What happens to the gear you guys are always returning?

Space the final frontier said:

I rarely returned anything bought new that I did not intend to keep unless they were defective….I don't like to use the return policy as a mechanism for trying out something that I am not familiar;

Click to expand...

exactly the same here

The price they offered the 14-150 at last month was the best I've ever seen. I think the new company is still fiddling with how to run the website; they are certainly doing things differently. Day-to-day prices seem "meh" but the special events are pretty tempting.

Cheers,

Rick

InkedMarie said:

Off the top of my head, I have purchased three used cameras from KEH. I have purchased one refurbished camera from Nikon. I have purchased two used lenses from B&H and three from KEH.

All arrived here in great shape, working as they should. I DO trust these dealers; I have no reason not to.

Marie

Click to expand...

+1 ~In addition Refurb 5Ds Ex Canon.. L

Bassam Guy said:

Weegee said:

Every time I come on this site I keep on hearing about all the gear "used" and returned. Don't you guys mind buying gear someone has used for a couple of weeks? The camera or lens could have been dropped. Would you trust a camera supplier to thorughly check out the returned item? Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I buy used lenses almost exclusively and only had a problem with one, a 25mm 0.95 (Laowa?) from mpb.com that couldn't focus past about 20 meters. It worked spectacularly at closer distances so I can see how it passed inspection. I returned the lens and I was refunded without hassle.

I usually buy cameras new at major sellers indirectly through friends in Brooklyn but I have no reservations about buying used.

I don't know where you live, Weegee, but at least in North America, EU, and UK there are consumer protection laws. Reputable vendors see no profit in tarnishing their reputation by selling faulty merchandise or not allowing returns. I don't have to trust the supplier, as the law and their reputation is on my side.

Click to expand...

Australian experience and law is that you can usually return gear that is broken out of box or does not meet your requirements. The first is obvious and the latter is open to interpretation. The time allowed is ‘within a reasonable time’ and more ‘days’ than weeks. many shops ask that the packaging be returned in a condition that it can be re-packaged for re-sale. But in effect it works and works well as long as both sides follow the unwritten rules that are easy to comprehend.

Retailers usually interpret this fairly liberally.

What is not really accepted that people simply waltz up buy some gear and bring it back just because they have chosen not to like it after a free extended working trial.

Hence perhaps the interest in shutter counts on the forum - something that I have never really thought to bother with in Australia.

—
Tom Caldwell

You buy, walk out with it, it's yours. No returns unless it's faulty.

Do your homework.

Danny.

Some of the items may not be available in production anymore, so not much choice in the matter. Not that the local stores carry many M43 related stuff nowadays...

Weegee said:

Every time I come on this site I keep on hearing about all the gear "used" and returned. Don't you guys mind buying gear someone has used for a couple of weeks? The camera or lens could have been dropped. Would you trust a camera supplier to thorughly check out the returned item? Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I've bought quite a bit of analogue gear used. A leica M6, a couple of manual Nikkor lenses, some enlarging lenses (one "mint condition" had small fungus so I bought another one).

Never bought any digital stuff used yet but I have been thinking that you could actually charge a bit for the service of testing the lens (if you are deems trustworthy). I've had really bad luck with new lens buys lately with decentering and a good second hand seller could do those tests, ensuring that a lens is top notch. That would be worth something but the problem is with the trust part I guess.

Edit: spelling

I am very happy to buy Open Box returns from my preferred dealers, they come with the dealers warranty and most often haven't been registered so I get the full makers warranty too

Saves quite a bit of money that way, but I would only buy from those dealers I know and trust

Skeeterbytes said:

The price they offered the 14-150 at last month was the best I've ever seen.

Click to expand...

i saw that and was very temped. Kind of hard to justify when owning the 12-100 since given the choice, I prefer the wider 12mm option vs the longer 150mm option. But still, smaller, lighter makes it easier to always have with me. I still have another good light weight kit in the PL 8-18 + 40-150r. Even better could be the 8-25 and 40-150r. This is the agony and ecstasy of m43, lots and lots of great options

Skeeterbytes said:

I think the new company is still fiddling with how to run the website;

Click to expand...

yes. But even before the new management, Olympus ruined their website about 2-3 years ago. It loads forever, and they removed the link at the top for Sales which included a drop down for camera, lenses, and refurb. Unless one knows to scroll way to the page bottom, as the page continuously loads more stuff, to find the links, few will buy from the site. Bottom line, unless one knows there is a refurb link, it is nearly impossible to find. I personally, have called customer service, after they complicated their website, and written them several times to point this out. Nothing ever happened. This has always been their greatest weakness - marketing themselves :-|

Skeeterbytes said:

they are certainly doing things differently. Day-to-day prices seem "meh" but the special events are pretty tempting.

Click to expand...

they are slowly getting this. Better today than six months ago

Skeeterbytes said:

Cheers,

Rick

Click to expand...

Here in Auckland I have bought two returned cameras at a discount.

The Olympus SX-30MR pocket zoom had black and white art pictures in the permanent memory after I bought it. I had selected P-Mode still in the shop, and I cannot remember whether or not the mode dial was on SCENE before I touched it. Discount was 30%.

My E-M10 II came at the purchase price of a new Olympus SH-2 pocket zoom. Mine had a non-working shutter after one heavy summer shower too many. It was retained in exchange for the E-M10 II. Remembering my electronic repair days last century, it was possibly cannibalized with another SH-2 later with a different fault. The SH-2, and spare parts for it, had been discontinued.

The fault on the E-M10 II became obvious during a cruise-ship video attempt in damp weather with cold wind gusts. I could not focus at all, manually or on Auto.

In the repair days last century, we used freeze sprays and industrial hot-air blowers to either make a fault permanent or cure it. In October 2018 I used my hot-air gun on the E-M10 II body WHILE ROTATING IT CONSTANTLY, AND WAVING THE GUN (!) to avoid melting internal parts. Then I used the hot-air gun on the 40-150 lens WHILE ROTATING IT CONSTANTLY, AND WAVING THE GUN (!) to avoid melting internal parts.

My E-M10 II has performed as well as written up here in numerous posts, and I still use it for stills when my E-M10 IV, bought in 2020, does my harbor night videos.



Henry

--
Henry Falkner - E-M10 Mark II and Mark IV, SH-1, SH-50
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

It's an interesting conundrum, every one wants a return policy, no one likes getting a returned product. Amazon repackages a lot of products, but certain things just go to the dump; clothes particularly. It's a huge waste, and we're all paying for it money wise and environmentally. I sometimes wonder how many cameras get returned because of being faulty, quite legitimate reason that is, but without saying there is a problem with it and just get passed down to another customer.

--
Roger

When we still had camera stores. You could go in and try anything for a day because they had store samples just for that purpose. When you bought new, it was new.

Yes it can be new but still have a variation which make it not the best, especially wide open. We all know there are copy to copy variations of most lenses and the luck or trick is to get a good one.

Weegee said:

Every time I come on this site I keep on hearing about all the gear "used" and returned. Don't you guys mind buying gear someone has used for a couple of weeks? The camera or lens could have been dropped. Would you trust a camera supplier to thorughly check out the returned item? Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

All of the online stores I use have a system for used, demo, open box gear. If you buy the used, demo, open box gear you can check it out yourself and return it if it is defective or not in the condition advertised. In my experience some are better than others at checking and rating the gear but overall they do a pretty good job.

You're probably overthinking this anyway..... does the retailer know if the new inventory was defective or if the new inventory was thrown down a flight of stairs by the shipper? I buy based on the reputation of the online retailer and my personal experience with their service and policies and I don't worry about the little things too much because I know they will make it right. If the little things happen too often then they probably don't have the reputation needed for me to use them in the first place.