never buy from BH Photo for DJI products

[F3honda4me]

For those of you unaware, if you buy any DJI products from BH Photo, you have to deal with a 3rd party company called Gradus Group for any exchanges or returns or issues. I ordered a new osmo on December 26th, it arrived effectively DOA. I tried working with DJI support who had me do a lot of testing, firmware tricks, etc to try to resolve to no avail. So I decided to contact BH to return or exchange it on Dec 29th. I received a response from them on January 1st, and to my surprise they said I had to contact this 3rd party company via email or phone to do the return. BH Photo didn't contact them for me I had to do it, which is poor service to start.

So, I called the company January 2nd. On January 3rd, having had no response yet I called them, and they took my contact info and said someone would get back to me? Finally, 2 days later after initial contact, I got an email stating they were accepting my return and issuing an RMA and that they'd send me a label. No label came until the NEXT day. So finally, 1 week after first contacting BH, I have a return label and shipped it back on January 5th.

The gradus group received my osmo on Monday January 9th in the morning, and I received an email from them stating they had received my return and would process it. Wednesday January 11th, no word yet, so I called and they said it was "in process". I emailed again Thursday January 10th, no response. Current status is that I have received neither a refund nor a response from the gradus group, and it is now just about 3 weeks since I placed my original order.

I contacted BH Photo again to tell them about this, and they said they have no ability to do anything. So I bought this item from them, but they have zero power to do anything with the 3rd party company THEY use for their DJI products? They tell me to call or email them again, which I told them I have and get the same run around. If I don't have my refund by Tuesday I'll be disputing the charges with my credit card company.

Steer clear of BH photo for DJI products. They are awful to deal with for any issue you may have.

 

[AlecW]

I had a great experience with B&H with my Phantom P4 and have used them for years for photography equipment with no issue. They had the best Cyber Monday deal of anyone, P4, extra battery and charging hub free shipping and no sales tax for $999. It came in 2 days and has worked flawlessly ever since.

 

[F3honda4me]

I had a great experience with B&H with my Phantom P4 and have used them for years for photography equipment with no issue. They had the best Cyber Monday deal of anyone, P4, extra battery and charging hub free shipping and no sales tax for $999. It came in 2 days and has worked flawlessly ever since.

Regular photography stuff service is great, because they handle it themselves. And if you've never had to deal with a DJI return or exchange, then you wouldn't have a complaint I'm sure.

 

[GMack]

I order a lot of photo gear on Amazon who often hands it off to a third party if Amazon doesn't stock it. I never have gotten a third party shipment from B&H Photo off an Amazon order, but I have from B&H Photo's NYC competitor Adorama. Maybe Amazon knows something about B&H Photo and why they don't appear as one of their 3rd party shippers.

I do know when I have bought from B&H Photo in the past, shipments to the west coast often took 8-9 days with the weekend. I've ordered from both Adorama and B&H on same Sunday once and Adorama beat the B&H delivery by several days. I see B&H upped their shipping days of late, but it was odd since Adorama beat them. Must be better shipping dept. or maybe Adorama's pick-up and dispatch ran quicker for them.

Still handing off faulty merchandise to an outside party is pretty poor C.S. in my book, who then needs to hand it off again to DJI or whomever to fix. I'm thinking of buying an Inspire 2 but some of these online retailers policies leave me gun shy in dealing with them. Not that DJI QC is iffy enough as it is that could never lead to a necessitating a return (ahem!).

Thanks for the heads-up on their outside repair party methodology so I can scratch them off the DJI list. My list is growing too. I think "Drones Plus," who had a lot of retail outlets in several states, has tap-danced off into the sunset too. The Yelp(ers) reports their main office in Las Vegas has closed too this month: Drones Plus Las Vegas - CLOSED - Spring Valley - Las Vegas, NV

 

[F3honda4me]

For what it's worth after a lot of researching and getting a few first hand accounts of having to deal with a DOA exchange stories, I ordered my inspire 2 on Friday through Florida Drone Supply. They shipped it same day. Their return policy if you change your mind and decide to return to get a refund has a restocking fee but their DOA or exchange service had good things from the two users I saw, even in one case shipping a replacement before even getting the bad one back. Advexure also seems to be another one that has good service, but they have to charge sales tax for me so I didn't use them.

 

[dwallersv]

What I don't get: It's B&H you gave your money to. This Gradus Group simply doesn't have the money to give to you. So the process must include some contact with B&H for each case in some way, either to get funding for refunds, or to instruct which refunds directly to send from B&H.

So the complete cluelessness of B&H is puzzling. They should know something.

 

[Roadking]

I'd never buy from B&H after hearing that story. They may have good prices but if something goes wrong you're screwed. Better to pay a few bucks more and buy from a more reputable place.

 

[Travels with Yoly]

I subscribe to Frederick Hagan's channel. He is a professional video editor who happens to enjoy DJI Phantoms and he's a great resource for color grading and a variety of topics. He's extremely accessible and a genuine nice guy. He raves about B&H customer service and has had great service returning Phantoms. But I have also heard horror stories about B&H in respect to faulty Osmos. There may be a separation in the type of service each product line is subject to.

Personally, I love Amazon. As a Prime member I always get exceptional service. I returned the first 2 Phantom 3s that I received (over a year ago) and was credited back within days (the third one was the charm). With Amazon you get 30 days to actually fly the drone and test it to your satisfaction. If there's a factory defect, go online to your order and click on Return Item. It gives you a drop down box with a variety of reasons ranging from "I ordered it by mistake" or "price was too high" to "doesn't work" and "not as described". I often just check "other". It asks for a brief explanation of the issue and then immediately activates a link to a free UPS shipping label and return authorization. I never speak to anyone and the whole return process has never taken more than 5 minutes. Always keep all the original packaging material.

As for customer service, I ordered a new Phantom 4 after Christmas and paid the going rate at the time $999. Ten days later I noticed that they had it priced at $899. I called them up and talked to the very nice people they have, and within minutes had a $100 credit applied back to my credit card. Hard to beat customer service like that and that's why I'm an avid customer.

 

[F3honda4me]

For what it's worth I was told by BH customer service that ALL DJI brand products must go through gradus group for any return or exchange. I specifically asked them that.

100% agree on anazon. We are prime members too and their returns and service is fantastic for anything fulfilled by or sold by amazon. Only reason I didn't use amazon for the osmo was they were out of stock at the time.

 

[dangerd]

I bought my P4 from B&H. After a few months I noticed some problems with what turned out to be the main camera board. I did not contact B&H at all but contacted DJI, they fixed it free of charge and paid for shipping as it was under the 1 year warranty. Why don't you contact them tell them you want to send it in to be fixed instead of tech support on the phone, they will probably send a new one for you in exchange.

 

[F3honda4me]

I bought my P4 from B&H. After a few months I noticed some problems with what turned out to be the main camera board. I did not contact B&H at all but contacted DJI, they fixed it free of charge and paid for shipping as it was under the 1 year warranty. Why don't you contact them tell them you want to send it in to be fixed instead of tech support on the phone, they will probably send a new one for you in exchange.

A DOA item should be handled by the store I bought it from. And I sent it back for a refund not exchange as soon as I found out what a hassle the exchange would be. Your situation is very different from mine.

 

[dangerd]

Sorry to hear this, usually B&H is great. Something to think about if I buy an osmo.
Hope things work out for you F3honda4me

 

[D'sAdvanced]

For those of you unaware, if you buy any DJI products from BH Photo, you have to deal with a 3rd party company called Gradus Group for any exchanges or returns or issues. I ordered a new osmo on December 26th, it arrived effectively DOA. I tried working with DJI support who had me do a lot of testing, firmware tricks, etc to try to resolve to no avail. So I decided to contact BH to return or exchange it on Dec 29th. I received a response from them on January 1st, and to my surprise they said I had to contact this 3rd party company via email or phone to do the return. BH Photo didn't contact them for me I had to do it, which is poor service to start.

So, I called the company January 2nd. On January 3rd, having had no response yet I called them, and they took my contact info and said someone would get back to me? Finally, 2 days later after initial contact, I got an email stating they were accepting my return and issuing an RMA and that they'd send me a label. No label came until the NEXT day. So finally, 1 week after first contacting BH, I have a return label and shipped it back on January 5th.

The gradus group received my osmo on Monday January 9th in the morning, and I received an email from them stating they had received my return and would process it. Wednesday January 11th, no word yet, so I called and they said it was "in process". I emailed again Thursday January 10th, no response. Current status is that I have received neither a refund nor a response from the gradus group, and it is now just about 3 weeks since I placed my original order.

I contacted BH Photo again to tell them about this, and they said they have no ability to do anything. So I bought this item from them, but they have zero power to do anything with the 3rd party company THEY use for their DJI products? They tell me to call or email them again, which I told them I have and get the same run around. If I don't have my refund by Tuesday I'll be disputing the charges with my credit card company.

Steer clear of BH photo for DJI products. They are awful to deal with for any issue you may have.

I think you're being a bit too critical. Things may not be happening on your schedule, yet it appears that things are proceeding, just at a slower pace than you'd like.
By the way, Thursday was the 12th, not the 10th.

 

[F3honda4me]

I think you're being a bit too critical. Things may not be happening on your schedule, yet it appears that things are proceeding, just at a slower pace than you'd like.
By the way, Thursday was the 12th, not the 10th.

Sorry I meant the 12th.

So 3 weeks from an original order and still waiting for the refund/exchange process is acceptable to you? My schedule would be that they would proceed at a normal pace compared to other online retailers. ESPECIALLY one that is normally held in high regard such as BH. They have had my return for 5 business days and still no status update other than it has been received.

I'm not being too critical in the least. Had I purchased this from amazon, Best Buy, or any other number of major DJI retailers, it would have been long resolved by now. In this day and age this is not acceptable service for a larger company like BH. This puts them at the bottom of the barrel if you went through this same issue with most any other major online retailer.

 

[D'sAdvanced]

You are correct that this service does not compare to other online retailers and for this reason, long term BH will lose market share. I do however think that we have gotten so accustomed to getting everything super fast when ordering online, that for a place like BH whose business model is different than Amazon's, it should be an acceptable reality.
One cannot expect for a local pizza joint that specializes in say, fresh ingredients to deliver as fast as Domino's, whose business model is built around fast delivery.

 

[F3honda4me]

You are correct that this service does not compare to other online retailers and for this reason, long term BH will lose market share. I do however think that we have gotten so accustomed to getting everything super fast when ordering online, that for a place like BH whose business model is different than Amazon's, it should be an acceptable reality.
One cannot expect for a local pizza joint that specializes in say, fresh ingredients to deliver as fast as Domino's, whose business model is built around fast delivery.

Right but normally BH service IS fast and good. Which has been my experience with them until I bought a DJI product from them. So to normally have good service except for buying a specific brand, makes this even more bewildering.

 

[F3honda4me]

Edit: it was split up into two RMAs, I got the rest of it now.

 

[Richard Walker]

You will have the same issues at times with Amazon if you purchase from third parties via Amazon. I got stuck for $300+ for a product that was purchased from Amazon but was shipped by third party. Be careful and make sure product is sold and shipped by Amazon, not a third party. If it is shipped by a third party, make sure you understand the third parties return policy because it most likely is different than Amazon's.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[GMack]

You will have the same issues at times with Amazon if you purchase from third parties via Amazon. I got stuck for $300+ for a product that was purchased from Amazon but was shipped by third party. Be careful and make sure product is sold and shipped by Amazon, not a third party. If it is shipped by a third party, make sure you understand the third parties return policy because it most likely is different than Amazon's.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

True. I've ordered hard to find photo items and one came from a small shop in Kansas somewhere who was a third party seller of Amazon. It came, but it took 5 weeks. And yeah, some of them can be odd in their store policies and returns that are not same as Amazon themselves.

Another was a 3rd party seller from Amazon, but somehow it ended up coming from an Amazon warehouse in Tracy, CA once shipped. They are very odd at times how they work and I don't know if Prime would get you out of trouble with a 3rd party seller either.

Still, B&H Photo handling Inspire 2 returns or issues via an outside source is troubling so they are off my list. Easy brush-off for them. Maybe they do this on very high-dollar exchanges and not so much for smaller ones. Local hobby shop owner has a "Take it up with the manufacturer" policy on everything he sells, no exchanges or help. He ain't on the list either. Another works out of a P.O. box. No thanks.

 

[N017RW]

Just a hurried snip-it from the DJI forum addressing the third party issue.

I'm sure more cases can be found and may offer more 'insight'.

--------------------------------------------


Thank you for your orders and this feedback. We regret your dissatisfaction. The pending order has been canceled, per your request. Your credit card was never charged so no refund is due.

You are correct -- DJI requires reported product difficulties like yours must be verified by a third-party company before resolution. We regret you find this unsatisfactory but it will be handled as quickly and efficiently as possibly.
--
Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video