B+H or Adorama?

[CraigK]

While I usually buy locally from the bricks and mortar shops in town, the price of some lighting gear has me shopping on line.

Both B+H and Adorama can save me enough money (over 2K) to justify taking my business, at least for this transaction, out of town.

So, which one to use? B+H or Adorama?

P.S. I am in Canada, if this makes any difference.
Oh, and I did check with apug sponsors first but they do not carry the items I am looking for.

[Nick Zentena]

B&H. If for no other reason shipping issues. I think Adoroma changed thier shipping to Canada awhile back. B&H will ship UPS air 2nd day for about the same price of USPS. Some times even cheaper.

Other then the shipping issues B&H seems to keep the website better updated on stock issues. The few times in the past I've ordered from Adoroma at least one item was out of stock when the order shipped. Hopefully they've improved.

[Nick Zentena]

Okay I checked again and it seems Adoroma has changed shipping again. It looks better now.

Oh well back to the coin toss.

[reellis67]

I usually put everything I want in the shopping cart at both places and whoever has the lowest total price with shipping gets the order. I've never found any reason to favor one over the other though, but I only use them for things I can't get locally or from Freestyle and J and C.

- Randy

[TheFlyingCamera]

B&H hands down - while their customer service folks won't win any awards for charm and social grace, they're a whole league better than Adorama. They won't give you the runaround, and they will let you know if they're out of stock on something, and how long they expect it will take to get it in. They also don't specialize in bait-and-switch like Adorama can do.

[david b]

I think you should do a search here and on photo.net about adorama, before buying from them.

[roteague]

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. They lost a $2k sale from me last year because of this. The other place I would recommend is Calumet (although their website seems to be down right now) - they have stores all over the world, so they do a lot of international business.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Given the choice, I lean toward B&H.

[wilsonneal]

B+H, without doubt. I work DIRECTLY across the street from Adorama, but I will still travel up to 34th and 9th to buy anything except the cheapest commodity. B+H Customer Service has done the right thing again and again by me, whereas Adorama has always disappointed me.
Neal

[Lopaka]

Adorama's website has two flaws - the web inventory is not updated during the course of the day as orders are received so an item showing as in stock may not be. THe other is items that are drop-shipped from the distributor are not identified as 'drop-ship' - on those items the website assumes the distributor has it in stock, takes your order and your money and then you wait. I once had an order drag on for 3 months while I tried to figure it out...The answer is if you use Adorama, you have to call and ask - if it is a drop-ship item, you have to call the distributor to find out availability (this is necessary if the product comes from Europe or Asia). I think many of the large items (meaning package size) and almost all darkroom equipment now is drop-ship at Adorama. BTW, the only reason I got stuck with the 3 month deal, is after I placed the order, B&H ran out of stock, so I still had to wait for the distributor to get the sea container loaded, shipped, cleared, unloaded and delivered. I don't do a lot of business with them anymore.

B&H is more reliable on stock and drop-ship identification. If you need to talk to them, just don't let the 'New York manners' bug you.

Bob