Mark Hama

J

jhthomasii

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May 18, 2011
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I was wondering if anyone could help me with this. I sent Mark a camera in September and was told it would be fixed in a couple of weeks. I have called and emailed him a few times since then and he kept telling me that it would be another week or so every time. For the last couple of weeks, he hasnt been answering my phone calls or returning my emails. I dont know what to do at this point. He has my camera and my money. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Good luck-as I have posted here a few times, he did a particularly crappy job on my old Lynx for $100 (I gave him explicit instructions what to do), plus two-way overseas postal, a few years back. I'd never use him again.
 
There are several threads related to Mark Hama's communication style. My one experience several years ago with Mark sounds similar in that it was difficult to have him respond via emails. If you need information from him, you must call. And try to get him in person. Voice messages are treated like emails, in that you seldom get a response. I cannot fault his results, only in his proclivity to not respond. It may have to do more with his backlog of work, or his not wanting to keep telling you that it is not quite ready. But I would not suspect anything worse than that. Working with Mark just takes more time than you would expect.
 
jhthomasii said:
I was wondering if anyone could help me with this. I sent Mark a camera in September and was told it would be fixed in a couple of weeks. I have called and emailed him a few times since then and he kept telling me that it would be another week or so every time. For the last couple of weeks, he hasnt been answering my phone calls or returning my emails. I dont know what to do at this point. He has my camera and my money. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Where is he located?
 
My one email response from this guy convinced me to never do business with him. I know, this isn't much help to you, but maybe it will be to someone else.
 
Count me among those who had a rather negative experience w/ him. I sent a Canon P to him for a CLA and he told me the turnaround would be two weeks. Six weeks later (having heard nothing in the interim) I tried to contact him by email; he did not respond. I then tried calling him. Finally, he sent the camera back, but the shutter capped. I raised this w/ him, he said send it back, I did, and he kept the camera for another 4-5 weeks. When I finally got it back, the camera was OK, but I resolved never to use him again. I agree w/ those who say you need to call. But, for future reference, I'd use someone else for a CLA or repair.
 
I had a Yashicamat repaired and CLA'd by Mark. All of the business was conducted by phone. The work was done quickly (like in a matter of days, not weeks) and we spoke personally three times (once as an introduction, once to acknowledge receipt and begin the work, and lastly to let me know it was finished and arrange payment.

I must say I found both Mark and his wife to be completely courteous and cheerful, and the quality of the work was excellent. And he's cheap. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to use him again or recommend his service.

Perhaps using the phone is the best way to communicate. The Hamas don't need me to defend them, but it might be useful to remember that they come from an older generation in Japan and Mark was building Yashicas well before the internet existed. If the design of his web site is any indication, he's not all that internet savvy (which is not a problem at all with me).

Good luck with whatever you decide to do,

Jeff
 
jhthomasii said:
i have called him 3 days in a row now and havent gotten an answer yet. guess ill just keep trying.
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That's a very long time to have a camera, and there is no excuse for withholding communication from your customers so I'm not sure what the problem is.

And you said they have your money too? That's odd, as I don't remember paying up front. Mark just called to arrange payment for the entire invoice after the camera was completed. I didn't happen to have the entire amount in my paypal account, but he shipped the camera to me anyway, trusting I would send the balance when I could (which I did of course). It was an easy and pleasant transaction so it's surprising to read the negative reviews here.
 
Maybe he has changed his policy on payment, as I e-mailed him about doing an overhaul on my YF, giving him the particulars of what was needed to be done, and he promptly sent me a quote for repairs with the stipulation of paying up-front for most of it. Could be he got burned once too often.

PF
 
Well, I dont know... I wanted to answer to a repair estimate I received for my Canonet QL17 GIII but now all my email messages bounce with "permanent fatal error...".
Not really increasing my confidence...

Update Feb 18: Nothing wrong with Mark Hama's mail box...I have found out that when sending him e-mails from my company's account, the ip address from our servers are marked as spamming sources (same happens actually when I try to logon to RFF via our company network). All works fine when I send emails to him from either my home PC or using my iPhone...
 
Why does anyone send anything to a one man operation unless its highly specialized. Any good repair shop can repair most RF cameras, esp. fixed lens one. I've lived a lot of places in the US and have always tried to use one that was somewhat local. Right now I use one in Western NC. They've repaired a non-working Minolta CLE, a couple of Olympus OM-2SP, some M42 lenses and what not. Turn around is always a few weeks at most and the bill (with shipping) is never more than $100. They have an office manager that answers the phone, ships, bills and keeps track of what's happening. That leaves the repair people free to fix cameras.
 
He once repaired a Vitessa for me; it took him very long indeed, about 3 months but eventually he fixed it well. He even sent me a picture of the disassembled Vitessa's rangefinder to illustrate its complexity.

However, these days I would use Essex Camera for all such repairs. They might charge slightly more, but they have fast, exact estimates and typical turnaround time within a week.
 
I had a great experience with Mr. Hama. I sent him a Mat 124 and got it back in no time at all, working like a charm. Sorry you're having such issues.
 
imush said:
He once repaired a Vitessa for me; it took him very long indeed, about 3 months but eventually he fixed it well. He even sent me a picture of the disassembled Vitessa's rangefinder to illustrate its complexity.

However, these days I would use Essex Camera for all such repairs. They might charge slightly more, but they have fast, exact estimates and typical turnaround time within a week.
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Plus 1 for Essex. They have never let me down.
 
I'm another with bad experience with Mark Hama. He took my camera and my money and then stopped communicating. Good luck.
 
Gotta say, Mark may be somewhat slow (overwhelmed with work, I imagine) but he did a great job on completely rebuilding my Canon 50/1.8. I just kept at him, in a friendly but firm way, and he always responded.
 
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