard was cracked beyond repair. Fortunately, there was one for sale on eBay at the time, and my seller paid for it.</p>

<p>Exactly, this is the point.</p>

<p>View cameras should be <strong>disassembled for postage</strong>. Why do you think they are not in assembled form in original packages? They are precision instruments and their working configuration is not suited to withstand any stress beyond that of their own weight.</p>

<p>I think time is up for reporting on how my issue got resolved eventually.</p>

<p>So, after initial misunderstanding, the Used Dept. staff took the situation very seriously and agreed to either cover the repair cost or accept the return. Since I have paid customs and tax of over 25% of the price I didn't want to go through reclaiming procedure since it usually lasts some time and also I needed the camera so I decided to choose the way of cure.</p>

<p>I checked with the serviceman what could be done (the only serviceman in Poland who has expertise in servicing large format gear lives near my city, so it was very convinient). He was able to disassemble format bearers and fix the out-of-order axes but wasn't able to fix the bent front standard. Since Arca spare parts aren't plentiful on used market to say the least we had to refer to Arca-shop to get a new one at the cost of over 700 Euro. </p>

<p>All of this was swiftly refunded by B&H and I have my now-back-in-shape Arca Swiss F-line-C-field camera.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>