B&H Photo Return Policy?

[alec4444]

My wife bought a digital camera from B&H on 10/5 - it was the new Canon Powershot G10. Early this week, she decided that it was too much camera for her needs, so she went to return it. B&H has a two-week return policy.

However, the store is closed for various Jewish holidays rather frequently, including from 10/14 thru 10/22, which spans the end of the two week return period.

Anyone know if they give you a hard time over this? Neither of us are looking forward to dealing with it.....

Thanks!
--A

[jnantz]

alec

henry posner is a nice person to deal with - very accessible and understanding.
telephone him and speak with him directly. when i was in a pickle, he was very helpful.

good luck!

john

[Brian Ellis]

When I tried to return a defective scanner a couple weeks after the return period had expired (because I had been working with the tech support people trying to get it to work) B&H refused to take the return so I ended up being out $1000 (never could get it to consistently work properly despite several repair efforts). Henry Posner was a complete jerk about the whole thing, a ruder, more arrogant individual I've seldom met. That's why I stopped dealiing with B&H and now deal only with Adorama when buying from NY mail order places. If I were you I'd be absolutely certain you get it back within the return period so you don't have to deal with [Ed: No Insults]

[Scott Davis]

Brian-

I'm frankly surprised at your reaction to Henry. I've had great success dealing with him when I had a problem. I ordered something, the fulfillment people at the warehouse loaded the box wrong, then sent me a duplicate item that was in the box, not what was missing, so I contacted Henry. He got the right thing to me, at no additional cost, and told me to keep the duplicate item as an apology. Maybe he was having a bad day- nobody's perfect.

[Eric James]

Alec, Simply call BHPV as soon as they open back up and ask for an RMA #. Don't send it in without an RMA. Make sure you have all the packaging, return the camera to the box and relax - no worries. BHPV won't use their holiday as a means to sidestep their return policy. PS: the yak is doing well.

[RPNugent]

If you look at the view profile post you will see that Henry has started posting on the LF board again. His email is:

henryp@bhphotovideo.com

[Robert Fisher]

Brian, sorry to hear about your experience - perhaps there are other issues to the situation.

IMHO, B&H is triple gold plated.

[bernal]

Alec,

I would send an e-mail requesting an RMA number just to document it and then call to follow up.

bernal

[David Karp]

I have never had a problem with B&H, even when returning an expensive wide angle lens for my Mamiya 645. They have always taken everything back, no questions asked.

Never had to talk to Mr. Posner to get it done.

[Brian Ellis]

Brian-

I'm frankly surprised at your reaction to Henry. I've had great success dealing with him when I had a problem. I ordered something, the fulfillment people at the warehouse loaded the box wrong, then sent me a duplicate item that was in the box, not what was missing, so I contacted Henry. He got the right thing to me, at no additional cost, and told me to keep the duplicate item as an apology. Maybe he was having a bad day- nobody's perfect.

Scott - My problems with Posner extended over a period of a week or two, not just a day. In your case it sounds like B&H had clearly messed up the shipping on your order. My situation involved a defective product (i.e. the manufacturer's fault, not B&H's). Posner kept telling me that they wouldn't take it back and that my remedy was to send it in for warranty repair. I didn't want to do that because after spending many fruitless hours with Linoscan's tech support people trying to get the scanner to work, I decided that the scanner was a dog and I wanted nothing more to do with it. I didn't realize at the time that the two week return time related to defective goods as well as returns for other reasons. Anyhow, it was a long time ago and I don't go out of my way to bash B&H and Posner. But the OP asked about returns to B&H after expiration of the return period and since that was my situation I thought I should relate my experience.

As an aside, when B&H refused to accept a return of the scanner and refund my money I sent it in for repair. IIRC it worked right for a while after that but eventually the same problems cropped up again. I sent it in again, this time it came back without being fixed. At that point I bought an Epson scanner and eventually took the Linoscan to the dump.

[Scott Davis]

Brian-

that does sound like a very different problem, and I'm sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. I feel fortunate that I haven't had that kind of situation.

[alec4444]

Thanks, guys. Just struck me that it looks like we're missing some of the packing materials for the Canon box - that pretty much screws us, yes?

It's not the end of the world; the camera should hold 99% of it's value I suppose....

--A

[SaveBears]

Alec it might just be easier to learn how to use it, the G10 is a pretty good camera and can be set up to be easy to use...

[henryp]

My wife bought a digital camera from B&H on 10/5 - it was the new Canon Powershot G10. Early this week, she decided that it was too much camera for her needs, so she went to return it. B&H has a two-week return policy.

However, the store is closed for various Jewish holidays rather frequently, including from 10/14 thru 10/22, which spans the end of the two week return period.

Anyone know if they give you a hard time over this? Neither of us are looking forward to dealing with it.....
We know when we're closed. :-)
The time period will not be an impediment.


Henry Posner was a complete jerk about the whole thing, a ruder, more arrogant individual I've seldom met. ... If I were you I'd be absolutely certain you get it back within the return period so you don't have to deal with this a--h---.
While I don't recall this incident offhand, I suspect there are two sides to this tale (as is often the case). I'll be happy to review this when we reopen.

[QT Luong]

FYI, when possible I try to order from amazon.com because they have a return period of 1 month, and you can issue an RMA and a free return label with just a few mouse clicks. In particular, I like to order multiple lenses and keep the best one after testing.
Of course B&H carries a much larger inventory, while amazon.com has only the mainstream stuff. B&H sometimes has also a better price. I cannot comment on returns there, since I've never needed to do one. In my experience, both are excellent stores.

[Preston]

Helen wrote: "We would certainly take into account the effect that the holidays will have had on this customer's problem, and would be surprised if other retailers would not do the same."

Helen's statement brings up an important point, I think. Most vendors I've worked with set their return policies to 'business' days, rather than 'calendar' days. So, it makes good sense to review a vendor's policies very carefully in order to prevent unhappy outcomes.

-P

[cobalt]

Brian, that is very interesting.
I bought a Microtek 1200 from Midwest Photo. It was a piece of crap, imho. About a month after the purchase, I found horrible streaks in every scan, even those done on the first day of possession. Microtek folk insisted that the problem was not common (I disagree). Jim at Midwest not only took the item back, but actually sent me a (far superior, imo) Epson 4990 even before I sent the scanner back to him! This without even charging my card, and after the return period had clearly expired.
I was actually being a jerk, having to meet a deadline with f***ed up scans having pissed me off; Jim was accomodating despite this. Of course, I apologized profusely afterward.

In essence, the moral of this tale is: I try to buy from Midwest if they have what I want available. Even if it costs a little more (which is rare), the service is unimpeachable, even when the customer is wrong.

[Vlad Soare]

I'm also surprised to hear that about Henry Posner. My very first experience with B&H was a failure due to an over-zealous employee in the card verification department. I ended up canceling the order and posting a negative review on ResellerRatings. Henry Posner immediately contacted me, apologized and offered to solve my problem. He was very polite and reasonable, and it impressed me that a man in his position could find the time to investigate my case and to reply so fast and extensively to all my e-mails, considering that B&H must have thousands of customers every day. He has my respect for that.

[alec4444]

Got a nice email back from Henry. He explained that the date of purchase would not be a problem, however the missing cardboard inserts would be. I was naively under the impression that they ship returned cameras back to the manufacturer to be cleaned, repackaged, and resold. It turns out they sell them as "open box"....the end result being that we'd only get a partial refund.

B&H describes this in their return policy online, so I can't fault them for this. It's "buyer be aware". I do agree with cobalt, though, that I probably should have bought this from Jim. I likely could have skipped this camera down the street, then mailed it back to him in an oversized envelope and still gotten a full refund. Sadly, Jim comes to mind for LF stuff and not digital, even though he has this camera (and most others) at the same price as B&H.

Will keep you posted about what those cardboard inserts cost me....

Cheers!
--A

[alec4444]

Got a full refund - no deductions for packing material. Thanks Henry!

--Alec