Anoni M.

I used to buy a lot from B&H, and was always pleased with their selection. Recently, though, I have had several experiences that put me off of buying anything from them unless it is absolutely unavoidable. In short, the customer service has gone to hell in a hand-basket and they could not care less.

My most recent bad experience with B&H was as follows:

I ordered a piece of equipment that I needed on a particular date with plenty of lead time. When it didn't arrive on the delivery date, I emailed B&H who, after multiple uninformative emails (were they even reading my questions?), finally told me that they will not ship a replacement item until a package is 10 business days overdue. Most curiously, in discussing where this "lost" package might be, they did not seem phased that the package's tracking data showed that it had never been mailed.

So, let's review: 1. B&H loses package in their own warehouse. 2. B&H claims they have no clue where it is, but want me to wait the full 7-day shipping period PLUS 10 business days to make sure it's truly lost. (Guys, if you want to make *sure* it's lost, then just go down to your warehouse, find it, and toss it in the East River. Sheesh.)

Eventually, after all the required waiting, B&H agreed to express ship a replacement item. So, OK, that's an obnoxiously long delay in the age of 2-day shipping, but at least they were express shipping it, right?

WRONG. Instead, they told me they were shipping the item, but neglected to mention that, during their required waiting period, they had sold the remainder of their stock and the item was now back-ordered. I only discovered that it was out of stock when I got a series of cryptic automated emails about a back-order and contacted them again to try to make sense out of it.

At this point, I didn't even care if I got the specific item I ordered, I just needed something comparable. Anything! And I needed it pretty fast. So I asked if they would express ship me a comparable item, rather than waiting on their supplier for the specific product. Ha! Not a snowball's chance! I even escalated to a director in the company who sent a very polite email informing me that it's not B&H's fault when items go out of stock. (I can only imagine that he didn't read the part of the story where they sold out of the item during the 10 days that they made me wait while I repeatedly asked them to replace the item and emphasized how time-sensitive it was.)

Final tally: Did I get the product? Yeah, it showed up... eventually. Did I get it within the 7-day shipping window? Nope. Or the 2-week shipping window? Nope. Did I have to spend a few hours reading and writing a chain of 15 or 16 emails just to get the product at all? Yeah, that happened. Would I do it all again? Heck no.

Bottom line: If you need something in a timely fashion, or you might need to return the item (or might need to ask customer service for anything besides a canned response explaining why you're SOL), then take your business elsewhere. Patronize your local small camera shop or other independent business and ask them to special-order the product for you. They'll be happy for the business and you'll get great, personalized service from people who care about helping you get what you need when you need it. That's what I've started doing, and my blood pressure is lower already!