Problems with B&H Photo...

Two out of my previous three orders with b&h have had the same issue. They take my money, process the order with the shipping company of their choice, and the item never leaves the warehouse.

Imagine my surprise today when my brand new ball head showed up without a tripod to put it on. Everything was supposed to ship together. The tripod had a secondary tracking number, which I never thought to check until it wasn't waiting at my door with everything else. Upon checking it, there is the "Order processed and ready for UPS" sign that unfortunately has become all too common with B&H. And because it's the weekend now I get to tack on two more days of waiting before I can even get in touch with them about it.....

This is why I've moved most of my shopping to adorama.

Been there done that. It's been a couple of years since I've purchased from B&H, and those were small items. Almost all my business has been with Adorama.

When you discuss this problem with B&H Photo, let us know what they say.

I've bought a lot from BHP over the years and never had a problem with shipping or anything else.

Never had an issue here either and I buy all my new gear from B&H since they're local. Have gotten every order in one day, although I do find it annoying that they won't even let you place orders on the Sabbath. Seriously? Just wait to process the order, but if your web server is allowed to work why not the e-commerce server?

-Joe

Doing business is doing business, in any form, whether system or people. It is quite understandable. Having anyone, or anything, act as a proxy during this time for business doesn't free one up from this conviction.

Jarvis Creative Studios wrote in post #18508438
Two out of my previous three orders with b&h have had the same issue. They take my money, process the order with the shipping company of their choice, and the item never leaves the warehouse.

Imagine my surprise today when my brand new ball head showed up without a tripod to put it on. Everything was supposed to ship together. The tripod had a secondary tracking number, which I never thought to check until it wasn't waiting at my door with everything else. Upon checking it, there is the "Order processed and ready for UPS" sign that unfortunately has become all too common with B&H. And because it's the weekend now I get to tack on two more days of waiting before I can even get in touch with them about it.....

This is why I've moved most of my shopping to adorama.

I have used B&H quite a bit - I usually have about one order from them every month, year in, year out. . I've never had any problem with shipping. . They've shipped things to various motel rooms, friend's places, and campgrounds for me, and every single order has always arrived exactly where it was supposed to within the timeframe that it was supposed to arrive in.

Of course, when I order different things in the same order, they don't all arrive together - of course not! . But that isn't a problem. . They always tell me right up front that things may ship separately, and that one or two of the items may take quite a bit longer to arrive than the others.

Are you sure that when you order, such info isn't in some fine print somewhere, and you're just not seeing it? . If you're careful to read every line and every word on the Order Summary and the Order Confirmation email that they send you and the tracking information that they send you, then perhaps that you'll discover that they are, indeed, telling you that one of the items may take two weeks, and that the other items will arrive within a couple of days. . This happens to me somewhat frequently, but of course it isn't a problem.

If, when you place your order, the ballhead is at, say, a manufacturer's warehouse up in Michigan, and the tripod is actually at one of the B&H warehouses itself, in New York or New Jersey, then how could you possibly expect the items to ship together? . They're not going to buy the ballhead from the manufacturer and then wait for it to get to their warehouse, then package it up with the tripod and send them to you in one package ...... what a waste of time that would be!

Remember that retailers like B&H don't actually physically have all of the items in their possession. . Rather, often times they are acting as an order processor, and will have the items you order shipped to you directly from the manufacturer or third-party wholesaler. . It's not like the olden days where retailers would actually buy all of the items from the manufacturer/wholesale​r and them have them in inventory. . The internet has allowed things to be much more streamlined than that archaic business model.

However, I don't doubt that you have had troubles with things not arriving - otherwise you wouldn't have written this post. . But such problems must be very rare, because I've never had it happen to me even once, and I've had over 100 orders from B&H over the course of the past 11 years.

.

I've had good success with B&H

One shortcoming with your post, which is inherent ... is no screen captures of the pages, forms, data fields or possible "temporarily out of stock" alerts that sometimes are in sight or elsewhere. So the "full picture" about what's happening is not available.

Otherwise, I order from B&H, Adorama and Amazon with hardly any problems. Usually a one or two day delay if a package came long distance and it was "free" delivery.

Are we talking a week's worth of delay or just one business day (adjusted for the Sabbath) delay in shipping? If it's just one business day I think you're characterization is unfair. Taking into consideration the breadth and volume of merchandise they stock and ship from just two warehouses and the deals, expertise and customer service they offer, I don't consider a one business day delay in shipping to be a big deal. But if your shipments are getting delayed several days before going out then I agree something's wrong and you should give them a call.

I've been buying from B&H since the late 1970's and can't remember a single instance where an in-stock item ordered before noon took longer than 2 business days to ship (taking into consideration their Sabbath) and, since I'm in NJ, more than four days overall to receive, with the exception of the holiday rush or a major disaster. I find them to be more reliable than Amazon. Also, B&H is the only vendor I deal with who will still usually give me a discount off MAP if I call and ask.

Jarvis Creative Studios wrote in post #18508438
Two out of my previous three orders with b&h have had the same issue. They take my money, process the order with the shipping company of their choice, and the item never leaves the warehouse.

Never? This does not seem to be true. Are you really accusing B&H of taking your money and never shipping the order? In context, it sounds like you have experienced more delay than you like. That is something very different.

Jarvis Creative Studios wrote in post #18508438
Two out of my previous three orders with b&h have had the same issue. They take my money, process the order with the shipping company of their choice, and the item never leaves the warehouse.

Imagine my surprise today when my brand new ball head showed up without a tripod to put it on. Everything was supposed to ship together. The tripod had a secondary tracking number, which I never thought to check until it wasn't waiting at my door with everything else. Upon checking it, there is the "Order processed and ready for UPS" sign that unfortunately has become all too common with B&H. And because it's the weekend now I get to tack on two more days of waiting before I can even get in touch with them about it.....

This is why I've moved most of my shopping to adorama.

Had a very similar thing happen with them. It looked like the seamless paper never shipped and the rest of my stuff had already been delivered. Weekend passes and Monday I didn't don't get a chance to call until late, but the two rolls of seamless had already been delivered that day.

These items are probably drop shipped by the MFG or their distributor and their system is not properly integrated with the shipper, in my case UPS.

mdvaden wrote in post #18508920
I've had good success with B&H

One shortcoming with your post, which is inherent ... is no screen captures of the pages, forms, data fields or possible "temporarily out of stock" alerts that sometimes are in sight or elsewhere. So the "full picture" about what's happening is not available.

Otherwise, I order from B&H, Adorama and Amazon with hardly any problems. Usually a one or two day delay if a package came long distance and it was "free" delivery.

I was of the understanding that everything shipped out together and would arrive together, because both orders said their estimated arrival date was Dec. 1st. B&H sent me an email letting me know that everything was shipped at the same time. There is a screenshot below. Even though there were two separate boxes, I assumed everything was on the way. When I called B&H today around 1:30EST because my tripod did not arrive on the 1st, they blamed it on Fedex not updating their tracking numbers. The B&H rep claimed the shipment went out Nov. 30th. But according to the now updated Fedex tracking number it was scanned in today. My main gripe is that my current tripod broke, so I ordered a new one for my upcoming trip to NYC this weekend. I figured "expedited shipping" should be able to make it here in 9 business days. Guess I was wrong.

bumpintheroad wrote in post #18508955
Are we talking a week's worth of delay or just one business day (adjusted for the Sabbath) delay in shipping? If it's just one business day I think you're characterization is unfair. Taking into consideration the breadth and volume of merchandise they stock and ship from just two warehouses and the deals, expertise and customer service they offer, I don't consider a one business day delay in shipping to be a big deal. But if your shipments are getting delayed several days before going out then I agree something's wrong and you should give them a call.

I've been buying from B&H since the late 1970's and can't remember a single instance where an in-stock item ordered before noon took longer than 2 business days to ship (taking into consideration their Sabbath) and, since I'm in NJ, more than four days overall to receive, with the exception of the holiday rush or a major disaster. I find them to be more reliable than Amazon. Also, B&H is the only vendor I deal with who will still usually give me a discount off MAP if I call and ask.

It was supposed to be here on Dec. 1st. It's now arriving Dec. 7th after I've already left for NYC, which is why I ordered it (current tripod broke). So it's more than one business day. I'm hearing different stories from different companies though. When placing the order B&H's site stated the estimated arrival date would be Dec. 1st. Their customer service rep said it shipped out Nov. 30th (one day before it was supposed to arrive) and blamed lack of shipping updates on UPS. He did however, say that shipping was delayed in their warehouse for an unknown reason. He couldn't tell me why (although I'm pretty sure it was they just forgot to put it on the truck). B&H's website says it was shipped out on Dec. 1st. UPS tracking (which after calling has updated) says it was scanned in at UPS on Dec. 3rd at 3:21EST. So I don't really know what to believe. All I know is I won't have the tripod for my trip.

AZGeorge wrote in post #18509597
Never? This does not seem to be true. Are you really accusing B&H of taking your money and never shipping the order? In context, it sounds like you have experienced more delay than you like. That is something very different.

Well, in the last case (batteries for my a9) when I called them, they cancelled the order and sent out a new order created by them because, in the words of their customer service rep, "they were lost and no one knew where they were". So if you want to speak in technicalities (which it seems you do), the batteries I originally ordered never left their warehouse.

In the case of the tripod, we'll see, as it has not arrived yet. But the characteristics up until me calling B&H this afternoon were the same as the previous battery incident.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18509643
Had a very similar thing happen with them. It looked like the seamless paper never shipped and the rest of my stuff had already been delivered. Weekend passes and Monday I didn't don't get a chance to call until late, but the two rolls of seamless had already been delivered that day.

These items are probably drop shipped by the MFG or their distributor and their system is not properly integrated with the shipper, in my case UPS.

B&H did try to blame it on UPS not updating shipping info, but the shipping info updated about two hours after getting off the phone with the rep. The rep said that the tripod had been delayed for an unknown reason.

Their website said that it's estimated delivery date would be Dec. 1st. I know those aren't always reliable, but my issue is, according to my order on B&H's website, the order placed on Nov. 26th didn't even have a shipping label created for four business days, and didn't ship out for five business days (shipped out on the estimated delivery day.) UPS tracking says it wasn't scanned into UPS until 3:21EST today. Worst part about it is I ordered this tripod to take to NYC this coming weekend, because mine broke. But it won't be here in time. Seems 11 days isn't enough for "expedited shipping".

UPDATE:

I've written different bits and pieces in responses, but here is the timeline so far and an update:

- Sat. Nov. 25th: I ordered a new ballhead, tripod, and genie mini for my upcoming NYC trip for which I'm leaving Thurs. Dec. 7th. B&H's website says estimated delivery date is Fri. Dec. 1st.

- Sat. Nov. 25th: Right after placing the first order I realize I forgot a tilt bracket and place a separate order for that. B&H's website says estimated delivery date is Fri. Dec. 1st.

- Sun. Nov. 26th: B&H sends me an email that my tilt bracket has shipped.

- Thurs. Nov. 30th: The tilt bracket arrives. (A day early from their estimated arrival date. YAY!)

- Thurs. Nov. 30th: B&H sends me an email that my ballhead, tripod, and genie mini have shipped

- Fri. Dec. 1st: My ballhead and genie mini arrive (they must have put some serious speed on that shipment for it to get here in a day). My tripod never arrives even though they were the same order. There were two different tracking numbers.

- Fri. Dec. 1st: When the tripod fails to arrive at all that day, I check the secondary tracking number, and according to UPS the item has not left B&H's warehouse. (I had a similar issue with batteries, in which the batteries became "lost" so they cancelled the order and sent different ones out.)

- Sun. Dec. 3rd: I call B&H customer service (they are closed on Sat.) and tell him the issue, hoping they can do 1 or 2 day shipping on a new one so it will be here for my NYC trip. He says the order was delayed for some reason (he didn't know why), but everything had shipped and it was UPS's fault for not updating the tracking numbers. I said it looked like the tripod was still at their warehouse, but he said the "your items have shipped" email doesn't send out until items have been picked up and taken to UPS. This statement does not appear to be true however, since the "your items have shipped" email was sent on Nov. 30th and B&H's website says the item was shipped on the 1st. UPS however, has the tracking number saying the item was scanned in today at 3:21PM EST. I'm still trying to figure out if I think it's a coincidence that two hours after I called B&H about the missing tripod, UPS suddenly had it at one of their facilities.

But back to the heart of the issue. I'm not complaining just because a shipment is late. I'm frustrated because I will not have the tripod to take to NYC. I'm frustrated because I feel like B&H is not being up front with me. Why did it take four business days to process an order? Why is it taking 9 business days (12 total days) for an item that is supposed to have "expedited shipping" to my door? Why wouldn't the customer service rep tell me why the tripod was delayed in the warehouse? Why did the UPS tracking numbers suddenly update after I called B&H? According to UPS, the "arrival scan" (EDIT: I meant this to say "origin scan"). was Sun. Dec. 3rd at 3:21PM EST. I got off the phone with B&H service at around 1:30-1:45PM EST. I looked up UPS's definition of origin scan, and it's: "Origin Scan. This scan is the initial electronic record indicating UPS has possession of the shipment.."

But the worst part is I won't have it for my trip......Frustrating to say the least.

I think what I'm going to do is call them tomorrow, and buy another tripod, see if they will do free one day shipping because of the issues, and then send back the original tripod when I return from NYC. That way I'll have the tripod for my trip, and all will be square.