diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 2198ef7bd01..1d8ec455ad1 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ Release 0.20.0 - Unreleased
                server recovery, we could inadvertantly try to reassign regions
                assigned to a restarted server with a different start code;
                Improve lease handling
-   HBASE-1267  binary keys broken in trunk (again) (Ryan Rawson via Stack)
+   HBASE-1267  binary keys broken in trunk (again) -- part 2 and 3
+               (Ryan Rawson via Stack)
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-1089  Add count of regions on filesystem to master UI; add percentage
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HStoreKey.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HStoreKey.java
index c2f204ed04b..7008cffe1c5 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HStoreKey.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HStoreKey.java
@@ -792,7 +792,7 @@ public class HStoreKey implements WritableComparable<HStoreKey>, HeapSize {
       } else if (left.getTimestamp() > right.getTimestamp()) {
         result = -1;
       }
-      return result;
+      return 0; // are equal
     }
 
     protected int compareRows(final byte [] left, final int loffset,
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Memcache.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Memcache.java
index d33fb99ff1d..43f7e3441e9 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Memcache.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Memcache.java
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ class Memcache {
     if (b == null) {
       return a;
     }
-    return Bytes.compareTo(a, b) <= 0? a: b;
+    return this.rawcomparator.compareRows(a, b) <= 0? a: b;
   }
 
   /**
@@ -300,7 +300,7 @@ class Memcache {
       // Iterate until we fall into the next row; i.e. move off current row
       for (Map.Entry<HStoreKey, byte []> es: tailMap.entrySet()) {
         HStoreKey itKey = es.getKey();
-        if (Bytes.compareTo(itKey.getRow(), row) <= 0)
+        if (this.rawcomparator.compareRows(itKey.getRow(), row) <= 0)
           continue;
         // Note: Not suppressing deletes or expired cells.
         result = itKey.getRow();
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ class Memcache {
     // the search key, or a range of values between the first candidate key
     // and the ultimate search key (or the end of the cache)
     if (!tailMap.isEmpty() &&
-        Bytes.compareTo(tailMap.firstKey().getRow(),
+        this.rawcomparator.compareRows(tailMap.firstKey().getRow(),
           search_key.getRow()) <= 0) {
       Iterator<HStoreKey> key_iterator = tailMap.keySet().iterator();
 
@@ -442,9 +442,9 @@ class Memcache {
       HStoreKey deletedOrExpiredRow = null;
       for (HStoreKey found_key = null; key_iterator.hasNext() &&
           (found_key == null ||
-            Bytes.compareTo(found_key.getRow(), row) <= 0);) {
+            this.rawcomparator.compareRows(found_key.getRow(), row) <= 0);) {
         found_key = key_iterator.next();
-        if (Bytes.compareTo(found_key.getRow(), row) <= 0) {
+        if (this.rawcomparator.compareRows(found_key.getRow(), row) <= 0) {
           if (HLogEdit.isDeleted(tailMap.get(found_key))) {
             Store.handleDeleted(found_key, candidateKeys, deletes);
             if (deletedOrExpiredRow == null) {