Watch out for grizzly33bear aka Zhanna on ebay

MikeLeFevre said:
Brians- it's different between receiving a lens, and dealing with a refund situation. People behave differently (and can justify their actions differently) in different situations. Plus if you check out the few other negatives and neutrals she's received there's a common theme of non-responsiveness to emails. I've experienced the same, and tried to deal with it by sending 3 emails by different means i.e. replying to an email she sent, through ebay's contact seller, and through asking a question for another item she'd listed. All to the same email address, but generally she'd claim only 1 got through. Where did the other 2 go? I don't know, but again if you're running a business and you're a professional you'd get it fixed/changed I'd think- which has not been the case.

Again I'll repeat myself- she's got both lenses back, I've paid my money and got nothing. There's no positive spin that can be put on that.
She doesn't respond to my emails and/or has not made any effort to contact me from her end- it's been going on for a while, I don't think her memory is that bad.
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If you paid with a credit card, what can the card issuer do to help?

R.J.
 
Hello guys, unfortunately I paid by Western Union transfer. At the moment though things are slightly more positive as (though I still haven't got a response from her) her US contact/banker (who's contact details were kindly supplied by a member here) is looking into matters for me. Though at the end of the day it's her money not his, and if I hadn't complained about this matter here, I would not have discovered this avenue.
Hopefully it will be sorted. But either way her record keeping/email practices are in bad condition.
M.
 
Hello Daniel, it finally did end up being ironed out after I was helpfully pointed in the direction of her US banker/contact from a member of this forum.

But it could very easily have happened that I never ended up knowing he existed and therefore never received his help, as any kind of movement wasn't happening from her end- he shouldn't have needed to intercede.
Plus there are certain professional issues involved in being a large seller which she/they still have problems with, like- email reliability issues, and the fact that it took over half a year for this entire thing to play out.

I've also got to say- I've found it not very helpful to have occasional posts like your one i.e. "I received a lens from her and it was in ace condition etc...", because that has no bearing on how she behaved in this specific refund situation.
She behaved badly in this situation, it really has no bearing to know she behaved well x or y days before/later.
Regards
M.
 
Hi Mike,
I am sorry to disagree but I think other peoples experiences are very important. You have had a bad experience but it has been ironed out albeit with much effort. From what I have read in this thread, there was no "scam" involved. At the end of the day we are all human and everybody can make a mistake as well as there being two sides to every story. Did you tell the seller you were going to discuss them on every camera forum you are on so they would have a chance to reply?

Personally, I am reluctant to use an unknown seller unless I have the protection of Paypal or they come recommended. If many others have had good experiences with this seller, another member may feel it is worth the risk for the item they are looking for or that elusive bargain. I appreciate your warning and it is fair that you can air your grievance but on the other hand it is not fair that you try to stop others giving positive comments that could give a balanced picture. That would make it a vendetta.

Kind Regards
Kim

MikeLeFevre said:
Hello Daniel, it finally did end up being ironed out after I was helpfully pointed in the direction of her US banker/contact from a member of this forum.

I've also got to say- I've found it not very helpful to have occasional posts like your one i.e. "I received a lens from her and it was in ace condition etc...", because that has no bearing on how she behaved in this specific refund situation.
She behaved badly in this situation, it really has no bearing to know she behaved well x or y days before/later.
Regards
M.
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Hello Kim, I get your point, but there's a couple of my points I don't think you got.

First I did give Zhanna an opportunity many times to resolve this and respond before posting about it. Even after her US contact became involved I still didn't get a response from her (I still haven't to this day). It all went through the contact, and even then still required chasing up on my end more than it should have.

Plus most importantly (i can't remember if I've already said this before)- people behave differently in different situations- in this case we have a semi-conflict situation i.e. one person is not happy with the standard of the goods and wants a refund. Zhanna demonstrated by her behaviour in this situation the above point- she behaved differently in this situation than in a normal situation. So it's not helpful for other people to respond with "in my situation where everyone was happy, Zhanna was good". What useful information does that tell people about her behaviour?- if things are good she was good- that's not a useful piece of information.
Aren't there some sayings like "it's only in hard conditions, people show their mettle"? -that's my point.

Plus there are still the points about proficiency in running a professional business on ebay (which is what she does- she handles multiple ongoing transactions). My standards of professionalism would demand having a reliable email connection (if not getting this fixed- and in the interim telling people about this), and keeping accurate records- once someone has told me they want a refund and I've agreed to that- I'd follow through, especially if they were politely asking me how it was going every once in a while. Even if she has a dodgy email connection some of the emails got through- yet no action eventuated for months.
How long does it take to organise a refund once it's agreed upon? Again applying professional standards I would expect a couple of days, a week tops. Is a month too long? Two months? Three months? - there are slack organisational issues there.

regards
Mike
 
Hi Mike,
I did get your points and fully realise that you feel that she acted badly in this case. I am not trying to make excuses for her but this could be an isolated case and culture/languages differences could have played a part. If others have had a similiar experience, then there is a problem. If others have had good dealings then it is more likely to be an isolated case. Other peoples experiences will not affect how you feel or make the situation any better but they will help others to make an informed decision of their own. IMHO, the best purpose of threads such as these is for that purpose and not to carry out a vedetta. Otherwise it appears that the purpose is to try and put them out of business and then they lose all credibility which defeats the object of having them.

Regards
Kim
 
Daniel if you read the other cases of negative feedback she has you'll see there are other cases involving bad communication and those people weren't lucky enough to get resolution like I did. That negative feedback is readable (and unactioned) to this day by her.
Don't you say it all when you say "my claim is your problem is the occasional case ..."- isn't that the worst kind of seller- most of the time okay, but occasionally not- if it was more of one or the other it would make it easy.

It was a scam alert when I posted it. A member here (who also had problems with email communications) after that post put me in touch with the US contact otherwise it would never have been resolved (like with the other few unlucky people). And it would have been a scam (like those few other people ended up thinking- from their perspective the bad email communications/lack of communication was a scam- how would they know otherwise? As they're in a communication vacuum). I think you're taking this whole scam thread title thing a bit literally though. This thread has more turned into a warning about unprofessional business practices.

hello Kim, thanks for your reasonable response. I'm aware of my (lack of) power re driving someone out of business- there's been really bad people on ebay and you still see people buying stuff from them (people are dumb that way). It was never my expectation that this thread would influence her sales by any significant percentage. Sometimes one just wants to share ones bad experiences (with the expectation that anyone else can do what they want to do after reading that experience, and are likely to do so).
I was expecting someone to bring up culture/language differences- because I was thinking about this too. But I think it's more to do with the fact that even within her culture she's just a bit useless/not organised- not a true professional. As it's a dangerous line to apply this reasoning to the entire Russian culture i.e. just because you're Russian is not a valid excuse for having bad email and not keeping good records- that arguement would be cultural racism (and would be blatantly false. Note- I'm not saying you said that, just raising a point). Selling and good service is universal. Professional sellers from other cultures throughout time have strived for good communications. Unprofessional ones have not.
Regards
Mike
 
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Ok, I too have some problems with Zhanna; essentially I bought a fully functional ISKRA II on September for $115 + $20.5 S&H

After a couple of weeks I received an ISKRA I with the shutter jammed, I contacted her and she apologized for the mistake, and told me to send it back and that she was going to refund it including S&H costs.

I sent it back and she confirmed receiving the camera, then she claimed sending me a postal order on November, and since I received nothing in 2 months, se said that she sent another on January.

To date I have received nothing, so after six months and several e-mails I am prepared to consider the money lost.

Sorry for the grumble, but I thought best to inform the forum that buying from grizzly33bear on e-bay poses an higher than average risk, and that her handling, should something go wrong, seems to be far from best business practice.
 
x-ray said:
I've bought a number of cameras and lenses from grizzly and never had a problem.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=5045
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I have no doubt whatsoever that most sales from zhanna go well, but it is from the handling of the few that have problems that you judge the value of a seller.

Personally, counting both the money spent on the item and the return postage, I am $145 out of pocket, and this, I dare to say, fails to impress me favourably . 😀
 
It looks that, after about 6 months, Zhanna managed to send me a refund.
It had to come all the way from the USA, for a camera I bought in Ukraine.

I still think she should improve the handling of refunds, 6 months looks a really long time.
 
I bought a J-3 from Zhanna last year. A month after she had e-mailed to say she had posted it to me I contacted her and was told that the lens had been sent 3 days before. Another month passed. I contacted her again. Customs (in Ukraine) had probably impounded the lens. Another month passed. I e-mailed - and 7 days later received the lens, postmarked 6 days before.

Zhanna was friendly and usually communicative, but it does seem that there are recurrent problems with her service.

Ian
 
Seems she also sells items with the same generic picture. I bought a J3 2 weeks ago, and was amazed to see /exactly/ the same pict on a "also from this seller" J3 after I had paid. They clained it was a mistake blah blah. No sign of the J3 yet.

Now with scammy eBay sellers I have one policy : blackmail. Make a nice page on your site with the description of the transaction etc, email, name and postal address of the seller. show it to them and tell them that if they don't comply to the transacrion terms that page goes into the google cache so that anyone searching for their name (family, professional contacts) will find out who they really are.

I have one seller who sent me a "clear" Summitar with coating marks, paint chips and haze inside who's going to get the treatment this week actualy.
 
I finaly received the J3, in "OK" condition, considering. Not the one of the picture of course.

The lens had a stuck aperture ring and focus ring, and a small scratch in an inner surface. Also the outer filter ring had been painted black to look better. That black paint is very trendy for FSU vendors lately.
 
Mike,

Thanks for the information. I've purchased some kiev 4 equipment from FSU ebay sellars with good results (1 return for refund, another excellent camera) and I agree with your analysis. A good judge of character is if they try to get away with something when they can. I consistantly check out FSU items on ebay and I have thought about trying Grizzly 33 Bear. I will now avoid her. I have a few excellent sellers bookmarked, but I am constantly looking for more.
 
I'm clueless why you guys buy from total unknowns, then complain you've been taken to the cleaners. Why not pay a few bucks more and buy from online stores that are recommended by fellow members. If we continue to do the former, then all we'll have to deal w/ are the crooks.......and more crooks (from the mother of all crooks--the former USSR).
 
Some may have had bad experiences with Zhanna, but I've had only good. First bought a 1981 Kiev 4am, I am told these late models are garbage, but this one has a very nice helios 103, and the body is nice with smooth focusing and a bright range finder. I am also quite happy with the Iskra she sent me, it's clean and everything works including the notoriously fickle film transport. She forgot to pack a 120 take-up spool and when I pointed this out, she sent one immediately. Knock on wood, but I am more than satisfied in my dealings with the grizzly bear.
Steve
 
Mike,

Thanks for the information. I've purchased some kiev 4 equipment from FSU ebay sellars with good results (1 return for refund, another excellent camera) and I agree with your analysis. A good judge of character is if they try to get away with something when they can. I consistantly check out FSU items on ebay and I have thought about trying Grizzly 33 Bear. I will now avoid her. I have a few excellent sellers bookmarked, but I am constantly looking for more.
 
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