B+H = Big Headache!

A few months ago I ordered from B & H a heat absorbing lens for my enlarger. They mailed the glass lens in a bubble wrap package, when it arrived it had the sound of broken glass so I refused the UPS delivery. B&H said that they would never mail without adequate packing and implied that I was lying. It took a long time to get my credit . Adorama works for me.

I am now on hold with them as I type. Turns out I was sold a grey market camera without my knowing it! I am STRONGLY pointing this out to them at this time. By saying "look we will call it a wash if you credit my card", I think I can get somewhere. If not, I have Visa working on a refund arangement.

I am not happy.

I ordered a batch of Ilford film from B&H about a month ago, and it was shipped and received in a timely manner. Looks like I might have been lucky.

I've placed about 4 or 5 orders thru them the past few years without any problems. But I've heard on some other forums of occasional problems and they were a little difficult in settling the problems.

B&H has never disappointed me when I've ordered film, but when I called them to order a lens shade for a 50mm Contax lens, they sent the wrong one even though I confirmed the specific camera model and lens to the sales rep on the phone. On the other hand, Calumet has never disappointed me, so I'm sticking with Calumet.

I'll order from almost anyone but B&H. They aren't any closer or cheaper to me than Adorama/Calumet/Freestyle and I try to buy what I can locally.

The first week of December '03, I ordered a Toyo 45CX kit when it was on special for $969, listed as in-stock. It got delayed being shipped, then arrived in two parts, one on Christmas Eve, one the day before - body only and the holders, etc.. The lens was backordered for an unknown amount of time and I couldn't get in touch with their service department until after Christmas. I was hoping, given their reputation, that they'd make it good - find a suitable substitute lens (even if it cost more for me) or something. Unfortunately the customer service people were about as bad as I've encountered. No help at all, wouldn't even give me an idea when the lens might come in, what I could do about it, nothing.

It took a number of calls and e-mails through the first week of February to get them to send me a shipping label so I could get rid of the useless body and have my money back.

After all that, they tried to refund only the cost of the body, because I hadn't shipped the lens back to them. The lens that was still backordered. At least that one was a short fight.

More annoying than that was that in every phone call and e-mail I noted that the kit was still listed as in-stock online and nothing changed.

I think your problem is with B&H and not Cosina. B&H is just passing the buck IMHO. If they say Cosina says it's toasted etc. blah blah blah get them to send you a copy of the communication from Cosina. I have a Bessa R that has been thru hell and back. No problems, ever. Great little camera. Any reputatable camera repair place could fix this problem as the parts are shared by Nikon, Pentax and others for that body.

B&H is stonewalling you old boy. Go get'em!

Wow. I never realized there were that many problems out there. I've ordered some Lee filters through them (one had a small scratch on it, but it was in the middle of the filter). They replaced it. I had ordered another filter (a 67 mm Wratten 87 glass filter - special order (five months in advance of a trip and I didn't get it until after I returned) and even then, you could see around the edges of the glass where the glass had been cut and chipped off (manufacturing defect) but they replaced the filter.

It seems that special order stuff takes a long time.

I've ordered a lot of film from B&H in the past and have never been disappointed. I order from them as I have to pay sales tax (even on the web) if/when I order from Calumet (and I do order from them from time to time).

I've never had any problems with Calumet. Ever. I've bought cameras, backs, lights, stands, backgrounds, film, paper, chemistry, you name it from them. They ship fast and if they backorder anything the order is always promptly filled with no extra shipping charges. They're not the least expensive, but they've always treated me well.

I've only bought a couple boxes of Kodak film from B&H, so I don't know about them. They shipped quickly but they had the stuff in stock.

Other than that, there are only 3 things I know:

1) The sun will come up tomorrow.
2) I will someday die.
3) I will never send another penny to Adorama for any reason.

I've only ever bought consumables and small items from them and never had a problem. I'll consider these posts if I ever decide to buy something bigger.

My 2 cents...

B&H - maybe a dozen orders, no problems.

Adorama - SLOW! No matter what day I place an order, it's always at least 5 days before it's shipped.

Calumet - Online never any problems. In person, fantastic. I was in the Chicago store (Cherry Ave) last fall getting necessities for my new 4x5. The saleslady was very knowledgable and pointed out lower cost alternatives to some items. I visit Chicago just to go there.