B+H or Adorama?

[wfe]

B+H for sure. When I was first purchasing my darkroom I went to Adorama first and they would not even answer a question so I purchased it from B+H. That was four years ago and I feel like I now own part of B+H given the amount of money I have spent there. I had a problem with an item once and they not only took it back and sent me a replacement but paid the shipping both ways.

Regards,
Bill

[c6h6o3]

I will never, ever spend another dime at Adorama for any reason. And I don't speak with that kind of finality very often.

[david b]

I was being polite.

Adorama will never get another dime from me either. I won't go into the details, but I was treated rather poorly when I complained about the expired film they sent me. Okay, I went into some of the details.

[copake_ham]

This has been very interesting to read. Living (in part) in NYC I tend to shop these two places in person. I usually gravitate to Adorama, partly because it is a little easier to get to from my east Midtown office and partly because it's a bit easier to "navigate". By that I mean that B+H (the store) has been evolving into a kind of Best Buy (I'm waiting for them to bring in the appliances!) such that I don't feel like I'm in a camera store anymore.

Apparently it's a totally different experience when dealing with the mail order side of these two operations. Good info to know. I'll no longer be so quick to recommend Adorama to folks after what I've learned here.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Also shopping locally, I just avoid the more generic electronics at B&H, unless of course I'm purchasing some generic electronics, and if I actually need some assistance, I've come to recognize some of the staff who are actually knowledgeable (usually the older guys).

Adorama is okay, I find, if I go in the morning when it's not too busy, but if they're trying to move customers through their small space, they can be a bit gruff.

[naturephoto1]

Over the years I have generally had very luck with both stores. I do purchase more from B&H. However, there are certain things that B&H does not stock while Adorama does. Though when I placed the order they were out of stock, Adorama lists the Lee filters as an example in the Cokin P size. I had to wait a couple of weeks, but service was still good. They have also been very good for film shipment. As to the Lee filters in the Cokin P size, B&H does not even have them anywhere on their website.

Rich

[DBP]

B&H. I had a horrible experience with Adorama customer service and will never go back. The short version is that they shipped me a defective new Bessa R, gave me all sorts of hassles returning it, then shipped the same one back to me as a replacement! Never again.

[srs5694]

At the risk of sound like a "me-too" message, I'll throw in my vote for B&H because I've had an experience or two where Adorama's Web site has indicated that an item has been in stock, when in fact it isn't. This is most annoying, particularly when you want to place an order for a bunch of small things all at one place to minimize shipping costs.

That said, B&H has the annoying problem that they won't ship certain items at all, such as Rodinal or about half the Kodak color chemistry. If I need such items, I generally order from Adorama or Freestyle, depending on what else I need and whether cross-continent ground shipping is acceptable to me for that order.

[david b]

I would like to note that all of my money now goes to Freestyle.

[Peter Williams]

I would use B&H, I've had too many instances where Adorama website listed an item as in stock, only to find out it wasn't.

My wife had the same problem with Adorama last year when shopping for my birthday. She had decided to go all out and ordered four lenses for me. They eneded up not coming through on any of them. When the day rolled around and she had nothing to give, she blacklisted Adorama for good.