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| 1999/10/5-8 [Consumer/Camera] UID:16668 Activity:low |
10/5 Does anyone have experience shopping for cameras at
http://www.photographicphoto.com
\_ Do yourself a favor and go to http://www.bhphotovideo.com
They are rude, but cheap, efficient and honest.
\_ Imagine a world where honesty, value an efficiency in a
retail sales industry was parallelled by politeness and
respect for the customer... oh, wait... I must be asking for
too much. God forbid should anyone be polite. -(fucker)
\_ I saw the price on http://www.photographicphoto.com is considerably
lower but if you have or have heard of bad experience with
it please post it. Thanks.
\_ Try Adorama or Smile Photo. B&H is known to have
good stuff, but higher prices. Never heard of this
photographicphoto place, but their prices don't seem that
low to me.
\_ I've always had good experience with mail-ordering at B&H
and CWO (http://www.cameraworld.com I think they are not rude,
but they are not the cheapest either. If you're buying
popular items, CWO usually has lower prices than B&H.
Otherwise it's the other way around. Haven't tried any
mail-order stores other than these two because I heard
most others like to cheat. -- yuen
\_ I am the one who said B&H are rude but honest...
I STRONGLY recommend you look at this informal survey:
http://photo.net//neighbor/one-subcategory.tcl?id=2
good luck -serious snapshooter
\_ Another survey can be found at
http://www.cmpsolv.com/los/pmos.shtml
This one lists the number of satisfied/dissatisfied customers
at each mail-order store. -- yuen |
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| photo.net//neighbor/one-subcategory.tcl?id=2 -> www.photo.net/neighbor/one-subcategory.tcl?id=2 Photo : Ummm, not good -- Alec Simonson, April 20, 2004 64 47th St. Griffin, June 9, 1997 74 A Plus Digital : Great prices and service -- Sandy Perish, March 8, 2000 75 A&I Classic Camera : Out of business? Fair, January 2, 1998 188 Abbey : no title -- Don Dixon, October 29, 1997 189 Abbey : no title -- Carl Christoff, September 18, 1996 190 ABC Camera Brokers : Misrepresentation of Condition -- Randall Shafer, October 21, 2002 191 Abe's of Maine : Great price, incompetent customer service, worth it though. Liang, December 7, 2001 259 Abe's of Maine : Have done business with in the past. Rahn, October 24, 1999 269 Abe's of Maine : Don't expect their quoted price to be honored. Erickson, November 16, 1998 272 Abe's of Maine : Tamron better than Canon -- Ervic Aquino, August 25, 1998 273 Abe's of Maine : attempted scam -- Rick Webster, July 21, 1998 274 Abe's of Maine : Need to learn netiquette -- Troy Sorzano, July 3, 1998 275 Abe's of Maine : No Way! Thompson, December 23, 1998 296 Access Discount Camera : Access Discount Camera Provides Very Poor Service -- Richard Finkelstein, December 16, 1998 297 Access Discount Camera : absolute rip-off. Justice, April 22, 1998 313 Access Discount Camera : Not so good experience-Would not order from them again. Excellent Service -- Reg Mills, March 6, 2003 386 Adorama : Beware when buying used! Bruce Propert, January 6, 2003 394 Adorama : OK, but still prefer some others. Woes -- Earnest Key, August 3, 2002 412 Adorama : Adorama - No problems with online ordering. Redelfs, June 6, 2002 424 Adorama : No Problems, Good Service -- David Martin, May 12, 2002 425 Adorama : Idiots -- Rachel Condon, May 10, 2002 426 Adorama : super fast and just what I needed -- Jim Lapenta, May 10, 2002 427 Adorama : Avoid Adorama! Ask for salesman Fred Wasser -- S Goyal, June 26, 2001 472 Adorama : sold me returned item as brand new. Cant get rebate as of 5/26/01 -- R F, May 27, 2001 476 Adorama : no problem with web order -- Quang-Tuan Luong, May 25, 2001 477 Adorama : They have phone employees that don't care, and know nothing, and don't want to admit it -- Jason K, May 24, 2001 478 Adorama : web site order, new and used equipment - really good service -- Martin Cryer, May 19, 2001 479 Adorama : Web sitw purchase excellent -- David Zeitzer, May 11, 2001 480 Adorama : AVOID Adorama's USED Dept. Kelly, December 29, 2000 496 Adorama : No problems with online order -- Chris Farmer, December 15, 2000 497 Adorama : Excellent service best price -- chris calabro, December 13, 2000 498 Adorama : Service with fred no problem -- Nikon F, December 5, 2000 499 Adorama : Good experience. Finally -- Charles Schutz, August 11, 1999 546 Adorama : First & Bad Experience -- Nathan P, August 9, 1999 547 Adorama : Fast service and reliable -- Thanh Trang, August 6, 1999 548 Adorama : Very Good Job -- Andy Luginbill, July 21, 1999 549 Adorama : Giving me the runaround, still trying -- Gary Teague, July 12, 1999 550 Adorama : Good buying experience. Newman, September 8, 1997 609 Adorama : no title -- Derrick Nguyen, August 19, 1997 610 Adorama : Good track record -- Robert Vincent, July 15, 1997 611 Adorama : no title -- Eric Domazlicky, July 1, 1997 612 Adorama : Adorama: Unresponsive customer service : -- Mick Whelan, June 26, 1997 613 Adorama : no title -- Andy Larsen, June 6, 1997 614 Adorama : No Problems! Siegel, December 29, 1996 619 Adorama : good experiences -- Geert Van de Wiele --, November 24, 1996 620 Adorama : no title -- Mike --, September 28, 1996 621 Adorama : no title -- Bill Miller, September 16, 1996 622 Adorama : no title -- Prof. Vetter, January 26, 1998 640 All Seasons : Good Experience -- Neal --, March 28, 1997 641 All Star Camera : Bait and Switch Just in Time For Christmas -- Andrew Erlewein, December 19, 2002 642 Allen Camera (PA) : Wonderful Buying Experience -- Bob Turner, May 21, 2003 643 Allen Camera (PA) : Great experience on price, service, attitude -- James Sutton, March 13, 2002 644 Allen Camera (PA) : continued success. Huge Canon Nikon dealer -- chris calabro, March 28, 2001 645 Allen Camera (PA) : Give him a try -- chris calabro, June 17, 2000 646 Allen's Camera & Video : Allen is great guy to deal with either mail order or local -- Bill Plunkett, October 18, 1999 647 Alley Traders (Pte) Ltd, Singapore, People's Park Complex : Act of Inhonesty -- Leck Hwee Joo, May 2, 1998 648 Alley Traders (Pte) Ltd, Singapore, People's Park Complex : no title -- Jim Pendlay, August 19, 1997 649 Andover Photo (Andover, MA) : Can't beat it! Highly Recommended -- Jim O'Sullivan, February 22, 2000 655 Artcraft Camera : Helpful and Decent prices -- BCRUMP --, June 26, 1998 656 Artcraft Camera : Better than Most -- Keith J. Good services, good value -- george allen, September 8, 2000 662 B&H Photo Video : fast lens order processing and shipping. Lawton, March 8, 2003 713 B&H Photo Video : Great service in used department -- Darrell Harmon, February 9, 2003 714 B&H Photo Video : after 3 1/2 months, I do not have back my flash Nikon SB-80DX -- Filippo Fiori, January 18, 2003 715 B&H Photo Video : As usual, no problems, good service -- Matt Orth, December 30, 2002 716 B&H Photo Video : Prompt and excellent service! Clayton Mckee, October 10, 2002 733 B&H Photo Video : Three Year History: Overall Rating A+ -- Andrew Vera, October 7, 2002 734 B&H Photo Video : Used equipent purchase. Shih, September 20, 2002 738 B&H Photo Video : Their misinformation, sloppiness and carelessness have caused me headache. Great Experience -- John Traversaro, June 18, 2002 759 B&H Photo Video : How are they delivering film internationally? Another happy Story -- Fran Zak, October 18, 2001 810 B&H Photo Video : These guys rule! I email Fujifilm about Velvia film -- Don Nguyen, September 18, 2001 814 B&H Photo Video : B&H and FedEx - Unbeatable -- Scott Schmid, September 17, 2001 815 B&H Photo Video : B&H photo is a theft -- Don Nguyen, September 16, 2001 816 B&H Photo Video : Excellent New and Used -- Bill Jordan, September 6, 2001 817 B&H Photo Video : Not what they used to be ! Grey Market -- Bobby Jefferson, August 29, 2001 818 B&H Photo Video : Web ordering needs some work -- T T, August 24, 2001 819 B&H Photo Video : How B&H treats a customer who spends about 10K per year. Ku, May 4, 2001 851 B&H Photo Video : Just Another Uneventful Order -- Richard "Dick" Tope, April 27, 2001 852 B&H Photo Video : An example for ALL retailers -- Steve Croxton, April 23, 2001 853 B&H Photo Video : Great Service, no complaints -- Marcus Christian, April 19, 2001 854 B&H Photo Video : Another happy customer! No Problems -- Nikon F, October 24, 2000 918 B&H Photo Video : 2 Orders - Almost Perfect -- Richard "Dick" Tope, October 19, 2000 919 B&H Photo Video : Great experience with first order off their website -- Jeffrey Rosen, October 17, 2000 920 B&H Photo Video : Online Service for Older Accessories is Excellent -- Steve --, October 12, 2000 921 B&H Photo Video : over rated? Again it was boring -- Stephen Lutz, August 17, 2000 930 B&H Photo Video : Another flawless experience -- Doug Andrews, August 17, 2000 931 B&H Photo Video : Doesn't answer Emails! Boring -- Stephen Lutz, July 28, 2000 938 B&H Photo Video : Great service through website, great return policy -- Frank Longo, July 27, 2000 939 B&H Photo Video : Boring! Zang, May 31, 2000 956 B&H Photo Video : New Shopping Site? Nebhrajani, July 2, 1999 1049 B&H Photo Video : Good, not pushy, experience -- Michael Dean, July 1, 1999 1050 B&H Photo Video : Be careful on the web. N -- harold bradley, April 15, 1999 1082 B&H Photo Video : Got body & Teleconvert, sent TC back w/no probs. Hockenberger, October 17, 1998 1146 B&H Photo Video : Great buying experience! Gorji, April 1, 1998 1211 B&H Photo Video : B&H Photo Return story -- Brian Willis, March 27, 1998 1212 B&H Photo Video : A+ across the board -- Scott --, March 27, 1998 1213 B&H Photo Video : email order lost -- Robert Dorr, March 24, 1998 1214 B&H Photo Video : Satisfactory customer service on exchanged goods and warranty repairs -- Sanjoy --, March 23, 1998 1215 B&H Photo Video : Yet another fine experience. Nyman, February 21, 1998 1224 B&H Photo... |
| www.cmpsolv.com/los/pmos.shtml Photographic Equipment/Video Mail Order Company Survey When Generated: Sun Jul 9 17:17:59 MDT 2000 0. NEW STUFF 1-Sep-1999: ADDING EXPERIENCES **** IMPORTANT *** When adding experiences, make sure to include company date of experience categorization (no problem, minor problem, major problem or avoid). When providing company, please use the names in my survey. Don't use ambiguous names like "Camera World" and "Abes". Survey entries not meeting these criteria can NOT be tabulated. Thinking of that, one wonders if it's meaningful to show responses from all 11 years. For a while, the survey has had the "last 3 month" and "last year" breakout of data. Starting with this month, the survey will no longer have the tabulation from the entire 11 years of data. The thought here is not to inflate/deflate a company rating by "real old" data. The answer is very simple -- this survey is a compilation of experiences reported to me. If no experiences are reported, a company won't be listed. I will NOT list a company until I get at least one experience reported. I suppose I could have some threshold -- don't post data until I get at least X experiences reported. I guess I feel that any data is valid and leave it to the judgement of people to understand the problems with drawing conclusions from a small data sample. INTRODUCTION Here is the latest version of the Photographic Equipment/Video Mail Order Survey. Chart of overall experiences, last few months and past year's numbers also shown IV. The experiences received since the last posting NB: If providing input, please read section below on "NEW EXPERIENCES". DISCLAIMER: The figures presented here represent neither an endorsement or a condemnation of any particular company. Rather, this table is simply a compilation of experiences sent in by various netnews readers. Experiences are personal experiences and are NOT related to the company of the editor nor of any company of a person who is relating an experience. Also, this is a non-scientific survey, the chart may not reflect the reality of experiences for any given company. Your actual ordering experience may differ, and companies may change over time. USE OF THE SURVEY: This survey is maintained for the readers of netnews to aid them in choosing a company from which to order equipment. Companies may also use the survey to see what some customers are saying about their company (or competitors). Any other use of the survey, such as in advertising, is strictly prohibited. Questions about possible use of the survey should be directed to the editor. WEB SITE ACCESS : Because of company firewall restrictions, I am unable to provide web access to the Photographic Survey. However, a number of folks have taken copies and posted the survey. Please look for the survey there, at those times (and save a copy). I've found that posting the survey is a good stimulus to people to send in their input. Second, I'm naive in use of the mailer and often get my reply "bounced" back to me. Finally, I get many requests to be "put on the mailing list". UPDATES/NEW EXPERIENCES/OTHER INPUT: Your easiest method is to send your experiences at the e-mail address listed below. When sending input, please make sure that your message contains the following information: - company name :: be careful in spelling et al; I don't know all companies, so may mistake a misspelling for a new company name - categorization of experience (no problem, minor problem, major problem, avoid) :: I can't read minds and do not like to try to infer from your other words; As you can see in the survey below, I'm trying to maintain a time element to the survey Unless otherwise noted in your input, the text of your experience will be including in next month's posting. As editor, I reserve the right to edit for clarity, spelling, formatting et al. While these magazines may be honest in their concern for the consumer (and I strongly encourage you to inform magazines if you have problems with "certified" companies), you should also realize that the magazines depend on the companies for ad revenue. Some readers of this survey have also noted that some "certified" companies have repeatedly been low-rated by this survey. Maybe this survey is out of whack with reality, consumers are not informing the magazines, or the complaints do not constitute enough to remove the rating. NEW YORK CITY - Department of Consumer Affairs: I have been contacted by Dennis P. Fredlin, Supervising Inspector of the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA). DCA investigates issues related to FTC Mail Order Rule violations, fraud, misrepresentation, non-conforming/defective merchandise, billing problems and any other NYC vendor ripoffs. Companies may change over time (both for better and worse), and different people/magazines may have different standards. In the final analysis, you must make the decision and you're likely to have a unique experience from anyone else. The 2 phone numbers are, hopefully, the 2 most useful numbers to this company -- a 800 order line (if available) and an information number. If there are no numbers show, this company did not receive any reports over those time periods. Experiences: The numerical summary of experiences reported by readers. They are split into 4 categories: No problems: Got what you ordered, in reasonable time, at expected price, no unpleasant surprises. Minor hassles: Minor delays, unpleasant saleperson, hard to get through to toll free line; Major hassles: Major problems occurred, but you were satisfied enough with with the way they were resolved that you might consider ordering from them again when you cool off. Avoid: Major problems occurred that either were not satisfactorily corrected or that you feel were significant enough to begin with that you wouldn't consider ordering from them again under any circumstances. Tips for shopping from mail order firms These are some general guidelines developed by readers over the years. As with any guideline, there are times when it is appropriate to "break" them. However, as many survey users can attest, if you don't follow one of the following there is a good chance that you'll be sorry. Don't pay the credit card bill until you have received the goods in satisfactory condition. To avoid interest charges, when you pay the rest of the credit card bill, include a note explaining the contested charge. Most stores no longer just charge you the freight, but also include a sizable handling charge. International warranties may be worthless, but you may not feel you need the warranty protection. Some stores do not allow returns of grey market material. If the material arrives damaged you must file an insurance claim. The price advertized in photography magazines is frequently the grey market price. DON'T AGREE TO BUY ANYTHING YOU HADN'T PLANNED TO BUY WHEN YOU CALLED. For example, often when buying a lens, the salesperson may try to get you to buy a filter. Be sure you know what you're getting : there many different filters available, of varying quality and price. You likely spent time determining the right lens, your filter is just as important. Filters may be as cheap, or just a little more, at your local camera store. As a general rule, don't buy anything solely on the phone salesman's recommendations. Though there may be exceptions, most are not there to help you. Record this piece of information along with the time, date, and agreed upon sales price and merchandise. If it is defective, call the mail order company immediately and arrange for returning it. Ask for a return authorization number and get the name of the person you talk to. Most stores give you rather short period for returning defective equipment, so waste a roll of film and get it developed at a one day service place. There appears, however, to be no reason to believe their answer. Call around and get the best price with the desired warranty, including shipping and handling. Then call around to your local stores and see if they can come close. Low end items, like small autofocus cameras, are frequently just as cheap, if not cheaper when you consider the shipping and handling, in the local disc... |
| www.bhphotovideo.com Not responsible for typographical or illustrative errors. Manufacturer rebates, terms, conditions, and expiration dates are subject to manufacturers printed forms. |
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