My last post was about my upset with UPS whose business practices surely result in hundreds if not thousands of complaints a day ... they seem to be about minimizing their expenses by minimizing their services and self monitoring in order to maximize profits. At the other end of the spectrum is B&H Photo Video of New York City whose word is their bond. I have been a customer of B&H for over ten years, starting back in the days of Usenet. Even back then they believed in Customer Service, dealing with complaints of customers right out in the open for all the world to see and doing one damn fine job of it. And even back then, it felt as though most of the complaints brought to them were about the poor delivery services of ... wait for it ... UPS, where they explained over and over that they had no control over the abysmal practices of UPS.
But you remember that most recent package of mine that they lost? Well, I did have to initiate the complaint rather than UPS stepping up and owning their failure, but it entailed a simple online query about what to do sent to their customer service department. And I got a reply that said essentially that they would look into it and ship another shutter release when the ten day "waiting period" elapsed. And that's what they did without wasting any more of my time.
Other great things about B&H? They don't sell you something if they don't have it. I won't shop online at Adorama any more because they sell things they don't have and don't tell you about it until you have waited a long time and finally ask! I have the emails to demonstrate this. They are simply not reliable. Another thing is that B&H keeps online records of your purchases if you login before you buy ... which I always do ... and you can look things up online for years after, say for getting tax information about equipment purchases. They will also maintain both public and private Wishlists for you. I use mine to keep track of items that I buy repeatedly such as Epson paper and ink. Also items that I am considering purchasing but haven't decided yet or that I am saving for ... this is a very handy feature. Most places want you to "register" so they can SPAM you but at B&H they only use your information to provide real services! And they'll give you advice either online or over the phone. And finally, since you might want to know when they do get your item in stock, they will let you sign up for a notification of when the item comes in and then you can buy it if you want ... no hassle, no pressure, no SPAM.
They only have a presence in New York so you don't have to pay sales tax if you live elsewhere, although I would urge you to pay it in your home state anyway. But the difference more than makes up for shipping ... and here I urge you to pay a couple of bucks more and step up to FedEx.
And finally, a word about prices. B&H may not always have the lowest price you can find on the 'net! But if you follow the stories associated with many of these other 'discount' vendors, you learn why. There are a bunch of these apparently cheap vendors operating out of New York. They are all the same vendor. They don't have a storefront because they are a scam. They sell you a camera online, but always they must telephone you to 'verify the order'. And when they do, they try to sell you add ons, like the manual, body cover, neck strap, etc. (that all come in the box from the manufacturer but they don't include) and when they can't upsell you such that the total price is actually more than the B&H price, they discover that they are Out of Stock. This is even worse than the Adorama trick of selling you an item, at a good price, that they don't have but eventually hope to have!
I realize that this has been another Rant and I promise to do some useful blogs very soon. But if I can save one person from being ripped off it is worth it.
Travel safe!
Dwight
