What factors influence your decision on where to buy?

A big purchase like a camera usually goes to B&H. Most other things come from Amazon (Prime for speed). If I really need to touch what I'm buying, I'll go up to Austin as there is nothing here in San Antonio.

I don't know anyone who has ever been screwed, or had an unsatisfactory experience w/ B&H. I also have nothing but good things to say about amazon.

I sure do wish I had somewhere to go locally.
 
Not paying California sales tax :-)

We're pretty evenly split between Beards and Hats and Texas Media (Leroy is a good guy).

When we know exactly what we want, it's hard to be B&H .. when we're not sure, we lean on
the guys at TMS.

jeff
 
My perspective is from someone outside of the US, in a place with very limited access to professional gear due to the apparent limited size of the market.

As you guys may or may not know, I'm based in Macau, and here, getting to know your professional equipment means only 3 options: going to Hong-Kong, which means about 1 hour of boat ride to it and other immigration hassles, or Mainland China, which normally means Guanghzou or Shanghai, either a 2 hour car ride with immigration hassles or a 3 hour flight with heavy air ticket expenses (costs less to fly to Tokyo from here, in fact!), or order and learn about gear through the internet.

I have to say this site, dvxuser, as well as other sites such as dvinfo, creativecow and reduser have helped me immensely in my knowledge and learning of production gear and solutions. It was also through these sites that i learned about B&H and Texas Media Systems, Abel Cine and the others either through sponsoring our through word of mouth. I have been able to order things I wouldn't or couldn't if it wasn't for these sites. This is probably one of the things I like most about our new, globalized world, and is this free flow of information. It was through here that I learned and jumped on the 35mm adapter bandwagon for example (with a brevis), which made me make some breakthroughs in my career. And of course, now, I purchased a red camera, which the whole ordering process and support just feels great for me because I feel I'm getting top service and information directly from the source.

A big company like Panasonic is divided by market and different companies manage the Panasonic brand and divisions throughout the World. I think Panasonic USA are probably the ones working more closely with Panasonic Japan, so you guys are lucky! I think a more global approach for the era of globalization and free flow of information can be thought out by you guys: Like Barry suggested, online Demos and training videos, as well as some raw footages, enquiries, interactive discussions, developer Q and A days could be a very welcome addition to your communication and development process. The pricing should be discussed in a global perspective, because in this day of free flow of information, it gets really annoying to see such big price variations between countries for the same products. We do know about different taxes, but we also know some of the pricing variations, like the usual Euro "round up" to the dollar are, well, not justifiable. here in hong-kong it doesn't justify to have a higher price than the US since there are no import taxes whatsoever- but they usually are and you need to bargain- which is something I hate to do- just to get close to the us price.

And now, back to the basic original question: For me, while price is of course important, if it stays close to the best legitimate price on the market, but provides reliable service and excellent costumer support, I will not mind for a slightly more expensive (100 to 150 USD) more expensive price tag on my camera purchase. But service and support needs to be top notch!
 
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Big ticket items I always by local and when it comes to cameras, the dealers here in Canada never know more than I do about the product, so I don't ask. Everything else I buy from B+H. They have cheaper shipping than anything within Canada. I don't know how they do it.
 
Price is top priority for me, all my cams came from eBay

HVX200 New- Asian import - no issues
HPX170 Used - UK seller/pick up in person - user 1 button didn't function but warranty was still active and it was fixed by Panasonic
AF101 Used - German seller - no issues

Maybe I've been lucky cos I know not everyone has had a smooth ride using eBay
 
Cameras, I've always bought locally (even though it's more expensive) so there is some form of back up if there is a problem (only had a issue once but being given a replacement so I could continue working while it was sorted was great)

Most of my support/accessories I buy from overseas for about half of the local price - not good for my local reseller I know but the difference is hard to argue with.
 
Jan,

I could not find a local dealer in my section of South Carolina. I am not even sure there is one in Charlotte, at least I did not find anything advertised. I like a competitive price as well as availability. I have used B&H in the past, and they have been easy to work with. What would be nice is a dealer directory on the Panasonic website. If there is one, I could not find it.

Sincerely,
Bill
 
I bought the DVC30 and HPX170 from B&H based of price and reputation of the seller. I bought Panasonic because of the extended warranty period and product recommendations of others. As far as Panasonic as a company I think they have a lot of improvement to do concerning communication during warranty service. I have communicated my concerns about this to them several times but never heard anything back. This one issue would most probably be a consideration in my next camera purchase.
 
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David Saraceno said:
For me, it's price and reputation of the seller. That includes reliability, to some extend, customer service and shipping costs.
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same here, if they have a reasonable return policy, it makes a big difference. It's piece of mind knowing that if you were to recieve a bad product they will do whatever they need to do to make you a happy satisfied consumer. Many places fall short when it comes to customer satisfaction. So as David stated, price and reputation, customer service (but that comes with having a good rep.)
 
Bought from our local cine-rental house here in Frankfurt/Germany. Not cheap - but they have excellent service and are extremely helpful when things do not go as expected. And I can get me a backup there if things go really bad. To have the surrounding infrastructure was the decisive point.

Should any of you ever shoot in Frankfurt, Hamburg or Berlin - I do recommend them.
http://www.mbf.de/1-1-Home.html
 
BillinSC said:
I could not find a local dealer in my section of South Carolina. I am not even sure there is one in Charlotte, at least I did not find anything advertised.
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There's a huge dealer in both Charleston SC and Charlotte NC, The WH Platts Company.

What would be nice is a dealer directory on the Panasonic website. If there is one, I could not find it.
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Go to the Panasonic Broadcast site, click on "how to buy", then click on "reseller locator."
 
DVX100 . . . B&H
HVX200 . . . EVS (back when Rush was there)
HVX200 . . . AVSupply, San Diego
HPX170 . . . AVSupply, San Diego
TM-700 . . . Amazon
Canon 60D . Amazon
AF-100 . . . Spec-Comm

Price is hard to overlook (for me anyway) when there's an appreciable difference. Availability is right up there too!
I've spent in the vicinity of 35-40k with B&H in the past 48 months. My experience is that as long as you're able to have an adult conversation it's pretty hard to beat B&H's customer service. I second all that regarding buying locally (but we don't have none within a reasonable driving distance), that pretty much leaves me with B&H or Amazon.
 
For me it is about customer service. I am on the road at least 100 days a year, so I need a dealer that I can send a product to for repair/service and if my relationship is good they will send a temporary replacement.
Price does come into consideration, but most dealers are pricing the same. I am not going to stake my business and reputation on a few hundred dollars.
I think a good question to Jan is "What criteria does Panasonic have when selling pro gear?"
i would assume it is very strict.
 
OT: Jan, trying to send you a PM but it is full. Please clear some out or PM me your contact info. thanks!
 
Mark Williams said:
... . As far as Panasonic as a company I think they have a lot of improvement to do concerning communication during warranty service. I have communicated my concerns about this to them several times but never heard anything back.
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We've had pretty good experiences with the LA service center. They answer the phones .. and tell you what's wrong and what
the options are. I thought that was pretty good.

jeff
 
Jmarkham, I realize this may be drifting off the thread subject but feel it may be helpful to others. I have had to send my HPX170 camera in twice for warranty work. Once in 2010 and 2011. In both instances Panasonic (via online warranty repair ticket) had me send it to their repair center in Overland Park, KS which I learned is a contract run operation. When you call there they will not allow you to talk to anyone since they are not Panasonic. Actually they are a company called Heartland Services which mainly repairs Panasonic Toughbooks . After several weeks of hearing nothing about my camera I finally contacted Jan who put me in touch with a Panasonic technician at the Seacacus NJ repair facility. He was helpful in giving me an update on the repair status at the Overland Park facility. He actually asked me why I did not send it to Seacacus for repair and was suprised when I told him that Panasonic would only let me send it to the KS facility. Unfortunately over a month went by before my camera was returned. It then had to be sent back again because they failed to fix it and a new circuit board had to be ordered from Japan. I think it was beyond their capability and they needed guidance from Panasonic in Seacacus.

My conclusion, based on two instances, is that the Overland Park repair facility, if it is still operational, is not top tier. I got the impression that this is where Panasonic has you send less expensive cameras for repair. I think cameras which are more expensive than the HPX170 are sent elsewhere or there would be complaints from others on this forum. If I need warranty service again I will insist that it be sent to Seacacus for repair.
 
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For me it's reputation, price, and customer service. Been buying from B&H for years and they hit all three. I'm in a small market and there is no local Panasonic reseller so I generally do my homework online then make my purchase. B&H has always been good about taking something back if I wasn't happy with it and so far it has worked for me. Would be nice to have Panasonic do some sort of road show or demo tour to get to the smaller market towns. They do it in the bike biz. Specialized, Cannondale, or another big bike company will roll into town, setup some bikes at the local cyclist hangout and allow test rides on new gear that may or may not be in the bike shops yet. Would think something similar could be done with cameras and video gear.
 
Mark Williams said:
Jmarkham, I realize this may be drifting off the thread subject but feel it may be helpful to others. I have had to send my HPX170 camera in twice for warranty work. Once in 2010 and 2011. In both instances Panasonic (via online warranty repair ticket) had me send it to their repair center in Overland Park, KS which I learned is a contract run operation. ...
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That's unfortunate. As I wrote, the LA service center is excellent .. very responsive and they've turned around stuff
very quickly for us. They also answer questions if you get really stuck.

jeff
 
I bought my AF100 from Texas Media Systems as they had one available when everyone else was backordered, their customer service was great, and they had free shipping (and no tax as out of state), so I got the best deal through them as well.

With my Samurai, I bought it from Safe Harbor Computers, due to them having by far the best price at the time. Their customer service was excellent as well, and when I had a problem with that Samurai on arrival (it arrived without firmware) they got me directly touch with Atomos right away, who then had a tech person video-chat with me to trouble shoot it and then got a new tested unit out to me in time for my shoot the next day. I was really impressed with the level of customer service from both Safe Harbor Computers and Atomos, which was one of the best customer service experiences in my life.

Being in NYC, I bought my first camera from B&H, but was never really impressed with the customer service, and have had several problems with them, not to mention that I always get the impression when there that they could care less about my business. I only really use them when they have a significantly better price on something I need right away. For most of the stuff I need right away though I goto Adorama or other speciality places such as Barbizon for lighting related stuff. I just bought new headphones for a shoot tomorrow at Gotham Sound as they had them in stock, had great customer service, and when I called they matched the price of a place that was out of stock...

So yea, it comes down to customer service, price, and when I need it... I want to get the best deal while not feeling like I am just a number waiting to hand over cash; this stuff is not cheap, and while I understand what I spend is nothing compared to some production companies and studios, I want to feel like they appreciate my business and will stand behind what they sell.
 
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