marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I watch B&H from time to time looking for a used Panasonic 7-14mm micro-4/3 f/4 zoom for my Olympus. Used ones at a decent price are fairly rare. I usually do this searching of B&H, eBay, and other places on my PC using Firefox or Chrome.

Last night before I went to bed, I used Google Chrome on my Samsung 7" Android tablet to call up B&H's mobile site and found a my special Panasonic zoom with a 9 quality rating and a nice price. I wanted to count the piggy bank before ordering so I saved it as a bookmark and went to bed. If it was gone in the morning, oh well, but if not, I'd order it. This morning I used Google Chrome on my PC and searched B&H for "Panasonic 7-14mm" and the used one wasn't listed anywhere. Not in the general search, lens area, nor the used area. I tried at least 6 different phrases of search and it never showed up - only new ones.

So I went and got my tablet, went to the bookmark, and there it was just like last night. I then typed the link directly out of the tablet into my PC and on the PC B&H kept sending me to something about a Zeiss accessory and also changed the link to something else every time I typed it in. I also tried putting the item number into the search box on the PC. Nothing.

After a few more tries I gave up on the PC. I was trying to use it because my PayPal info is in the PC and loads automatically for me but not in the tablet.

The lens was listed "in stock" on the tablet so I used it to place my order, entered the PayPal info manually from a note I keep taped to the wall above my PC, and bought the lens. A few hours later I got an email that it shipped today.

My point is - why was that lens easily findable on the Samsung tablet but didn't exist at all on my desktop PC? I know the HTML is different for the full-sized website versus a mobile website but you'd think they both would access the same inventory database the same way and see exactly the same items there.

In reality, it's good for me because I snatched it up while anybody looking for that used lens on a desktop or laptop couldn't find it. This isn't good for B&H though because only a slimmer audience could see the item. I wonder how many other items this is happening on?

Other than that, I'm a happy camper. The lens is typically $989 on B&H although the retail is considerably higher, it never goes on sale, and this used one was $769. A 90-day warranty to find out if it works perfect. That won't be hard because I shoot upwards of 400 frames most days of the week with that Olympus camera and I will be sure of it's proper operation in a week.

olcoach Loc: Oregon

Strange!

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Be happy, they hid if for you overnight. Send a thank you card. ;)

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I've been having trouble with the Adorama website for the past day and a half. I get the message "Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete." I want to buy a new Sigma 105mm macro for my A77 and B+H doesn't seem to have the same model (although they have the same price on it).

Camlane Loc: North Carolina

Why not pick up the phone and talk to a human.

DaleH Loc: Manila, Utah

Pick up the phone. These folks at B&H, and I assume at Adorama are extremely happy to help you. I've found sometime a salesperson from a on-line dealer will also give you "some" option better than the one you thought was best. Nonetheless they'll get you the information you need to make a decision.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Some people just don't like phones or talking. Kids today would rather text than talk. A lot of people apparently prefer to pre-order their pizza from Dominos using the website instead of calling.

When I call anybody anywhere at a store around the area I live in currently, virtually every employee who answers either has a strong Spanish accent so that I can't understand them, or they talk in strong Ebonics so I can't understand them. So I also prefer to either order from a website or some other faceless method even on a local basis.

And remember how computer manufacturers sent all their tech support to India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and other countrieson the other side of the world and customers complained by the tens of thousands until tech support was largely brought back to the US. I learned that at Dell, if you can't understand your Pakistani rep, you can say so and ask to be transferred back to the US and they'll do it.

Many customers would rather have a faceless interaction on a camera store website with nothing to hear wrong, no upselling techniques being used, and no pressure to buy a higher model from a salesperson. I personally can't allow my purchase to be guided by someone whose main incentive is to meet a sales quota even if they are told that customer service is a company priority.

NY camera store catalog and ShutterBug advertisement phone numbers got a bad reputation for this back in the days of film by trying to get you to add on a bag, or filters, or a macro converter, or a cleaning kit, or some other high profit accessory to boost your total sale and their gross profit. They had quotas for the sales people to reach and you could tell it was the end of the month because the pressure to buy extras became unbearable and you had to refuse 3, 4, 5, or 6 attempts by firmly saying NO! and they still wouldn't stop until you threatened to drop the sale and they were rude about it if you didn't add something on.

So, I'd guess some of us who were around then just don't want to be pressured by a Middle Easterner with a New York accent who has a quota to meet. Fortunately for me, when I bought a $650 lens from B&H the guy only touched on one accessory addition and when I passively said "Nah" he dropped it, finished the order, and that was it. Unfortunately for some others on here, I've read posts that this still goes on at other places.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

This may sound completely whacked but check the date and time on your computer. If it has fallen back to years ago because your internal BIOS battery is failing, weird certificate authentication of external sites and other weird things can happen.

I just fought that on my wife's 7 year old HP desktop because it stopped connecting to some sites but not all of them. Yahoo's main site worked for example, but Yahoo Mail was giving me redirecting messages and messages about the certificate of something at that site being out of date. It actually sent me to a text version of Yahoo Mail with a list of links and no images until I noticed and changed the computer's date and time to current and suddenly it started working again.

I'm not saying that's your problem but it was on that desktop computer.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I can get on now (just tried it). My new toy will be arriving sometime today. Last thing I had delivered by UPS didn't get here until like 6PM or later. It was scanned out for delivery just before 5AM. Can hardly wait to get my hands on it!

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Bring the web page back up on your pad. Now hit Refresh. Is it still there? That bookmark is a saved page. It will keep coming up as original until you refresh it.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

The pad had the correct inventory, the desktop computer did not.

No need to refresh, I know it's not there now because I bought it on the pad and have the lens on my camera!

Actually a bookmark is not a saved page - it's a saved page address. But your browser does save all the elements of the original page as a temporary file until you clean them out and that's what you are refreshing with the refresh button.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Either way, it brings up the old page till you refresh it, but since you got what you were looking for, all is good. :)

GC likes NIKON Loc: East Greenwich, Rhode Island

Perhaps Hershel will jump in here soon. If he doesn't know about this, he will want to !!!

Hershel Loc: New York City

marcomarks,

First off, I'd like to thank you for your patronage. I made some inquiries with one of our senior technical folks relative to the issue above and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the answer :). Suffice it to say there is nothing wrong on either end of this transaction but what did occur is more than likely due to the way in which we treat a "Used Item" SKU as opposed to a new item SKU. New and Used items are listed/indexed differently on our website and this was probably the cause of the problem.

All the best.

HERSHEL

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

True!