{"id":12574,"date":"2013-05-15T15:14:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T14:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=12574"},"modified":"2023-05-26T22:01:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T21:01:57","slug":"slrhut-online-camera-supplier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=12574","title":{"rendered":"SLRHut – Online Camera Supplier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is an old post. I ought to point out that I tried to use SLRHut again one time, and was far from impressed. They don’t actually do pure online ordering – your order gets held until you phone them, and their phone line is poorly manned. The only reason they want to talk to you is to hard sell a whole pile of extra crap.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned in that recent Rush article, I have bought a new camera. I\u2019d done my research and I knew exactly which one I wanted – the Panasonic \"SLRHutLumix FZ200. But it wasn\u2019t cheap. Even now, Amazon sells it for \u00a3400, but when I first started looking it was anywhere between \u00a3400-\u00a3500 (indeed, currently John Lewis sells it for \u00a3440, Panasonic for \u00a3445, and Jessops for \u00a3410).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I was researching, one supplier which came up again and again was SLRHut<\/a>. Their price was \u00a3320.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To cut a long story short, I nearly didn\u2019t buy from them. When I looked them up, they appeared across various photography forums as being \u201cdodgy\u201d and \u201ca scam\u201d. One Wise One – it looks like photographers are worse than driving instructors when it comes to believing their own fabricated hype – said \u201cif it looks too good to be true, it probably is\u201d. However, between the lines it was clear that this was just opinion based on that deluded self-belief, and had \"Panasonicnothing at all to do with concrete facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I ordered from SLRHut late Tuesday (their lines are open until 11pm). The product was shipped within 24 hours from the USA. It arrived with DHL in the UK in the early hours of Saturday morning. There was then a frustrating wait for nearly three days over the weekend (and Bank Holiday Monday) while it sat with DHL, who don\u2019t deliver weekends or holidays. It arrived Tuesday morning, less than a week after I\u2019d ordered it. It would probably have arrived a few days sooner if I\u2019d have ordered on a Thursday or Friday, with no Bank Holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SLRHut has a UK office, but it does not supply products from there, and the UK people are apparently only involved with returns and warranties. It ships from the US, and all import duties are included in the price. Products are not \u201cgrey\u201d imports and have a full worldwide warranty. They are supplied with UK plugs on the power adapters.<\/strong> Ordering is quick and easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, ignore any crap you read elsewhere. Although I\u2019m sure that SLRHut has exactly the same problems any other retailer does – and I mean the occasional order going pear-shaped for some reason – you have absolutely no worries outside of that. They\u2019re definitely kosher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update:<\/strong> SLRHut now takes payments via PayPal. Anyone who does that is hardly likely to be trying to scam you – Paypal would cut them up and hang them out to dry if they did! As I said above, SLRHut is definitely kosher, so don’t be worried about using them. And ignore any crap you read on photography forums denigrating them – such comments are usually made by people whose opinion of themselves is far greater than the reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are SLRHut products “grey” imports?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No! My FZ-200 is a proper UK product with UK plugs and a UK warranty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do SLRHut products come with a UK plug fitted?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. They are not<\/strong> grey imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is SLRHut a UK company?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. But it has UK offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is SLRHut reputable?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a look at TrustPilot<\/a>. They get a rating of 9.3\/10 (as of December 2014). Ignore the jackass from Buxton who appears to be unable even to spell his own name properly – the fact they are not a UK company is totally irrelevant. And God only knows why someone would post this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Very Good.<\/strong>
I must be honest in saying that when I discovered all the orders will fulfilled from the USA I was very sceptical.
However everything came and the service was surprisingly good.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And then only award 4 stars. What was he expecting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon only scores 6.1 on TrustPilot, Currys gets 1.0, and Argos gets 2.0. Yet SLRHut gets almost a perfect 10! You probably wouldn’t think twice about placing an online order with Currys if their price was right, would you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n