Buydig / Beech Camera

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 09:16:53 -0400, Robert Feinman
wrote:

In article , olc-
says...
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 21:19:33 GMT, "Tony" wrote:

I certainly wouldn't buy from them. When a place has no "Goodwill" there is
no reason to shop there.


Unless you know exactly what you want and the price is substantially
lower.

And then you may not actually get it or it may not be exactly the item
they promised.
The market is competitive enough that there is usually a reason that
a dealer is cheaper than the honest competitors.


Why are there only two possibilities? Of course you avoid the scumbag
dealers who advertise prices so low as to be ridiculous, but there are
many dealers that have low prices and do deliver what they say they
will. Buydig happens to be one of them. I saved $200 there rather than
paying the higher prices at other Nikon authorized dealers.

Robert Feinman wrote:
And then you may not actually get it or it may not be exactly the
item
they promised.
The market is competitive enough that there is usually a reason that
a dealer is cheaper than the honest competitors.


I don't think buydig/beachcamera practises switch-and-bait or that
hasn't been my experience atleast and of several people who've posted
to various message boards.

My guess is their business model depends on selling a lot more than the
competition but at lower margins. For example, while B&H advertised the
300D kit for $789, Beach sold it to me for $703. Thats roughly a 10%
discount that would've come out of their margins. The likes of B&H and
Adorama charge you that extra 10% because they have nice people
attending to you and they need to pay for the higher store upkeep as
compared to Beach/Buydig. B&H and Adorama must also carry larger
inventories and variety than Buydig/Beach. So both are honest but carry
different costs and have different business models.

- Siddhartha

I've purchased 2 cameras from Beach (via phone) with absolutely no
problems. The person I spoke with in each case was knowledgeable, and
did not try to push any accessories. He also told me that ordering by
phone is somewhat quicker than online, and in fact had my order in the
system before our phone call was ended.
Both cameras arrived in perfect condition, exactly as specified in the
description (i.e., everything that should have been included was
included), very well packaged, and very quickly.
I don't know what more you could ask of a company.

"_R" wrote in message
...
I'm told that Buydig is a branch of Beech Camera. Are these reputable
vendors for printers and cameras? They have good prices on the HP
1320 that I was considering. Any reason to avoid them?

You're correct, buydig and Beach are the same company.

Buydig is fine. I bought an S500 from them. A colleague bought a Canon
EOS-20D from them.

I was very wary of ordering from buydig, given the sordid history of Beach
Camera, but I think that this may be one case where a company has changed
its evil ways. No price changes, no calls from them to sell expensive
accessories.

One thing that I don't like about buydig, is that on the more popular, and
limited supply items, they occasionally will not even have it available
except in one of their kits (though this is happens only rarely).

"Siddhartha Jain" wrote in message
oups.com...
Tony wrote:
Mater of fact it is. They were Beach Camera of Maine until they ran
afoul of
the State's Attorney General for nasty practices, so they moved to
Brooklyn
and/or New Jersey where the mob keeps the law off slimy operators
like them.


I read somewhere that they revamped totally after that.

I think this is true. I had a bad time with them back around 1993, but
lately they seem to be fine.

"Destin_FL" wrote in message
news:ZEO9e.5394$yO2.1563@lakeread07...
Beach has no such history.

They do: http://tinylink.com/?0EBUQFCr8t

However, this is one case where a company seems to have changed for the
better. I have ordered from Buydig, as have at least two colleagues at work,
with no issues as far as I know.

Why on earth Beach didn't change their name when they decided to go
straight, is beyond me.

I wouldn't trust them to ship exactly what I ordered and I wouldn't want
them to have my credit card numbers. I don't trust Beach, and my lack of
trust has proven to be a good policy in matters concerning Brooklyn and New
Jersey camera stores.

--
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com
home of The Camera-ist's Manifesto
The Improved Links Pages are at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/links/mlinks00.html
A sample chapter from "Haight-Ashbury" is at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/writ/hait/hatitl.html

"Oliver Costich" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 21:19:33 GMT, "Tony" wrote:

I certainly wouldn't buy from them. When a place has no "Goodwill" there
is
no reason to shop there.


Unless you know exactly what you want and the price is substantially
lower.

Are they a Nikon Authorized Dealer? Or do they buy thrrough another
dealership, and effectively sell grey market with an apparent US guarantee?
The distinction may not seem like much but if a company wants to get sticky
about it, you can end up with what is effectively an "as is" camera.

--
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com
home of The Camera-ist's Manifesto
The Improved Links Pages are at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/links/mlinks00.html
A sample chapter from "Haight-Ashbury" is at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/writ/hait/hatitl.html

"Oliver Costich" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 09:16:53 -0400, Robert Feinman
wrote:

In article , olc-
says...
On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 21:19:33 GMT, "Tony" wrote:

I certainly wouldn't buy from them. When a place has no "Goodwill"
there is
no reason to shop there.


Unless you know exactly what you want and the price is substantially
lower.

And then you may not actually get it or it may not be exactly the item
they promised.
The market is competitive enough that there is usually a reason that
a dealer is cheaper than the honest competitors.


Why are there only two possibilities? Of course you avoid the scumbag
dealers who advertise prices so low as to be ridiculous, but there are
many dealers that have low prices and do deliver what they say they
will. Buydig happens to be one of them. I saved $200 there rather than
paying the higher prices at other Nikon authorized dealers.

"Tony" wrote in message
.com...
I wouldn't trust them to ship exactly what I ordered and I wouldn't want
them to have my credit card numbers. I don't trust Beach, and my lack of
trust has proven to be a good policy in matters concerning Brooklyn and New
Jersey camera stores.

Good, higher prices are just what you deserve.
Quite a bit of difference usually. About 20% on a 5.8gig telephone system
I recently purchased.

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 22:12:53 GMT, "Tony" wrote:

Are they a Nikon Authorized Dealer? Or do they buy thrrough another
dealership, and effectively sell grey market with an apparent US guarantee?
The distinction may not seem like much but if a company wants to get sticky
about it, you can end up with what is effectively an "as is" camera.


Yes they are an authorized Nikon dealer, making the rest of your
paragraph moot.