KEH - unpleasant sales

Vonder · Oct 5, 2010

Has anyone noticed a recent change in KEH? They used to be a great company but my last purchase experience with them was horrible. I realize in this economy everybody is scrounging for sales, but at the expense of customer loyalty and satisfaction?

Sirius Glass · Oct 5, 2010

I was sent a light meter that was missing an obvious plate. I called them and they sent a replacement before I mailed the first one back.

Steve

wibing · Oct 5, 2010

I bought a Leica M3 from them a few months back. It was rated as excellent but had synch issues and also the little rangefinder patch glass was cracked. Called them and their sales person (Dan) was extremely helpful. They paid for the postage of the M3 from Australia back to them and even covered the postage of the replacement camera. Throughout this, Dan has been extremely helpful and courteous. I hope that hasn't changed.

Vonder · Oct 5, 2010

Seems to be a repeating pattern, sadly, of sending out incorrect, substandard or broken items and hoping the customer won't notice. Maybe that's their sales model now with film cameras being such low price items most of the time.

Alex Bishop-Thorpe · Oct 5, 2010

I've had consistently good transactions with them over the past few years. What has been your experience?

jp498 · Oct 5, 2010

Long long time ago, I bought a used olympus camera body from them which either broke immediately or came broken. They took it back just fine, but it kinda scared me a way for a very long time. Last year I bought a LF lens from them and was pleased with the quality and conservative rating. Then I bought an enlarger lens from them and was pleased with the quality. Most recently I bought a used Nikon manual focus lens from them which was considered bargain to them but pristine and only missing the gold japan sticker to my eyes. They've got lots of nice stuff to sell at reasonable prices and they ship fast (I'm on the east coast like them). Since it's complicated mechanical antiques, sometimes things aren't perfect and how they handle it is more important than the fact that this gear isn't always perfect all the time. I rate them better than ebay transaction in terms on consistency of meeting expectations and same or sometimes lower prices.

jmcd · Oct 5, 2010

I recently bought some gear from KEH, and all of it exceeded my expectationsexcept one lens rated at ex+ had a large chunk of debris or fungus inside, clearly visible at a glance. It could have easily been dislodged during transport to this visible location. I called the person I ordered from, and he e-mailed me a prepaid label to mail the dirty lens back at their expense. The replacement lens, which looked new, was shipped out second day delivery. Throughout, I was polite, he was polite, and problem was sorted.

Over the years, I have ordered one or two items that I felt were graded too high, by more than one grade. In such a circumstance, if you want a replacement and they have it, they will make it right fast, especially if you deal with your salesperson. If you want a refund, you are out postage and will have to wait a couple of weeks, maybe three, for the refund to get issued to your account.

For me, these are the extremes of dealing with KEH, and I find them very pleasant, and a great resource. Still, I understand that just because I have had good success with them, another might not have. I just wanted to pass on my experience with KEH.

tkamiya · Oct 5, 2010

I had a conversation with someone at KEH recently about grading. Once the item is purchased by them, inspected, graded, and stored, it sits there until customer purchases it. That means, if something happened during storage, that can be lengthy for some items, it will go unnoticed. Also, the guy I spoke with was honest enough to tell me, the grading is done by multiple people and it can vary somewhat, and for border line items, it can go either way depending on judgment call made by the person who inspected it.

Other than very annoying refund issue that happened once and took forever to resolve, I have been pretty happy with the items purchased. Sure, some items didn't look new but I didn't expect it. When something was below my expectations, I was able to send it back and get a refund (eventually...)

My suggestion to OP is to give someone at KEH a call and discuss your dissatisfaction. Other than one person I seem to have an issue with (who is short in reply and hang-up on me twice), everybody else has been nice, reasonable, and understanding.

Bob-D659 · Oct 5, 2010

Just bought a lens about maybe a month ago via telephone order, nice person on the other end, it was rated ex+ and looked like it had just been unpacked from factory fresh packaging.

originalphoto · Oct 5, 2010

I did ordered a hasselblad 50mm CF FLE rated EX a several months ago and I got the lens two months later after they shipped it to my friend address in US since I live in China. It was old and bargain grade, then I wrote a letter to them. They exchanged EX+ for extra 200 dollars, I paid postage by myself.

johnnywalker · Oct 5, 2010

I've bought quite a bit of stuff from them and have only had one bad experience, which was my fault - I inadvertently ordered two of the same lens. They both arrived at the post office at the same time. I said "return to sender" on one of them, phoned KEH (I think it was Dan) and they credited my VISA within a few days of receiving the returned lens. Their customer service has been first rate as far as I'm concerned.
The only complaint I have is that their shipping charges to Canada seem high, but then so do everyone else's, including Freestyle.

Jeff Kubach · Oct 6, 2010

I bought a 90C lens for my RB67 earlier this year from KEH, a great lens and a pleasent experience.

Jeff

eclarke · Oct 6, 2010

I think it depends a little on which grade of used merchandise you buy from them, Inhave bought a lot of Stuff from them, nothing below exc and it has all been like new. It probably gets more ambiguous as the grades lower because the level of abuse is more varied...EC

Vonder · Oct 6, 2010

I can understand all of the good / bad experiences. Mine was a combination of VERY slow shipping (three days post-order), and when I tried to cancel it before it shipped was told the shipping couldn't be stopped. So I resigned myself to receiving it late - and when it got here, it was engraved. No mention of it on their website of course, but the label sticker on the item itself had "ENG" on it, so it's not like they accidentally sent it. Lack of one hand (website) knowing what the other hand (inventory) actually had.

Oh, and when I've returned items to them in the past it takes WEEKS to see the returned money.

Atlanta is a town with "Southern efficiency" absolutely.

Stephen Schoof · Oct 6, 2010

I got a cheap N65 body from them a few weeks ago and had the usual positive experience.

LyleB · Oct 6, 2010

I've had nothing but good experiences with them, both their retail and their repair service. Less than a week turn-around time on two Nikon bodies I sent them. They did the repairs requested, plus some extra work that wasn't requested at no extra charge. Top notch as far as I'm concerned.

I will agree, their shipping is not the fastest, especially if you order on a Thur, Friday or Saturday. Seems everything stalls for the weekend. But it has never taken more than 3 or 4 days before I receive my tracking info. I just learned to accept this and stop worrying about it.

I will continue to deal with them without reservation. Everyone makes occasional mistakes, but the odds are very much in your favor that you will not be left holding the bag if you deal with KEH.

removed account4 · Oct 6, 2010

i hate to be another voice in the choir -
but i have been buying off and on ..
35mm ( p/s + prime lenses )
and LF gear from them since the 1990s.
nothing buy "bargain" and nothing but positive experiences.

marylandphoto · Oct 6, 2010

So far, so good, except for one time they sent me a Canon FD 35mm F/1.2 that would not fit on my AE-1 no matter what...they sent me a replacement at their expense, and all is well now.

Paul Sorensen · Oct 6, 2010

Wolfeye said:
Seems to be a repeating pattern, sadly, of sending out incorrect, substandard or broken items and hoping the customer won't notice. Maybe that's their sales model now with film cameras being such low price items most of the time.

This does feel a little unfair to KEH. The cost of the customer service they provide and the shipping that they pay for is pretty powerful incentive to not mess up orders. I personally believe based on my own experiences and reports from others on this forum that they are not knowingly sending out bad items in the hopes that customers won't notice.

I do suspect that there are quite a number of items that they don't test as thoroughly as one might want, but it does become a cost issue. (and also an expertise issue) Also, I suspect that their inventory system has some limitations, especially considering that all used items are basically unique but they do lump them into condition categories which will sometimes mean that two items with the same condition rating will not actually be the same. Oh, and as with the item that you received that was engraved, picking errors do happen.

I have had a couple of issues with orders through KEH and totally recognize that they are not perfect. That said, there are relatively few other options for these kinds of purchases. If I could buy the item locally, it would be great, but that is often or usually not the case. At times I have done okay on eBay, but overall my experiences there have been FAR worse than KEH. I have just decided that I am better off working with KEH or other reputable dealers and if and when issues arise, working them out with the dealer. So far it has worked out to my satisfaction.

Sirius Glass · Oct 6, 2010

Sirius Glass said:
I was sent a light meter that was missing an obvious plate. I called them and they sent a replacement before I mailed the first one back.

Steve

I order EX or better. This is one of two problems I have had with them. They promptly corrected the problem. These two represent a very low percentage of problems since I have bought a large number of items from them the last four years.

Steve

tkamiya · Oct 6, 2010

Since many of us are repeat customers of KEH, I think, it will benefit all of us if OP can share what kind of problems he had and how KEH reps responded when the issue was brought to his/her attention. So far, I can see OP is dissatisfied about his last transaction but I have no idea what happened and how KEH was unable to rectify the issue. Do you care to share your experience??

I don't know about you or anyone else, but I make decision on selecting a business by how they respond to problems; unless, of course, same preventable problems happen over-and-over to me personally.

Vonder · Oct 6, 2010

Paul Sorensen said:
This does feel a little unfair to KEH. The cost of the customer service they provide and the shipping that they pay for is pretty powerful incentive to not mess up orders. I personally believe based on my own experiences and reports from others on this forum that they are not knowingly sending out bad items in the hopes that customers won't notice.

I think it comes down to KEH not having people who know what something is. How can you send out a lens that doesn't fit the cameras it's supposed to fit (one example mentioned in this thread) or send out a camera that simply doesn't work at all (happened to me) and not expect some negative press? It's apparent to me from what I've read here and on other KEH threads that they simply don't examine their merchandise very closely.

I suppose I'm being unfair in that I do expect someone to send me something they said they have when I purchase it. You can make excuses for anything.

Sirius Glass · Oct 6, 2010

KEH will tell you that they visually inspect all the equipment but that they do not physically check out the equipment nor do they test all the functionality. As a result they expect some problems, which they will take care of a no additional cost to the buyer. Try getting that on Craig's List or eBay! If that is not good enough for you, then you need to buy from a brick and mortar store where you can hold and test the equipment, not on the internet.

Steve

wy2l · Oct 6, 2010

My KEH experience

Based upon the experience of others, I bought a "BGN" Pentax 67 45/4. It was just a tad more rough looking than I was expected. I kept it, but should have sprung a few extra $'s for "EX". Not a bad experience, I will buy more, just my experience.

C A Sugg · Oct 6, 2010

I wonder if they might be having some problems with the section that lables and shelves the inventory. A couple of years ago I ordered a 120 ETR insert. And that's what the pack said, even though inside was a 220 insert. (So it wasn't the picker's fault.) Somebody was in a real hurry I guess. They sent a replacement and credited my card with the return postage cost without prompting.
Still, it was a good thing that is was something I wanted, not needed.

KEH - unpleasant sales

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