B&H Photo VideoReviews 3,787

I just did a side-by-side order of a video encoder (Amazon and B&H). Long story short, I went with B&H because--while the price on Amazon was originally cheaper--I paid less as I don't have to pay taxes and I don't have to pay for shipping to get it here on the same day (free two-day shipping compared to $20+ two-day shipping).

I've used B&H many times before. I wanted to check multiple places to make sure I was getting the best price. I'll save myself the time next time and just shop on B&H!

Two weeks ago I loved B&H and spent thousands of dollars a year at the online store, but a single order has flipped my opinion. In essence, customer service is lazy and apathetic. In this case, an order for a single item was placed before 11AM and overnight shipping was requested and paid for. It was critical for my business to have it the next day. I had a feeling the item did not ship because I received notice a few minutes before 7PM that the shipping label had just been printed. The next morning I tried to stop the order because the item was of no use to me if it was a day late, and I was sure the item was still in their building. Instead of the rep simply checking with the shipping department to stop the shipment, he told me to wait and see if it showed up on time. A few hours later, after noticing that UPS tracking showed no activity on this shipment I called back and that rep told me the same thing in spite of my pleas. Unless someone got on a supersonic plane with the item there was no way it was going to make it to my business on time. There is more to add here, but let's move to today... I am 15 days and 6 phone calls deep into this one, and each phone rep seems to not care anything about me as a customer. Therefore, I am no longer a customer. The final insult was that my refund on this item did not include the shipping charges. In other words, I am paying for their failure to ship on time. I emailed customer service yesterday and as of 6PM today have not received a reply. Lazy, apathetic, and not concerned about losing a decent customer is a tough way to do business, but I suppose if you do the volume that B&H does you can get away with it. I am just posting here to warn others of the frustration they might face if they have an issue with an order. As for me, I would much rather do business with someone who appreciates their customers, lets the customer know if there is an issue with receiving an item on time, at least pretends to want to resolve an issue over the phone, and who does not expect the customer to pay for their failures. Is that too much to ask from a business? If the business is called B&H Photo the answer is probably yes, way too much ask for.

I received my order today. Everything was there and in excellent condition. Thank you for the speedy delivery!