Review Bristol Cameras - one to avoid

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The reviews on google for Bristol Cameras are mixed. They have a store in Bristol as well as the ability to order online. Having seen that the main complaint in reviews was that they tend to claim to have stock when in reality they don't, I proceeded with caution buying on credit card. I also rang the store specifically and asked if they had any of the particular lens I wanted in stock. "Yes sir, we have one left". So I ordered last week and was told it should be with me no later than the end of this week. Well it's Saturday today and guess what...

I rang them up and asked where my order was and the response was basically that the guy "didn't know" and could not help me today (Saturday) because he cannot speak to "the supplier" today. I've had no email update or phone call about this. I would have basically have been expected to wait until the lens got shipped by said supplier, and then on to me.

Now there are a couple of reviews on google which basically call out that this company seems "shady" and that they may order in from China/Hong Kong or wherever, wait for that time period stringing the customer along, and then ship on to UK customers. I have no proof what so ever of this and I'm not saying they do, but perhaps that is what is happening I don't know.

So I complained that I specifically asked if they held stock and was told last week that they did and that it would be merely a few days for it to arrive. The guy didn't apologize once - not that I care - but instead kept on repeating that it should have been quicker and the supplier was taking longer than expected. I reminded him that I ordered the lens FROM Bristol Cameras and that it was their responsibility to ship it to me. Silence. I asked when it would arrive....excuses. "I will have to ring them on Monday". I thought it would be easier to cancel at this point and go elsewhere so I said please can you cancel the order. The response... "if you wish yes..." then immediately hung up on me! lol Nice.

If you wish to contact them via email I am absolutely not joking when I say they don't do email. No really. They fully admit on their website that they don't. All they do via email is confirm order receipt and acknowledgement. They also send a bizarre set of terms and conditions through after ordering which I found conflicted in places with current distance selling regulations, making what I believe to be illegal requirements on the buyers side such as accepting the goods having to mark them as "not checked" and notifying them within 48 hours of a defect etc. All very protective and aggressive.

You have to ring the store if you have an issue. Good luck getting through as you might need it.

Overall I feel I dodged a bullet here and I'll be happy to get my money back in time. I only went there since they had the cheapest price of a lens I was after. I'd not heard of them before.
Should have just bought from one of the better places and paid more.
 
As I have brought from Bristol Cameras at least twice before, this afternoon I ordered a silicone cover for my D850. Hopefully it will be fine.
 
Bristol Cameras used to occupy a reasonably large property in Bristol but a few years back they halved in size and more recently closed down the ground floor and now occupy a small area upstairs. There is a long history of them not having goods in stock when they say that they do (a search here will throw up some threads).
 
I have used them a couple of times and had great service.

Found them great to deal with and was very happy both times.

Maybe I was just lucky but I never had any problems contacting them by telephone and they even called me to confirm delivery etc which I thought was a great personal touch.
 
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Mike.P said:
I have ordered from them a couple of times in the past and each time ended up asking for a refund due to the length of time waiting for delivery.

Not bothered with them since.
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Exactly the same here. On several occasions. Last time was for a Hitech filter holder set up. They sent the adapter & the CPL ring....... When I queried about the actual holder - It's on order. 3 days..... A week...... It's on order. 10days.... Should be in tomorrow. My other half was in town the following day so asked her to pop into the store. "Nah, it won't be here yet..." She phoned me, I cancelled it, ordered it from Teamwork or something on eBay & it turned up from them the next day delivered to my work......
 
In this day and age there are no excuses for live stock on a website.
In 2008 I got caught in a similar posistion as you from an e-tailer whose name I can't remember.
If a website doesn't show live stock I simply move onto another and if it costs me a few quid more I don't mind as long as it's a smooth transaction.
I've previously noticed on camerapricebuster that Bristol cameras were cheaper on lenses I wanted but as there was no live stock I went elsewhere.
 
I'm still struggling with the "delay with the supplier" bit.... It was in stock, you ordered it from them, THEY are the supplier...... I'm not a genius but worked that one out......
 
Jelster said:
I'm still struggling with the "delay with the supplier" bit.... It was in stock, you ordered it from them, THEY are the supplier...... I'm not a genius but worked that one out......
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I get the feeling that when a customer calls them to place an order, they have live stock at their supplier rather than there own physical stock.
I know Ebuyer show live stock at their suppliers and I expect they ship directly rather than Ebuyer themseleves in such cases.
I believe the term for this is 'drop shipping' and I've know some companies on ebay doing the same thing.
 
hashcake said:
I get the feeling that when a customer calls them to place an order, they have live stock at their supplier rather than there own physical stock.
I know Ebuyer show live stock at their suppliers and I expect they ship directly rather than Ebuyer themseleves in such cases.
I believe the term for this is 'drop shipping' and I've know some companies on ebay doing the same thing.
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In which case they would be a "distributor" rather than a supplier (as the stock has already been ordered, or at least put to one side for the so called shop). One may expect this behavior from an Ebay front, but not from a specialist retailer, or maybe I'm just old fashioned.....
 
Some years ago I wanted an underwater digital camera and Bristol cameras were the cheapest and had the one I wanted in stock. Allegedly! Since it was 2 weeks before we were off on holiday, I ordered it (over the phone) and took the opportunity to check that it would be here in plenty of time. Well, if 30 minutes before we set off for the airport is plenty of time, it was here in plenty of time but I had to charge the battery when we arrived at the hotel. About as much use as a chocolate teapot/fart in a wetsuit when the thing leaked after a few months too (BC, as well as the manufacturer.) Haven't used them since and wouldn't unless I absolutely had to.
 
I ordered something they allegedly had in stock, rang to confirm too.
No joy after a week and asked for a refund which I duly got.
 
I ordered a firecrest filter from them before christmas.
It was a great price.
It stated on the website "available to order"
I did think the price was too good to be true, and expected the order to be cancelled, but they got one for me and I had it within 10 days.
 
I’ve ordered a few things recently, and yes they’re slow. But both turned up without issue and were cheapest around.

I need another of what I ordered but I’ll just use amazon for a few quid more.
 
I have ordered from them in the past - they are slow - but cheap. They might actually be more successful if they advertised themselves this way - 'Hey we're cheap - but we're a bit slow - if you want to save money - but are not in a rush - we are for you!!'
 
Whilst I'm not referring to Bristol cameras, the thing that gets my goat is when I buy something in store as new and then watch the assistant take a display model and cram it back in a box.
As far as I'm concerned that's ex demo equipment.

This problem is particularly prevalent at London Camera Exchange.
 
Used them one before and had to cancel after 2 week wait. Seems they hardly hold any of their own stock.
 
Ordered a Tamron 28-70 (cheapest price I could find) for my Sony on 15th. Was delivered on 19th. Was impressed with comms and speed- maybe I was lucky
 
soupdragon said:
Whilst I'm not referring to Bristol cameras, the thing that gets my goat is when I buy something in store as new and then watch the assistant take a display model and cram it back in a box.
As far as I'm concerned that's ex demo equipment.

This problem is particularly prevalent at London Camera Exchange.
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I've had it twice at Jessops. In one instance it was the only one they had so I asked for (and got) a discount and in the other, they got me the sealed box one (grumbling).

cymruchris said:
I have ordered from them in the past - they are slow - but cheap. They might actually be more successful if they advertised themselves this way - 'Hey we're cheap - but we're a bit slow - if you want to save money - but are not in a rush - we are for you!!'
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Works for 7dayshop!!!
 
Got to say, I bought a fuji battery grip for the XT3, it was a bargain and they threw in a fuji 126s battery as well. Well chuffed.
 
Reviving this thread to share my recent experience - Ordered a lens on Wednesday with next day delivery, and by Friday the order still showed as "acknowledged". At this point I found out they don't do email, at all.

I tried calling around 4-5 times over the space of 10 minutes. No answer. Tried again about 30 minutes later, no answer. I eventually got through, they literally said hello, then I explained the situation, and got a two word response "Order number?".

After a couple of minutes I was told the order was being picked as we speak, so that was that. About 5 minutes later I get the order complete email and tracking info. Today (the Monday after) the tracking info shows there was an error and they were unable to collect my package on Friday, so it will arrive tomorrow instead. Part of me thinks they didn't pick the order and it wasn't ready when the courier turned up on Friday.

So basically - 6 days delivery instead of next day, no email contact, rarely answer phone, poor phone etiquette. Next time I'll just spend the extra £10.
 
I bought a pretty expensive A3+ printer from them fairly recently, but as I'm in Bristol I called them up first and said I wanted to pick it up that day from their shop (which is actually a bit of scabby room up a flight of stairs -- don't make special trip to go there!). It was there, I picked it up and all was well. However, I was very clear in my dealings with them to make sure that they knew I was actually visiting the store to pick this up because I know from experience that they simply do not have stock of a lot of things that are slated as available. As mentioned above, they're more of an interface between a supplier and customer. No way you'd really know this until you've been stung however, and they should really make it clearer that some (perhaps even most) items comprise warehouse/supplier stock (i.e., it's available to order, but will not be coming from them directly).
 
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Unfortunately will have to add me to this thread. I specifically called Bristol Cameras minutes before making an order. On the call, they confirmed that the item is indeed new and in stock. The price was attractive but in retrospect is not worth the frustration because clearly, they do not have the items in question available. 24h after placing an order I received an 'order note' update saying that the item is not available and should be in stock about 6-7 days later. At this stage, I decided to call them. There is no email available, of course. Guy who picks up the phone is consistent with all the posts above and honestly, it must be hard for him as well to do this work daily: an ongoing barrage of calls from clients (rightly) asking where is their money, and where is their order. He is in line with everyone's experiences described above: unpleasant tone of voice, irritated with you asking questions about your order, reluctantly offers 'cancellation' but if you read their terms, only after receiving an email confirming the cancellation, you can hope to get money back (they reserve right to hold money up to 30 days after that email, if/when you even get it). I am in the early stage of my 'cancellation' but if this continues to drag I will be forced to get in touch with relevant UK authorities. I was happy to support a local camera shop (as we are often told) but not at the cost of being misled and my money being a hostage.
 
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I never have this kind of hassle, I normally buy from WEX; prices are reasonable, they have a large stock and deliver quickly. If you really want to deal with a company in the Bristol area, I have bought a lens from Clifton Cameras at Dursley and they were fine.

Dave
 
I ordered - their web site said they had it in stock - was not true - they emailed me and said that they were awaiting supplies - after a month I asked for my money back - only contacted them by email
 
BillN_33 said:
I ordered - their web site said they had it in stock - was not true - they emailed me and said that they were awaiting supplies - after a month I asked for my money back - only contacted them by email
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They don't seem to have an email address that they would show to any customers. How did you email them?
 
deedeedee said:
They don't seem to have an email address that they would show to any customers. How did you email them?
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It was early last year - if I remember correctly, I ordered on line and then they emailed me to say the item was not in stock and they were awaiting stock from "their" supplier - I just relied to their email, and then a few more times to ask when I would be getting the item
 
Just in case anyone would be interested, I made calls to Bristol Cameras once a day for 3 days asking about the update. About 5 working days after the cancellation money arrived back in my account. The unpleasant thing is the fact that they state in their T&Cs that to receive money back they need to cancel the order officially. Getting this in writing (and again, not in email but as a 'note' to the order... which can be removed at any given time, unlike email) took 3 phone calls. Overall, it was unnecessarily stressful. I can't recommend the shop even if it looked like it may have saved me a couple of quid. I see no point if it turns out that the 'in stock' is... not really in stock, your delivery date extends in time and you and your money are at the mercy of someone on the other end of the line. Happy to support smaller shops but not at this cost.
 
So many dodgy retailers out there now, especially online. A few years back I ordered a camera and lens from SLR Hut online. The website looked fine, addresses in London, UK stock, any import duties paid, it was a Google Trusted site, reviews I found were good and the price, well was really good compared to other main retailers like Park Cameras, but similar to other online retailers. The alarm bells started ringing when I got a message from DHL saying my order had arrived and East Midlands Airport. Thankfully, no import duty was levied and the goods were, well fine, but not perfect when they turned up. Turns out SLR Hut specialise in grey imports, and after, I dug really deep to find endless bad reviews. The camera and lens worked fine, thankfully, though the lens finally packed up once it was out of what would have been a useless warranty anyway. I got lucky, looking at some reviews, people had had problems with the equipment and couldn't get refunds. Others had written bad reviews and claimed SLR Hut had contacted them bribing them to change the reviews. I'm sure I've looked at Bristol Cameras since, and to me they look exactly the same set up as SLR Hut, address in the UK and claims about stock, but I steered well clear as I wasn't going to risk any more grey imports, Now I just stick to Park Cameras, at least I can visit them in Burgess Hill, or LCE.
 
I don't know how I missed this thread, but I did. :rolleyes:

I ordered some developing chemicals from them online a few weeks ago because they were the only place that said they had Rodinal in stock (cheap too). The payment went through OK and was told 'Thank you for your order'.

I waited for a week - nothing. On checking my bank (to see if the payment had been taken before contacting them), it showed as 'payment reversed' on the same day of the order. No notification, no email, no apology - nothing.

They will never get another order from me . . .
 
A little update to this thread.
I was doing a search for batteries for my Ricoh GRiii & GRiiix (genuine Ricoh) and found they were all priced at £44 or above but I found them for £39 at Bristol Cameras and they were showing as being 'in stock'. As I was in the city this morning I popped in to check it out - sure enough genuine Ricoh DB-110 batteries for the Ricoh GRiii/iiix were in stock and priced at £39, so I bought a couple. :)
 
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