B&H -- Reliable both ONLINE and OFF
Written: Jun 07 '02 (Updated Jun 07 '02)
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B&H Photo Video, as the name implies, sells photographic and video equipment. They have a single, very large (block-long) retail location in Manhattan. At this location, between 33rd and 34th Streets, they have a mail-order and Web operation where, not surprisingly, they sell the same items available at the store.
Their online and mail-order business practices are very reliable and honest, which, again, should come as no surprise at all to anyone aware of B&H's excellent retail track record. B&H caters to photographers, videographers, and audio engineers, at the consumer, prosumer, and professional levels. They also sell ancillary items (listed later in this review).
I emphasize the straightforward business practices of B&H because it is so common to encounter dishonest merchants in the consumer electronics area, especially in the burgeoning new field of online sales. B&H, as one would expect, brings the same integrity to their mail-order and Web sales as you will find when dealing with them in person.
Whether you choose an item from one of their display areas at their 34th Street store and it's sent from their basement to the pick-up counter, or you select an item from a catalog or their Web site and it's sent from their basement to their shipping department, and then on to your mailbox, you can depend on B&H to give you a quality product, complete with all included accessories, at a competitive price.
B&H prints periodic 8.5 by 11 catalogs (of about 200 pages) which list their most popular items and many smaller accessories as well. If you make a purchase from them via telephone, the Web, or the store, you will be put on the list to receive the periodic catalogs by mail. Most of the catalog items will be in stock at any given moment.
They also publish large specialized catalogs in sub-topics such as Professional Video or Digital Photography. While these are called catalogs, they are actually about as lengthy, detailed, and informative as textbooks. There is no charge for the specialized catalogs. Any catalog item can be purchased at the store, by telephone, or via the Web.
You can request the periodic catalog (where specials are listed) or one of the sub-topic catalogs either in person at their retail store or by telephone or through e-mail, where you can also request the other literature available at their store.
They are prompt in answering e-mails, especially when you consider that, where necessary, they respond to your query on an individual basis rather than just using an auto-respond system or a form letter. Telephone communication can be slightly time consuming, as they tend to transfer your call around from one to another of their many specialized departments and to keep you on hold for fairly lengthy stretches.
While the Web site is thorough, covering all the items the store carries, it is not the easiest to use. B&H's notion of where to place products is a little different from the way you or I might think of doing things. For example, there's a top-level category ("department") known as "Consumer Video." There's also a "Pro Video." Now, you might expect products such as VCR's and DVD players to be found under "Consumer Video." Makes at least a little sense, right?
But no, not at B&H. To find these products, you'll have to look under the "Home Theater" department. Now, I can see the logic in placing these items under "Home Theater," but intuitively I would first look for them under "Consumer Video." It might take a little experimentation, but sooner or later you'll probably find what you seek. You could also use the search function, but try to be specific. A search for "DVD" brought 239 returns.
They do mark up shipping (up to one pound, by USPS Express Mail, is $30.00, vs. the $12.45 you would pay for this at the Post Office). Shipping options include Fed Ex (Saver, Economy, and Priority), Air/Truck Freight, USPS Air Mail, and USPS Express Mail. The cheapest non-USPS option, FedEx Saver, starts at $6.99 for up to one pound). USPS Air Mail up to one pound is $5.99.
They are an authorized dealer for all the electronics they sell and their prices are quite good. Often, though not always, they will have the best price of any authorized dealer. To give you a couple of examples, right now they have the Sony DCR-TRV140 camcorder for $479.95, the DCR-TRV240 for $539.95, and the DCR-TRV340 for $599.95. Compare this to Circuit City where the TRV340 sells for $699.99.
B&H isn't just a place to find a low price. Their sales people, whom you may contact in-store or by telephone, know what they're talking about and don't try to push you into buying more than you need. In fact, I once had one of these guys talk me OUT of buying a $400 edit controller, and later I realized he had been right.
When dealing with them by phone, you will get solid advice, but it may take a while to reach the person who can give you that advice. As mentioned above, calls tend to bounce around among the store's many employees before you light upon the person who has the answers you need. That being said, if you are in a hurry for information it's still probably best to just be persistant, put up with the transfers and on-hold time, and call them at their toll-free number rather than writing an e-mail.
The B&H sales staff, at both the retail and telephone levels, is actually an odd mix. Most of them act as if they're not particularly concerned if you buy something or not. A few behave a bit more like traditional commission-based salespeople and push somewhat harder to make the closing. But whatever their individual approach, they are a welcome relief from and contrast to the kind of salespeople who know nothing except that they really, really want you to buy an extended warranty. I've yet to hear a B&H salesperson push an extended warranty, though they are available if you're interested.
Of course, if you carry out your entire order via the B&H Web site, you won't actually have an in-person interaction with a sales person, so the above advice won't mean much to you. The online order form should be familiar to anybody who has ever ordered merchandise online.
For those of you who haven't had that experience, I will describe it for you. Each listed item at the Web site has a small box titled "Add to Cart." Clicking the box adds the item to the list of items you are going to purchase. When you are ready to complete your purchases, you click another button taking you to the list of items you have chosen. Then you input your personal information, including name, mailing address, billing address, and credit card, and you choose the type of shipping you would like. A nice feature is that you can send an item without having the invoice accompany it. The merchandise goes to whichever address you specify, and the invoice comes directly to you. Handy for birthdays and Christmas.
Folks in the armed services will be pleased to note that B&H ships to APO and FPO addresses (categorized as USA rather than foreign orders).
B&H says that they verify credit card information. They're not kidding about that. I was once trying to order a camera from them by phone and they kept me on hold for an inordinately long period of time. After about twenty minutes, I gave up and put the phone back on the hook. I assumed they would just cancel the order, as I had not completed it. They did cancel the order, but they also reported my interaction with them to my credit card company as having been "questionable," causing the credit card company to cancel my credit card. This was during the Christmas shopping season. I was not able to get my credit card re-activated until after New Years. B&H claimed this had been the doing of the credit card company, which was only partly true. They compensated me for my trouble with a $5.00 store credit.
Those shopping with a stolen credit card would do well to take their business elsewhere.
Just to avoid any confusion, the information in the following paragraph applies to online and mail-order sales from B&H as well as sales at their retail location.
On almost all electronics, B&H sells U.S.A. warranty items, meaning you are covered by the manufacturer's warranty. On some still-camera items and on film they sell a mixture of U.S.A. warranty items and imported items. On the imported items, B&H warranties the item themselves. With most stores, I'd stay a hundred miles away from a deal like that, but with B&H you can have confidence that if they say they'll back something up themselves, they will actually do it. In any case, they are very clear on exactly what they are selling you and you will understand in advance the drawbacks of going with one of the less-expensive import versions of a particular item.
B&H, through both their retail store and their Web site and mail order, specializes in still photography, digital photography, video gear, and audio gear. They have everything from the least-expensive consumer-level equipment right on up to $20,000 Digital Betacams. They also sell all the associated equipment such as lighting, stands, tripods, you name it. Any professional photographer or videographer could probably completely equip themselves right from B&H.
This is a really fun store to visit. Out-of-town customers who have patronized B&H's online and mail-order service for years will want to make a point of putting the block-long store right at the top of their list of places to see in New York. If hiking through the many departments of B&H causes your blood sugar level to dip too low, make sure to take advantage of the dishes of free candy available at just about every sales desk in the store (unfortunately, the free candy is not available for Web shoppers).
Some of the other things they sell (again, to avoid potential confusion, B&H sells these items through both their retail store and their Web site) include A/V presentation projectors, video projectors, binoculars, telescopes, pro audio gear, computer video editing and effects gear and software, turnkey editing computers, Macs set up with Final Cut Pro, and home-theater gear (DVD players, VCR's, A/V receivers, speakers, direct-view TV's, and plasma TV's).
The home-theater gear is somewhat of a sideline, and their selection in this area is nothing like what you'll find at the J&R Music World or Crutchfield Web sites, but the prices on what they do have are often quite competitive and their return policy on in-store purchases is better than J&R's. Actually, B&H has the same policies for what they sell through both their retail store and their Web site and mail order while J&R has different policies for in-store sales and mail-order and Web sales.
B&H also has a used-equipment department. All the listed prices are asking prices, meaning they expect you to make a lower offer and they will then negotiate with you to arrive at a selling price. You can buy used gear through the Web site and through mail-order, though the Web site does not indicate that the listed price is an asking price.
This store keeps excellent records, for both sales through their retail store and through their Web site and mail order. Just the other day, it took me five minutes with their customer service department to get copies of the receipts for all the big ticket items I've purchased from them, going all the way back to 1997. You can e-mail their customer service department or call customer service by telephone. They can fax documents to you or mail them.
The biggest drawback to B&H is that it's a very automated, complex operation and sometimes mistakes occur. You view the merchandise and give your order at one desk. This then triggers a computer message to the basement stockroom where a clerk puts your items in a bin and sets the bin rolling on a branching, whirring system of overhead conveyor belts that send bins here and there to all the four corners of the store.
Again, to avoid any possible confusion, I should point out now that those of you making a purchase via the Web site would not actually witness the branching, whirring system of overhead conveyor belts.
If paying via the Web site, of course, you will be typing your credit-card number into the above-mentioned form. For telephone orders you will give your credit information to a telephone clerk.
For all you Web customers who decide to visit B&H in person, once you've chosen your merchandise at one of the sales desks, you go to another desk to make your payment, with one area for cash, another for checks and credit cards. Then you go to a third desk with your chit and, hopefully, you will be united with your merchandise, which has just dropped down off the conveyor belt system and arrived at the final counter.
Whether or not you will use B&H's online order form, requiring you to send your credit-card information over the Web, is a personal decision. I suggest that you use their Web site, which provides a great deal of information for many of the items the store sells, as a way to collect background facts on products you are thinking of buying. But if you want to be as safe as possible with your credit card, you can just use the toll-free number to call in your order.
If all goes well, you should get exactly what you paid for. Unfortunately, their Rube Goldberg style operation sometimes results in the wrong box being stuck in the wrong bin and sent on its merry way to you over the miles and miles of conveyor belts. It's not a bad idea to check right in the store, when you finally get your merchandise, to make sure it's exactly what it's supposed to be.
I've experienced some mixups at the retail store, and, as mentioned above, also experienced some slipups on the part of B&H while dealing with them over the phone. Mistakes are likely to be just that, and they seem to be willing to rectify any mixup, if perhaps a little less politely then one might expect. Even orders made through the Web site may suffer from mixups, but you can be sure B&H will make an honest effort to set things right.
Since the bulk of the sales staff are Hasidim, the store closes at 2:00 p.m. on Friday (opens at 9:00) and is closed all day Saturday. They are open on Sunday (10:00 - 5:00), which is convenient. They're open from 9:00 - 7:00, Monday to Thursday. The store is at Ninth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets. It's one crosstown block from the Eighth Avenue A, C, and E trains as well as Amtrak, the LIRR, and NJ Transit at Penn Station. There's a private parking lot right across the street.
Naturally, you can't get any information or sales help over the phone after business hours, but you can place orders to their Web site 24 hours per day, even on Passover and Rosh Hashanah.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
radioguy
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Member: R.U. Experienced
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 228
Trusted by: 251 members
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B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio
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