B&H experiences

[New Direction]

I tried searching before I asked this because I figured it might have been covered before, if it has I'm sorry. I was wondering what kind of experiences people have had ordering from B & H. Has any one had any problems getting stuff shipped to Canada? I'm looking at getting a wide lens. I'm a little worried about actual shipping and duty costs. I've heard duty is around 14%, is that true? I'm just trying to figure out if I'll actually save money when it's all said and done. Thanks in advance

[msommers]

Experience was really good. I put a big order in and was notified constantly how my order was progressing. Personal preference, stay away from imported lenses. With our dollar the way it is, I'd be ordering a shit load from B&H if I had the cash.

[Hash_man]

^^ Same here... My order went through quite quickly and shipping rates were very reasonable. Only fees I had to pay when I picked it up at the post office was 6% GST.

Great place to buy from and I would do it again... just wish I had some money to do it right now with some of the canon rebates.

[dmtx]

just ordered a couple of lenses from them and no problem what so ever with the transaction. I paid for th UPS saver and the lenses were here in two days. BTW, the UPS saver didn't charge me for the brokerage fee which is sweet. I just paid of GST and like 2% on duty... I can't figure out how they computed the duty.. it may just be for a lens out of the two but I didn't bother to ask.. I was happy to have saved some money and got the lenses fine.

The other thing is I used paypal. the conversion was 1USD = 0.96CAD. The conversion was kind of screwed up coz I ended up paying like $10 more than I should have... I emailed paypal and got a long response which I haven't read yet.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by dmtx
BTW, the UPS saver didn't charge me for the brokerage fee which is sweet.

Yes you did, it's just included in the price.

[ex1z7]

My first experience with BHPhoto was actually really retarded.. The ZIP was wrong on the UPS side - off by a number - and they shipped it to New York back to BHPhoto, and wouldn't stop it in transit and get it to come back when I told them the right ZIP for the MN store I was sending it too..

That being said, everytime I called them it was beautiful. They dealt with everything professionally, and I was going to get free shipping back if I would stay with the 3-5 day I originally used.. But instead I opted to pay for the more expensive next day air, which was expedited, and paid the difference between original shipping price and the new air.. which was like 20 dollars or something.

I just ordered a Hakuba tripod off them, and expect it in on Wednesday, which is A-okay with me, and I expect it to come in without problems..

I highly recommend them, to be honest.. The only problems I had were because UPS is a bitch - and I'm really used to UPS being a bitch so that's fine.

[C4S]

they are good !!!


but sometime .. the Canadian custom are retard ..


sometimes.. I got my gear within a week .. sometimes.. take 2 months .. ( in custom ) ..

So .. BH is good .. but anything u buy from out of country .. u know our custom ..

[dmtx]

Originally posted by D'z Nutz


Yes you did, it's just included in the price.

Their shipping option for me was kind of interesting. The Fedex Economy shipping was $58, the Fedex Priority was $72.

NOW with UPS, the UPS express was $31 (2-4 days) and the UPS saver (1-2Days) was $38. I think it was a no brainer not to use FEDEX and with extra $7, my package was here in two days. Before, I believe I was charged with like $30 with FEDEX brokerage (outside shipping) so for $38 UPS shipping cost (inclusive of brokerage?), the cost was not to bad.....

thanks to Trevor for putting a lot of inputs regarding the lenses that I purchased

[ex1z7]

what did you end up getting anyways?

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by C4S
they are good !!!


but sometime .. the Canadian custom are retard ..


sometimes.. I got my gear within a week .. sometimes.. take 2 months .. ( in custom ) ..

So .. BH is good .. but anything u buy from out of country .. u know our custom ..

2 months? what did you order? that's pretty slow. i have bought thousands of dollars of gear from the US and never have i waited 2 months for anything. the worst for me was a week because the forms were not filled out properly.

[AccentAE86]

I've bought too much stuff from them. It's all been good. Yes, sometimes customs is retarded but they've never held it longer than 1.5 weeks in my cases. Sorry to hear you had to wait 2 months.

Customs held some AE86 Roll Centre Adjusters for 2 months from me... so I can believe the 2 month story.

[New Direction]

Thanks for all the info. So I guess I shouldn't worry about the duty being a deal breaker then

[sliderr]

I stumbled across photoprice.ca looking for the same info.

Handy site...

[E36M3]

They are the biggest retailer of Canon in the United States. They don't suck. If something bad happens, it is probably cause you are an idiot. They have been FLAWLESS with the 50k+ worth of stuff I have bought.

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by AccentAE86
Customs held some AE86 Roll Centre Adjusters for 2 months from me... so I can believe the 2 month story.

hahah! we had a batch of test pipes got stuck in customs for a month. customs was concerned that we were defeating the emissions control systems on our miatas. it's all in how you file the paper work.

test pipe=muffler pipe
muffler pipe=no problemo

[E36M3]

Are you sure it wasn't because you drive a Miata and they were trying to discourage that?

Originally posted by turboMiata


hahah! we had a batch of test pipes got stuck in customs for a month. customs was concerned that we were defeating the emissions control systems on our miatas. it's all in how you file the paper work.

test pipe=muffler pipe
muffler pipe=no problemo

[New Direction]

Originally posted by sliderr
I stumbled across photoprice.ca looking for the same info.

Handy site...

Awesome link, thanks