[bandhphoto]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

B&H Customer Service immediately came into the situation and tried, within its powers, to satisfy the customer. In this case, it wasn't able to satisfy. That doesn't mean it didn't do all that it was able to do. It means it was unable to satisfy. Customer Service tried to help.

Thank you. I appreciate this perspective.

Originally Posted by columbus

I'm assuming you are yet another B&H employee posting here without declaring their interest. I've counted at least five so far.

You are mistaken. I am the only B&H employee posting in this forum in any capacity.

B&H ...subsequently decided to apply a new T&C not in force at the time of order and withdrew the acceptance, refunding the charge instead of correctly cancelling it.

The policy was not new when it was applied to your transaction. I readily concede it was not included in our FAQ for international customers. I have asked our web team to take steps to rectify this and I have asked our our fraud prevention and International Business Improvement teams to revisit the need for the policy in light of comments made here.

I'm as likely to send them money by wire transfer ...

And yet we receive orders with wire transfer payments and fulfill them uneventfully every week.

Originally Posted by Fbone

I will repeat myself and say that I, from the beginning, said B&H erred and possibly violated Federal postal regulations by charging your card in full on an non-shippable preorder item.

You are mistaken. It is not a violation of our merchant agreements nor a violation of any regulation, postal or UCC, for us to charge a customer's credit card when the order is submitted.

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I'm quite sure Henry Posner is the ONLY B&H employee posting here. The rest of us are just satisfied customers. There are enough of us to have kept B&H in business for many years, and make it the number one retailer in its field.

Of course, I will grant that it's possible that one requirement for working at B&H is to sign up and be active for years in many different forums JUST IN CASE it's necessary to support Henry Posner once every few years if a problem arises.

I too am quite sure Henry Posner is the ONLY B&H employee posting here. It is NOT a requirement for employment here for any employee to join or read or otherwise participate in any forum. In fact it is company policy that only employees specifically authorized to do so may participate in any online forum, blog etc. as a B&H employee per se.

Originally Posted by columbus

Instead of the flag waving gift voucher exercise costing them just $0.98c, when they new all along that it was worthless.

I appreciate your dissatisfaction but the gift card was, as I said, a gesture "...of reconciliation..." It was not "flag waving." I am averse to "flag waving."

@brecklundin -- Thank you. Yours was a timely and informative post and I will only add one thing. In the USA at least, there is a vast difference between card-present and card-absent transactions. In the latter the burden of proof for any claim of fraud or misuse or other chicanery rests almost entirely with the retailer. This places an additional burden on the retailer over and above the retailer's efforts to deter credit card fraud and identity theft. As banks make more and more outlandish promises of security to current and prospective card holders they make more and more demands on retailers to ensure this security. This is particularly true for so-called card-absent transaction including mail/phone/web purchases. Stores which don't exercise safe, prudent, & effective security measures are simply gambling they won't become the unwitting vehicle by which some clever pirate abuses YOUR accounts.

While I understand that it's our job to make your shopping experience as painless and efficient as possible, part of that process is ensuring we don't unwittingly allow you to become victimized through our carelessness or nonfeasance.

Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video