Fed up with B&H poor service!

[David Mazeau]

Yes, it's been a year. How have you been?

Yes, everything is fine here. Well, almost. This weekend the rapeseed
plants are all out in full bloom, so out in the countryside there are
these wonderful fields of yellow. But unfortunately I sold my 10D,
and still haven't received my 1D Mark 2. So I am debating going out
to Normandy tomorrow, to take pictures with only my G2.

One would guess that these "fields of yellow" will be gone for this
year by the time I have my 1D Mark II in hand.

But, as far as problems, that's obviously very minor stuff. And who
knows, maybe my G2 will do fine.

If you don't want to hear it, you don't have to
read it. Just go on to another topic. But I, and others, have the
right to discuss it. It's called freedom of speech.

Yeah, that's right. You're right, I suppose.

them in the future. I just don't think it's good business for me,
the consumer, to prepay for something, and not know when I'll get
it, if I don't have to. So, my dislike is not with B&H, it is with
their prepay policy.

I don't know, but I am not really sure they are even very happy to
be participating in this crazy "get the camera, get the camera" mad
dash. That is, they may do fine even without all the headaches
these sort of crazy days that new products generate.

Maybe the "pay in full, in adavance" is just their way of discouraging
the practice of pre-ordering products from them at the time of
new product launches.

For awhile it looked like this year they weren't even going to take
ANY pre-orders for the 1D Mark II. But then finally they started
accepting orders. Long after other stores had been.

A big problem for B&H might be that tons of people have 2 or 3
orders, one of which is always with B&H. This creates a madhouse
environnment where products are shipped out, and then shipped
back ... I'd guess.

Dave, you have the right to disagree with what I say, and please
correct me if I'm wrong, but please don't ask me to stop talking.

Well, if I were to ask you to stop talking, it would only be a suggestion
for your own benefit. But outside of that, I will just take your suggestion
to just skip over the threads, at some point, I guess.

Although I was thinking today at work more about this. Maybe the
reason the sales reps on the phone at B&H don't know how many
1D Mark 2's they are getting is because it's a big operation.

Maybe the folks in "Purchasing" at B&H have finally been told by Canon
how many they will get in the first batch, but they haven't really
seen the need to inform all the sales reps of this information.

But, in a smaller operation, "Purchasing" may not even formally exist.
And when the number finally does come down from Canon, the
guy that was on the phone with Canon just shouts out, "we're
gonna be getting ten 1D Mark II's from Canon on next Tuesday".

My point is that you can speculate that there is a formal "reason"
why B&H won't inform customers of how many 1D Mark II's they
are getting from Canon. But it could be all harmless and innocent
stuff. Just a lack of communication between purchasing and sales,
about a piece of information that really isn't going change things
much for them.

That is, either way, they will sell all the 1D Mark II's they receive, one
way or another.

 

[FastFilm]

What's wrong with a straight answer AND politeness? It just doesn't seem that hard to me. I live in New York City and have been a regular at B&H for 10 years, talking with at least 20 different salespeople (and probably many more) over the years. I don't doubt Matt's assertion that the salesperson was rude. Some of them are. On the other hand, some are extremely helpful and somewhat friendly. I don't think there's anything wrong with encouraging B&H to have polite salespeople who still give an honest answer. And they need to know when/if their people are rude.

Perhaps because I live in NYC, it seems like the general level of civility is going down. I don't think we should accept that--it's a bad feedback cycle. One person is rude to another so they're rude to the next, etc. And I know that businesses, at least, can set a corporate standard. Here in NYC all you have to do is compare your average experience in a Starbucks to an Au Bon Pain. About 90% to 95% of the time, the person behind the counter will be friendlier and have a much better attitude at Starbucks. Since they're drawing from the same labor pool, I can only assume that Starbucks is doing something right.

Of course, I still shop at B&H because they have great prices and they are honest, and often, they are helpful. Still, they could use some improvement and I know it's possible.

Sorry for the tirade.
Paul

Tom

Why is it most other retailers can tell you an estimated time
period of when you will actually have the camera...

Because most retailers are full of you know what.

It seems a lot of people confuse good customer service with good
butt kissing. If B&H has no idea when they are getting the cameras
in, I appreciate the fact they will tell me. I'd rather hear an
honest "we have no friggen idea" than some bs artist make false
promises. I'm guessing that people who live outside of the
northeast are sometimes surprise how obnoxious New Yorkers
naturally are

--
Dr. Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shabado

 

[tominboston]

I've never had a conversation with anyone at B&H that wasn't polite and professional. We weren't privvy to the original conversation here, so it's hard to pass judgement on who was rude to whom. I can imagine after a few dozen calls from people saying "where's my @$%* MII" you might be a little less than polite. On the other hand while a $5K order may not be the biggest B&H has ever seen, for most of us it's a lot of money (especially if you paid in advance). I wasn't there, so I can't pass judgement.

NYC rules of politeness are a little different than many other parts of the U.S. world. You just have to accept that fact and move on. When B&H opens a branch store in Mendocino, CA, you might get laid back and friendly. Until then, you get what you get.

Tom

Perhaps because I live in NYC, it seems like the general level of
civility is going down. I don't think we should accept that--it's
a bad feedback cycle. One person is rude to another so they're
rude to the next, etc. And I know that businesses, at least, can
set a corporate standard. Here in NYC all you have to do is
compare your average experience in a Starbucks to an Au Bon Pain.
About 90% to 95% of the time, the person behind the counter will be
friendlier and have a much better attitude at Starbucks. Since
they're drawing from the same labor pool, I can only assume that
Starbucks is doing something right.

Of course, I still shop at B&H because they have great prices and
they are honest, and often, they are helpful. Still, they could
use some improvement and I know it's possible.

Sorry for the tirade.
Paul

Tom

Why is it most other retailers can tell you an estimated time
period of when you will actually have the camera...

Because most retailers are full of you know what.

It seems a lot of people confuse good customer service with good
butt kissing. If B&H has no idea when they are getting the cameras
in, I appreciate the fact they will tell me. I'd rather hear an
honest "we have no friggen idea" than some bs artist make false
promises. I'm guessing that people who live outside of the
northeast are sometimes surprise how obnoxious New Yorkers
naturally are

--
Dr. Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shabado

 

[PicOne]

and/or is it apparent now that prepaying does indeed seem to help garner them a lot more cameras to ship?