BorrowLenses

Awful, just avoid it…
A lot of great photographers on Instagram are promoting Borrowlenses so I said why not? I got a partnership with an interior designer and needed a wide angle for some pictures. At this time I thought it was a good thing to work with Borrowlenses, so I just checked the website, and FAQ where I found
More than 99% of the orders we process do not require a deposit. .We evaluate every order and do reserve the right to ask for a deposit if we feel it’s necessary.
I was stupidly thinking that the deposit might concern, people here on vacation, are if someone would rent a very expensive lens… 1%? I cannot be in the 1
Well I found the good one for me, a Nikon 16 – 35 F4, not that expensive, for a weekend, $ 74, that’s a good price with the shipping.
Next day, they asked me a copy of my ID, and a bill with my address. Not a big deal, that’s my first order after all.
Wednesday they asked me a copy of my debit card which I used for the payment. Fine, that’s my first order but I’m just hoping that my order will be shipped on time because the shooting is on Saturday! I received an email just after, that I didnt answer some questions in an other email… I was a bit suspicious at this time…
Well, I just opened the email with few questions Are you a professional? What do you want to shoot with the lens? Have you ever rented a lens online? Do you have a website? (I do, I also gave my instagram… I dont have 50k followers but they could have an idea about the pictures I shoot).
Thursday morning… I receive an email saying After evaluating your order, our insurance underwriter determined that we can only ship your order with a deposit of $ 500.0 on file… Sweeeeet
A deposit of $ 500, the half of the price of the lens… The day of the shipment… Great! So I just answered what else do they need? Fingerprints? HIV test? Obviously I asked for canceling my order.
They dont ask deposit in 99% of the orders, I’m the 1%… Why? Feel so special

Was notified a few days before arrival date of the lens I was planning on renting that I needed a deposit, which was the cost of the lens itself. If I could afford a deposit for the value of the lens then I’d buy it instead. Not only did they already charge me for the rental period, they didn’t leave me with enough time to find a place to rent a lens for the event I was planning on shooting. Very unprofessional.

All I can say that I love your service.

Best customer service ever! I forgot to return my lens on time and they figured out a deal instead of charging extra per day. You guys rock !!!

Awesome rental service! I just got back from a trip to Paris and Dubai, and rented a 24 – 70 and 70 – 200 2.8 lenses and used them alongside my own 14 – 24 for the perfect lense combo to capture photos on my trip. I would highly recommend @borrowlenses to anyone.

My lens rental was Friday-​Tuesday; I had a photography trip planned for Sunday-​Monday. UPS wasn’t able to deliver the lens on Friday because I missed the driver and couldn’t provide a signature. UPS website said I would absolutely need to wait until Monday. I was devastated! However, when I called BL they were extremely willing to help. The rep called UPS for me and reasoned with them, allowing me to pick up the shipment at a local store. Phew! Great customer service. Plus, I’m happy that I was able to find this fantastic lens for such an affordable rental price.

Pros
Very good selection of products for rent including cameras, mounts, lenses, lighting products, and accessories.
Knowledgeable reps at brick and mortar storefronts
Cons
Horrible checkout experience. No secure cc processing. Buggy ‘Enter Payment and Contact Info’ page.
So, if you want to do business with them, only do so at stores.

I have just returned my Canon lens today. BorrowLenses is my favorite place for rentals. It’s a convenient service, plus they always have a top-​quality photo equipment. If only they could rent for less than three days, it would be great.

I am an experienced amateur photographer, and wanted to try out a special Nikon camera in the field before committing to a purchase.
This was my first time renting from BorrowLenses (in fact my first time renting any photo equipment). I found the process easy and intuitive. I have read through a couple of some of the bad reviews below, where they complain about items «missing» from their rental — tripods, memory cards, etc. Honestly, BL make it very clear what is included in the rental, and if you don’t know about photo equipment don’t rent from this site.
The equipment was delivered on time to my selected pick up location, and in perfect (seemed new) condition. Everything worked fine.
Will use them again and recommend to friends.

Terrible terrible terrible from start to finish. I rented a video camera for my wedding day about a month ago. Checked to make sure I chose one that didn’t have some disclaimer saying I’d need to rent X part and X part or have X amount of insurance to get it.
Still got an email the day before the camera was supposed to arrive saying they had canceled my order. Had to stop what I was doing, call them, only to find out they needed me to send them various documents and IDs to rent the camera (nothing was said about this at checkout). Oh and I had about 2 hours to do it or it wouldn’t arrive in time for my wedding. Great. Rushed home to get that done. Finally got confirmation and the camera arrived the next day.
There was no tripod for this camera offered on their site so I ordered a cheap one off Amazon. Brought that with me and passed the camera off to my aunt, who was going to record the ceremony. Near the end of the wedding, I find out that the camera came with NO LENS!!! Absolutely nothing in the description of the camera on the site saying that it requires an attachable lens to operate at all, nothing. It includes everything else it needs to work… but has no lens. So I ended up with no video of my wedding day.
At this point I’m already pissed. I get the parts returned to the company, call them up and say that I want a refund. The camera arrived in a condition in which I could not use it at all. The response I received was, «Oh, well most of our cameras come like that. But I can understand why you might not have known, so we can give you a partial refund for $ 96.00.» DUH I wouldn’t have known, because you made a point to NOT put that on the description for this camera!!!
I then get a refund for $ 50, because a charger and battery are missing. My bad, I left them charging at the hotel. I retrieve them, have them shipped back with a tracking number, no remaining refund is sent. I contact them AGAIN regarding the refund and am told I will only get $ 18 back instead of the remaining $ 46 they said I’d get due to «25% processing fees for refunds.»
At this point, it’s almost a month after my wedding and I went to my bank and just filed a claim for what was left of the total charge. Absolutely INSANE to try and keep over $ 100 for an item that I COULD NOT USE!!! Poor business practices, poor customer service, just awful experience all around.
If you need equipment for something important, like your wedding day, DO NOT USE THEM. If it’s not a big deal to you for everything to go wrong and you have a backup plan, then use at your own risk.

I’ve ordered from the online store of Borrow Lenses a handful a time within the best two years. Every order has gone as expected (great products!) but the last one has a small issue. The issue, which could have easily been blamed on me, was dealt with great tact by the customer services team at Borrow Lenses. They were great at communicating, understood where I was coming from, and did everything they could to make sure I was a happy customer (within reason of course). Though I don’t think the customer services team at BL are pushovers at all, it’s nice to experience quality customer service.
Will continue to rent from BL and will recommend it to all my friends.

So it was my first time renting from these guys. And it was and has been a pleasant experience. Variety of lens for a mere bargain. Seems like almost all reservations are done online. But u suppose you can also reserve lens via calling the 800 number.
The staff over the phone and at this location were beyond helpful. I had to exchange a lens since my current camera has a cropped sensors and I got the wrong lens. No hassle and they exchanged my order.
Plus the dude at front desk digged my car so we had a friendly conversation.
Returning customer I will be. Give it a go. You’ll like them. Businesses like these are truly an asset to the Bay Area!!!

THE place to go whenever you need a special lens. I have been using BL for three years now and have always had a positive experience. It’s such a great place to get specialty lenses without having to invest your first born’s college tuition to purchase.
I love the newly added FedEx pickup and drop off locations. It makes it even easier to rent lenses.
Will be back.

Excellent service! This was my first time renting camera equipment. I rented a $ 1,600 lens. The Canon EF 16−35mm f/2.8L II USM. Amazing lens. I wanted to try it out before shelling out so much money. This service is great for that, or for using for a specific shoot without breaking the bank. I will definitely be renting more items from them, since they have made it so easy. The delivery came to a Fed Ex store that was down the street from me (This was my choice), since I didn’t want a $ 1,600 item laying on my front porch. Return was also very easy with a label included. Super easy process!

Overall, my experience with BorrowLenses was pretty good. No issues with ordering and the equipment was in good shape, but having used other rental companies, I just can’t say they’re the best of the best.
My biggest complaint is that the equipment came in CARDBOARD BOXES. And they were pretty beat up and had layers and layers of tape on them as well. When they arrived I just said «that can’t be my rental… surely they wouldn’t put a $ 1600 lens in a cardboard box». But they had. Crammed into a tiny foam space with a pocket wizard.
I also found it weird that I rented two pocket wizards, and one came in a separate box from a totally different warehouse. This means I had to tote around not one, but two ugly cardboard boxes for a week and then remember which Pocket Wizard went in which based on the serial number.
At the end of the day, I guess I can’t complain too much. The equipment was great and I got the job done. But unless they have some crazy deal going on I’ll probably be using other rental services for the most part.

I love this place. i’ve been using borrow lenses since 2012 for multiple reasons. I use them to test the latest gear. Buying lenses can be very expensive and sometimes there’s no way to test a lens other than going to your local camera store and sometimes those places don’t have the lens you’re looking for.
They also have all the accessories you’d need for shooting photo and video. At times, I would need some serious equipment for a job and don’t want to pay for the actual equipment just because its a very rare gig.
These days, I would rent out equipment, such as the Sigma Art lens series, and then determine whether or not I should get a used one on the market or one of the lesser quality brands. Great place, will continue going here.

I am extremely disappointed with Borrowlenses. I have used them over the last 2 years regularly for certain lenses I am not ready to purchase. The only reason I give them a 2, is because they are in fact very good about keeping their equipment up to snuff, and usually have what I want in stock. This time was not the case. Not only did I have to fight with customer service for TWO days because their system would not accept my debit card (because the addresses were different from a recent move and apparently hadn’t registered yet) … they still charged my card after declining it. Twice. And then I had to sit on the phone with them while they did a «Force» order… which was declined THREE more times. This meant I was out almost $ 700 for the next 3 – 4 days until it reposted to my account.
The icing on the cake was the terrible customer service and monotone not giving a s#!t attitude I received from the emails and the phone calls. I will now be using lenspro, because not only do they call you to confirm you were happy with the equipment, they send you CANDY. Get with it Borrow lenses. Their prices are completely comparable, and they treat their customers with respect. Plus, their shipping costs are completely reasonable and they overnight it in a pelican case for less than $ 35.

The rental arrived on time, it was packaged and protected perfectly. As a gadget guy I have drawers of stuff I don’t use. I use it for a week, maybe a month and then it gets stored on a drawer. This service allowed me to get the top of the line camera to video tape and take pictures of my sons HS graduation. The footage I took was perfect. Unbelievable quality pictures.
The price was very affordable. I will be using this service for other important occasions where I want to make lasting memories for our family. I would highly recommend this service.

My first time renting equipment was a large order. I had two weddings, two weekends in a row to shoot. Some of the equipment I preferred to rent was out so I had to make some last minute changes regarding equipment which was disappointing but worked out okay.
The rental process was easy and once I was verified (due to being a first time customer) it was all quick and I received my shipment exactly when expected. Due to my large order I was escalated to VIP status which was nice.
Equipment was all in decent condition. My only complaint is that shots were noticeably off center and in many, the people on the far left were cut into which was NOT showing in the viewfinder. I learned quickly to compensate but it was still a hassle.
Overall a very good experience.

This was my first rental and I don’t know how it could have went any better. I rented the 70 – 200 2.8 and it was in great condition.
I was wondering how things would turn out but I honestly look forward to me next rental.