Horrible camera vendor

[Chad Fabry]

Yesterday, I shopped for a Sony RX100mIII for my wife. They're essentially the same price all over the internet except one place is $120 cheaper. I go to the website SLRDIRECT.com and look at the camera and by all appearances it's the same as what everyone else has.

Today, I still hadn't received a confirmation email so I called them. 52 minutes on hold to speak with a rep. He finds my order and tells me I have to speak to someone else. 12 minutes more on hold.

The guy answers the phone, he knows my name and has the order. He asks, "do you want a battery, charger and strap for the camera?" He goes on to explain that it's a camera only deal and that the "retail kit" is another $140.

I argue a bit, he puts me on hold. I hang up. I call my bank and block the vendor. I query Google "is slrdirect.com a scam?" The return for the query is large and bad. Trust me. SLRDIRECT.COM is a scam bait and switch seller.

[Bill Kibbel]

My dad (was a photographer) has been going to B&H Photo in Manhattan since the early 70s. Best customer service and nothing they don't have in stock.

I buy everything from them online. If I can find it anywhere else for less, they'll match it (they've slit open a box to give me an "open box" discount).

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/

[Jim Baird]

A vendor I have used more than once is called Beach Camera, I think. Good prices and fast delivery.

[kurt]

Trust me. SLRDIRECT.COM is a scam bait and switch seller.

Yes, they are.

[Chad Fabry]

A vendor I have used more than once is called Beach Camera, I think. Good prices and fast delivery.

I ordered the camera from Beach. They notified me that it was shipped with a tracking number 15 minutes later.

[AmeriSpecguy]

I'd second B&H but I see I'm too late

[Rob Amaral]

Just had a great experience at BH and have also had great experiences in the past.. a well-designed website..

[kurt]

B&H is great, but I've gotten better deals at Amazon. What's wrong with Amazon?

[Steven Hockstein]

BH is our usual go-to for photo and computer hardware.

I have also bought some gear from Costco in the past because of their liberal return policy. Pricing was a little more than BH but not so much to outweigh the ease of return.

[Ken Meyer]

KEH Camera and Adorama are a couple more good choices. Service is great, prices too.

[AmeriSpecguy]

B&H is great, but I've gotten better deals at Amazon. What's wrong with Amazon?

With Amazon you run the risk of running into gray market products which may not have a warranty and may be of sub-standard quality. You would need to check the sellers' feedback very carefully.

[Inspectorjoe]

I'm a huge B&H fan. I've never had a bad experience dealing with them. Their paper catalog is well over 300 pages. Their website is awesome, with great search and filtering, as well as reviews and Q&A on almost everything they sell. Last year, I spent close to $5,000 there, mostly on video and audio gear for my hobby.

BTW, my hobby is shooting video of bands. This is from a 4 camera shoot I did last summer, to make a promo video for the Box Tops. I still haven't finished it.

This didn't work out very well: https://www.facebook.com/joe.hancaviz/v ... 04/?type=3

[kurt]

With Amazon you run the risk of running into gray market products which may not have a warranty and may be of sub-standard quality.

I don't know where you get that idea. It's not ridiculous, but it hovers right at being ridiculous. B&H is an Amazon vendor, among many others.

Amazon isn't Alibaba or Taobao. I am sure there is some vendor someplace on Amazon that is dipshit, but I and our other business buy mountains of stuff out of Amazon. Mountains. It's flawless. It's an absolutely awesome operation.

Not taking anything away from B&H; they're excellent. But, Amazon's prices and service are just as good, sometimes better, especially if you're Prime.

[hausdok]

I live about a quarter mile from Kenmore Camera, one of the oldest camera stores in the Puget Sound area. Probably not the cheapest but for me it's good to get the face-to-face interaction with someone 'cuz I'm an idiot about the tech in new cameras.

Don't know how it compares, but that camera is priced at $745 there.

[Chad Fabry]

I live about a quarter mile from Kenmore Camera, one of the oldest camera stores in the Puget Sound area. Probably not the cheapest but for me it's good to get the face-to-face interaction with someone 'cuz I'm an idiot about the tech in new cameras.

Don't know how it compares, but that camera is priced at $745 there.

I paid $729 for a package with a couple of cheap tripods, a case, some photo editing software, a battery charger and a two batteries... there was more but it was just a bunch of ephemera included to make the package look better. Most of the accessories won't ever be used but I was going to buy the case and spare battery anyway. Cameras ala carte hover in the $699 range.

[AmeriSpecguy]

With Amazon you run the risk of running into gray market products which may not have a warranty and may be of sub-standard quality.

I don't know where you get that idea. It's not ridiculous, but it hovers right at being ridiculous. B&H is an Amazon vendor, among many others.

Amazon isn't Alibaba or Taobao. I am sure there is some vendor someplace on Amazon that is dipshit, but I and our other business buy mountains of stuff out of Amazon. Mountains. It's flawless. It's an absolutely awesome operation.

Not taking anything away from B&H; they're excellent. But, Amazon's prices and service are just as good, sometimes better, especially if you're Prime.

I've purchased what turned out to be gray market camera equipment and lenses from Amazon. I've purchased other items which were advertised as having a certain set of specs and when received had a completely different set. All from supposedly reputable sellers. Read reviews on thousands of products and you'll find the same story. I'm glad you've had good luck not all of us have.

[Steve M]

I'll 7th the B&H Photo as I've purchased a fair amount of camera gear from them over the years. I sometimes buy from Adorama as well, and I have also purchased two Nikons from Roberts Camera in Indiana. I won't buy anywhere else, unless I happen to stumble onto a (local) brick and mortar that I don't know about. Nothing beats a showroom sales experience from a professional camera shop... in my opinion. Especially when you're looking at something totally new to the market or your own gear bag.

As others have suggested, the danger in buying camera gear from marketplaces and other unknowns is not only the gray market stuff that isn't legit (and you cannot get it serviced or get updates or downloads for the software), but you may get a camera that was intended for a different foreign market altogether AND you won't be able to change the menu language. Sony is one of those cameras - so if you buy a Sony gray market that was originally manufactured for sale in Japan, for instance, it will have a Japanese ONLY menu - and that cannot be changed.

[Steve M]

On 12/8/2016 at 8:00 AM, kurt said:

B&H is great, but I've gotten better deals at Amazon. What's wrong with Amazon?

1) Amazon hurts small business, and even the ones who use Amazon get charged a 15% commission. So while the deals may seem great, they really aren't.

2) Amazon has the most horrible delivery services available (outside of FedEx) in my opinion. The only place it was even remotely OK, was when I lived in the city, but everywhere else... terrible, they can't follow directions and they certainly don't know how to read street signs - if it ain't on the GPS it doesn't exist, and if the GPS says it's across the street, then it's across the street (even if it's a vacant lot) regardless of what the address numbers on your house say!

3) No wonder the drivers are terrible - that's how the company treats them!

 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-i-refuse-to-shop-on-amazon-2019-10?op=1#lastly-amazon-reportedly-does-not-treat-its-delivery-drivers-well-and-i-dont-want-to-support-a-company-with-that-record-7

4) Speaking of exploiting workers:

NBC News reports: “Amazon illegally arranged for a U.S. Postal Service mailbox to be installed in the fulfillment center parking lot during the election. The union alleged that it gave the impression that Amazon might have had access to the secret ballots cast by workers.” 

5) Sticking with the worker issues theme:

Recent research by the Strategic Organizing Center found that injury rates at Amazon facilities are reportedly double that of the industry average. And, Amazon workers sustained more than 24,000 serious injuries in 2020.

6) Creates excessive packaging waste: A report from Oceana found that in 2019, Amazon generated 465 million pounds of plastic waste. This is “enough to circle the earth over a hundred times in the form of air pillows.”

7) Amazon lost it's "price fixing" lawsuit and the AG of Washington state was instrumental in getting a judgement of more than $2m and a permanent cessation of the scheme.

8 ) The HQ2 deal cost Virginia taxpayers between $2.5b and $4.6b in tax subsidies despite the fact the company is worth over $1 trillion dollars!

I could go on, but I think everyone gets the idea... Amazon is a behemoth that takes advantage of, and will destroy, any small business that doesn't manage to get out of its way, take advantage of taxpayers, workers, and yes, even the consumers that make up its customer base... never mind the hypocrisy.

Just to be clear, I'm not a "tree hugger" in the political sense, but I DO engage in environmentally friendly practices whenever and wherever possible, if/where that makes sense, as I am an outdoorsy kinda guy and value the beauty of nature and our planet in general. But that doesn't mean I'm on board with all the climate change hoaxsters around the planet trying to grift off of that political scam.