It came as no surprise when I received a phone call last week from one of my contacts at B&H Photo that the company had been awarded 2014 E-tailer of the Year by Digital Imaging Magazine.
Photography Bay has been closely affiliated with B&H since shortly after this site kicked off back in 2006. And before that, I had been a personal customer of B&H for several years dating back to my high school days as I browsed its ad in the back of Popular Photography every month.
Bertha and Herman Schreiber surely could not have imagined what their business endeavor would turn into when they started B&H Photo over 40 years ago. The behemoth we all know as B&H Photo came from rather humble beginnings when the doors opened in a small retail shop in lower Manhattan in 1973.
Over the past 40 years, B&H has gotten so many things right. Sure, there has been plenty of strategy and business acumen that positioned B&H as the premier photo retailer in the US. However, the one thing that sticks out when you read the article linked above that profiles B&H or if you talk to someone from B&H is: attitude.
I’ve dealt with B&H on both a customer side and an affiliate side. Everyone I have dealt with has always been helpful, fair and forthright. While I have some direct contacts at B&H, the few times I have needed additional customer service, it has always worked out quickly and easily to my satisfaction by dealing through the normal channels for customer service.
Just last week, I had a manufacturer issue with a product I ordered on a personal order. I contacted B&H via the customer service web form using my personal email address and had someone that I had never talked to before handle the issue in the same way and with the same attitude you would expect to get customer service in a small town store.
And it’s thousands (or maybe millions) of other stories like mine that makes it no surprise that B&H would get an E-tailer of the Year award.
As far as I’m concerned, B&H is my E-tailer of the Year every year. Congrats guys!
If you’re a B&H fan, I encourage you to go read the E-tailer of the Year article, along with this article for a history lesson on B&H and its beginnings. Also of interest is B&H Photo’s About page if you have never visited it.
[Historic photos courtesy of B&H Photo]
Thanks for this, Eric. I am age 82, now retired for two years, and have been a B&H customer over most of their history, starting when I began industrial shooting all those years ago. I came in from the cold about twenty years ago, to work in Media Services for the University of New Haven. B&H Video provided much of the equipment for their their studio.
Lots of us out here in “Customerland” have a lifetime of good relationships and experiences with B&H, and we are just as proud of their 2014 E-tailor award as they must be.
Will Harris
Thank you. Your write up really is the icing on the cake of this honor. It is very gratifying and we really appreciate it.
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Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video
This is the Greatest place on Earth for photo/Video products
Even though i live thousands miles away(KTM, Nepa l) I order my products from them via my contact in NY ..
God Bless B&H !