Where to buy? (Part II)

[kelly_flanigan1]

Popular Photography magazine had an article on buying camera items by mailorder about 40 years ago. The said that if you call them up "The NYC dealers will be gruff". They have alot of pressure even today to wrap up the order quickly; and get on to the next call. Many companies have timers; and time each call; an weed out the slow poke salesfolks; who cost the company money. <BR><BR>When a customer uses an AMEX card at our store; every once in awhile AMEX require a mess of extra checking; confirmations; calling card processing center; asking the customer what their last major purchase amount was. This consumes time; and gets the customer ticked; as AMEX goes thru their 2 ; and 3 checking processe(s). Sometimes the customer just swears something about AMEX; and hands you another credit card.<BR><BR>With a local camera store; they have a much higher overhead; and have to deal with answering a zillion free questions; when a customer is in their store. <BR><BR>Maybe you should try a western USA store; or a midwestern store.

[sandy.]

Sorry to bother you folks but I will shut up after this post.

 

Check with my bank and the lens was paid yesterday. Got another email from B&H saying that they cannot refund my money for at least seven days.

 

As W.C.Fields says,"There is a sucker born every minute." I guess they have found one.

 

Have a nice weekend to you all, thanks for all the responses and you are all nice folks.

 

Cheers - Sandy

[kelly_flanigan1]

Sandy; sorry about the troubles; have a good weekend; and keep us posted on what happens.

[jim_koral]

I called Bank of America the other day for a simple question about a

transaction. The person answered my call with, "How may I provide you

with excellent customer service today?" And she followed through with

it, too, it wasn't just a shallow remark. You would think that in the 21st

century business owners would equate great customer service with a

great return in $$$.

 

As for my recent B&H purchase, I didn't mind their phone call verifying

my online order. I would much rather buy locally here at Samy's in California, but I

don't want to give Arnold 8.25% of my purchase price.

[citizensmith1664875108]

I've ordered a lot from B&H and recommended it to several people. I normally order online but had to speak to them a couple of times as I was shipping stuff to odd addresses. The staff on the phone were very to the point. They got the information they needed and ended the conversation with not much in the way of pleasantries. Thing is I was fine with that, and just got back to work. I can see how it could rub people the wrong way though, as well as easily move to just being rude. I'll stick with B&H assuming they don't mess something of mine up. They do a decent job but at the same time, like any business there is no reason to be loyal to them.

[digitmstr]

>>>"There is a sucker born every minute." I guess they have found one.<<<

 

I have bought the 10D and 24-70L as well as other relatively pricey items on the same transaction and there was no phone call needed for verification. But, I have been doing business with them for many years...that might be a factor.

 

Still, I really do not think that B&H is in the business of finding "suckers". As the movie said "what we have here is a failure to communicate"... (I forget the movie in which this line was used...)

[wildpicture]

Just to show not all photoshops are the same, here is a story with an experience from this weekend.

 

I live in The Netherlands (that is in Europe for the geographically challenged :-) and have bought most of my equipment from a photoshop that is specialized nature photography in Germany (www.isarfoto.de). Over here the EOS-1D Mk.II is in very short supply and that means waiting lists. I pre ordered mine a while back but the shop wasn't sure when it would arrive. If it would arrive, they would contact me.

 

Then last friday an UPS delivery truck stopped at our house and brought a package. My wife and I were both puzzled as neither of us had ordered anything. When I saw it came from the photoshop, I was even more puzzled.

 

So I quickly opened it and to my amazement it turned out to be an EOS-1D Mk.II. I must say I was completely stunned. So I called the shop and the owner told me he had received a few bodies and thought I would have liked to receive mine. There was an invoice with it and I could just transfer the money to them. I told him the money was still in the savings account and it might take a few days extra. That was no problem at all, no hurry. They do have all my credit card details and could have used that, but chose the much slower transfer instead.

 

Well, that is customer service!

[webrx]

I would recommend sending this person (at end of message) an email explaining your experience. If someone had a bad experience with someone who worked for you wouldn't you want the opportunity to resolve the problem one-on-one before your got bad press on the internet - I would. Sometimes people have a bad day, sometimes what a "new Yorker" might consider normal conversation, will upset a West Coaster (I'm in San Diego). I have had no negative experiences with B&H everything was shipped fast, accurate order filling, and everything works when I get it. Not to mention they are often significantly cheaper then even our largest local shop.

 

Just my .02

 

D

 

 

Henry Posner

Director of Sales and Training

B&H Photo-Video, and Pro-Audio Inc.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com

[dzeanah]

In my experience: B&H for best price, Calumet for best service. Both offer excellent service.

[ryanjoseph]

Sandy,

 

Your experience strikes me as strange. BHs attitude is not surprsising, as I find them rude myself. Honestly I do not care, I am not there to make friends. I would rather have an honest jerk like BH than a sweet talking scumbag salesman. I find your experience HIGHLY unusual and hope it works out. I have ordered over 2500 dollars of equipment without one problem, except for the interrogation. I was glad they did it, since it shows they are on high alert for fraud.

[andrew_rose]

I agree with the previous post, while it is highly unusual (I've ordered from B&H a seemingly innumerable amount and never had anything approaching that level of rudeness) the fact is that B&H is designed to sell merchandise. While customer service should be a priority, when a company sells in such a gigantic volume the cost of doing business is a frequently unfriendly manner.

[jim_larson1]

I have been through the B&H verification ringer myself. And this was for a *phone order*, not a web order. Not my first purchase, either.

 

Not very nice. More to the point, it delayed shipment by a full day (If I had KNOWN there was going to be a phone verification => I would have known to get the message!) I let them know what I thought of the process ==> I have dealt with enough NY'ers to know how!

 

Total pain in the butt.

 

They have not done this to me recently, even with a recent $800 order. This particular item was ordered at 2pm specified for "second day" delivery. It arrived the next day. (although, I think UPS gets the credit for that one)

 

Frankly, the only reason I shop with this crowd is based upon price.

[henryp]

We are certainly sorry Sandy's experience was unpleasant and both the manager of the particular department involved and our General Manager will see this. The people Sandy dealt with are from our credit card Verification Department. They have certain routines they MUST follow and there's very little deviation permitted. They're supposed to be polite, of course, but they must also be firm, both because (as I said) procedures must be followed, and because they regularly deal with scammers and pirates who want to use YOUR credit card here enlisting us as unwitting accomplices in their piracy.

 

I do know they can be just a bit "Nu Yawk," particularly to folks from the "other" coast, and if this was the case, we certainly apologize.

 

The reason you were cautioned about the time it takes to cancel an order and issue a refund is that (because of the UCC) once we tell our bank there's a refund, the bank has several days before they have to tell yours and your bank then has several more days before they have to confirm he refund to you.

 

Again, we certainly apologize to Sandy and regret any dissatisfaction.

 

Henry Posner / B&H Photo-Video, Inc.

[fxdonny]

Sandy,<br><br>

 

I have always admired your GENEROUSITY to this forum, especially last December, when you're willing to match 1.5x times the dollar that every other member put into this forum to become patron member. How much was your donation? Like around $50,000 or so? This alone has proven your very kindness and character<br><br>

 

I have no idea why this is happening to you, but for sure, B&H WILL LOSE a lot for treating you like that. If anything, THEY SHOULD BE SORRY for what happen. I have always had a smooth transaction with B&H (online only), but I have to admit that talking to them on the phone is not one of the nicest experience, I would say. Also, one glitch from certain individual can always ruin the whole idea about their customer service.