KEH quality

[Roger Cole]

Is it possible it got whacked in shipment?

[vinny]

I've only bought from them once. Last month. A bronica gs-1 a la carte. The ae prism (rated ex) wouldn't allow me to view through it. I sent it back, they said it couldn't be fixed or replaced since they didn't have any more in stock. Apparently they didn't put it on the camera and actually look through it before sending it to me. I sent it all back. Bummer.

[David Solow]

I have bought a number of things at KEH over the past year. I have had nothing but great experiences with them. Almost everything I bought was as it was advertised. I did buy two lenses (each at a different time) that had shutter problems. One was repaired and returned promptly at KEH's expense including shipping both ways. The other was replaced immediately with another lens without any costs to me. I would highly recommend them.

[Oren Grad]

Is it possible it got whacked in shipment?

The package was pristine - neither the box nor any of the internal packaging appeared disturbed in any way.

I just spoke with someone at KEH. Once I explained what my concern was, he gave me an authorization code for free return FedEx shipping and apologized for the hassle. I do have to drop it off at a FedEx location myself, which makes it still more of a time-sink for me.

I think that if there's a true picture of KEH, it's conveyed by this thread as a whole. A lot of good experiences, but also a non-negligible number of annoying lapses. On the plus side, you won't get horribly ripped off because of the strong return policy. Just figure that there's a fair chance you'll need to spend some of your time serving as one of their QC inspectors.

[uphereinmytree]

I agree with Oren. I've not been 100% satisfied, but I would buy from them again.

[John Koehrer]

If you consider the fact that they repair or replace a defective item without question, how can that be a bad transaction? You get what you want in the end.
There are places where you get a hard time or no satisfaction at all. Which would you rather have?

[Leigh]

Hey guys...

You're buying used stuff because you're too cheap to buy new stuff.

Stop complaining that you received used stuff. It's USED, capiche?

Stop bad-mouthing a company that has extremely high business ethics just because you don't agree with their evaluations.

- Leigh

[photobymike]

Another successful transaction completed with KEH ... those guys are golden.....

michael

[polyglot]

Another vote for "KEH are as good as you can possibly expect a second-hand vendor to be". They grade conservatively, sometimes they will apparently send a better grade if they run out of the lower grades and while that can lead to inflated expectations later on it's hardly poor service.

Given the quantity of gear they churn, I can easily forgive them the occasional unnoticed "feature" on an item (never happened to me though and I've bought probably 10 things there) and their return policy quite makes up for it.

In other words, I'm not sure how or where you would find a better second-hand vendor at this scale.

[Steve Hamley]

Just bought a "bargain" Linhof tripod head - absolutely mint.

Cheers, Steve