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Thread: 135L Price / Rebate Timing

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    Senior Member Dave Throgmartin's Avatar
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    135L Price / Rebate Timing

    As discussed in another thread I've done some reviewing and have concluded the 135L is the telephoto lens I want to buy.

    I've looked at B&H's site and see it is $924 including an instant rebate that expires on 2/4. The MSRP on the Canon site is $1089. I looked at some of the rebate history and this lens appears to have rebates go against it very seldom.

    I'm sorry I don't already know this, but what could I expect the B&H price to be once the rebate expires? If I want the lens do I definitely need to buy it now or risk paying a $100 higher price or will the after rebate price still be in a similar ballpark? I may be remembering incorrectly, but I thought the price was normally around $1000. Is $924 significantly less the normal?

    Thanks
    Dave

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    Usually the price will go up after the rebate expires. Sometimes it will not go up as much as the rebate was before hand. I have seen some rebates where they expired and the change in the overall price was not much at all. When I bought my 70-200mm F/2.8L II last year in January, the price expired then they had a price increase immediately after that. I bought mine right before the increase and saved a fair amount. I remember once in a rare instances the rebate started and the price was slightly more with the rebate than it was without, I believe it was the price of a 7D in that instance.

    If you want the lens at the price it is now, it would probably be best to buy it while the rebate is on. The 135mm is an older model lens, if I were guessing I would say it will go back up but probably not the full amount of the rebate. But then I would be guessing, the only way to know for sure is if you can get B&H to tell you how they do their pricing structure.

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    Administrator Sean Setters's Avatar
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    That's an even better price than a refurbished unit. I'd suggest jumping on it if you want the lens.

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    Photoprice.ca has price history graphs. Here's the 135L. Just scroll down past the retailer listings, and you'll find a mixed CDN/US graph show Canadian rebates, followed by a US graph, showing US rebates. You'll see the price did drop a fair chunk with the rebate. You'll also see this is the only US rebate in over 3 years, so you're probably not going to get another deal like this anytime soon.

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    Senior Member Dave Throgmartin's Avatar
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    Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to sleep on it tonight.

    Dave

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    Have you thought about buying used? B&H has outstanding used inventory. Anything rated 8+ or higher is usually hard to tell from new aside from the box.

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    Senior Member Dave Throgmartin's Avatar
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    I decided to place the order tonight. It's supposed to be here Thursday!

    Dave

  8. #8
    Senior Member Dave Throgmartin's Avatar
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    I finally received the lens after significant grief with B&H and their shipping policy.

    Perhaps I should have known better before placing the order, but I was surprised to find out how difficult it was to receive my package. I work and my wife works so no one is home. I do not feel comfortable having personal items shipped to my place of employment. There is no option with B&H to have the package shipped to a Fedex store location for me to sign when I pick it up (contrastingly, I use this option with Lensrsentals exclusively without issue).

    The only answer I appeared to have, short of wasting vacation, was to head to the local Fedex office to pick up the package. That part of the deal was absolutely not understood when I made the purchase. The process was stressful and quite frankly my zeal for receiving the new lens has been greatly dampened.

    Now that I completely understand their shipping policy, I do not think I would consider buying any significant items from B&H again. I'm sure many of you are great fans of theirs. Please note that the intent of this post is not to flame them or tell anyone where to shop, but I would like to encourage people to fully understand shipping policies prior to ordering.

    Dave

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Throgmartin View Post
    I finally received the lens after significant grief with B&H and their shipping policy.

    Perhaps I should have known better before placing the order, but I was surprised to find out how difficult it was to receive my package. I work and my wife works so no one is home. I do not feel comfortable having personal items shipped to my place of employment. There is no option with B&H to have the package shipped to a Fedex store location for me to sign when I pick it up (contrastingly, I use this option with Lensrsentals exclusively without issue).

    The only answer I appeared to have, short of wasting vacation, was to head to the local Fedex office to pick up the package. That part of the deal was absolutely not understood when I made the purchase. The process was stressful and quite frankly my zeal for receiving the new lens has been greatly dampened.

    Now that I completely understand their shipping policy, I do not think I would consider buying any significant items from B&H again. I'm sure many of you are great fans of theirs. Please note that the intent of this post is not to flame them or tell anyone where to shop, but I would like to encourage people to fully understand shipping policies prior to ordering.

    Dave
    Dave, I have the same problem with no one home so I rented a box at the UPS store which elevates that problem entirely. But, another option is to go into the FedEx site once you have a tracking number and have it routed to a different address. That used to be an option, don't know if it still is. Truly though, with as much on line fraud that exists and reshipper schemes being very common, you'll find this isn't a policy that is unique to B&H.

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    Dave, I am not sure what policies you are refering. Any time I have ever bought anything on line I always knew that if it were coming UPS or Fed X and had substantial value I would want it signed for. Really the receiving part is on our (the buyer) end and not the shippers. All of my purchases I had shipped to my work address because I knew there would be someone to receive it. But when you buy from B&H you designate the ship address, if you had a friend, relative or a drop box service you could ship to they would deliver there. Really I would never want a $1000 lens dropped at my door and left by UPS or Fed X, I would think for security reasons most people wouldn't. I would think a simple call to the local fed x office they could have told you how to address the package and ship directly to them and could have entered that info in the "Ship To" address information that you have to fill out. I personally have used mailbox type shops and the UPS office to do this kind of thing.

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