SmallRig’s Poor Fulfilment of Orders
SmallRig’s fulfilment and retailer support have been extremely disappointing. I ordered and paid for a SmallRig Cage Kit for the Sony ZV-E1 (SKU 4257B) through Calumet.de, an authorised SmallRig retailer. Calumet then told me they couldn’t provide a delivery date because SmallRig would not supply them. When I contacted SmallRig directly, they confirmed the item was in stock in their Poland warehouse and could ship to Germany, but they refused to fulfil the order through their own authorised retailer due to “company policy” (they said they can’t ship to agents like calumet.de). Their proposed solution was for me to cancel my paid order with Calumet and place a new order directly on SmallRig’s website. That’s an unacceptable customer experience. I shouldn’t have to cancel a legitimate, paid order with an authorised retailer and reorder elsewhere because the manufacturer won’t support its own sales channel. It creates extra admin, delays, and uncertainty for the customer and undermines confidence in buying through their retail partners. This also isn’t a one-off. I’ve previously had delays on another SmallRig order due to stock issues, and the response was just a generic apology and a discount code, rather than fixing the underlying fulfilment problems. Overall: poor stock management, poor communication, and a “not our problem” approach when ordering through authorised retailers. I won’t be buying from SmallRig again.