The Process
Placing an Order
Renting stuff with us is really easy.
- Find what you want. For instance, telephoto lenses or lighting.
- Click the amount of time you want to add to your cart.
- Repeat for any other items you might want.
- Click “Proceed to checkout”, and fill out the form. It’ll walk you through signing up for an account if you don’t already have one.
- Click “Review order” to check for any problems with your order. Problems are highlighted in red.
- Click “Submit order”.
You can use your LensRentals.com account to check on your order status any time.
Processing
Once you submit your order, someone at LensRentals.com will look at it to make sure we can fill it. If you have a large item with special shipping needs, we’ll price it and contact you before proceeding. We have various fraud-prevention checks, many of which are applied at this stage; if we have questions about your order, we’ll talk to you about it here.
Assuming we accept your order, it goes to Reserved until close to the ship date. Once it’s Reserved, our inventory system is aware of your order, and will ensure we have everything we need to fill it. You can cancel your order right from the website if your order is still New or Reserved.
About two business days prior to shipping (or same-day if it’s an “ASAP” order), we start the billing process by authorizing your credit card. This doesn’t actually bill you yet; it’s essentially a hold for the amount of the order. This lets us find out about credit card problems a couple days before we need to ship, giving enough time to resolve any issues without delaying your order, without actually taking your money just yet. Once we start billing, you’ll need to write or call if you want to cancel.
On the ship date, we pull your order from inventory, inspect and clean it, and pack it into a box for shipping. We put a pre-paid return shipping label into the box along with your receipt, seal it up, stick a shipping label to the outside, and move it to our loading area. We wait on actually billing you until your stuff is in the box ready for pickup.
Tracking numbers are available on our site immediately after shipping. You get an email with them too.
After That
FedEx picks up the box, flies it to you, and delivers it. (Note that someone will need to sign for it at the delivery address.) Once your lens is delivered, your rental period begins.
When you’re done, pack it up the way it was when you got it, seal the box, stick the new shipping label right over the old one, and get it to FedEx.
Once the stuff gets back to us, we’ll inspect it again. If there’s any damage, we’ll talk to you further; if not, we’ll send you an email saying everything came back fine. Done!