Supplementing my comment above....remember, the small merchant wants and cares about your business. Since the price points are the same, doesn’t it make sense to establish a relationship with the small shop which you know will fulfill your order timely rather than place you at the rear of an endless queue? However, you must make sure that the small merchant you do select is well respected and gets his fair share, or more, of product that is in demand.
kbarrera wrote:
Ok. It’s time to vent. Received this email from B&H this afternoon, telling me the delivery date of 11/15 is not going to happen and that they have no idea when my lens will be shipped. Now....while I normally would not be inclined to blame B&H for Nikon’s total disregard for their customers I will totally hold them responsible for wasting 5 weeks of my time, during which I could have made other arrangements. They initially told me that October 15 was my delivery date but two days before that, they told me it was a mistake and made no attempt to compensate me for that screw up. At that point I could have ordered somewhere else and would have have the lens by now. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that Nikon markets this lens as the next greatest thing then turns around and decides that that will not tell their dealers when or where they will ship it. How does the company that markets, manufactures and ships lenses, not know when it will both manufacture and ship its own products. It’s outrageous. Their total disregard for it’s customers is even more egregious.
I just ordered the lens from Mike’s Camera in Boulder, and while that’s no guarantee that I will get the lens any sooner, at least I felt they they were honest while dealing with me. If there was any way I dump Nikon, I would. I absolutely hate dealing with anyone that I know doesn’t give a shit about their customers.
If so, you can place the order through NPS and you will get your lens very quickly.
I had the same experience with the D850. Placed *two* orders ... waited ... waited ... cancelled two orders.
Placed a third order ... and was about to cancel again ... but then my brain kicked in
Remembered I was a NPS member, contacted my rep, and had my D850 within the week. If you're a NPS member, try this. If you're not, see how much Nikon gear you have and see if you qualify to become one.
ariel777 wrote:
Supplementing my comment above....remember, the small merchant wants and cares about your business. Since the price points are the same, doesn’t it make sense to establish a relationship with the small shop which you know will fulfill your order timely rather than place you at the rear of an endless queue? However, you must make sure that the small merchant you do select is well respected and gets his fair share, or more, of product that is in demand.
I think Mikes Camera qualifies in both ways. When I spoke to them they acted like they gave a crap. Just wish I hadn’t wasted all that time with B&H. Still.....giving my money to Nikon at this point is a bitter pill.
I’ve been using Berger Bros.In NY since my purchase of the 300 PF (at the time it came to market) which was then in a similar state of demand. They responded then as now.
ariel777 wrote:
I’ve been using Berger Bros.In NY since my purchase of the 300 PF (at the time it came to market) which was then in a similar state of demand. They responded then as now.
That never occurred to me. I live just outside the city and barely hear about Berger Bros.
Two things I am sure of at this point: B&H is dead to me and the minute Sony gets their act together and develops a true super tele......Nikon is history.
It has become obvious to me that Nikon does what’s best for them and not their customers.
Al
ps. I did contact Nikon USA and was promised a response. As expected.....I never heard from them
Al, to your question above re BH order;
on 11/9 received a vague email that there might be a shipment , on 11/11 a standard notification about the lens being on backorder status.
What does this mean..no idea.Maybe I am not on the list to get a shipment?
It is not unusual for it to be difficult to estimate the demand for a lens, also the initial demand is usually high and after the first year's surge, it declines to almost halt. From a production perspective, it is best to be able to manufacture the lens at a steady rate over the course of its lifetime because then they don't have to train extra personnel to manufacture a lens during the initial surge and then throw away this training when the lens is no longer in demand. Other high-profile long primes have also experienced long wait times in the first years of availability; this was also the case for the Canon lightweight IS II generation, if I recall correctly.
For me it is normal to have to wait 1-2 years before I can afford to buy an expensive lens and I don't really want to pay the initial purchaser's premium price, so waiting a bit can lead to a better deal. For example there is now a 300 euro rebate on the 28/1.4. If I had bought it 1.5 years ago I would not be able to take advantage of the lower price. Now, it is a good time to consider that lens. In 2 years, I would expect the 500 PF also to be offered a lower price, either through a temporary deal or cashback, or permanently. The 300 PF's price fell by about 500€ from its initial launch price. Unfortunately in that case I was not patient enough; I had been waiting for such a lens for a long time.
Because of the rapid rate of reduction of demand in Nikon's camera and lens products, it is understandable that they now launch products with cautious rate of production so that they don't end up with warehouses full of stuff that no one wants. It's also possible that some problem be found in the first lenses and they want to be able to correct the problem before more lenses have been manufactured.
Best service with regard to being on a waiting list for me has been with Berger Bros and you get to actually talk to the person managing the queue.
I have also been able to buy hard to get cameras and lenses from Ritz camera. I suspect that their overall volume entitles them to a number of units and as most of their customers are not inclined to spend thousands on a camera or lens they are more likely to have something available. There is the kicker as to paying sales tax with Ritz which with the 500mm PF lens would be an additional $300.
kbarrera wrote:
That never occurred to me. I live just outside the city and barely hear about Berger Bros.
Two things I am sure of at this point: B&H is dead to me and the minute Sony gets their act together and develops a true super tele......Nikon is history.
It has become obvious to me that Nikon does what’s best for them and not their customers.
Al
ps. I did contact Nikon USA and was promised a response. As expected.....I never heard from them
Heard back from Nikon USA in Philly today. Spoke to Evan who assured me would help me out. It’s a start and at least they responded. I’m encouraged.
ilkka_nissila wrote:
It is not unusual for it to be difficult to estimate the demand for a lens, also the initial demand is usually high and after the first year's surge, it declines to almost halt. From a production perspective, it is best to be able to manufacture the lens at a steady rate over the course of its lifetime because then they don't have to train extra personnel to manufacture a lens during the initial surge and then throw away this training when the lens is no longer in demand. Other high-profile long primes have also experienced long wait times in the first years of availability; this was also the case for the Canon lightweight IS II generation, if I recall correctly.
....Show more →
Logic would say all of the above may be true. However, the majority, if not all of these lenses were pre-ordered in early to late August.
This should have given Nikon more than ample time to evaluate the demand and respond by adjusting their manufacturing
schedule. When I posed this question to a rep at Nikon they offered the usual response. “ I don’t know”
Not having the lens is not as nearly frustrating as dealing with a major company that continually says things like “ we don’t know”. or “ We don’t have that information”.
kbarrera wrote:
Logic would say all of the above may be true. However, the majority, if not all of these lenses were pre-ordered in early to late August.
This should have given Nikon more than ample time evaluate the demand and respond by adjusting their manufacturing
schedule. When I posed this question to a rep at Nikon they offered the usual response. “ I don’t know”
Not having the lens is not as nearly frustrating as dealing with a major company that continually says things like “ we don’t know”. or “ We don’t have that information”.
Al
I agree that the most annoying part is no one can get a straight answer from higher up in Nikon where real information resides. My dealer in Canada who usually has a pretty good relationship with his reps can't get a straight answer as to when Canada will ever see a 3rd copy of this lens
Nikon needs to feed information down the pipeline to pass on to the consumer about how they are dealing with the large demand vs short supply. Nikon obviously knows how many they are producing per day/week/month and also knows where they are allocated to ship to next. But they obviously don't want to pass any of that info down to the reps or dealers.
The D850 has been a similar stupid situation for over a year now. And in that case Canada had lots of them and sitting in stock while the US struggled. Europe also got over D850 demand much earlier than the US. But what does that tell me? Well that Nikon is useless at shifting supply around...why have them sitting on shelves in Canada and Europe while people in the US wait and wait on delivery
arbitrage wrote:
I agree that the most annoying part is no one can get a straight answer from higher up in Nikon where real information resides. My dealer in Canada who usually has a pretty good relationship with his reps can't get a straight answer as to when Canada will ever see a 3rd copy of this lens
Nikon needs to feed information down the pipeline to pass on to the consumer about how they are dealing with the large demand vs short supply. Nikon obviously knows how many they are producing per day/week/month and also knows where they are allocated to ship to next. But they obviously don't want to pass any of that info down to the reps or dealers.
The D850 has been a similar stupid situation for over a year now. And in that case Canada had lots of them and sitting in stock while the US struggled. Europe also got over D850 demand much earlier than the US. But what does that tell me? Well that Nikon is useless at shifting supply around...why have them sitting on shelves in Canada and Europe while people in the US wait and wait on delivery...Show more →
The thing that boggles my mind is.....the blatant disregard for its customers. You’d think they would issue a press release or give their dealers something to pass on to their customers. Like I said. It’s going to kill me to give my money to Nikon under any circumstances.
Well, it's not like Nikon doesn't already make lots of lenses that are way better than this mediocre POC. They likely don't want to admit they ever made it in the first place, lol. (e.g. it falls to the ground when you carry it by the foot - how dumb is that, in a telephoto lens?)
Christian H wrote:
Well, it's not like Nikon doesn't already make lots of lenses that are way better than this mediocre POC. They likely don't want to admit they ever made it in the first place, lol. (e.g. it falls to the ground when you carry it by the foot - how dumb is that, in a telephoto lens?)
Shoot it before you judge it Christian... just shot mine against a buddy's 500G... glad I made the decision I made.
Bigger is not always better.
