i am looking at buying gear from the internet site called backscatter and want to know if it is legit site,and if they give good after sales service i would like to hear from anyone who have used them in the past
steve:-)

I Steve, i'll vouch for them, they are one of our dealers and all I get from people I refer them to is praise, they have a good solid and knowledgeable team. If there is a place you should not worry about doing business with, its them.

Not sure if you hit a bad link or typed a URL a little off or not (I have done that in the past going to sites I knew and they looked different and realized some site trying to grab people) but backscatter.com (which also is linked over on the banners/sponsors site over there-->) and I have bought things from them alot through the years. From a purchaser/consumer side of things (meaning me) Jean is dead on with what he said.

If you're asking about this outfit http://www.backscatter.com/ it just doesn't get any better. Berkley White the owner, is a stand up guy who is well connected throughout the underwater community. Backscatter teams up with Wetpixel to do the Digital Shoot outs and is well respected. The crew there is one of the best in the business and shoots the equipment they sell so they can answer your questions. They do the service now in house so if you need help or have a problem they can take care of it.

Cheers,
Steve

I just bought my new Aquatica Housing from them, very knowledgeable, very friendly service. They're on the up and up.

S.

Steve,

Let me know if I can be of any help with your order. Feel free to PM me with any questions you might have. We're here to help!

Best regards,

Sterling

I have bought most of my gear from them over the last 12 years, and they are great. They are very helpful and a nice group of people.

Mike

thanks everyone looks like a very reputable company had to ask can"t be to carefull these days
steve:-)

Steve,
Check payment options...Damien and myself both wanted Aquatica housing a few years ago, a guy at Backscatter called Dave was really awesome with pre-sales, but when it came to ordering they wouldn't take a credit card (from non-US), wanted payment by some method from the dark ages, but we wanted to use CC for rewards/insurance reasons...not happy giving the order away after Dave's great service but he was understanding.
Hope Backscatter are now operating in this century.
Also, if there is an Aussie distie, give them a go, tell them the US price, if they can match it great, if not, their loss.
Aengus

I bought all of my equipment at www.Backscatter.com since The Nikonos V . Nikon D100, D2, D300 and D700 with Subal and Aquatica housings. Berkley's crew is awesome. Lifetime support!!
Berk, Do I get a discount on my next rig?

DITTO!

I recently purchased a new rig from Backscatter, good advice from staff. Being a international customer the purchase and delivery went very well.

Hi Aengus,

Thank you for your kind words regarding the service you received from our staff.

In the past due to being burned on a number of international credit card fraud orders we instituted a policy of requiring first time customers to pay by a bank wire transfer.

Since then we do accept international credit card orders from most countries. For countries that have high instances of fraud (i.e., Nigeria) we still require bank wire transfers.

I hope this clears up any confusion regarding our international credit card policy.

Best regards,

Jim

I have just ordered my first housing from them, and the service from Rusty was so far very good. The card of credit was allowed, now I just have to pay for it And hope it arrives

I've dealt with Backscatter for some major purchases. Dave is great, handled everything quickly, and shipped the stuff right out to an APO address in Afghanistan. Excellent place to do business with.

Wendy

Excelent company. And Dave and Marshall do a greit and professional job. They resolved some issues i had with my equipment in a very eficient way. You can trust them, i do.

Visiting Backscatter is like going to a candy store. Great service. They're also a Wetpixel supporter.

I just talked to them in california and I wont say who I spoke to but they acted like they didnt have time to talk to me. Not sure if he was having a bad day or what but it didnt sit well with me.

Interesting.... I have used them for years, great people. Talked to them yesterday, looking for some older o-rings, nothing special and they were very helpful. They didn't have them but directed me to a place where i could get them.

Thank-you Backscatter for being around so long and being the great people that you guys/gals are.

Backscatter and Reef both do a great job!

I have had my share of frustrations with both, but after visiting one of the shops I realize how busy they are returning lame ass questions via e-mail and phone from amateurs like myself....Most would rather be diving and shooting! Give them some credit.

My two cents.

Mike

More importantly, they are answering emails and phone calls from people who then go to B&H to buy their equipment. It puts them in a tough situation; I wouldn't be surprised if some of the bad experiences were from folks who have done this.

Support your local underwater photography / videography shop!

You're almost implying that it's okay for them to be short with customers. Most of us don't have a local UW photography store. B&H is just as local as Reef and Backscatter and every bit as reputable. I shop online at all three and see no problem with that. If Backscatter doesn't have the item I need in stock and can't get it before I leave on a trip, should I not shop at Reef, or B&H or elsewhere? In fact I ordered from Backscatter, B&H and direct from ULCS this week and got great service from them all. But there are fewer and fewer one-stop shops these days. Especially with something as specialized as UW photography.

All businesses have to deal with answering customer's questions and watching them walk out the door. The smart sellers treat customers like their questions aren't stupid and they want them to come back. If you can't deal with that reality then you better be prepared to deal with seeing customers leave you store and head for another. Sure it's frustrating. But we live in tight times and customers are looking for the best deal and want to be treated like they are just as important as anyone else. If a store doesn't have time to answer my questions I'm sure they don't have time to take my money. It's their call.

To answer the OP's original question, I've gotten great service from Backscatter.

well thanks for he info i have ordered my focus lights from backscatter and will see how long it will take to get to Australia,,appreciate all your help
Steve:-)

Got some stuff from them recently and no problems whatsoever...

We do get many calls and emails everyday, sometimes asking complex questions (such as how to do underwater time lapse for scientific research), sometimes very simple ones ("My strobe doesn't work" "Did you turn the slave to on?"). The person asking the question usually doesn't think it's a lame ass question and I hope that any of our customers don't feel that way. If there's a problem we can solve, even if it is simple, to get a customer up and running on a trip, then it's a good question.







At Backscatter we provide free lifetime tech support on all purchases. We do spend time with the customer and try to figure out the best system that will fit their needs. That being said we do deal with a few people who call us, discuss various setups and the best options for them and help them decide on what to get, only to send them a quote and then they take that quote and buy their gear somewhere else. After they purchase their equipment form another store, we get calls asking how to setup the gear, what is the best shooting technique, etc. Unfortunately we can't answer these questions for them as they did not purchase their gear from us. Some people understand, but sometimes this causes the person on the other end to get upset. We can't support other businesses who sell underwater imaging equipment that don't have the proper training and knowledge to adequately serve their own customers' needs. We put food on the table and a roof over our heads by selling underwater imaging equipment and our advice and expertise on using the gear.

Thanks for everyone's great responses on this thread. It certainly makes us feel good about what we are trying to do as a company, and also as people who are trying to make a living in underwater imaging.


Best regards,

Jim

Just wanted to chime in and say I just got my ordered delivered by UPS (they tried to deliver it last Friday), I mailed them the go-ahead on the shipping details last Wednesday. Quite snappy for a delivery to Sweden! (eh, and the non-local excuse was that my divestore doesn't carry Stix-floats). This was bought with a non-US creditcard btw, if anyone still wasn't sure if that was OK or not.

/Björn