Experience with orders through Bhphotovideo

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B&H Photo Video

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  kiwijunglist on 26/07/2020 - 19:23

  They are under the sales per annum threshold to NZ so you don't pay gst for orders under $1,000. They could voluntarily register for gst and charge you for gst if they wished. If orders are above $1000 you will be charged gst at the border by the NZ agent.

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  sfl34k2lk41sd on 26/07/2020 - 19:31

  As above, assume they are under the $60k threshold. Recently purchased 2 x 10TB hard drives and wasn't charged GST at checkout or border.

  • 

    Nil Einne on 27/07/2020 - 05:53

    I actually suspect they are not. They are doing the same thing with Australia where it seems even more unlikely they are not under given the larger population. https://www.insideimaging.com.au/2019/low-value-gst-a-work-i… Remember that B&H Photo sells expensive camera equipment, and while much of this can't avoid GST in either country, it still adds up to the sales threshold. (If only 40 Australians buy camera equipment worth an average of AUD2000 in a year, that pushes them over the limit.) When some journalist (in Australia) asked them about them not charging GST, they never responded rather than simply saying they were under. The more likely scenario is they've simply chosen to ignore the law feeling they don't have to obey it as a US company with no NZ/Australian links. (They ignore sales tax in the US as far as they can.) It was always recognised that this was likely to happen to some extent.

    The direct result to you the customer currently is nothing although if you disagree with what they are doing, you may want to consider this when purchasing. Personally, although the 12TB I ordered from Amazon would have been cheaper, I did not order from them mostly because I don't agree with their stance. The fact it wasn't as cheap as just no GST because of their higher shipping also helped since effectively it was something like save NZ$15 but give NZ$8 more to DHL instead of all that NZ$23 to the NZ government.

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  Wakrak on 26/07/2020 - 19:34

  Beaut. Thank you for the comments. What's their overall service like compared to Amazon?

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    sfl34k2lk41sd on 26/07/2020 - 21:09

    +1

    Have ordered several things from them over the years and never had an issue. Haven't had to go through an RMA process though. From memory, they don't have a low-cost shipping option like Amazon but if wanting the item within 3-10 days, their rates were comparable to Amazon.

    They do have an annoying process where their webstore closes between certain hours over the weekend and you need to wait for it to re-open to complete your order if you get caught in between those times. Had some close calls with their daily deals and their webstore being shut with only a few hours to go on the deal.

  • 

    saxasianguy on 26/07/2020 - 21:59

    +1

    Had a stolen BHP parcel (128GB SD Card) to my hotel in L.A back in 2016 and they refunded me asap, no questions asked

  • 

    Nil Einne on 27/07/2020 - 06:00

    +1

    My one B&H Photo order wasn't entirely happy although to be fair at the time of ordering I did wonder. Basically Crucial decided to get rid of the 750GB MX300 so sold them cheap. Most retailers including Amazon quickly ran out of stock. B&H Photo kept accepting back orders for a long time (many hours). Of course they couldn't fulfill these orders since there was no more stocking coming. Eventually I got an email saying they couldn't fulfill it and they'd worked out a deal with Crucial offering a discount on other size drives, but the price per GB was of course a lot higher than the 750GB was. IIRC, it was still a bit better than any other recent deal on the 500GB or 1TB, but wasn't that generous. (IIRC it was around 20% off.) Still these sort of mistakes happen and the recourse tends to be similar or worse (it was a mistake, tough luck) e.g. Amazon's Seagate deal which was too good to be true last year, MightApe's RAM etc. And I took them up on the offer, the drive arrived fine.

    As someone else said, their shipping tends to be more expensive than Amazon's cheapest. I also have no experience with their RMA.

    • 

      Wakrak on 27/07/2020 - 08:47

      Thanks for your comment both here and on Geekzone Nil Einne. Overall then, would any of you be opposed to me posting deals from B&H? As is the case with Psilan on the Geekzone thread, would it be better to not post these deals so that B&H isn't in the GST spotlight?

      I'm a relative newcomer to both Cheapies and B&H, so I value all of your inputs.

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  Sickman on 27/07/2020 - 18:58

  +2

  My orders from B&H Photo have been good. Got a 12TB WD Red HD from them during lockdown and I did not get charged GST from memory.

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  Didntknowya on 28/07/2020 - 11:54

  +1

  they're a US company that doesn't care about NZ gst laws. So no you're not being charged for GST but if customs picks your order at the border they can charge you, and if it's over 1k they can charge custom fees as well.

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  dmenz on 02/08/2021 - 22:23

  +1

  AFAIK anything under $1000 there won't be any gst/duty tacked on when it arrives.
  That's just for camera lenses though.

  The only thing you won't have any cover for is manufacturer warranty. However B&H are really good when it comes to complaints about products not working and will happily refund. They'll still ask for the product back however and shipping will be at your own risk, but the savings over NZ products essentially covers that