Blue Water Photo Store, Are they still in Business

[BoltSnap]

Does anyone know if Blue Water Photo Store is still in business or if they are in any type of difficulties?

www.bluewaterphotostore.com

@BluewaterPhoto

 

[Barmaglot]

I ordered a Cinebags CB70 from them a week ago; it's in the UPS pipeline now, so evidently they're still in business and have stock on hand.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

They are. They don't allow anyone inside due to Covid, but they are still shipping.

 

[BoltSnap]

They are. They don't allow anyone inside due to Covid, but they are still shipping.

They aren't responding to my emails concerning my OLY housing they have had there for service for a very long time due to their screw ups and staff turn over. Scott isn't responding to emails and FB PM's.

 

[KG Diver]

They are open, but their operation leaves for much to be desired.

I have a trip coming up next week to sea of cortez. For this trip I picked an Lx10, WA lens, macro lens, and video lights...all in all, about $2800 worth of gear, which admittedly isn't much considering the cost of UW photography, but that's beside the point. On the 17th of August I placed an order for an Ikelite housing fromm BlueWater Photo, which appeared to be in stock on their site. The following week, I reached out to them as I still had not received an order update; after an unanswered email, I called them. Staff member I spoke with indicated that housing wasn't actually on hand (as it would appear on the site) and is ordered from Japan and should take 5-6 days to arrive and he added my "need by date" to the order. I expressed my concern about getting it on time and was reassured that it shouldn't take more than a week to get it in stock.

Fast forward another week with no update, I reach out to them on the 30th via email reference ETA and received a reply 30 minutes later (great!) that there's no eta and they will provide one soon. Three days and two unanswered emails later, no ETA. I give them a call and a rep pulls up my order and says they still don't have the housing (would have been nice to know a week ago so that I could try order elsewhere). I remained calm and politely explained the soon approaching trip date and he said he will check on the status and would add "need by date" to the order...funny,it should have already been there from my first call. I get a call back an hour later saying sorry, housing won't be here till middle of next week, when I'm boarding the flight and 3 weeks after an order for an apparel in-stock item being ordered. Their answer was sorry but these are not normal times. At that point I politely asked them to cancel all the items and hung up before I lost my cool.

Needless to say I will not be doing business with them ever again and would not recommend them to anyone. I understand times are "different", that's a BS excuse for poor service and communication. If you can't provide the "in stock" item in a timely manner, especially with a known trip deadline, don't take my order/money and string me along for 3 weeks only to tell me you can't meet the deadline and just say "sorry, but these aren't normal times."

Now I dont have a camera and will be forced to make do with my backup gopro8 setup.

Thanks BlueWater Photo! Hopefully others have a better experience.

 

[BoltSnap]

They are open, but their operation leaves for much to be desired.

I have a trip coming up next week to sea of cortez. For this trip I picked an Lx10, WA lens, macro lens, and video lights...all in all, about $2800 worth of gear, which admittedly isn't much considering the cost of UW photography, but that's beside the point. On the 17th of August I placed an order for an Ikelite housing fromm BlueWater Photo, which appeared to be in stock on their site. The following week, I reached out to them as I still had not received an order update; after an unanswered email, I called them. Staff member I spoke with indicated that housing wasn't actually on hand (as it would appear on the site) and is ordered from Japan and should take 5-6 days to arrive and he added my "need by date" to the order. I expressed my concern about getting it on time and was reassured that it shouldn't take more than a week to get it in stock.

Fast forward another week with no update, I reach out to them on the 30th via email reference ETA and received a reply 30 minutes later (great!) that there's no eta and they will provide one soon. Three days and two unanswered emails later, no ETA. I give them a call and a rep pulls up my order and says they still don't have the housing (would have been nice to know a week ago so that I could try order elsewhere). I remained calm and politely explained the soon approaching trip date and he said he will check on the status and would add "need by date" to the order...funny,it should have already been there from my first call. I get a call back an hour later saying sorry, housing won't be here till middle of next week, when I'm boarding the flight and 3 weeks after an order for an apparel in-stock item being ordered. Their answer was sorry but these are not normal times. At that point I politely asked them to cancel all the items and hung up before I lost my cool.

Needless to say I will not be doing business with them ever again and would not recommend them to anyone. I understand times are "different", that's a BS excuse for poor service and communication. If you can't provide the "in stock" item in a timely manner, especially with a known trip deadline, don't take my order/money and string me along for 3 weeks only to tell me you can't meet the deadline and just say "sorry, but these aren't normal times."

Now I dont have a camera and will be forced to make do with my backup gopro8 setup.

Thanks BlueWater Photo! Hopefully others have a better experience.

I have a much worse story than you do. They have had my Nauticam housing that I sent them for service since early 2019 over a year before COVID!! They sat on it for many months and did not acknowledge receipt of the housing while I was thinking that it was being serviced. It turned out the employee I was dealing with left the package with the housing I sent in a corner in their store and never did anything with it. He quit working there and nobody knew anything about my housing and no one was returning emails. Months later somebody communicated with me and eventually she found the unopened package sitting in a corner in their store. Nobody did anything with it since it arrived at their facility. Eventually she sent the housing to Nauticam for the service, I thought initially they were doing the service themselves (I spent over $13K on the camera, lenses, housing, strobes, etc. with them few years earlier). Then it turned out that I should have sent them the camera, camera tray and the viewfinder with the package for Nauticam to do the testing (Nauticam doesn't have these parts which is strange). Their employee who I was communicating with before I sent the housing didn't mention anything about me having to send these parts in addition to the housing even though I sent him pictures of the problems with full explanations, etc.

I live in Libya and we are going through a major civil war. I actually traveled to the UK on business in December of 2018 and took the housing with me to send to them in the US since I couldn't do it from Libya at that time. I sent them the housing in early 2019 from London. By time I found out about the parts that I needed to send them, I was already back in Libya (few months later) and the war was at its worst with ALL airports closed and I eventually had to leave my home when the heavy artillery and aerial bombing reached our neighborhood. When they came back to me to tell me that I needed to send the camera and the other items to them, all airports were closed and all courier companies suspended operations in Libya. The war went on for over a year. COVID became an issue in 2020 as you all know and added to the transportation problems to/from Libya. During this time I was communicating with them and giving them an update on what's going on in Libya. I also expressed to them that this whole mess was their fault all levels from the beginning. When air couriers started operations in Libya few months ago, I tried communicating with BWP and sent them emails confirming what I was sending to them but no one replied to me at all for a very long time. After chaser emails, somebody at their "support" department responded saying: "Thank you for the email. We do not facilitate this repair in house, but here's a link to the Nauticam service center." This person didn't read my email and the complete thread with it that goes back to the start of communicating with them over two years ago. They already have my housing for over two years and I was trying to confirm everything before sending them other equipment they said they needed to complete the service and testing.

I sent them an email back telling him that they already have my housing and I was following up on an issue that was ongoing since early 2019. I never received a reply since then, this was in mid July 2021. I always included Scott Gietler, the owner, in the cc in all communications. No one is responding so far. I have sent Scott Gietler PM's on Facebook but no response at all. I sent a PM to their page on FB, nothing at all.

I am going to give me a week to respond and do what is right. If they don't, my story will be on Facebook and all other social media I have access to for sure. I have ALL documentation proving what went on and when.

@BluewaterPhoto

 

[grantctobin]

@BluewaterPhoto hasn’t logged in in six months

 

[ATJ]

On the 17th of August I placed an order for an Ikelite housing fromm BlueWater Photo, which appeared to be in stock on their site. The following week, I reached out to them as I still had not received an order update; after an unanswered email, I called them. Staff member I spoke with indicated that housing wasn't actually on hand (as it would appear on the site) and is ordered from Japan and should take 5-6 days to arrive and he added my "need by date" to the order. I expressed my concern about getting it on time and was reassured that it shouldn't take more than a week to get it in stock.

I call BS on that (on them not you). Ikelite are made in the US. The only reason they'd have to "order from Japan" is if the housing is discontinued and they are getting it off another dealer.