Praise for B&H

About two weeks ago I received an email from B&H announcing a Panasonic offer of $300 off a new Panasonic camera if you trade in another camera. Step 1 was to tell B&H over the web what you own, and get an email with an offer. I told them I wanted to trade in a G7 in 9+ condition, and they made an offer in writing by email.

Now, if I had still been looking at the web site, I would have known that it said 2nd step was to mail the camera to them and get back a promotion code for the $300 discount. But instead, I took the offer email (printed) and my camera (with all accessories it came with) to the B&H trade in desk. The person behind the desk didn't know about the $300 trade in offer.

Oh well, I traded in the camera plus two old lenses and went to buy a G9. The person at the Panasonic booth called over a sales agent (who probably regrets it) to place the order. I told him about the $300 rebate for trade in offer, he had never heard about it either, but after placing a phone call for help he found that offer on B&H's own web site. He thought the trade in desk should have given me a promotion code, but as I said, they didn't know. He called in backup - two managers came over. One of the managers (Louis) took my trade in slip for the camera and said he would go to the Trade In desk and straighten this out. And he did! He came back with a printed page, that I would have received in email if I'd followed the directions, it had the promotion code on the bottom. and he returned my trade in slip.

This took about 20 minutes, I'd say, from start to finish and they really seemed focused on getting this promotion to work. I was very impressed. On the bright side, now there are several people on the sales floor and at the trade in desk who know about this offer from Panasonic. But if you plan to take advantage of this, if I were you, I'd follow the instructions on the web site! Offer lasts until June 16th I think.

By the way, price of a G9 body minus $300, minus trade in credit for G7 with kit lens and two other lenses, made this a much more reasonably priced camera!