Hatblei- Kiev 60 Scam?

garythegit

garythegit

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Hi folks. Forgive me for posting this here but I really don't know any other trustworthy sources or more knowledgeable people than the RFF.

I ordered a Kiev 60 from Hartblei.com because it was a pretty good deal- $180 for a full rebuilt kit. However, I read afterwards in a forum that Hartblei was a 'scam'. This got me worried so I emailed the official Hartblei rep based in Munich. He sent me an email saying yes it was bit of a scam in that they are no longer the official Hartblei suppliers and are probably just selling some left over old stock.

My question is, have I been duped out of $200? Or will I receive a camera but just not an 'official' Hartblei product? If anyone have experience with Hartblei.com then any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks all!

Gary
 
that does seems to be the case. i asked a few flickr buds as well, who have ordered from harblei and they seem quite happy with theirs. i will give them the benifit of the doubt and reserve judgement until the K60 arrives. cheers mate!

i was only worried because the german hartblei rep was sooooo majorly pissed about this whole thing!! this was his letter to me:

Gary

First of all , I can tell you we are as unhappy as you are about this mess and I am currently working to “clean”
This up and insure our customers are not told some stories.

Hartblei com is hold as a hostage from a former partner of Sergeji Nauminko, his name is Pissarenko, unluckily he refuses to let the website go.
Hartblei is a registered company and Brand in Ukraine, but this guy and Mr. Markov claim to be still the official site which is not true.
We do not deliver any goods to them anymore, Sergeji does not sell our lenses to them, the russian versions are not built anymore.
We concentrate on our Zeiss Business.
Unfortunately they tricked us and host the website in Slovakia, so we cannot shut it down from Ukraine, I already sent a letter to their
Service provider who did not even answer. To stop this we need to take charges against them in slovakia and if we do they might as well
move to belarussia or some other country so it is pretty useless right now.
But be assured that our products are serviced and sold through clear channels already, our website , our dealers and our distributors, Hartblei com is expected to stop business
Because they don´t have any hartblei products. Whatever they sell is not made by us, maybe with exception of some old stock which was done
Some years ago.

Sorry I have no better news for you, but I think you will get a camera, the question is, if they will send you a Hartblei version which I doubt.
They may as well change some parts and make it working better than the Arsenal original, but still , it´s very unlikely we did it.

So what they try to tell people is they represent Hartblei which is NOT True.
The same applies to Michael Fourmans (Kievcamera) webshop on Ebay Hartblei Optic and GoandShoot, the tiltadapters he sells are cheap crap
And do not have anything to do with the advanced technology we use now. He also buys crap taiwanese Fisheye lenses and labels them Hartblei (for 35$!!!)
This is the reason why we stopped business with him. He also is still claiming to sell Hartblei Products which is not true.

Hartblei has now some worldclass companies as partners for our lenses and we will clear this up, promised.
Unfortunately justice may take some time as the legal system sometimes is slow, but we will get them.

If you want communicate this letter, if there are any questions I am glad to answer them if I can.

Greetings from Munich


Stefan Steib
Gabelsbergerstr.48d
D-80333 München

www.hartblei.de
www.digitalfoto-trainer.de
www.spectralize.com

+49 89 52059305 phone
+49 89 52055778 fax
+49 171 8190488 mobile
+38 096 4879191 mobile Ukraine
 
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