FallisPhoto said:
Then why did you give him positive feedback? Yeah, I found the auction on ebay.
i cant speak for scottyb (i have no idea what was going thru his head)...but i have
many times given positive feedback when it could of easily or should of rated negative or at least the grey one. especialy when one has a low score who wants a red mark against them.
early on i had all sorts of trouble from sellars, to begin with, simply allowing me to bid because of a low tranaction count (albeit 100%). i had to send money orders across the world instead of ppal or appeal to them that i was genuine or missed out being alowwed to bid at all and then cross my fingers they would send it and all be good. ........sellers in most instances want feedback left first before they recipricate...if one leaves negative feedback for a seller then as sure as a fly blown sheep is uncomfortable and craves the aerogaurd,,then the seller will leave
red feedback.
who in their right mind, if a vintage folder fanatic, would want the
GOD of folders seller's, restoration and repairs leaving a negative feedback against them!
should they --yes-- but it doesnt always work that way hey!
i once recieved a weltur of the afore mentioned from eb*y--took a long long time before i got it, months, was guarunteed bellows light tight as he writes over and over againin the advert. upon recieving guess what---bloody pinholes!
(btw once this was all done it was far too late to leave feedback-90 days expired)
he said he did not beleive it but would take me at my word and proposed to assist me in fixing them...that turned out more difficult than first thought so he offered me a replacment camera, nicer with unequivocally guaranteed good light tight bellows, he said he checked them with a 300 watt lamp!. cool i thought as it was nicer cosmectically, and the first had other significant problems too, rangefinder malajusted and a disk thingy that gets loose on these things and prevents from being able to open the film loading bay, hence cant use the camera. new camera arrives-- looks heaps better--great. well the bellows had a tear in them more than 10mm long, (blind freddy would not have seen it but would of felt the howling wind blow through the gapping hole!) in a crease on the bottom, so not obvious without knowing it was there at first. as i said to him,,perhaps 300 watts is a sledge hammer approach, as all i used was a small pen torch and it lit up my darkroom through the bellows imediately!
he again said he did not beleive it (went on longer than that i assure you),,simply impossible as he checked them! but had no reason to doubt my word so he told me to rip off the bellows from the first, cut a slither that matched the portion to be repaired and glue it on. if that didnt work then he said he would replace the bellows . by this time i am starting to worry (for him and me, him loosing money and me getting dud cameras) because out of a buch of cameras i purchased from hin a seperate transaction (got discount for multiple purchase) arriving around the same time, each had its own significant problems.
i did rip the bellows of the first and in the process got to see how it was built ...and then was concerned because to replace the bellows on a weltur looks far more difficult than an isolette for example, because it appears the bellows are sandwiched between body frames that are rivited. In the mean time (not that he knew i had already begun the proceedure) he writes back and says just send them both back and he will repair it himself with a patch and if ness new bellows. i prefered the option he gave me to replace the bellows obviously but now i am loosing faith whether the job will be done correctly after seeing the how the weltur is put together. i ask all the right questions as to how he will exchange new bellows if nessarsary but dont get satifactory answers.
so by now i am afraid i will be out of pocket (postage etc) and without a weltur for who knows how long!! and who knows what sort of repair i get upon return. so i fix it myself unhappily (i would want new bellows of course) and sent the first back. that camera showed up on ebay days later with new bellows (i had ripped the old one out to fix the second weltur) and sold for a pretty dollar, the results of the new bellows instalation are below, it was obvious that it was not done correctly (have pictures to prove it! of the open back camera) and the new owner eventually after negotiation recieved a settlement and returned the camera. the weltur (or the best part of it) then appeared again on ebay days later with bellows fixed (so it looked) and sold again. each time apparently the rangefinder was said to worked on for hours! hmmm.
ah well what do ya do--prefer to think i just has unbelivable bad luck-but virtually every single camera with fault is difficult to take
i dont doubt that as someone said on here in the past 'he probably does more good than bad'--so that is a good thing hey! and no doubt for every bad one there are good ones as well (makes one wonder tho whether they happen to be good to begin with)
so i cant help but agree with Mary- it seemed to me he has little time, and is pressed. god know (differnet god!) after multiple dozens of emails exchanged and reminded each time he still got my name wrong 90% of the time (yet its written on the top and bottom of the emails-cant miss).
also had emails gone unanswered as well
remegius thats great..you might want to give them a run with film first. but they are what his 'thing' started with according to what he says, and they are dead easy cameras to work on. although i got one of these as well from him fully refurbished as he does,, and it arrived with frozen solid rangefinder---easy fixed with a replacment rangefinder (which he did send me) or doing the job, but one wonders if he is simply under too much pressure to check his own work as closely as should be.
Had the same thing as someone mentioned earlier- payed for filters and never recieved them(have reciepts and emails to prove). also he never refunded the postage costs as he said he would (also in emails)
