5D Mark 3 Queue @ B&H

[JasonATL]

Good post.  Meanwhile...I'm still taking great pictures with my trusty 5D Classic while waiting on my new Mark III...

Good point! If I had a Mk II, I'd be doing the same thing rather than watching these threads! I'm looking forward to having the Mk III. Only a few more days...

[Seamus]

B&H sells too much stuff and they don't care about a "small" portion of 5d3 users. Instead local or smaller camera stores who treasure every single customer, are doing a much better job.

Maybe all the guys who pre-ordered 5D3 from B&H should go onto google Review and start leaving negative comments, heh.

I was finding the comments here amusing. Now, I just find them utterly ridiculous.

Before smearing a reputable chain, consider this. When you pre-ordered from B&H, when did you expect them to ship the camera? There are only two reasonable answers to this question: 1) when they received them; 2) March 22. At time of pre-order, I was in the former camp, as no set date had been given upon which I could set my expectation. I think the 5D3 announcement said something about late March, so perhaps that was my expectation, but it was rather imprecise. Later, I started expecting March 22, mostly based on CR, which has consistently identified this date as both the date which Canon set for U.S. sales and shipments and the date that B&H specifically should be expected to ship.

The only legitimate complaint you might have is whether B&H could communicate more or better. My experience in business tells me that they shouldn't have communicated anything, as the timeline that they internally might be planning on depended critically on receiving a shipment 3/21 or 3/22 from Canon. Any communication to this effect would set expectations based on something out of their control. Worse, it risked putting Canon, their business partner, in a bad position. Suppose Canon missed the delivery. Then everyone here would be complaining about Canon, threatening (even more than now) to switch to Nikon. While B&H still might capture the Nikon business, they still have the reputation problem with Canon.

The above even ignores the possibility that B&H had to agree with Canon not to disclose a firm ship date. This agreement would have been in OUR (customers of B&H) best interest, as they might have agreed to this to get a larger initial alotment.

As I said elsewhere here. I'm anxious for this thing to get here. But, my expectation all along has been that it would ship from B&H as soon as they got it and that could be as early as 3/22. So far, there is NOTHING to cause me lose confidence in that expectation. Unlike smaller stores, B&H has a huge, well-earned reputation at stake with its large customer base and a beneficial (for us) relationship with Canon.

The lack of patience here rivals that of my 3-year old niece headed to Disneyworld. No, we're not there yet! But we're on the way and we'll get there when we get there!

Ok so tomorrow is Mar.22nd. We will see what happens then. I will be curious of what you will say after tomorrow.

Probably "how do you like you like your new mark iii?". Or so we all hope.

[JasonATL]

Another possibility is that they did not want to disclose ship dates because they do not want to deal with cancellations and lose business to other vendors who can ship/deliver before they can...

Agreed. That is a possibility. But not one that I'm inclined to think likely. B&H has earned its good reputation and earned my "benefit of the doubt" in this case. Moreover, it isn't clear that this is what is happening. Are any large U.S. retailers shipping in quantity before B&H? Not that I'm aware of. My point isn't that B&H can do no wrong here. It is that they have not yet done wrong here... and they have done plenty right by their customers in the past.

Come Friday, if Amazon, Adorama, and Best Buy are shipping to all of their pre-orders and B&H isn't, then complaints would be legitmate. I doubt this will happen and my excellent experiences with B&H are enough reason alone for me to give them the benefit of the doubt UNTIL such time as they prove otherwise. To speculate that this could happen and suggest acting now accordingly is what is ridiculous, in my opinion.

Again, I'm an excited 3-year, too. I'm excited about this camera arriving. If I weren't, I wouldn't be reading or posting here. 

[Seamus]

Nicely put JasonALT. Hopefully the tension will ease as soon as someone posts that they have received shipping confirmation fom B and H. Or maybe they will just start screaming "why haven't I...".

[kiniro]

Nicely put JasonALT. Hopefully the tension will ease as soon as someone posts that they have received shipping confirmation fom B and H. Or maybe they will just start screaming "why haven't I...".

then the debate and screams about "but I was first on the waiting list" will start.   

[canonzz]

I called B&H to change the ship address on my 5D3 body preorder last week and the rep told me over the phone that i had a "good chance" at getting one from the first shipment "at the end of the month". I pre-ordered on the 10th. Not a guarantee obviously or an indication as to what day they will actually ship... but there ya have it. I suspect they'll be shipping a lot of cameras out soon.

I'm anxious to have the camera as well and have a trip coming up soon where i'd love to have the 5D3, but i didn't preorder at midnight on launch day so i'm being patient and not holding my breath.

[vWings]

+1 Jason

[HighDefJunkies]

Since I got an email from Adorama saying my item has shipped and I have a tracking #, I'm going to assume BH is right behind them. I wouldn't worry to much.

[prestonpalmer]

Good to know Adorama is shipping! Hope BH isn't far behind.

[AFurtado]

It is very interesting how CS will say different things to different people. I called today and they told me that it is impossible for CS to determine the position in the queue since their system does not record this. He also told me that B&H has not received any shipments yet and that they do not know how many cameras they will receive. So, even if he could determine what position I was in, he would not be able to tell me if I was in the first lot.
Just for the record my past experience with B&H has been excellent.

[geminix]

Just got off the phone with B&H, cancelled my body order as I was able to get a kit yesterday from Crutchfield which just shipped and will be here in the morning. While he was cancelling the order, I asked him when they planned on shipping the pre-orders out - he said they expect their first big shipment on Friday, and would begin shipping them hopefully the same day, or Monday.

[nvsravank]

Looks like Body only are in short supply while KITS are aplenty. I found two retailers having them in stock! Both in NJ and charging me Tax

[TexPhoto]

It is really frustrating to find B&H at least a few days behind neighborhood camera stores.  They still have my pre-order because I live in Puerto Rico, and shipping from the small guys is $$$.

[MARKOE PHOTOE]

It is very interesting how CS will say different things to different people. I called today and they told me that it is impossible for CS to determine the position in the queue since their system does not record this. He also told me that B&H has not received any shipments yet and that they do not know how many cameras they will receive. So, even if he could determine what position I was in, he would not be able to tell me if I was in the first lot.
Just for the record my past experience with B&H has been excellent.

I rec'd the exact same response today from B&H so maybe we spoke to the same CS rep. I'm hanging on a thread and if I don't get some shipping information by Friday of this week, I 'might' cancel and look for another retailer who  has the body and/or the kit in stock.

[roumin]

Just bought the last 5D3 body at Kenmore Camera in Washington and cancelled my order at B&H.