Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Curious if you buy from the US, which retailer(s) do you use? B&H? Adorama?

What kind of experiences did you have from them?
Or you prefer good ol Canadian shops like Henrys/Vistek?

I've bought from both BH and Adorama without any issues.

The reason why I asked is that both companies I have had no problems (i've purchased alot of things there) but I've seen an Adorama Customer care ambassador (Helen Oster) she seems to be on many forums providing support even for the average joe. I have never seen such excellent customer care! Recently, I had to exchange/return items and man what a difference. I wish Canadian companies had this. I think Adorama has my vote these days.

^^ I agree. I cannot say enough good things about Adorama and Helen. They really take CS very seriously. If I order before 3PM, it's almost a certainly that I'll get the shipment the very next day. Everything is itemized such that no duty or brokerage is charged. It's become my favourite photo gear store. Cheers.

No kidding. It goes to show that they're willing to go into the virtual world where there's a HUGE market to tap into and show them that every sale is important to them.

There was a thread on FM a couple months ago about an official Russian Olympic photographer who ordered some $16K of gear from Adorama. The clerk supposedly screwed up and accidentally sent his order to Russia. There was no way he would be able to get that gear in time to cover the Russian Olympic team in Vancouver. Helen stepped in and got the right folks involved and the guy was given free rental gear to cover the Olympic shoot.

Admittedly I don't know anything about ordering from the states as it's not something I've done before.. I was just looking at Adorama and the 7D I'm considering purchasing is $200 CAD cheaper. How does ordering gear from the States affect warranties, servicing, etc?

So there are no additional fees at the border? All I'm paying is obviously for the item, taxes and shipping?

Actually, purchasing from a Canadian retailer is cheaper right now:

http://www.photoprice.ca/product/02849/ ... price.html

Canon USA and Canon Canada are the same company. Hence, warranty is valid in Canada and the USA. You only pay 13% local taxes: No brokerage or duty. All you need to know here:

http://www.photoprice.ca/article/tax-du ... emystified

Cheers,

Sabesh.

Upon gear crossing the border, you pay taxes (HST - pst+gst), might pay duties on certain items, and if you're lucky with UPS standard - nice brokerage fee

Thanks for the links!

Yep, one should know that any ground shipment entails Brokerage fees. That being said, Adorama and B&H don't offer UPS Standard anymore (good thing too). Cheers.



Anytime!

Ordering from the US may involve many known and unknown fees.
Just to make things simple I guess the main fees are
Brokerage, Duty and Taxes (GST+PST for Ontario)

Photographic apparatus such as camera bodies, lenses have no duty.

Many couriers such as UPS, Fedex, etc charge brokerage fees based on the declared value of the items you are purchasing.

General rule of thumb is if it's an air shipping product such as Worldwide saver etc (I'll link you a UPS chart below) the brokerage fee is included in the shipping product. If you choose ground shipping, you will have to pay the brokerage fees as tiered below i.e. value is $1,000.01 to $1,250.00 you'll be paying $67.95

So you can see the shipping products in that link that already include it, so most of the time it's beneficial to go with the more expensive shipping and it gets here usually the next day or two.

http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shippi ... rance.html

You will have to pay taxes no matter what (gst+pst if in Ontario).

With the cdn dollar so close to parity its almost worth it to purchase from the US. If you're a Canon user, the warranty is covered North American wide.

photoprice.ca can also give you a rough idea what taxes/duties/fees you have to pay for

Exchanges can be a bit of a pain though. Sometimes after you send back the product (they usually give you their preferred courier and account number so you don't have to pay for the shipment back) they forget to declare it is a repair/warranty/replacement item and then you get slapped on with the taxes again. Usually there's no problems clearing it up but it can be a bit time consuming faxing proof or having your retailer fax you their invoice indicating repair/replacement.

Phew, but all that being said I buy alot of things from the US - Adorama because their CS is #1!

Edit: man I type too slow, some things in my post have already been mentioned.. if not all

That'd be me! Thank you




That's so good to read - I hope we can continue to be your #1 choice




It was the least we could do, but thanks so much for noticing




Thank you!! But if we ever mess up, I'm only an email away


Helen

Either B&H or Adorama, no issue at all.
Canon warranty cover both US, Canada and Mexico (I think).
Nikon warranty is a different matter though.

I've bought stuff from KEH, and they were great to deal with, and the product came quickly.

Holy cow Batman! I thought the bat signal was effective... lol

Helen's everywhere

You just have to light the Oster-signal!!

http://thewisdomofadistractedmind.blogs ... ignal.html

^ Do we just have to mention "Adorama" and/or "Helen" in a post and you'll show up?

Good job! I haven't bought anything from the US yet, but I may just have to start with Adorama

Pretty much - Adorama always works but you need my first name & my family name to fire me into action out of my bat cave!

Please Note: The Adorama offices will be closed for Passover from March 29th through April 6th.

LOL, that's too funny. It's good to see you here, Helen! Thx for all the help you've given me over @ POTN and we sure appreciate your presence here as well.

Call Adorama or BH and tell them that you want it clear that you want to clear customs and DO not let UPS do it for you.

Make it clear you will refuse delivery if you get nailed with brokerage fees.

Then clear it yourself.

Wow Helen is Everywhere!!!

Helen, while we have your attention on this thread!

As webmaster/editor of a certain popular Canadian price comparison website, I've been tracking camera/lens prices from B&H and Adorama for quite some time now.

What I've noticed is while B&H and Adorama always have very competitive pricing, Adorama's shipping fees to Canada are ever so slightly higher than equivalent shipping from B&H (by about $10-15 in most cases). While I can't discuss specific details, I have lots of data that shows that Adorama's losing out to B&H in this ship-to-Canada market.

Are there any plans on lowering shipping rates to Canada? I for one am impressed with your customer service, and I think reducing S&H to match closer to your competition would entice more Canadians to try you out.

UPS shipping is just fine now. B&H and Adorama don't ship via UPS standard anymore, so there's no brokerage fees involved. Cheers.

Hi Helen, glad to see you here. Any idea when the 1Ds MKIV will be released and when can I pre-order?
I am hoping that you got some insider info to share

I have asked this question to Helen before about offering a cheaper shipping option which B&H offers. B&H (UPS Worldwide expedited) vs Adorama (UPS Worldwide express).. where expedited is a bit cheaper.

Helen brought this to the attention of the Operations director and mentioned they will look into it and it will take time.

While it is a tad bit more expensive, the express comes the next day, compared to 2 days. I want the best customer service, especially when I spend $$$, I want to feel someone appreciates my business and not just another number in their database (thx Helen + Adorama).

Recently, Helen helped me through some exchange issues on Customs Canada for a particular scenario. I am glad I ordered from Adorama over B&H. She was there to help ensure things were sorted out (firing documents and invoices over email etc)

Thanks again Helen Oster ! <-- Lighting the signal

Keep in mind that B&H don't actually ship it the same day as they imply. It's always shipped the day after an order is placed (at least for me). Hence, it's actually 2-3 days (mostly 3) with the more expensive "UPS saver" option from B&H. The cheaper "Expedited" option takes 3-5 days. Cheers.

We have 30 pieces IN STOCK today....

Order before Noon today and it will ship before the Passover holiday, otherwise shipping will be 4/7.

Hello Everyone,

While I think its great that a customer service rep has come here to give some 'support'. I want to remind everyone, that one of our policies is that there is to be no "commercial postings".. So just to remind the customer service rep, that you cannot advertise services on TPMG. thank you.


David

I wonder if anyone's mentioned this forum to B&H's service rep - Henry Posner...

Cheers,
Dave

I didn't know B&H has a rep. I do know Helen runs through about 600 forums and blogs... phew!

Yep, Henry also hangs out @ POTN.