Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 unavilable.....

[Abitconfused]

I have put in an order for a Z 50mm f/1.8 but EVERYWHERE they appear to be back-ordered. Any guess when that boat from Thailand will dock in Long Beach?

[Manfred M]

[Abitconfused]

Goodie, goodie, goodie.

[tclune]

In my experience, an expected availability of 2-4 weeks on B&H is code for "We haven't got a clue."

[William W]

Interesting.

My feeling is the dates on their web postings are conservative, providing wriggle room and so not to inflate unrealistic expectations - but I did check my files for hard data.

Made me have a look at my record of Invoices. I have made 18 purchase invoices comprising 97 different items from B&H in the last five years (more previous purchases, but after 5 years I need not keep any records).

12 items were out of stock and on back order, expected arrival either sent to me and/or posted on their website as per Manfred's Screen Shot.

Checking my P.O. Box notifications - every one of those 12 items arrived as per expectation, a few earlier. I live in AUS.

Last September, I emailed B&H asking them to articulate concerns about delays for international shipping because of Covid 19 effects on international parcel postage, both in reference to supplies to them and as per delivery to their customers - their reply indicated that these factors were taken into account within their indicatives.

I reckon that 12 items initially out of stock arriving on time, as expected, is a good sample group from one customer - enough to qualify for a comment "in my experience".

Obviously things do stuff up. Isolated experiences of stuff ups are a bad experience, but only one experience. However if there are repeated experiences of the same bad experience I reckon that Mr Henry Posner is the bloke to contact. He is Director of Corporate Relations B&H. A thorough gentleman and consummate professional.

WW

[tclune]

Well, Bill, we can treat this as a test case. Manfred's post was on the 17th. March 10th will be over the four week mark. You know where my money is placed...

[DanK]

It's worth bearing in mind that the retailer's estimates are based on what they are told by their suppliers. If their suppliers don't come through when they say they will, the retailer can't either.

I haven't kept tabs, but I have bought a lot of equipment from B&H and don't recall problems of inaccurate estimates of arrival. When their suppliers can't give them reasonable information, B&H will sometimes say only that the product is backordered and provide no estimate at all. This happened to me when I needed a new webcam shortly after lockdown started, for teaching with Zoom. Webcams were like toilet paper: supplies vanished here when COVID became serious. B&H didn't offer an estimated time of arrival, so I just ordered it and made do.

[William W]

Well, Bill, we can treat this as a test case. Manfred's post was on the 17th. March 10th will be over the four week mark. You know where my money is placed...

Just received email from B&H that both the lens and the lens and filter kit are in stock.



WW

[tclune]

I lose.

[William W]

From my point of view, it was never a competition: I was responding sincerely to your post #4.

For someone to publish the statement that "[B&H] hasn't got a clue", I reckoned came from at least one poor customer service experience, perhaps more.

Having been a long time, long distance, customer of B&H and also having visited their New York Store in 2019, I have been impressed with their customer service and moreover impressed with their receipt of customer feedback and professionalism generally.

My unasked, yet implied question, was, generally "how many times have you been let down by B&H?" and to also give you the name of the bloke who will always do his best to explain situations and fix issues, if that's what you wanted.

WW

[Manfred M]

From my point of view, it was never a competition: I was responding sincerely to your post #4.

For someone to publish the statement that "[B&H] hasn't got a clue", I reckoned came from at least one poor customer service experience, perhaps more.

Having been a long time, long distance, customer of B&H and also having visited their New York Store in 2019, I have been impressed with their customer service and moreover impressed with their receipt of customer feedback and professionalism generally.

My unasked, yet implied question, was, generally "how many times have you been let down by B&H?" and to also give you the name of the bloke who will always do his best to explain situations and fix issues, if that's what you wanted.

WW

Bill - your experience is very much in line with mine. I visited the B&H store back in 2011 and have been an online customer ever since. I also visited their equally reputable competitor Adorama during that trip as well.

For those of us living in Canada, B&H offers a service where they not only take care of shipping, but also customs brokerage and collection of any import duties and federal and provincial taxes. If I order from B&H on the weekend, the items are generally in my hands by Thursday or Friday. Anything that is back ordered or is a special order item has arrived promptly by the promised date. Their customer service department is very much as you describe it Bill, helpful and they resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently. There is free shipping to Canada on any orders that are over $US 99.

The only "glitch" in trying to order from B&H (or Adorama) is that they are owned by Orthodox Jews. Their online ordering system is shut on the Sabbath (don't try to visit the bricks & mortar store on Saturdays either; they are closed as well) and they do shut down for Jewish holidays that I have generally not heard of. They do give plenty of warning to people about these shut downs. If you happen to try to order during this period, you can't and have to wait until the holidays are over; which can sometimes be close to a week.

The only issue that I have is that some of their suppliers do not allow them to ship into Canada (likely because they don't want to cannibalize business of their Canadian distributors). I live about a 45 minute drive from the USA border, so I will have things shipped to one of several companies that deal with these types of goods (delivery to USA address required) and I do use them outside of right now while the Canada / USA border is closed to non-essential travel due to COVID-19.

[William W]

... yes, same here - B&H include all the AUS taxes payable into their invoice, then fwd those funds to the AUS Government on behalf of the customer and they guarantee the customer will not pay any excess to the purchase price: all my items have arrived unopened and not withheld for inspection by Customs, B&H were very quick to adjust to AUS Tax compliance matters regarding importing of goods from overseas, taking all that hassle away from their AUS customer.

WW

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Hey guys, see those ships out there past the pier?
Those are container ships waiting to get into Long Beach. There are a lot of them out there. Nothing is moving. I'm afraid it's gonna be a longer wait than expected.

[William W]

Hey guys, see those ships out there past the pier?
Those are container ships waiting to get into Long Beach. There are a lot of them out there. Nothing is moving. I'm afraid it's gonna be a longer wait than expected.

I don't understand, why don't you order the lens from a USA supplier that has stock?

WW

[Manfred M]

Hey guys, see those ships out there past the pier?
Those are container ships waiting to get into Long Beach. There are a lot of them out there. Nothing is moving. I'm afraid it's gonna be a longer wait than expected.

If B&H has them in stock, then they got them from Nikon USA. I would be quite suspicious if your retailer is not able to supply them.

That being said, back in the fall, I had to wait about 3 months to get some Hahnemûhle Gloss Baryta paper. The plant in Germany was behind in production but the real hangup was the ships was queued up for over a month to be unloaded in the USA before the paper was shipped to Canada.

Unfortunately, part of the reality of COVID-19 and the impact it has had on supply chains.

I understand that large appliances are in similar short supply. Our 15 year old television died about a month ago and trying to find a local retailer with stock meant we ended up buying a larger, more expensive unit than we had planned.

[tclune]

From my point of view, it was never a competition: I was responding sincerely to your post #4.

For someone to publish the statement that "[B&H] hasn't got a clue", I reckoned came from at least one poor customer service experience, perhaps more.

Absolutely. My photography partner is much more acquisitive than I am, so it is based more on his experience than my own. He orders new upper-echelon Nikon cameras and lenses routinely, and they are invariably back-ordered. When any attempt is made to indicate when they will be in, the standard is "2-4 weeks." Most often, he ends up waiting six months or more. The production problems are squarely in Nikon's court, and I would not be surprised if Nikon says that delivery will be in 2-4 weeks. But, given the routine failure to make that timeline, it seems disingenuous to post it on their web site. But, fair is fair. They hit the mark this time.

[DanK]

I don't expect any retailer to be consistently accurate now because of the widespread supply disruptions. For example, you may have read that a huge number of cars are currently stuck because manufacturers haven't been able to get enough chips.

Out of curiosity, I just looked at Canon printers on the B&H website because I know there have been supply problems. There are three intervals listed. Some are 2-4 weeks, some are 7-14 days, and one has no estimated time at all. One of the datacolor charts is listed as 7-10 days. Logitech webcams are now available, but my recollection is that when I ordered one from B&H early in the COVID lockdown, they gave no estimated arrival dates for any model that I wanted. They were just listed as backordered. So that suggests that they are varying what they post based on what they actually expect.

[Abitconfused]

The pup came in today (Day 29 very much as promised) along with a HOYA HD UV 62 filter. It is sweet and, along with the Z50 camera, feels nice, sort of like a plump (cold hard) hamster in your hand.

[Manfred M]

The pup came in today (Day 29 very much as promised) along with a HOYA HD UV 62 filter. It is sweet and, along with the Z50 camera, feels nice, sort of like a plump (cold hard) hamster in your hand.

You sound like you are happy; which is a good thing.

I am looking forward to seeing what you can do with your new gear; hint - post some images here.

[DanK]

I’ve never held a cold hamster before..


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