BH Photo is by all accounts a supplier you can really trust; however, for those not visiting NYC and only having business and/or lodging addresses in the US buying from BH Photo is apparently an impossibility. The reason is that they, according to their delivery rules, refuse to ship to international customers at such US addresses.
There's some confusion here. Our web page for internat'l customers asks for a bill-to (usually home) address and if different, a ship-to address. There's a note there saying, "Note: You can only select a different shipping address when shipping to the USA."
In fact for non-US customers we will ship to your home or your job (if it is in the same country as your home) or a verifiable US address provided we have the complete address and a land-line phone number. Some ship options are not available on our site yet for security reasons, but are available if you phone or fax or e-mail an order.
Do they not ship to a residential US address, ie; family member or friend?
We do.
I know a few retailers refuse to send items to a hotel
We'll do that too, but not from our web site and there are restrictions, for your protection and ours.
I had a similar situation some time ago. I contacted them with a view to purchasing a camera and shipping it to the UK, using reputable credit card etc. The very favourable exchange reate then made it cost effective. In reply I got very short shrift from some in their store saying that they would not do it because from their experience sales to the UK in this method had been subject to fraud.
We used to have a restriction on orders to the UK for Visa & MasterCard because UK banks were unwilling to cooperate with verification procedures designed to deter credit card fraud and identity theft. That restriction has since been lifted.
For better or for worse, B&H implements such restrictive shipping policies to minimize fraudulent transactions. I completely sympathize with our British and European friends across the Atlantic. Personally, I feel it's fairly idiotic to impugn the integrity of the vast majority of legitimate international customers because of a few bad apples in the past.
Respectfully, we do no such thing, anymore than airport security queues and shoe inspections impugn your integrity when you're traveling by air.
Here we go again bashing B&H. I think they are astute business people and no doubt would ship internationally if it was profitable.
Thank you. Hopefully we have astute business people here and we do ship internationally because it is profitable.
But from B&H's point of view, if something in the pattern of how the order was made, or where it was being delivered, or using a different delivery address than the billing address, etc., trips one of their "red flags", then they're being prudent to check things out before shipping, or even refusing to make that kind of transaction
Bear in mind the merchant banks which allow us to accept credit card payments require we show a modicum of prudence. Too many fraudulent transactions and too many chargebacks mean higher transaction rates for us and/or a limitation on our ability to accept Visa or MasterCard in general.
It takes serious cajones to order on a stolen number and then have it shipped to the actual owner of that credit card. They'd have to stake out that person's house and wait for the shipment and then steal it off of your porch or be there and pose as if they were you!
That's why we're particularly careful with next-day rush orders. For those, the delivery date is certain. How much effort would it take for some pirate to show up, rake your leaves for a couple of hours and scram 3 minutes after the UPS truck is over the hill and out of sight?
I just hoped that BH's Henry Posener, who has figured on DPR's forums many
times, would see this post and give an answer "from the horse's mouth".
It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings.
I'll defer to Henry, but my guess is this is to protect B&H and the consumer from fraudulent purchases with phished card accounts, which is a greater problem and harder to verify internationally and delivered to an address that is NOT the billinng address.
THANK YOU!
I have done this so many times with no problems. They will not send to an international buyers place of business in their HOME country (which is not in the US) because there is no way to verify that the buyer has received the order.
For non-US customers, we will ship to your home or your job if it is in the same country as your home
BTW, we've recently begun implementing a VAT/Duty calculator. It covers many EU countries and many products and is being expanded daily. It allows you to pre-pay these import fees and should expedite your order through customs.
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Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video
