My email to Morgan, yesterday:
Hi Morgan,
I’m sorry, but the total lack of any kind of answer leaves me no choice. From all you wrote you would do the only thing you really did was to take my money. 6 months have almost passed since then.
This has gone beyond any acceptable limit. I’ll start all possible procedures asap, starting with PayPal and going to competent authorities from the state of Vermont . Or would you be so kind as to refund me right away and spare us the trouble?
Daniel Dumanescu
Morgan's FAST reply:
Daniel,
I think we owe you your money back, and an apology. I'll provide both of these today.
We lose about $5000 each year to Paypal charge-back scams, some from Romania. These are almost all purchases for Leicas, and usually we can find these cameras on eBay within a few weeks, wearing our leather. There is another fellow here who deals with these cases, but after your last 2 emails I inquired about your purchase, and we see that you were NOT refunded any money.
Furthermore, I can't find any record of your label for Registered Mail, and all valuable envelopes to Romania should be sent this way. I distinctly remember your leather parts being cut, and packaged in the large size envelope. But, I can't prove they were sent, and obviously you do not have them.
So, I apologize both for not delivering the goods, and also for treating your claim as if it were another false charge-back. You bought in good faith, and I am sorry we did not do the same for you.
It's possible the parts are still here and not sent, and there are a couple of places I can look for them. I'll let you know tomorrow when I get back to work.
I have taken over from the other fellow about your claim, so you can send any other inquiry here and I will deal with it faster.
Thanks again, and I am very sorry for the way we have handled your purchase.
Best regards,
Morgan
My latest email to Morgan:
Hi Morgan,
Your message left me with mixed feelings. I know there are people out there trying to get things for free, using a vast array of dishonest methods. Nevertheless, registered, signed for mail does spare you the trouble. And anyway, when a purchase request comes from somewhere you don’t quite trust, you can either refuse it or you can follow it with more carefully. I could have easily pointed you to my ebay account so that you could see that I don’t sell cameras on a regular basis and you could have also checked my feedback. Or I could have pointed you to an online Romanian photo community where I post my pictures, so that you could see I do shoot film. This summer I shot 5 rolls of slide films with my Olympus 35SP – after recovering it with the old coverings, sick of waiting for the new ones. I use my film cameras with pride and 6 months ago I used to look at your website and dream about my cameras being spoiled with nice exquisite leather coverings.
Treating someone as a potential scammer with no proof at all means discrimination and disrespect. How would you feel being unjustly accused of something and being considered guilty until you prove the contrary? How would you feel to see a listing from Romania on ebay saying “no shipping to USA because of scammers operating there”? Put yourself in my position: you pay for something and the only messages the seller responds to are those implying immediate negative consequences. Half a year with just two answers. The first one being a misleading one: “I'm off site but I think the only kit still uncut is for your Ricoh 500. I will reconnect with you as soon as I get back later today.” That was May 15th. Remember? Your next message was the one below.
I saw you refunded me. I would have really loved my leather kits being sent instead. As a matter of fact, you have over-refunded me and now I have to partially refund you. I paid $178, you refunded me $200. Please indicate me the account where you would like me to return the $22 difference. Of course, some money will be lost because of PayPal fees, but I’ll have a better sleep afterwards. If no clear indication comes by the end of the week I’ll refund you using the same cameraleather account.
Regards,
Daniel
P.S. Maybe you could tell me in a few words of yours how I should describe my experience to some fellow photographers who were considering ordering from you…
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Bottom line, in Morgan's view, my fault was being a Romanian citizen living in Romania. Funny though how fast he accepted my payment back in April, regardless of this (so important to him) aspect.
So now I have my money back. Actually more than I paid. But I'll refund him the difference. I've no idea if he would learn his lesson from this. But my self respect will have remained intact.
