Good customer service at KEH

[vdonovan]

I've always been happy dealing with KEH. My latest (5 minutes ago) experience was no exception.

I had ordered an UGLY grade 120 back for my Bronica SQ-A. What arrived was a 220 back, which is, of course, totally useless.

I called, the phone was answered instantly. The service person apologized for the mistake. He said that since they no longer had a 120 back that he could replace it with, KEH would refund the full amount of my original order. I could keep the 220 back, since it would cost more to return it than it was worth.

So I'm bummed I missed out on that 120 back, but impressed with how quickly and honestly they tried to make things right. Saving me the trouble of sending a useless item back seems like common sense, but other companies would have insisted on a return.

Anyone want to swap their 120 SQ back for a few 220s? The 220s make excellent paperweights.

 

[Doug]

You don't like 220 film? Can't find any locally? For MF, I use mostly 220... I would only call your Bronica 220 back "useless" because I have no camera it will fit. 😀

Oh, yeah... Good to hear KEH gave you good service!

 

[vdonovan]

Doug, I LOVE 220, but there is no longer any black and white film available in 220.

 

[rangefound]

you know that you can use 120 film in a 220 back? Just wind on after the 12th frame

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Great Service... Tim has helped me a lot for years... tim@keh.com and sales@keh.com: apart from email service, the phone service is great too... And what matters the most: their gear...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[spyder2000]

I'm with rangfound ... 120 in a 220 back works easily.

 

[Penzes]

I would say, 220 Film is still available.

http://www.google.de/products?q=220...r4icoE&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&ved=0CBoQ_AU

At least I would give it a try. I'm also searching for a cheap back for my Hassi.

 

[Doug]

Ok; 220 Black & White has become problematical... 🙁 I still have a couple 5-packs of TX320, and I expect there'll be some available here and there for a while yet. I shoot color, though, so that's a better situation.

One thought brought up by "rangefound" comment is that the film insert for your 220 back may be the only difference from a 120 back. I can't seem to dig up the particulars at the moment, but in recollection the only difference in my Pentax 645 inserts is that the 220 has a metal tab, that, if removed, changes it to be a 120 insert. Might also be the case for Bronica film inserts, and a close examination might reveal that! Good luck...

 

[vdonovan]

Thanks for the tips, friends. 220 B&W is probably dead for ever. There are a few rolls of TXP still available, but I need a film that I can shoot regularly and reliably. I don't shoot color film.

It's true that the only difference between the Bronica SQ 220 and 120 backs is the insert. Just try finding a 120 insert! The reason I bought an UGLY grade 120 back from KEH was that I figured the insert would probably be good, so I could use it in one of my other shells.

I know I can shoot 120 in a 220 back, but they are different. I'm concerned that the different pressure plates might give me an inconsistent film plane. I would hate to spoil a portrait session that way.

thanks again for the tips!

 

[Steve M.]

I'm 99.9% sure you'll have no problems at all shooting 120 in your back. I was going to buy a camera like yours a while back and found a website (unfortunately I can't locate it at the moment) that said the pressure plates were exactly the same. You just have to keep track of how many shots because it will happily keep going past 12. Easy to take a lot of shots and the film's long since wound itself up, but I'm pretty sure you'd notice the difference in feel once it winds onto the spool.

Oh, I found it, so here's the link. And I heartily agree w/ you on KEH. They're human and occasionally make mistakes, but try dealing w/ the two main NY camera dealers sometime (everyone knows who they are). I'll take KEH ANY day. Great store w/ great employees.

http://www.ayton.id.au/gary/photo/photo_BronicaSQ.htm

 

[Bob Michaels]

My KEH great service story:

Several years ago, my sister in Atlanta called me in a panic saying the UPS box containing my 21mm 2.8 Biogon had been stolen from her office before the UPS courier arrived to pick it up.

My immediate call was to KEH only because they were in metro Atlanta, not because they had anything to do with the lens. They said they would be on the lookout for anyone trying to fence such a lens. KEH even said they would call the other used camera dealers in Atlanta for me and alert them about the stolen lens. They even said there was a Ritz photo store right across the street from my sister's office building, but Ritz even refused to take my name and phone number. Now I am no special customer at KEH, they just stepped up to help.

When a remote dealer does things like that for me, I am eternally grateful and tell others.

Things ended well when several weeks later the Post Office delivered the opened and resealed UPS package to me. No postage just the UPS label. No one at the Post Office could figure out how it got into their system, so they just delivered it along with the mail.

 

[nikon_sam]

KEH's Customer Service...WOW

KEH's Customer Service...WOW

I bought a Mamiya m645 from KEH last month off ebay...
When I got it I tested just about everything I could...I found that the slowest speeds were way off...1 sec was about 1.5, 2 was 4, 4 was 7.5 and 8 was 16 seconds...
If I were to use a metered prism it would be a lot better so I decided to keep it and live with that...(I don't really use those speeds anyway)
Yesterday I was shooting and tried using the DOF preview and figured out it wasn't working properly...(Big part in getting the 1000s model)
I packed it up ready to ship back for either replacement or repair since it has a 6 month warranty...I called them this morning to find out what I needed to do to get this done...
Dan informed me that to send it back for them to repair would cost more than it was worth...First he apologized for the problems, then he said that they had another one they could send me (2 day shipping-no cost) and that I could keep the one I have now..."use it for parts or whatever..."
I was impressed to say the least...He (Dan) made all the decisions, took charge and said this is what we are going to do for you...
I've been dealing with KEH for maybe 10 or 12 years now and will continue with them as long as they continue this awesome service...😀

 

[totifoto]

I have always had outstanding service from them until recently.

I sent them email to ask if I could order from their webpage and had the product sent my my girlfriends hotel cause she was going to the US ( we live in Iceland )
They answered me within the hour and said it would be no problem and all I had to to is to mail back what I wanted to order along with a pic of my credit card and the hotel address.

Few weeks later my girlfriend goes to the US and the same day she leaves I send them mail with my order. She was there for 6 days and I never got any mail back about my order and she never got any package to her hotel. They did not charge my credit card either so I did not complain to them, I just wanted to use my girlfriends trip to save shipping cost and 25.5% taxes of the product as it arrives via Fed-ex or UPS here in Iceland. 😕

 

[celluloidprop]

Don't feel like starting a new thread, but I've had my second not-great experience with KEH in a row. (got a M4 that was noticeably out of vertical alignment - I know they don't check everything for function but that was obviously not going to be usable out of the box)

Ordered a Contax ST body and lens and paid for two-day shipping - body arrived and the focus screen was sitting diagonally in the mouth of the lens mount, looking fairly banged up (the process to change the focus screen requires pushing a small latch, so I think it had to have shipped that way. The focus screen also appeared to be a matte screen for macro, definitely not a split-prism.
I call them up for an exchange, and the CR rep describes the situation as strange and tries to tell me that the matte screen was standard on the ST (I was making sure the replacement body had a split-prism). Whatever, they send me a RMA for returning the package.
I get it out that day and tracking shows KEH received my return package last Wednesday - no word from them, so I e-mailed last night and was informed that my new body would be on its way tomorrow.

So I paid for two-day shipping mid-day 2/28, it was shipped 2/29 and if I'm lucky, I'll have the camera on 3/19.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

last month, i ordered a 0.85 M6TTL BGN at a decent price. I did a 360 view and saw alot of scratches on it. I called KEH, I think it was Ken and he told me that the view may not be the actual equipment purchased. I took the plunge, what arrived was a beautiful M6TTL. So.... I don't know what to make of it except that the user experience differs quite a bit.