B&H Photo Video

I have gotten back into film developing and printing and B&H has had everything I needed to get back into film.

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.

@All_customers: I ordered a dive light ($300) which happened to be defective (one of the main functions is absent) when the product was *******@Non-US customers: I paid the import taxes together with my purchase - after the defective product was sent back to B&H, the replacement light was sent to me without pre-paid import taxes. On behalf of the customs, the carrier thus requested $75 that I had to pay before they deliver the parcel. Although I have paid two times the import taxes, B&H refuses to reimburse me one of these._____________@B&H:
1) May I recall that I have email exchanges with the B&H customer service since September? All B&H messages automatically start with "Thank you for contacting the Customer Service Department at B&H Photo Video and Pro Audio.", and end with "Please let me know if you require any further assistance.", but no solution, including any commercial gesture, is proposed to the customer.
2) European customs apply the same process as the US ones (as links are not allowed in reviews, please go to help.cbp.gov and check for Drawback - fees collected upon importation of goods). When a product is imported, if this product leaves the country for any reason (in this case, a defect of a brand new item sold by B&H), it is the task of the payer (in this case, B&H who provides the payment on behalf of the customer) to file the drawback claim.
Actually, imagine that, following the discovery of the defect, the customer has requested a full refund of the payment from B&H – in such case, there will be no sending of any replacement item.
Needless to say, the sending of a second item is considered by Europe or US' customs as the import of another product, i.e., taxes need to be paid by someone (sender or receiver) – in this case, the customer had no choice than paying these taxes in order to get the product delivered by the carrier.

Great deal, easy selection, fast delivery. I can alway count on B&H for top quality products, great prices and fast delivery