On January 26, I ordered a Canon 1Dx Mark III from Broadway Camera and went into the store to pay for it the next day. This camera costs over $10,000. It's release date was February 13, 2020. The Canon 1Dx Mark III is Canon's flagship DSLR camera and is used by professionals mainly. In a span of 3 months, I had made approximately $12,000 in purchases here. I regret supporting this store because of its poor customer service.
First, they did not bother providing customer service after the sale was made on a $10,000 camera. I cannot call up Canon and seek updates from them about my order. Broadway Camera has to do that through their Canon Representative. I did call Canon, but they told me to contact Broadway Camera. February 13, 2020 came and no one bothered calling me to advise me that they did not receive my order that day when the orders came in. I personally went to Broadway Camera and someone then told me that they had received one order but it wasn't for me. Then the camera was supposed to arrive sometime in March, but apparently COVID slowed things down. In March and April, no one bothered calling or e-mailing me to provide me with updates. When I contacted Broadway Camera, they told me they had no idea when the camera was coming. They didn't really care to call the Canon Representative. Why? The sale was made. I had been waiting for this camera to commence video production, but no advance notice was provided me to to coordinate with my contractors that I am working with. This is a professional camera. They should presume that it was going to be used for commercial purposes. If they cared, they would have asked what it was for and taken notice of why it was important for me to have this camera. They didn't care.
Second, they took 12 days to deliver the camera after they received it. Peter Lan, the Broadway Store Manager, e-mails me on April 29, advising me that they received the camera. He advises me that it will be shipped out as soon as possible. They would not allow me to pick up the camera because of safety reasons according to the employee shipping the camera. They finally ship it on May 5, 2020. Then they ship it through Canada Post, which has been backlogged with orders for weeks. It was supposed to be delivered the next day if normal delivery standards were met. Broadway Camera ships out a lot of orders so they would have known that there would have been substantial delay on orders. May 6, 7, and 8 goes by. No delivery. Instead, I get a notice in my mail on May 8 that I have to personally go to the post office to be ID'd and in addition, to sign for the package. On May 11 (today), it finally arrives at the post office, which is pretty much on Main and Hastings Street. So, they took 12 days to get me a camera that I could have picked up or have delivered using an alternative courier like Fedex, UPS, or PDX (local courier) by April 30, 2020. This is an additional 12 days of delay in commencing video production.
Third, they put my life at risk because they're too lazy to practice best practices for contact-free delivery. I told Peter Lan by e-mail that he has effectively off-loaded the COVID risk to customers by requiring us to go to a post office to be ID'd and to sign for the package. He had claimed it was truly "safer for everyone" this way. Well, safe for you but dangerous for me. I go to the post office today. There's approximately 12 people in an area of approximately 300 square feet. People would walk by half a metre away from me because of the tight space. Grocery stores, wholesalers, and other companies have mastered contact-less delivery, but Broadway Camera just refuses to go adopt best practices. This method of delivery is easy for them, but risky for customers. Why did you require a signature? Apple has waived signature requirements for their deliveries. Best Buy hasn't required me to sign for deliveries. Why does it take 12 days for you to deliver my bloody $10,000 camera I ordered and paid for in January?
Fourth, I e-mailed Peter Lan, the manager, about my frustrations and he didn't really address them. He said that he cannot control the post office pick-up locations. Well, guess where the post office locations are? Near the person's home! Doesn't take rocket science to understand that. He didn't even address that alternative couriers could have been used to have the package delivered the next day.
Obviously, Broadway Camera's customer service sucks. No updates on a $10,000 camera because they're too lazy to call the Canon Rep. They're unreliable and incompetent in delivering products to you within a reasonable amount of time. The manager doesn't care about putting your life at risk. I would like to support local businesses, but Broadway Camera is a dud. Yeah, not bad if you want to quickly pick up a cheap item that they have in stock, but not a company you can build a long term relationship with.
Would I go back there to purchase any more items? No. read more