Anyone else having problems with B&H?

I've been a customer for many years and other than ocassionally getting a user/returned lens or body, I've been very happy with their customer service.

Not any longer.

My wife and I are transitioning from Nikon to MFT. A month ago I ordred the Olympus 60 macro lens. It arrived a week later, shipped by UPS ground. It was in a box that was too big and there was no packing material inside. Reminded me of the Amazon.com frequently ships things. Luckily the lens seems fine despite being bounced around going cross country, though the weather has been so bad I haven't had a change to fully test it out.

Fastforward to this weekend. I sold off a bunch of our Nikon gear and wanted to get my wife an OM-D for Christmas with the funds from the sales. Went online to B&H on Sunday and ordered it with standard delivery (up to 4 business days). Got the receipt and everyhing looked fine. Got an email this morning saying it shipped, great. I would have it by the end of the week. PROBLEM: I check the tracking link this afternoon and it said UPS GROUND with delivery Monday the 24th.

What? I had it shipped to my office, using standard delivery, on purpose as it will need a signature and no one is at my house during the day to sign for it. My office is closed all next week. I called B&H and was told they would send an email to UPS asking them to reroute it to my house, but that there was no guarentee. If it gets rerouted it will likely be a couple of days later (after Christmas). If it doesn't get re-routed, then after trying to deliver a couple of days to a locked building it will get shipped back to B&H.

So, where do I stand? Will I have it for Christmas? What a mess. And all because B&H tried to save a few bucks and ship it by ground when I chose standard delivery.

The customer service person I spoke to was nice but not overly concerned that they messed up and made no effort other than emailing UPS to remedy the situation.

Very frustrated by this whole situation.

Usually Standard means UPS ground or Fedex Ground.

I looked it up on BH's site because being a frequent BH customer I doubted what you said about standard delivery being "up to 4 days" based on my experience with their shipping policies, and under the shipping information, it states:

--------------------------------

STANDARD

B&H preferred method for Free shipping
Delivered by UPS
Longer internal processing time
Delivery time - Up to 8 days
Signature may be required

-------------------------------------

Despite the fact that they very clearly state it may take up to 8 days for your package to arrive with standard shipping, you probably should have taken into account that its the Holidays and this is the busiest time of year for BH and UPS/Fedex, so all deliveries will take longer than usual.

In the end, its not because BH tried to save a few bucks by shipping ground, it's because you tried to save a few bucks by not paying more for 2 day shipping or overnight delivery. If you really needed it that badly for Christmas, you should have taken the precaution of using some form of rush shipping.

I find their customer service in this situation to be perfectly acceptable, as it's really your fault, not theirs. You should be glad they're helping as much as they are. Regardless, I'm sure Henry will be along shortly to help you out.

Just trying to inject some humility into the situation.

Thanks for your feedback.

Actually, their website for shipping was showing these 2 options at checkout:
Standard Shipping (Up to 4 business days)
UPS Ground (Delivery on December 24)

Therefore since it was Sunday, I don't think it unreasonable to think that Up To 4 business days would be Thursday or Friday. UPS Ground was a different option. My receipt says Standard Shipping but UPS is showing that it was shipped ground (5 business days).

If the only option was ground, then I would have paid for 3 day UPS, but since they were offering free shipping w/in my timeframe, and it was listed as something different than ground, I went for it.

In the past I have used UPS Ground knowing it would take 5 to 6 business days and a weekend to go cross country, and I always got it in 7 or 8 days.

Either way, I'm stuck now not knowing if my wife's lens will even be delivered next week (late) or if it will be shipped back to B&H when it can't be delivered to my (closed) office building.

If you click on your tracking number in the email it takes you to the UPS website. If you look to the right of the scheduled delivery date there is a button you can click that says "Change Delivery". I believe they charge you to change the location but it might be worth it for you.

Thanks buckeyeguy1 but looking at the pages on the UPS site, it looks that can only be done by the shipper. I believe the receiver can't do anything until a delivery attempt is made and then only if s/he has the door tag. Which I don't see how they can leave since my entire office building will be closed and locked up all week.

Oh well, these things happen. I'm guessing UPS will end up shipping it back to B&H after they see the building is closed all week and it can't be delivered.

Standard delivery by BH is UPS ground. 4 days mean 4 BUSINESS days. They shipped the lens on the first day available after you order through the delivery system YOU order (free BTW). In normal circumstances you might receive it on Friday or not, depending on your location and on UPS. It also happens to be pre-Christmas week, just in case you didnt notice. That means that shippings might be delayed due to volume. I dont see how there is any problem rooting from BH.

From what it transpires they have been pretty patient with you. What I can understand for the love of me is why you have to come to the forum to vent your negligence and through garbage on a store that their only mistake was to ship you the item as fast as possible.

PS. Please do notice that UPS scheduled shipping also has to account for the end of the world in Dec 21

An option, although not the best way to spend Christmas Eve, would be to go to the UPS location and pick it up. I've had to do this a few times and didn't need the door tag. The only problem you might have is how late they'll return to the station and how late they'll be open that day.

Hi,
Actually I was asking if anyone else had experienced a problem. I've been a loyal customer for many years. But getting a lens shipped last month in a big box with no padding and then this ... I was curious if it was a fluke or if others were noticing a change in B&H.

It wasn't my intention to "throw garbage on a store", but my understanding of delivery within 4 business days would mean that if ordered on Sunday, shipped on Monday, I would get it on or before Friday afternoon. The other alternative was UPS ground which gave an estimated date of Monday. Why advertise 4 or less business days if you are going to ship it UPS ground which is 5 business days?

:-) .... great point. I forgot about the end of the world. That is a variable I wasn't taking into consideration.

Javier Munoz wrote:
Standard delivery by BH is UPS ground. 4 days mean 4 BUSINESS days. They shipped the lens on the first day available after you order through the delivery system YOU order (free BTW). In normal circumstances you might receive it on Friday or not, depending on your location and on UPS. It also happens to be pre-Christmas week, just in case you didnt notice. That means that shippings might be delayed due to volume. I dont see how there is any problem rooting from BH.

From what it transpires they have been pretty patient with you. What I can understand for the love of me is why you have to come to the forum to vent your negligence and through garbage on a store that their only mistake was to ship you the item as fast as possible.

PS. Please do notice that UPS scheduled shipping also has to account for the end of the world in Dec 21

Yeah, I thought of that. But I'm in a small town and the closest UPS is about 20 miles away. Somehow driving there and waiting potentially for hours doesn't seem like something I should do, especially given that I have family coming in for the holidays.

good idea though. thanks.

jeff

TheBearman wrote:
An option, although not the best way to spend Christmas Eve, would be to go to the UPS location and pick it up. I've had to do this a few times and didn't need the door tag. The only problem you might have is how late they'll return to the station and how late they'll be open that day.

ShadowWalker wrote:
Hi,
Actually I was asking if anyone else had experienced a problem. I've been a loyal customer for many years. But getting a lens shipped last month in a big box with no padding and then this ... I was curious if it was a fluke or if others were noticing a change in B&H.

It wasn't my intention to "throw garbage on a store", but my understanding of delivery within 4 business days would mean that if ordered on Sunday, shipped on Monday, I would get it on or before Friday afternoon. The other alternative was UPS ground which gave an estimated date of Monday. Why advertise 4 or less business days if you are going to ship it UPS ground which is 5 business days?

:-) .... great point. I forgot about the end of the world. That is a variable I wasn't taking into consideration.




In cases like yours is when opting for 2-3 days delivery at your expense is worthy. I learn from experience to never order anything on the week before Christmas. Not only the shipping can take longer but who knows how the packages are going to be handled when the employees are in a rush.

BTW, I agree with the packaging. But not only about BH. Amazon, Beach, Buydig, Adorama and Cameta have also shipped me some equipment in less that optimal conditions. In all fairness, they ship the things right more often than not (except Amazon, they are notoriously sloppy)

What an interesting thread. I normally only follow threads and do not get involved but I thought I would chime in here. I realize I am pretty new to the forum but I do a pretty fair amount of online shopping so maybe my thoughts will be helpful.

Looking at the screenshot that ShadowWalker posted, it certainly looks like B&H is offering expedited shipping and implies to me that the item will be delivered within 4 business days. The second option, ground, estimates delivery the following Monday, the 24th of December. Looking at it from that standpoint, and not getting into the question of whether the OP should have paid for 2 day UPS/FedEx to guarentee delivery, I can see how one would expect to receive the product within 4 days with one option and 5 days or possibly more (estimated delivery Mon Dec 4) with the ground option. I, like ShadowWalker, would have probably also concluded expedited, faster than ground, shipping was being offered as a special and that "within 4 business days" mean 4 business days or less. The fact that B&H shipped the product by UPS ground (which clearly says estimated 5 days) instead of by a method that would have it be delivered to his postal code in 4 business days or less makes me conclude that B&H was in error here. Should ShadowWalker have ordered earlier to reduce the chance of a problem, definitely, but I also see this as being partially B&H's fault for stating delivery in a time frame and then using a transport method that would take an additional 3 days (due to the weekend).

I would encourage posters here to think before attacking ShadowWalker over his decision and assumption on how long the item would take to be shipped. I can certainly see his side, as well as those of many of the responders. Like most things in life, this isn't a black and white issue.

dharma

No change here, customer for eight years and have spent $$$$$ on shipments to Canada. The odd blip here and there but otherwise A+ service and product.

Mistakes get made, we are human.

I hope my recent experience isn't a foresight of whats to come considering your post...

They had the whole free shipping during the holidays bang, which i thought wouldn't apply to international orders anyways but when i was checking out they actually had discounted shipping for me.

So i accepted the order, and when i did i received the invoice which did not discount the shipping... Theres a term for that, bait n switch.

Now in all honesty i would of still placed my order, but i went from being happily surprised to being pretty pissed off.

Fine, i shoot them an e-mail, expected answer, sorry too bad! Fine, whatever.

5 items, all in stock... shipped in 3 boxes, the last of which took a week to leave NY. Basically i placed my order on sunday i think, i was expecting all 3 things wednesday... i received one on tuesday, one on wednesday, and the last box... the next monday...

Thats annoying. All the items should of been in 1 box, if not possible, should of been kept together, and even then, theres no excuse for taking a week to drop off the last box...

I should say, i've also been shopping with them for many years now, especially since they changed to purolator but there has always been a slight underlying attitude of too bad when i complained about anything. Maybe its just me being an international customer and not as important to them or something...

If Mr. Postner B&H rep sees this you may not need to worry as he will "geter done"

Posner

Never had any problems with B&H that they didn't take care of.....great place IMHO.

Interesting. I went to the B&H website and this is what they are showing now for shipping of this lens to my city:

ShadowWalker wrote:

I'm hoping B&H will make this right.


They usually do.

BTW, after re-reading the thread this morning I realized that I went too hard on you and that you have some ground to be dissapointed. I should ban myself from forums whenever I work more than 12h in a day.

No worries Javier. I hope there aren't any more 12h days for awhile and that you have a wonderful holiday season.

jeff

Javier Munoz wrote:
ShadowWalker wrote:

I'm hoping B&H will make this right.


They usually do.

BTW, after re-reading the thread this morning I realized that I went too hard on you and that you have some ground to be dissapointed. I should ban myself from forums whenever I work more than 12h in a day.

I really like to order by phone when I want something on a timely basis. Being this is a high shipping time that would have been the perfect time to find out what delivery time would be and you may have been able to get B&H to expedite it or you could have paid the difference.
Of course, this is hind sight; Give you wife a big hug and a picture of what is coming in the mail for her. Then she can love on you a few days while anticipating its delivery.
Best wishes through this Christmas season