bhphotovideo question - need former customers to answer

[episodic]

I know they are good - my question is are they fast shippers or are they slow shippers?


For what I mean, like newegg usually ships really fast - but other places even reputable ones sometimes will sit on your order for several days before shipping.

Just curious - I needed something quick, and I wanted to weigh my options.

 

[Brainonska511]

I don't know about B&H, but if you wanted to know about other stores, I just ordered two lenses on Wednesday night, one from BeachCamera.com and the other from 17th Street Photo - both shipped out the next day and I was using them on Friday.

 

[Jawo]

They are not the quickest, IMHO. Last Order I placed on Friday Morning (7am EST) and it didnt ship until Monday. UPS always gets it here in 3 days though (for Ground).

 

[blurredvision]

Nope, they aren't Newegg quick. I ordered a simple ML-L3 Nikon remote, a $20 order, last Monday night (late). They didn't ship until Thursday. I was wanting it for this weekend, but it turns out I wouldn't have needed it anyway.

 

[montanafan]

I ordered a lens from them online on a Tuesday night after the cutoff time for that day's orders (I think it's 6 or 7 pm). I ordered it UPS 2-day air and got an email confirmation a little later. The next afternoon I checked their website to track my order and there was no tracking number. I got a little worried so I called customer service, this was about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon, and the guy told me it would be shipped out that evening. I received it Friday morning.

I noticed on resellerratings that some of the people who mentioned a slight delay in shipping found that it was because the address on their credit card did not match the one they were having the merchandise shipped to. I had mine shipped to a different address than the one on my card, but I didn't have any delay, just thought it might be something you should be aware of.

 

[ZOXXO]

From my recent email logs from B&H:

Order Confirmation - Thur.
Shipping Confirmation - Sun.

Order Confirmation - Wed.
Shipping Confirmation - Wed

Order Confirmation - Fri.
Shipping Confirmation - Sun.

YMMV

 

[rudder]

Certain days of the week seem better to order than others with B&H. I think they adhere to a strict relgious schedule. You will even find them shutting down for extended periods for religious holidays. I seem to notice when I order from them stuff ordered on Friday (sometimes Thursday) takes longer to actually ship than stuff ordered earlier in the week.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I have spent thousands at B&H in the past. They use to be the "other newegg.com" for me when it came to photo gear.

This is no longer the case.

You see, B&H is the most popular online etailer for such gear. It's where most of the pixel-peepers buy 4 or 5 copies of one lens, evaluate them at 200% in PhotoShop, keep the "sharpest" copy, and then return the remaining 4 lenses. Of course B&H receives them, inspects them, and then re-sells them as brand new. You have lots of pixel-peepers doing this. So when people like me come along and want to buy one lens, the chances are better at B&H as compared to other etailers that I will receive someone's reject/soft/resold lens.

In addition to all this, B&H usually takes 1-2 days to ship at least, and their return policy is only 14 days.

For my most recent purchase, I bought my EF 70-200 F4L IS from JR.com. It shipped the same day as I ordered it. And despite for having only paid for UPS 2-Day, I received it the next day. The lens box had never been opened, and the lens has an April 2007 date code. It was without a doubt a brand new lens. JR.com has a 30-day return policy. They also have "policies" stated on their web site that say that any returned items will be resold as gray market, not as new.

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: rudder
Certain days of the week seem better to order than others with B&H. I think they adhere to a strict relgious schedule. You will even find them shutting down for extended periods for religious holidays. I seem to notice when I order from them stuff ordered on Friday (sometimes Thursday) takes longer to actually ship than stuff ordered earlier in the week.

Exactly. They are closed from sundown Friday, until Sunday every week. They are open Sunday.

 

[Imported]

I haven't bought lenses from BH for the pixel-peep reason. I usually go to a local camera shop for my lenses. All my BH orders consist of random gear I need. All orders I've placed before their same-day shipping cutoff time have been shipped that day. All orders I placed after have always been shipped the following day. I always get two-day shipping though.

 

[Anubis]

Adorama Ships faster then B&H from my expirence and they are both located in virtually the same place

both places are run by Jews, who as ThePresence posted do adhear to their holidays strictly

 

[jamesbond007]

I've placed many small and large-dollar orders with B&H, typically with FedEx Express Saver as my shipping option. If I haven't gotten the tracking number by the next day, it's the following business day.

Overall, I'm very pleased with their customer service and prices. It's hard to get me to make a camera purchase at any other e-tailer because of this.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Seems like B&H execs have a habit of attacking forum posters who are critical of their flawed business model:

http://forums.dpreview.com/for...=1029&message=23679643

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Seems like B&H execs have a habit of attacking forum posters who are critical of their flawed business model:

http://forums.dpreview.com/for...=1029&message=23679643

Hmmm... I don't see that. Henryp was pretty level-headed in that thread.

 

[ultimatebob]

B&H's shipping is usually quick, as long as you're not trying to order something on a Jewish holiday when they are closed.

 

[foghorn67]

You can't order on holiday. They won't even take the during holiday. But what happens when you order a couple of days before a vacation? Well, they have vacation on their minds and get lazy.
I ordered something on an early Monday morning. They go on vacation starting Wednesday, and re-open Memorial day (next Monday). Did they ship Monday? No. Tuesday? No. While on holiday? No. Memorial Day? No. No carrier would pick up packages, federal holiday. Why brag about the fact they are open on Memorial day. Useless unless you are in range to shop their B&M in person.
I wrote an email saying that was pretty screwed up. I just needed something for the weekend, I thought ordering early Monday morning with 2 day shipping would be ample time. They wrote back with a canned reply. The way they wrote is like they expedited it out. uh huh.

 

[troytime]

i ordered from adorama yesterday, it shipped today!
woo

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: episodic
I know they are good - my question is are they fast shippers or are they slow shippers?


For what I mean, like newegg usually ships really fast - but other places even reputable ones sometimes will sit on your order for several days before shipping.

Just curious - I needed something quick, and I wanted to weigh my options.

BTW, my last 2 orders, one shipped the next day (less than 12 hours), and the other took 24 hours (video camera and a list of gear).