KEH: A Better Deal Than I Thought??

[sm4him]

I made my first purchase on keh.com a little over a week ago; bought a Tokina 100mm lens, excellent condition, for about $125 less than the new price.
I ordered it on Sunday, May 6 and received it on Wednesday, May 9. I love it, at least from what I can tell--I've had precious little time to shoot with it but I'm hoping that will change this weekend.

Anyway...here's my question/observation, for anyone else who has some experience with keh.
How long did it take them to process your payment? Because I'm starting to think I got a better deal than I expected. The keh website shows my account as "payment received" and of course, I have the lens; I've had it for nearly a week now.

BUT--my bank account has yet to be debited for the transaction! Who sends a nearly $400 lens out without having already processed the payment??
I'm wondering whether to just wait another few days and see if it shows up, or if I need to call them and point out that they have yet to actually CHARGE me for the lens they sent.

Not that I wouldn't LOVE to have this nice macro lens for FREE, but I DO like a clear conscience so I want to make sure they get their money.

 

[cannpope]

Not sure about your bank, but did you check pending transactions? Sometimes banks will hold transactions in a pending state until it actually drops off and shows as a debit. It is kind of strange that it has been a week though.

 

[sm4him]

Yeah, that's the weird thing. It's not even a pending transaction at my bank, but at keh.com it says "payment received." I'm pretty sure something weird has happened, like my bank has debited someone else's account for MY lens.

 

[Mach0]

It will take a couple of days. Normally, I receive my item within 4 days of order and the charges hit my account the day after I receive it.

 

[terri35 7]

Not that I wouldn't LOVE to have this nice macro lens for FREE, but I DO like a clear conscience so I want to make sure they get their money.

If it still hasn't shown up at your bank, you should give KEH a call and say those exact words to them, credit card in hand. Someone's been incorrectly charged for it or the transaction slipped through the cracks - either way, when they reconcile the books it will be discovered (if a wrongly-charged, disgruntled customer doesn't call them up first). Why not be proactive? KEH is an excellent company to do business with.

 

[Mach0]

If it still hasn't shown up at your bank, you should give KEH a call and say those exact words to them, credit card in hand. Someone's been incorrectly charged for it or the transaction slipped through the cracks - either way, when they reconcile the books it will be discovered (if a wrongly-charged, disgruntled customer doesn't call them up first). Why not be proactive? KEH is an excellent company to do business with.

They place an authorization on the card. The hold then gets released and the sale applies but you might not see the sale post for a couple of dys

 

[sm4him]

Not that I wouldn't LOVE to have this nice macro lens for FREE, but I DO like a clear conscience so I want to make sure they get their money.

If it still hasn't shown up at your bank, you should give KEH a call and say those exact words to them, credit card in hand. Someone's been incorrectly charged for it or the transaction slipped through the cracks - either way, when they reconcile the books it will be discovered (if a wrongly-charged, disgruntled customer doesn't call them up first). Why not be proactive? KEH is an excellent company to do business with.

Oh, there is NO question about that; I literally would not be able to sleep at night if I don't get it cleared up!

MachO; it's already been about 10 days since I placed the order, and a week since I actually received the lens.
I think I'll give it til the end of the business day today which is one full week since I received the lens, and then tomorrow morning I'll just call them. Or I may not wait that long. Clearly, something is amiss here.

 

[Overread16 4]

I'd say give them a call now - you won't lose out in any way by doing so and it will at least put your mind to rest about the situation. Might just be that the process got slowed/delayed or that it has processed and just isn't showing or somesuch. If there is a problem you've at least done your bit to take the first step in resolving it.

Personally I hate delayed payments when they don't show up in the account as being shifted out - its money you know you can't spend and mustn't spend, but it still glares at you

 

[Mach0]

Oh, there is NO question about that; I literally would not be able to sleep at night if I don't get it cleared up!

MachO; it's already been about 10 days since I placed the order, and a week since I actually received the lens.
I think I'll give it til the end of the business day today which is one full week since I received the lens, and then tomorrow morning I'll just call them. Or I may not wait that long. Clearly, something is amiss here.

In that case, I would call them. I had that happen but was cleared in three/ four days. I have gotten quite a few things from them.

 

[sm4him]

Well, this just gets weirder.

Called KEH; the gentleman said I just needed to call my bank, because they show it as paid, and perhaps it was just still marked pending at my bank or something.
I called my bank, even though I could see through my online access that there were no pending transactions. The lady at the bank looked through all my accounts and said there are no pending transactions on any of them for anything remotely like the amount I paid for the lens.

I called KEH AGAIN...I am now waiting for an accountant there to verify what account the payment actually came out of, because it wasn't one of MINE.

I never tried so hard in my life to make someone take my money!

 

[Overread16 4]

Ohh a mystery indeed!

Just one thing to consider, do you have any other cards in the house/family? Maybe when you added the card details you picked up a different card by mistake and input that info (which would explain why the payment went through since most/many card payments need a registered address for the card to be filled in as well as a check*).



*quite a few shops simply check on the delivery address being the same as the cards registered address, esp for high value purchases.

 

[sm4him]

Overread: No, there's just one other account that I could potentially have had the card for, but the lady at the bank checked every account with my name on it (including my son's account and one of my mom's accounts) just to be sure that it didn't somehow come out of another account with my name on it.

I would suspect that keh simply mis-input my card number and charged someone else accidentally--but, as you said, these days most places verify that the delivery address is the same as the cards billing address, so I'm not sure what's happened. I'll update when I hear back from keh!

 

[Overread16 4]

It will depend though - I've bought stuff from Amazon for years and my delivery address has hardly been the same as my cards registered home address (student ). Only time I've ever had something cancelled like that was when I ordered a £1K camera from Curries - and then it only cancelled because I missed the phone call to confirm.

Might be Keh don't confirm unless the amount is over a certain value.

 

[terri35 7]

Overread: No, there's just one other account that I could potentially have had the card for, but the lady at the bank checked every account with my name on it (including my son's account and one of my mom's accounts) just to be sure that it didn't somehow come out of another account with my name on it.

I would suspect that keh simply mis-input my card number and charged someone else accidentally--but, as you said, these days most places verify that the delivery address is the same as the cards billing address, so I'm not sure what's happened. I'll update when I hear back from keh!

Bizarre, isn't it? I've dealt with them for years and, like you, after 4 to 5 days maximum the transaction is complete on both ends. Sounds like it's more on the bank side now.

As long as the vendor is happy, right? That way, you can keep ordering more stuff!