Difference in camcorders?

[Steve Wargo]

MANY years ago (around 10) I bought the assets of a video company going out of business. Part of the deal was that they had put $500 down on a Sony UVW-100B Betacam Camera, soon to be released. The B+H price was actually around $12k.

We needed the camera for a job in Irvine, California, a few days later. I called B+H and talked to the guy handling the account and gave them a debit card number for the payment. I had about $50k in the account at the time. Debit cards had just appeared and the bank’s ad said “Use your debit card like cash”. So I did. This was 2 days before the trip to Irvine from Phoenix.

I get a call the next morning from the B+H guy who leaves us a message on the recorder that goes something like this: “Mr. Wargo. You are a dead beat! You’re credit card is no good and neither are you. Stop trying to steal our cameras. Your order is cancelled and we are keeping your $500 because you are a crook.”

Well! That was a great way to start the day. I immediately assumed that the new camera was not being shipped overnight priority as I had specified. It turns out that no matter how much money you have in an account, you cannot actually use your debit card like cash. A quick call to the bank disclosed that one can only use it for up to $7500 in any 24 hour period.

I make a humble call to our guy at B+H and explain the situation. We figure out that the wife and I have two debit cards with different numbers. We put &7500 on one and the balance on another. B+H ships the camera by FedEX with only about 10 minutes to go.

It arrives the next morning and the folly shifts into phase “2”.

The packaged lens does not fit. Now what? I know. I’ll call my friendly customer service rep at B+H. I call 1-800 pray-now and my usual rep is off on a holiday.

CSR number 2 listens while I tell him that the B+H supplied Canon lens does not fit onto the front of the camera. Here is his reply to the best of my recollection (word for word because I recorded it): “Even a pathetic idiot could figure out how to put a lens on the camera. Maybe you should get one of your kids to help you with that you stupid (mumble mumble)”

I calmly explain that the camera requires an “SX” style of lens mount, according to the manual (Yep, I read it. I am not a real man). He said that he has not received any complaints from anyone else. I asked how many UVW-100b camera/lens combinations he had sold and he said that I was the first one. In my mind, I’m thinking he has a 100% failure rate. He feels otherwise. He repeated the “stupid” part and I asked him to hold.

A very good friend of mine is Tom Bender from Canon, in Irvine of all places. I called him but he wasn’t in. I told his associate about my dilema and he confirmed the “SX” lens part. I connected all three of us together using the conference function on our office phone. The Canon rep proceeded to tell the the B+H rep that they had ordered 200 incorrect lenses. The B+H rep said he would check on it and let the Canon rep know if he agreed, and then hung up. He did not call the Canon rep stupid.

I stayed on the phone with the Canon rep and asked if he would provide us a b-stock or a loaner. We were leaving for Irvine about 3 hours later. He declined and said that B+H is on a cash account because of “well, I can’t really say”. Had Mr. Bender not been on vacation, we would have had a loaner waiting at the hotel where we were staying. I made a few calls and borrowed a lens for the trip.

Not being one to hold a grudge, regardless of anything you may have heard otherwise, I decided to give B+H another try when we bought our F-900 from BandPro. I needed some filters that BandPro did not have in stock, specifically, a 4×5.6 blue sky grad – horizontal of course. A call to B+H disclosed that they had a #2 blue sky grad. I asked the delightful CSR to verify that the grad was horizontal and not vertical. I actually faxed him a drawing of the filter in actual size. He called back and confirmed that my wildest dreams had indeed come true. I payed standard overnight FedEx and the filter that I desperately needed for a rental arrived the very next afternoon. I open the box and, yep, you guessed it (or I wouldn’t be telling this tale) it was a vertical grad. I called him and he agreed to accept it back. They kept a 15% restocking fee and did not reimburse my shipping because it wasn’t their fault that I needed it overnight.

Part three of the story is that NAB was right after the first incident and I visited the B+H booth to see if my friendly rep #1 was there. He was. I proceeded to ask him if he felt that treating customers ($12,000 customers) like he did was really good for repeat business and customer good will and he told me that they are a huge company and that I am only about a big as a pimple on a camel’s ass and that I should leave the hall immediately or he would summon security. I’m surprised that he didn’t tell me to leave town.

Please note that I can be a real diplomat when necessary and he was treated with way more respect than he deserved.

So, there it is.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .

[Paul Thurston]

If you ever have a problem again with B&H, feel free to contact Henry Posner via e-mail at:

henryp(at)bhphotovideo.com.

———————————————–
Paul Thurston
Producer – Director of Photography
Chile

[Steve Wargo]

Thanks Paul.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .