KEHReviews 22,195

KEH has been my single source for used camera equipment until now. Been dealing with KEH for about 2 years. Purchased approx $2,000 in equipment. Love the rating scale - very conservative and recommended by a friend who is a photographer. I have never bought camera via the Internet before. Unfortunately I had a couple unpleasant experiences recently that all compounded my frustration, so decided to comment here. Today KEH is running a Columbus day Nikon sale and I saw the D7100 I purchased from them only 3 months ago is selling for about $50 less. I called to inquire. Don said that the prices could change DAILY depending on several things. So I'm SOL. I also inquired about buying another 6mo warranty since I had to return the camera once already. SOL on that one too. Don was very helpful but I do not like KEH's policy of DAILY price changes. The prices of my other KEH purchased items over the 2 years hardly changed at alll. So was I told the truth or not? KEH, put yourself in the customer's shoes on this one. I have also purchased one $500 item from Adorama Camera via Amazon (Sigma 150-500mm lens for the D7100). Their rating system is very conservative as well and the price on their item did not change in 2 months (it's still a good deal!). I can see price changes over a period of many months as cameras age, new ones enter the market, etc. But DAILY? No way. There is a lot of competition out there in the used camera market fortunately for me.
>>>The other issues is that I called KEH on a Sunday afternoon EST a few weeks ago and the phone just kept ringing and repeating the message about "...next available representative". This went on for over 15 minutes. I don't know if they are closed on Sundays but I should have received a message telling me so. I hung up. Their message of "World's largest used camera dealer" is a surprise to me because the company seems to have a very "small company" flavor. The technical support department no longer seems to exist and if you have a techy question you might be SOL depending on which sales person you get. I finally called back another day after that Sunday and tried to get tech support again (used to be option 3)...the sales guy said "well you know we are sales people..." I was transferred to someone in Purchasing of all places and asked again for Tech Support. I was never told there is no longer a Tech Support department but rather given advice like "check the manual" or "check YouTube"...which I did in fact. It was just very time consuming. That's what I mean by small company flavor. Another time I called on Memorial Day 2015 and it sounded like the sales rep was very swamped; very brief answers, not real friendly, rushed, couldn't wait to take the next call, etc. Small company. Bottom line watch the daily price changes, don't call on the weekend, don't call for any tech advice, be prepared if you call on a holiday, and by all means check the competition. Other than that I love their rating system!

I found out the hard way that your website does not clearly describe which product it is that you'll receive. Below the product image it states "Image(s) shown are not the actual item. The images represent the item described." and apparently it speaks truth about the product description too. I was told by one of your customer service personnel that the product description at the bottom of the page is not accurate to the actual product.

I ordered a SMC Takumar 50mm 1.4 that i was under the impression was the earlier version with the metal focusing ring as both the image and product description lead me to believe. However I received the newer version with the rubber focus ring and a different number of aperture blades, a small difference but frustrating non the less. I settled for this version after finding out that there was no way to guarantee I would get the version I wanted if I were to try and exchange it.

Other than that mishap and the fact that the 200mm takumar (in Excellent condition) I ordered showed up broken I've been happy with my previous purchases. However now that I'm aware that the image nor the product description reflect what will actually be shipped I will be more hesitant to place future orders.

I've been spending my money with you guys a long time, and its always been a great experience. The few times I've had any issues they were taken care of quickly and professionally. KEH is always my first choice for buying used film gear.
I did though prefer the old web site, it was simple and easy to browse around on. I didn't always know what I wanted to buy, but I knew I had some extra cash, so I could just wander the site until I found what ticked my fancy. The new site just isn't as good for this. In some instances I have found too that an item wont show up in a search that should find it, only to be found if I take the time to manually dig around a bit. I'm sometimes left wondering what I might be missing.

The website that was introduced about a year ago has been an utter failure. KEH decided that image was more important than substance. Although the current site provides no more detail or images of the item you are buying than the old site, because of its graphic design it is SLOW. A search that used to take 5-10 minutes now takes at least double the time if not more. Also it is almost useless on an iPad. As I result I go to the site far less often and frankly buy more from competitors who have easier sites. Compounding this is the fact that KEH has been largely unresponsive to customer complaints made on their Facebook page. While overall I am satisfied with KEH and have made many good purchases, they have become frustrating to work with.