birding-aus

A response from B&H re. non-shipment of some brands of Binoculars

To: Dave Torr <>
Subject: A response from B&H re. non-shipment of some brands of Binoculars
From: Allan Richardson <>
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:14:53 +1100
I think there have always been issues within companies regarding business units 
across the world. Generally, sales/marketing regions try not to step on the 
toes of each other (e.g. poaching custom from another region's paddock). Since 
the business world is more than a little competitive, even within companies, I 
wouldn't be surprised if such an attitude is the motivator behind such 
policies. 

There are also issues with warranties, although I would have thought that if a 
customer is prepared to put up with the period of time it takes to affect 
repairs in the region a warranty covers, then it shouldn't be any skin off the 
manufacturer's nose to sell to other areas. This would certainly be the 
warranty policy for companies not large enough to have repair facilities in 
remote or undeveloped countries; across Africa or South America for instance. I 
would suggest that companies in this circumstance, i.e. who have their centre 
of operations based in one country alone at the moment, might make up the bulk 
of businesses willing to trade across borders.

The level global playing field that corporations are often begging for, doesn't 
seem to be that level at the end of the production line, or why would we bother 
looking over the fence for a better value for money deal. Buying equipment in 
some of the out of way areas of the world, as mentioned above, must be 
horrendous when compared with our circumstance, and I suspect that while a 
better deal occurs elsewhere, many folk are going to find a way to avail 
themselves of the often significant savings in another patch.

It has always been the policy of many companies to encourage buying locally, 
and as such local service is better able to meet the needs of the customer, and 
that is agreed, but surely choice of vender is the prerogative of the customer. 
I'm sure many customers follow such a policy when the prices are not 
ridiculously different, as they often are.

I wouldn't be surprised if the business relationship of B&H with some company's 
sales teams might be coming into play here. We've seen how sales duty policy on 
internet trading has been complained about by corporations in Australia in 
recent times. 

It is interesting that corporations utilise the internet and other means to 
build their global branding, but there may be vested in-house interests (in the 
marketing departments perhaps) that are bent on keeping their global business 
segregated. I can never work out why Australia should pay more than America for 
anything since distance can't be a factor in relation to items of Asian origin. 
I guess it must be the turn over factor, due to a bigger pool of customers, and 
the size of the American economic juggernaut at higher trade levels that gets 
them a better seat at the economic table

Allan Richardson
Morisset NSW
 
On 21/12/2011, at 11:15 AM, Dave Torr wrote:

> I guess the local retailers have been putting pressure on the manufacturers
> to try and cut down on internet sales - inevitable I suppose.
> 
> On 21 December 2011 11:06, Peter Shute <> wrote:
> 
>> I wonder why the change. Perhaps those manufacturers alway had
>> restrictions, and one or several have decided to start enforcing them, so
>> they started following the rules for them all. If so, then we should expect
>> this to start affecting all the reputable dealers
>> 
>> I know you can't get Sennheiser stuff from them either. Perhaps the online
>> free for all is coming to an end.
>> 
>> I'm sure you'll always be able to find someone who'd be willing to do it,
>> but I'm not sure I'd trust them.
>> 
>> Peter Shute
>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: 
>>>  On Behalf Of
>>> Carl Clifford
>>> Sent: Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:41 AM
>>> To: Birding-Aus Aus
>>> Subject: [Birding-Aus] A response from B&H re. non-shipment
>>> of some brands of Binoculars
>>> 
>>> Dear B-A,
>>> 
>>> Below is a response from B&H regarding non-shipment of some
>>> brands of
>>> binoculars to outside of the USA. Unfortunately, it seems
>>> that most of
>>> the brands preferred by birders are affected.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> Carl Clifford
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>> 
>>> From: Henry Posner <>
>>> Date: 21 December 2011 6:28:52 AM
>>> To: "" <>
>>> Subject: Re B&H Photo Video no longer shipping Biins
>>> 
>>> The binoculars section of our site at http://bhpho.to/sDiMCo has 950
>>> products from 30+ brands. Most can be shipped anywhere. In
>>> some cases
>>> the manufacturer or their licensed US distributor limits
>>> where we may
>>> ship their product and as an authorized retailer we're
>>> honor-bound to
>>> honor that agreement. That said, there are hundreds of binocs in all
>>> price ranges which we can ship anywhere.
>>> 
>>> It is not our job to police the behavior of other retailers,
>>> but in my
>>> opinion honoring our contracts with our vendors is as important as
>>> honoring our agreements with our customers.
>>>  -- -
>>>  regards,
>>>  Henry Posner
>>>  Director of Corporate Communications
>>>  B&H Photo-Video, and Pro-Audio
>>>  http://www.bandh.com/
>>> 
>>> I have just had a look binocular prices at B&H's web site. Every pair
>>> of bins I checked (even low end Barska and Kenko models) had a note
>>> saying that they can not be shipped outside the USA. Strangely enough,
>>> spotting scopes are can still be shipped. Anyone who is thinking of
>>> buying bins from B&H should factor in the cost of using USA address
>>> providers such as Shipito.
>>> 
>>> I have checked Adorama's site and there seems to be no problems with
>>> them.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> Carl Clifford
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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