Buying From B&H Photo

[ashey]

I have bought a couple of items from them and the service is outstanding, only have trouble when items arrive in OZ. There are no import duties to pay as we have a trade agreement with the U.S. but you will be liable for GST over $1000 if it gets checked.

[Patagonia]

Have had only good experiences with them (though only US shipping) and have been in the NY store a couple of times, its amazing and with an old feeling as its attended only by very conservative jews with long beards and dressed with their tipical style.

Regarding warranty check well what you are buying as they usually have for each product a "US" version and a cheaper "Grey or Import" versión which I suppose they import directly.

regards

[Ross the fiddler]

B&H are very good to deal with but because it is a credit card transaction, there is about a 3% currency exchange rate fee (at least with mine it is) that should be added into the cost too. I bought an Olympus HLD-4 battery grip from them for $223 aprox with all costs included when the RRP here is $349 & the other cheap alternative was DWI at $212 + $20 (normally $30) from Hong Kong.

[Wayne]

Some sellers (not sure about B&H) will take Paypal. How is that better than your own bank processing the charge to the credit card?

Paypal is almost always better on the FX rate, but not by much, however the 2.9%(prob much lower negotiated fee for huge sellers like B&H) fee for payment processing is borne by the merchant, much the same way they wear the banks merchant acquirer fee, so to them it is really the same, but you don't pay the bank an FX exch fee on top of the FX rate.

I use a service from Macquarie Bank to send amounts >$2K around the world, they have the best FX rates going anywhere. The rates are always 1-2%+ better than the banks and Paypal, and not far from the interbank rate. They charge an AU$15 fee for the transaction and they wire the $ from their account in the local currency to the merchant. It saves you some $$ when you send $3K+ overseas, and many merchants who won't take an Aussie credit card will gladly give you their local bank acc details so you can still buy your goodies from them.

[TOM]

i love B&H...just bought a camera from there last week and saved nearly $1000 off local price. I prefer to buy as much as I can locally, but I can't ignore the price difference on a lot of products.

BTW, B&H will not accept Paypal from Australia....only the parts of America, and the UK.

[GoldZilla]

I also love B&H, I've ordered a fair bit of stuff from them, and the only time something got held up was when I had to pay the import duty for a lens and filters. I'm guessing that if I'd done it as separate orders (lens only, then gotten my filters later and/or bought them here instead), then I might have gotten away with not having to pay the duty, as the lens was US$1,040.00 when our dollar was buying something like 98c

My last order was placed late at night on Thursday just past (local Sydney time), and it arrived Monday, so their speed of service is outstanding!

[wideangle]

I also love B&H, I've ordered a fair bit of stuff from them, and the only time something got held up was when I had to pay the import duty for a lens and filters. I'm guessing that if I'd done it as separate orders (lens only, then gotten my filters later and/or bought them here instead), then I might have gotten away with not having to pay the duty, as the lens was US$1,040.00 when our dollar was buying something like 98c

My last order was placed late at night on Thursday just past (local Sydney time), and it arrived Monday, so their speed of service is outstanding!

How much did you have to pay in total for all customs and GST costs?