# Poor After Sale Service, B+H Photo



## Al_Kahollick (Feb 16, 2013)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


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## bsinmich (Feb 16, 2013)

I have been happy with B&H for several years.   Make another call and ask for the CS supervisor.


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## Tee (Feb 16, 2013)

Awesome screen name. Lol. Henry Posner from B&H will be along to help you.


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## sm4him (Feb 16, 2013)

EVERY company will fail at customer service at some point. Every last one of them. I know it seems particularly egregious because it happened to YOU, but it's still only ONE fail--the question is, how often do they fail to get it right, versus how often do they provide good or even stellar service?

I've had nothing but good experiences with B&H. I've had two horrible experiences with Amazon that I can recall--but I still buy from them, because overall, I've had a whole LOT more good or even great experiences than bad ones.

If it's that big of a deal to you, take it a step further. Ask for a supervisor, or as Tee mentioned, there's a B&H rep around here somewhere, it sounds like. Maybe PM this Henry Posner guy.


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## Mully (Feb 16, 2013)

Call and ask to speak to heads their CS and speak to them .....make a short list of what you want to say so you are clear and to the point ...bet they help you.  I have bought from them before internet was created and they have always come through for me.


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## Al_Kahollick (Feb 16, 2013)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ


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## Bitter Jeweler (Feb 16, 2013)

Pobodys Nerfect.


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## 07Vios (Feb 16, 2013)

I've had no issues with B&H with the gear I've purchased from them.


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## Josh66 (Feb 16, 2013)

I've probably spent tens of thousands there over the years, and I don't think I've even had to _contact_ customer service once...


The only complaint I have with them is that they won't ship ORM-D items.


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## Overread (Feb 16, 2013)

Send a private message to http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/members/13432.html
He is the representative for B&H online and is there to help when their regular customer service fails in some way. His last active time on the forums was a while back, but I suspect he should answer a private message fairly swiftly (remember private messages, by default, send an email to notify the person so he should get notification to check in to read and respond)


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## baturn (Feb 17, 2013)

You should have contacted Pentax first . It's their mistake to fix.


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## cgipson1 (Feb 17, 2013)

I have spent some serious bucks at B&H, and never had a problem! Sounds to me like you should have contacted Pentax (as mentioned) as it was their mistake, not B&H's!


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## Al_Kahollick (Feb 17, 2013)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ


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## Al_Kahollick (Feb 17, 2013)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


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## manaheim (Feb 17, 2013)

This seems a pretty minor beef if you ask me, and it sounds like all you did was deal with the very first level of support.

Sure, it sounds like they didn't handle it perfectly, but I don't see anything egregious here so much as a situation where clearly you needed to step it up a bit and ask for a supervisor or something.

People _really_ don't understand the basics of how to get support, which is interesting.  I suppose it makes sense where the frequency of having to get support doesn't happen _that _often, but the simply basic rules are:

1. Follow through.
2. Be polite at all times, but be firm.
3. Be reasonable and fair.
4. Escalate when you don't get what you need within a reasonable period of time.

Follow that and you'll be fine.

BTW, I don't really think it's a great idea to post on the worlds largest photography forum bashing one of the top providers of camera gear either.  Not that it would ever get back to you, but yeesh...


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## pgriz (Feb 17, 2013)

The front-line workers in a retail establishment are usually given a limited range of responses to the public, covering maybe 80% of the likely scenarios.  The rest are bumped up the chain to the supervisor, who has a few more options, and if that doesn't work, up to the manager who has many more options.  While "the customer is always right" phrase applies to the front-line, we all know that some customers are just not reasonable, and the way to handle them is usually in the hands of the supervisor or manager.  The reason for this is simple - the manager usually has the discretion to do what is needed, whereas the front-line worker does not have that authority or access to the means to resolve such issues.  In this case, the proper escalation process would have been to ask to speak to the supervisor, explain your expectation and what actually happened, and then have them respond.  If the response is not adequate, again you escalate it to the manager.  If I have issues with an organization, I ask the person that I'm talking to if they have the authority to authorize what I may propose as a corrective step.  If they don't, I ask them to bump my request up.  That's how large organizations work.


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## TonysTouch (Feb 17, 2013)

You might want to consider why they gave you that answer. Why would a retail store open another product to replace the piece you are missing? If they do that then they have two opened products that they cannot sell for retail price. Instead they will ask you to exchange it so they can take it up with Pentax themselves.

As for them ordering a specific piece from the manufacturer, that takes time. Usually longer than waiting for a specific item to come in stock.


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## Tee (Feb 17, 2013)

I can totally see how they missed the OP's claim.  Has anyone ever been to the store?  It's a freaking madhouse regardless of time of day.  

I ordered a $1200 studio lighting kit and it arrived to my door looking like it was used as a pinata.  I immediately took pictures then went online for a live CS chat.  Initially my thought was it was Elinchrom's packing to B&H but realized I got a damaged one from B&H (shattered flash tubes, peeled and faded stickers, scratch marks).  Initially they tried to send me replacement flash tubes only.  After I got done laughing for 5 minutes and explained that the shattered glass was inside the unit itself they agreed to send me 2 full replacement units.  What they did was send me 2 units and charged my card then I had to ship back the units and was credited back.  In the end my issue was resolved but I was utterly shocked they sent such a horribly looking package and didn't catch it.  

I have bought many things from B&H since that incident but after having been to the store a few times I left with the impression that customer service is not priority one.  It doesn't have to be. They are swamped from the minute they open until they close.


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## 07Vios (Feb 17, 2013)

Items can and will be damaged after it ships from a store's warehouse. One cannot simply blame a store for receiving damaged goods as it could have been mishandled in the transportation process.


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## 07Vios (Feb 17, 2013)

As for the car example. When I bought my car new from the showroom floor, I had the dealership install a power package (third party, authorized by the dealership). I had 8 problems with it within about 1000 miles. Each time I contacted the dealership, but they could not handle the complaint. A tech from the third party had to be the one that dealt with the car, either at their store/HQ or at the dealership I bought my car from. I think it's also hard to use a car as a goods example as it's brand specific; i.e. Toyota at a Toyota dealership, Ford at a Ford dealership, etc, and one, is in a way, dealing with the manufacturer. If a dealership fails to provide adequate customer service, who do you go to next? The manufacturer's HQ. B&H sells different brands, and items are not opened and inspected for content that the manufacturers should be including in their products (for open box depreciation sake). Cars are (supposed to be) thoroughly inspected prior to "deliver." So that also adds to the difficulty of using cars as an example.


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## sm4him (Feb 17, 2013)

Al_Kahollick said:


> I'm glad you all have such great experiences with B+H, I don't share your fondness for them. NOT because of the missing piece per say, but because of the runaround and lack of interest in trying to resolve this! *What ever happened to " the customer is always right "??* I worked retail for 12 years, our pay envelopes had the saying "a satisfied customer made this check possible" printed on them, I know a thing or two about Customer Service. I also know that if you provide outstanding service to a customer, they *may *tell 1 or 2 friends about it, but, provide a customer a bad experience and they're sure to tell 7 - 10 people about it (hence the customer is always right saying). B+H would be wise to remind their associates of this regularly.



What happened to it? I'll tell you what happened...somewhere along the way, someone finally realized what a horrifically STUPID statement that was. The customer is NOT always right. The customer is often ignorant, hateful and/or just looking for something free by making complaints about problems that don't even exist.
"The customer is always right" was a far better little sentiment back in the day when people wouldn't call 911 because Burger King messed up their order, or sue because they stuck their hot coffee between their legs while driving, then spilled it and got burned....or stick something in their food at a restaurant then complain, just to get a free meal. 
Today's slogan--"the customer cannot be trusted."


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## Bitter Jeweler (Feb 17, 2013)

sm4him said:


> Al_Kahollick said:
> 
> 
> > I'm glad you all have such great experiences with B+H, I don't share your fondness for them. NOT because of the missing piece per say, but because of the runaround and lack of interest in trying to resolve this! *What ever happened to " the customer is always right "??* I worked retail for 12 years, our pay envelopes had the saying "a satisfied customer made this check possible" printed on them, I know a thing or two about Customer Service. I also know that if you provide outstanding service to a customer, they *may *tell 1 or 2 friends about it, but, provide a customer a bad experience and they're sure to tell 7 - 10 people about it (hence the customer is always right saying). B+H would be wise to remind their associates of this regularly.
> ...



My favorite amazing sammich shop got a 1 star Yelp! review...It simple said "Samwiches are too messy to eat while driving."

:shock:

Yeah, gotta love customer complaints. Here's your sign.


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