Nikon D4 - Buying from Large business, like BH / Adorama

Mark Dickinson

I was wondering how long the nikon d4 was going to take to get in my hands knowing im not a NPS member. To be exact it took:

From January 23rd until Today April 30th. Not too bad considering, but the sad part is that I ordered it from bh on January 23rd, and thought I would have a better chance (more supply more demand) YES, but I was betting on that they would get a few more than the local store.

Oh was I wrong, I placed an order with my local camera store (colonial camera in orlando). They are a pretty large considering the nearest camera store is about 4-5 hours away that's nearly equivalent. Well I ordered two d4's a d4 on 3/28, and one on 4/13. One is in hand from them today, and I am 4 left in line for the next one, and anticipate it within about 2 weeks. If I would have preordered with colonial, probably the first week it was released. They got 4, and there was 3 preorders at the time, then after it was released about 15 preorders came in through colonial (according to the sales dept guy)

The reason for the post is, unless you live in ny, yes support your local guy, because if you are doing this as a business, saving the money on tax will be nulled if you try to depreciate it on your taxes (In florida you have to pay use tax on it anyway (sales tax) unless you paid it at the POS transaction. I was happy to get it a bit early, and BH still hasn't and wont give me any idea of what number I am in in line or tell me how many came in this week, so I could get a guess of where I was and if I needed to continue to rent.

Harryb

I had placed a pre-order for the 800E with B&H. Recently I was in my local camera store and I asked the owner about the 800E. He expects to get a few in by the second week of May. I asked him how many folks would be ahead of me if I ordered from him and he told me that I would be his first order for the camera. I placed my order and I'm #1 out of two orders for the camera.

Helvegr

I've just recently learned this lesson myself. January 6th, preorder and still no word from Adorama. While my "local" camera store is over an hour away, for any major releases in the future, I think I'll go straight to them. Frankly just the lack of communication is frustrating. I don't know if I'm days away or months.

In fact, it might not even hurt to give them a call, for all I know they've got one, or are getting one sooner versus later.

HelenOster

Message from Helen at Adorama Camera

Helvegr wrote: »

I've just recently learned this lesson myself. January 6th, preorder and still no word from Adorama. While my "local" camera store is over an hour away, for any major releases in the future, I think I'll go straight to them. Frankly just the lack of communication is frustrating. I don't know if I'm days away or months.

Please accept my apologies that we haven't yet been able to fulfil your order; I am concerned to note that it sounds as though you have not been receiving the back-order emails which are sent out automatically on a regular basis - perhaps they went to your spam, or trash?

As you know, the D4 is currently highly-sought after and demand has outstripped supply from Nikon. Our purchasing manager has been contacting Nikon USA every day without fail to get an update and I can assure you that we are as keen to ship your unit to you as you are to receive it.

We do appreciate the frustration this is causing, and would love to be able to give you an accurate ETA However, Nikon USA will not tell us either when to expect a shipment or how many units we can expect to receive. Therefore at this time we can only apologize most sincerely and promise you that once we receive a delivery, we will be fulfilling orders in strict order of receipt.

We are grateful for your patience and understanding and deeply regret the inconvenience this is causing to you and to all our other customers for this delay.

lifeinfocus

HelenOster wrote: »

Please accept my apologies that we haven't yet been able to fulfil your order; I am concerned to note that it sounds as though you have not been receiving the back-order emails which are sent out automatically on a regular basis - perhaps they went to your spam, or trash?

As you know, the D4 is currently highly-sought after and demand has outstripped supply from Nikon. Our purchasing manager has been contacting Nikon USA every day without fail to get an update and I can assure you that we are as keen to ship your unit to you as you are to receive it.

We do appreciate the frustration this is causing, and would love to be able to give you an accurate ETA However, Nikon USA will not tell us either when to expect a shipment or how many units we can expect to receive. Therefore at this time we can only apologize most sincerely and promise you that once we receive a delivery, we will be fulfilling orders in strict order of receipt.

We are grateful for your patience and understanding and deeply regret the inconvenience this is causing to you and to all our other customers for this delay.

Even though I didn't order a D4, I am impressed by your statement. Now the question is, where is B&H?

Harryb

lifeinfocus wrote: »

Even though I didn't order a D4, I am impressed by your statement. Now the question is, where is B&H?

Henry Posner has been quite active over at DPR responding to the same issue.

I have done business with B&H and Adorama on numerous occasions over the past years. I have never had anything less than a 100% positive experience with them. We have Nikon one year after a major disruptions to their infrastructure issuing two major releases. The demand for the D4 is heavy and the demand for the 800/800E is even heavier.

I'm sure many buyers are on multiple waiting lists for these cameras. This is the usual story where demand exceeds supply. The retailers are taking orders but Nikon is not telling them how many cameras they will be receiving or when they will receive them.

The only thing we can do is get in line and then wait. Our current cameras have been doing fine and will continue to function until the new cameras are received.

Helvegr

HelenOster wrote: »

Please accept my apologies that we haven't yet been able to fulfil your order; I am concerned to note that it sounds as though you have not been receiving the back-order emails which are sent out automatically on a regular basis - perhaps they went to your spam, or trash?

As you know, the D4 is currently highly-sought after and demand has outstripped supply from Nikon. Our purchasing manager has been contacting Nikon USA every day without fail to get an update and I can assure you that we are as keen to ship your unit to you as you are to receive it.

We do appreciate the frustration this is causing, and would love to be able to give you an accurate ETA However, Nikon USA will not tell us either when to expect a shipment or how many units we can expect to receive. Therefore at this time we can only apologize most sincerely and promise you that once we receive a delivery, we will be fulfilling orders in strict order of receipt.

We are grateful for your patience and understanding and deeply regret the inconvenience this is causing to you and to all our other customers for this delay.

I very much appreciate the response, and I do know that really nobody is at fault here. I think its simply my lack of understanding on how this type of equipment gets distributed that adds to an idea that by ordering it elsewhere I would have received a different experience, even though this is probably not a true statement.

Thanks again for the response. Fingers crossed that the shipment notice comes soon!

P.S. I'm a little over excited because of selling my Canon gear in anticipation of the D4. I've got a point and shoot right now so I don't have much in the way of a fall back.

Mark Dickinson

I agree as well no ones fault - It just I thought statistics would play favoritism in my part more demand more supply.

I still love both stores for equipment, and that is absolutely awesome for someone from adorama to reply.

I am glad there are others who have felt this way. I guess we just can't forget about the little guys out here, (adorama and bh can probably understand that)

HelenOster

Mark Dickinson wrote: »

.....
I still love both stores for equipment, and that is absolutely awesome for someone from adorama to reply...........I guess we just can't forget about the little guys out here, (adorama and bh can probably understand that)

Absolutely we do, and we are as disappointed as you are that what was promising to be a fabulously exciting launch by Nikon, has turned into a miserable experience for most of our 'regular' customers -