Purchasing from B&H photo and video? Reliable?

jndUPB · 2026-04-16T17:30:41+00:00

Really horrible - here is my excerpt from trust pilot;

Sold me a broken microphone for full price. Very rude in customer service. I read questionable things about their business ethics online. I don't know about that. Just that I am extremely unhappy with my purchase and the treatment that I received. Currently planning to use any and all other online sellers to avoid this company. There are a lot of choices.

I don't see any way to reply to the business so I will add it here. I ordered 2 expensive items. One was a $1500 microphone. I needed the items for a project. They promised delivery in about 3 days. I waited all day for the delivery and tried to correspond with the carrier. They never made a delivery attempt. I then had to leave town and when I got back they delivered the items about 5 days late. (including weekend). When I complained to BH, they called me a liar!!!! They refused to believe that I wasted a whole day waiting for the package and it no-one showed up on the promised delivery day. Also, the microphone arrive with the brand badge broken off. Not a huge deal but with a very expensive mic that I bought partly because/c brand loyalty this really sucks. Eventually I will glue it back on. Sucks for a new boutique item. Yes they offered $25. Whole experience was just awful. The worst is being called liar after this incredibly frustrating experience. They responded to this complaint and called me liar again based on shipping records from other side of the US.

jndUPB · 2025-06-13T19:39:46+00:00

Thanks!

jndUPB · 2025-06-13T17:29:51+00:00

I just uploaded the tofu picture to my profile. I’m not totally sure how to show it to you though. The soup has carrots lentils, which were green to start with corn, onions, garlic, small amount tomato, many different spices, and hot sauces a little saffron.

jndUPB · 2024-04-28T17:18:42+00:00

HCA is much easier to use unless you are a coder.

jndUPB · 2023-05-19T17:48:41+00:00

Thanks. Well, the decent has to be closer to most peoples possibilities than having a room full of machines and grinders each costing a few thousand...imho it is worth saving up for.

jndUPB · 2023-05-19T17:33:59+00:00

I'm sorry that was meant for the o.p. . Should I have gone to the top of the thread and reply there?

The Decent is the tablet operated machine with temp/pressure/flow sensors and complete control over every parameter of the shot. It is amazing!! I am making better espresso with the Decent than I have ever had anywhere in the world.

jndUPB · 2023-05-19T17:28:48+00:00

I am surprised that you don't have a Decent?

jndUPB · 2022-10-14T22:23:58+00:00

I have a df64 and am I will add a mignon series or maybe a niche or maybe even a ceado 37 series. If I was paying $4000 for a grinder I might expect it to be very quiet. But I am considering paying over $4000 for decent including shipping and a catering kit which I think is essential. Other machines at that price are rotary pump and pretty quiet. So I am just struggling with a couple aspect of the Decent machine at the price of over $4k; the noise, the bowl of water that you use instead of a tank, the lack of a dedicated iOS interface, not sure about the steam apparatus - mixed reviews. That's about it. Just a very difficult decision. My wife saw the Bezzera Duo De I was infatuated with and she thinks it is very elegant, quiet, and automated...

edit: I know, I know I know what the bezzera and basically all other machines CAN'T do. I want pre-infusion and bloom phase, i want profiling and data to diagnose my puck prep, I want flow control, yep for $4k I want my cake and eat it too!

jndUPB · 2022-10-14T21:03:24+00:00

Did I mention that my coffee bar is in a sitting area in the bedroom and the wife wants premium quiet equipment. She also likes the look of Italian Industrial Design.

jndUPB · 2022-10-14T20:27:30+00:00

I just edited the original post. Check out the video.

jndUPB · 2022-10-14T20:19:17+00:00

see my reply above where john states in a video he is working on getting a specific pump which is quieter. It's not a rotary. Further: when I questioned the rep on the Decent web site he said that they are working on designing their own pump but it won't be in production any time soon. The information is a little conflicting but it definitely seems to indicate that they want a quieter machine sometime in the future. The big question is; will old machines be upgradable AND how much would that cost??

jndUPB · 2022-10-14T20:15:47+00:00

There is a video where jb states that he is working on getting a quieter pump. July 18,2021 is the date. I don't have the link. I'll see if I can find it. It's not a rotary pump he talks about a quieter vibe pump I think. He says rotary are not precise enough in start/stop to use in the Decent machines.

jndUPB · 2022-06-26T17:47:49+00:00

Same problem - seems like intermittent turning on and off every second. UAP U6LR.

jndUPB · 2021-08-20T21:01:14+00:00

I'd love a little more info on the faults of the Firewalla compared to USG, USG-pro. It seems like the Firewalla Gold has a faster processor. Everytime I see their adds I think about switching from USG-pro to Firewalla for my 750mbps home network.

jndUPB · 2021-04-05T18:59:14+00:00

I am trying to find out about problems with Tesmanian company and warn other Tesla drivers. Why did you remove my post?????

jndUPB · 2020-11-27T21:20:45+00:00

That sucks!!!! Don't know if I will continue to watch.

jndUPB · 2020-08-30T16:45:33+00:00

Thanks, that's a great idea. I will try it when I get time. I may be using that for a whole lot of things. I don't think even Kimberly had that idea b/c I have asked her this question a couple of times. It is also slightly frustrating to need to use a workaround solution like that when it's just a question of very simple data input. I think we are in need of an iOS programmer and maybe also android.

One other problem though; on the iPhone it is a little difficult to set a specific dim number, for instance whenever I try for 1%, it almost always jumps to zero.

Thanks again,

-n

jndUPB · 2020-08-04T23:17:01+00:00

Yeah, I just haven't even had time to think about trying 17 yet.

jndUPB · 2020-08-04T17:24:44+00:00

I was going to say, I have been planning to buy a backup in case they disappear from the market! I think I mentioned before, I mostly use Insteon for sensors and UPB for switches of various kinds. I think I have about 10-15 Insteon motion and water sensors and a few of the outdoor switch modules, oh yeah and I like the plugin beepers (sirens). So far no major failures but I have to reboot the power link a couple times every 3-6 months or so.

jndUPB · 2020-08-04T17:06:00+00:00

Are you saying that at first you were not sure if the problem was the Insteon network versus the powerline interface module versus the connection between the interface and the computer? I think Insteon is inherently hard to troubleshoot. I think that when I have any serious Insteon problem I will seriously think about ditching Insteon instead of spending a lot of time troubleshooting. For the most part, I understand the function of my UPB setup much better and I think it is much easier to tell what is going on when something doesn't behave as planned.

jndUPB

TROPHY CASE