Buying Equipment from KEH

[Sirius Glass]

Thanks Dave.

But now we will not get our weekly new thread on KEH.

Steve

[Paul Sorensen]

You could call it "KEH Love Fest" and that way we could have a "KEH Hate Fest" to balance things out. That would be fun! (Just kidding, I know that the moderators are too smart to take my advice to heart.)

[aldevo]

And now another unhappy post-post-mortem....

I just received my Bronica SQ-Ai outiift from KEH ($500 BGN condition) which contained an ME Finder Prism S.

- The eyecup is missing
- The meter measures 4EV too low

So I'm now returning a purchase to them for the 4th time in a row because it's defective.

My three earlier purchases were M42 SLRs for under $100. OK, those won't net them much money so perhaps I can accept the fact they weren't tested.

But a $500 outfit should not have defects that even the most superficial of inspections will reveal.

It gets worse...

KEH told me problem is limited to the ME prism and it most likely just needs to be recalibrated. But they told me all they could offer me was a refund because:

"Tamron no longer does repairs on the SQ-series...so neither do we"

That really rubbed me the wrong way, as it's a lie. Tamron will offer repair support on all SQ equipment until 10/31/2011. In fact a seven year continuation of repair support for the time of discontinuation is a legal requirement.

Anyhow, the KEHsalesman told me I could phone Tamron USA and they would only confirm what he said.

Well, I did make that call and Tamron USA backed ME up 100%. They sent me an email, in fact, which I then forwarded to KEH.

The response to that email from KEH was along the lines of "Sorry, you must have misphrased the question, because Tamron hasn't serviced the cameras since October, 2004".

Insulting. Nevertheless, I tried to proceed....

Since they were dead sure the problem was limited to the prism I asked if they could swap the defective prism for another EXC ME prism available on the site - wiith an appropriate price adjustment for the better condition of the prism. They declined. Perhaps it's just more profitable for them to sell the body, lens, film back and 120 insert separately.

I'm gonna think long and hard before going back to KEH.

[Sirius Glass]

I just received a Hasselblad RMfx reflex prism for the Hasselblad 903 SWC. It was rated at LN- and came well packed and exactly as promised.

Steve

[aldevo]

I just received a Hasselblad RMfx reflex prism for the Hasselblad 903 SWC. It was rated at LN- and came well packed and exactly as promised.

Steve

I'm glad your experience has been better than my own. At this point I'm finding them about as useful as mammary glands on male cattle...

(PS - Please verify the kit actually works; do not assume as much regardless of what its cosmetic condition suggests )

[Sirius Glass]

(PS - Please verify the kit actually works; do not assume as much regardless of what its cosmetic condition suggests )

Excellent point, I will check it when I pick up the camera tomorrow.

Steve

[bibowj]

Hi- I will add my input about KEH.


Ive stopped buying from them and thats only because of my specific situation. I live at an APO address overseas, and while KEH does deliever to that address no problem like the other major site do, they dont have a standard method of doing so. The last order I made took 10 days for it to even LEAVE the warehouse and it took me 4 or 5 emails before I could get an answer as to why. Once the lens got here, it turns out that they sent me the wrong version of the lens and the one I wanted was no longer in stock. Pretty big hassle overall. I admit however that this case again is specific to my situation, and their quality is generally GREAT. The wrong lens was certainly in great condition, i just feel the customer service is lacking.
Ive just taken a chance and ordered some used stuff from Adorama that was rated E and above, and we will see. I can get stuff from them in 5 days and so far the service has been perfect.

IVe made 10 orders from KEH in the last few months and on thier website, all say PENDING still...crazy.

[PhotoJim]

IVe made 10 orders from KEH in the last few months and on thier website, all say PENDING still...crazy.

They handle their international orders manually. Every order I've made from KEH on their website still shows as "pending" but they have all arrived here.

[mikebarger]

Hey this is neat, this weeks I love KEH is green. We recycled an old thread.

Mike

[John Koehrer]

Couple of things. Shipping to an APO has to be USPS and a customs declaration must be filled out. Still, the delay doesn't make a lot of sense.
Re: The Bronica prism, They offered a refund & you didn't want that. You wanted the transaction handled YOUR way. Sometimes the customer isn't right for whatever reason, you don't know why they wouldn't do an exchange + $$ neither do I.
Take the refund & be glad it wasn't some Bozo on Eprey that told you to get bent.