Buying Equipment from KEH

I took advantage of their recent Free Shipping promotion.

Best time to buy something like monopod (saved $56.00 shipping to Washington State).

My latest experiences with KEH were both outstanding. I love their website but I have found that calling them is a good idea. I spoke to Mike at some length about the differences in several monorail 4x5 cameras, and he answered my questions, as did Josh when I actually ordered the camera. My new-to-me Cambo SCX, BGN grade for $159, is beautiful. The ground glass is clean, the bellows are fine, and everything works as it should. The BGN grade apparently applies only because the front standard focus knob is slightly crooked (no big deal). After receiving the camera, I discovered (the hard way!) that my Bogen 3221 with 804 head was not up to the task of holding this camera. So I called back and got more advice from Mike and ordered a Bogen 3036 with the 3047 head, again in BGN grade, for $149. BGN grade really is what it says - the gear works, it's just got some experience.

I recently bought a fair amount of stuff from them, mostly Pentax 6x7 gear. Last Sunday night, I ordered a Beattie Intenscreen and a Quick Focus Ring. I was especially excited about the Beattie screen. Well, I placed the order on their web site and paid for it via PayPal right then. On Tuesday, I got an email from them saying that they had gotten Sundays order, but that it was blank. The item detail information wasn't on the order in their system. By the time we'd figured everything out, they had sold the Beattie screen to someone else!! Since they are hard to find, I was pretty disappointed. I recalled that the other item on the non-order was a Quick Focus Ring, which they still had in stock. I told them to go ahead and send that to me and I asked for free shipping and a refund of the balance. They were willing to comp the shipping fees. But, they never apologized or did anything to help me get a replacement for that Beattie screen or even to offer to notify me if they get another one in.

I'm sure they are overall good to do business with. But, I missed out on a hard to find item because of their system and they weren't too helpful about offering to fix the situation.

I dealt with with Tim.

-R

I recently bought a Sekonic L-778 spot meter from KEH. On arrival it had an intermittent fault that became progressively worse. Since I live half way across the world from them, return shipping would not have been very economical - let alone the hassle of having to claim back the customs import duty I had already paid.

I emailed KEH and received an immediate response from Chris Brooks. He has been fantastic and has gone out of his way, and well beyond what he was obliged to do in terms of KEH's terms of service, to make things right for me, at considerable cost to the company. It's been an absolutely "no-quibble" experience for me - not "well it was working when we shipped it" (which I'm sure it was as it was initially an occasional intermittent fault); not "ship it back at your expense and we'll look at it"; not "are you sure you put the batteries in correctly"; just "sorry you have a problem, let me help me sort it out for you". I'm truly impressed by and grateful for the service I have received.

Andrew, glad to hear they worked at customer satisfaction, I remember the post about the meter when it started acting up. I wouldn't be surprised to find that effort on their part will make them more money long term than it cost to correct your problem. i will say they earn my business a few years back with a combo of price condition and service, admittedly I'm one of those that feels better ordering from a person so they have to talktome when i order .

I have purchased my MAMIYA AFD camera plus a couple of lenses (80 1.9; 45 2.8) and film backs, all were in excellent condition. I never had any problems with any item. Most recently, I a bought an EX+ Sekonic L-758DR--- saved a lot of money with the 11% discount and free S&H.

The only time I used EBAY was when I purchased a mint YASCHICA ELECTRO GSN for a great price. For major purchases I rather go with reputable dealer like KEH that offers a 6 month warrantee.

Peace of mind if priceless. :)

TheShermanstank, welcome to APUG.

I bought a Nikon 18-55 lens for my new electronic camera last week. If someone told me it was new I'd believe it. Great service.

I just purchase a Bronica GS-1 back from them and am happy with it. I still have to run some film through to check for leaks, though.

I think places like KEH are fairly consistent in grading items. Once you get a feel for their system, you pretty much know what you will be getting. The same can't be said of random sellers on ebay - they can have different ideas of what "Excellent" or "Fair" are.