Cameraleather.com experience

[jammcat]

Two months after posting last in this thread, and I've still neither heard anything from the guy, nor have I received anything from him.

At least a bloody apology would be nice.

Seriously, stay away from Cameraleather.
You're effectively throwing your money into the abyss.

[anthony_semone]

http://www.atg.state.vt.us/office-or...tacting-us.php

I'll bet a call from these guys would get his ass off your money

[benji77]

Apologies for bringing this thread up again. I just have to be responsible and not let other members suffer.

Stay away from Camera Leather.

I have raised a Dispute with PayPal, I have decided to go one step further when my time permits, to ensure that others do not suffer the same fate as me. Morgan Sparks (Camera Leather) is not a bank, and we should not be paying him through PayPal for things he cannot fullfill.

[beanous]

I ordered some griptac for my RD-1 some time ago and had it in the mail 3 days later (and I'm in Europe!)
Couldn't be more satisfied with the service!

[danieldumanescu]

Originally Posted by beanous

I ordered some griptac for my RD-1 some time ago and had it in the mail 3 days later (and I'm in Europe!)
Couldn't be more satisfied with the service!

Maybe you received someone else's item?
I'm on my way celebrating 6 months since I paid.

[danieldumanescu]

Originally Posted by benji77

Apologies for bringing this thread up again. I just have to be responsible and not let other members suffer.

Stay away from Camera Leather.

I have raised a Dispute with PayPal, I have decided to go one step further when my time permits, to ensure that others do not suffer the same fate as me. Morgan Sparks (Camera Leather) is not a bank, and we should not be paying him through PayPal for things he cannot fullfill.

You were wise enough not to let the magical 45 PayPal days pass. After (n + n)*2 emails, Morgan answered me 3 days before the 45 days were up letting me know 4 out of my 5 kits were (presumably) ready and that he would "reconnect" with me later. Well another 4 months have passed and his silence is perfect.
I've no idea if I can make any more claims to PayPal at this point. And I wonder what esle could we possibly do to get our money back. I mean, is it possible to complain to the authorities of the state of Vermont as non-US citizens? Moreover, which authority would take the task of tracing down the guy and paying him a polite visit?

[sebastel]

i just received a nice bunch of camera covers - even one i did not order, it is marked as free sample for training the application of the skins ...

from aki-asahi.

with his kind help, a 10-days-late-delivery could be tracked down to a failure in the mail delivery in my office (the team assistant was lazy).

i have repeatedly only good experience with him. my definitive recommendation.

[danieldumanescu]

Originally Posted by sebastel

i just received a nice bunch of camera covers - even one i did not order, it is marked as free sample for training the application of the skins ...

from aki-asahi.

with his kind help, a 10-days-late-delivery could be tracked down to a failure in the mail delivery in my office (the team assistant was lazy).

i have repeatedly only good experience with him. my definitive recommendation.

The bad part is the range of avavilable kits from aki-asahi is way more limited. But then, if you don't get anything anyway from Morgan...
I will place an order with aki-asahi most likely next month but 4 of the cameras I wanted to cover are not in his selection.

[RichL]

Originally Posted by danieldumanescu

You were wise enough not to let the magical 45 PayPal days pass. After (n + n)*2 emails, Morgan answered me 3 days before the 45 days were up letting me know 4 out of my 5 kits were (presumably) ready and that he would "reconnect" with me later. Well another 4 months have passed and his silence is perfect.
I've no idea if I can make any more claims to PayPal at this point. And I wonder what esle could we possibly do to get our money back. I mean, is it possible to complain to the authorities of the state of Vermont as non-US citizens? Moreover, which authority would take the task of tracing down the guy and paying him a polite visit?

You can contact both of the below organizations. They may be able to help you directly or be suggestions.

Good luck.
Richard

http://www.atg.state.vt.us/issues/co...protection.php

https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complai...nt/get-started

[Nokton48]

I just ordered three Minolta SRT Griptac's from Morgan, even spoke to him via Email.
Had everything delivered to me in three days.
Very satisfied.

[zuiko85]

Well, I went ahead and ordered 1 basic kit on 9/12/12 so we'll see what happens. I'll wait till next week to e-mail them, that will be a month by then.

[danieldumanescu]

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…

**********

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.

[RichW]

I Ordered a "VH Black kit for film back 12, A12, A16" costing $17.50 for my Hasselblad 500C/M on September 5th, it is now October 5th - one month and no reply

I guess I have a loooong wait ahead of me...

R

[DougS]

I waited almost exactly one month for a kit for my YashicaMat. I have to say the fit and quality is first rate. It looks as good as new. It seems that he has the technical expertise to produce a great product but his ability to execute and respond from a customer service perspective is sometimes lacking. It's sad because I am not aware of anyone who has the comprehensive coverage of so many models as he does. I would love to know how he gets his steel rule dies designed and made so accurately.

[digitalintrigue]

What a bogus excuse. I have ordered many times from Morgan, and have had my own share of emails that go unreplied, and excuse after excuse after excuse. The only thing he can deliver promptly (by experience) is Griptac-based covers. Shipping anything else promptly is entirely luck, in my opinion.

[dogberryjr]

At this point, how can anyone be surprised at difficulties with Cameraleather? I go into it with my eyes open and expect a wait. It's clear that complaints are not going to change the operation, but I also understand the need to vent.

[Dan Daniel]

My recent experience: 2 months ago, I ordered a GripTac set. I also sent a separate email with photographs of the Rolleiflex, as is requested on his web iste. I received a reply within a day saying thanks for the order and for the photographs. After two weeks, no griptac. I sent an email. Over the next four weeks, another two mails inquiring about the status of my order.

I thought that PayPal's dispute limit was 60 days. For some reason I checked and found that it is 45 days. This was on day 45. So I filed a PayPal dispute. Within five days, I got a note from Morgan saying sorry. The order arrived about three days later. I canceled the dispute.

In the past I have gotten orders anywhere from three days to three weeks after paying. This latest order was the longest wait. I would suggest that people use Paypal, keep track of the date, and file a dispute after 30-45 days. His problems with Romania should not be yours.

Working around a laser cutter, I am now cutting my own covers. Developing the patterns is a pain, but I'll get a method down I hope. If anyone knows anything about adhesive sheets, especially the kind that Cameraleather uses, I'd love to know. That is my biggest problem now- a good adhering system. And if you know what setting will make paragraph breaks actually show, please tell me- sorry!

EDIT: At home now, I can insert paragraph breaks.

[digitalintrigue]

Never had issues with carriage returns....

just press return.

What browser are you using?

[Dan Daniel]

Originally Posted by digitalintrigue

Never had issues with carriage returns....

just press return.

What browser are you using?

Firefox. I use it at home with returns working. Somehow the work machine swallows all my carriage returns. I guess it's to keep me from posting from work, eh?

[danieldumanescu]

I've got to be honest and come with the follow-up:

Daniel,

You are right, there is no good reason or excuse why you were tagged in a folder with these other folks. One of the bad things about this business is, there are now very few personal conversations I can have with customers, many of whom I consider friends. On Monday we will have more than 1000 messages in our regular mail and most of it is answered off-site . . . I can personally reply to just a few. Only since yesterday have I even seen or read the messages you sent since May, before you were wrongly tagged. I know it stinks, but I never deliberately ignored or accused you . . . we made an unintentional mistake, but a very bad mistake that I think would be quite hurtful if I were in your position.
If you will consider it, I think we might have enough parts here to assemble most your original purchase, and we can cut the other parts quickly. Here's what I would like to propose, if you are willing: We will send you the leather parts you originally requested free of charge. If you like, you can pay for Global Express EMS Mail, which is about as secure as Registered Mail, but faster. (Registered Mail can be extremely slow.) Once you have the goods, you can refund us just the cost of shipping and the $22 in excess of your original $178 payment.
I hope this can go part way towards restoring trust. And I think that providing a refund in a case like this is good business practice. I would accept it if I had been treated this way, and I hope you will too. But it's entirely up to you.

Thanks, Daniel.

Morgan
**************

Since I want my leather kits, I wrote him I'll take his offer, but when (if?) the kits arrive I'll pay for everything, not just postage. I've got my principles...
I'm really curious about what's going to happen next. Will let you fellows know

[danieldumanescu]

Two days ago I got a shipment notification and a tracking number. I'm looking forward to the great day.

[ColSebastianMoran]

For what it's worth, the material and the service from Aki Asahi are exemplary.

[danieldumanescu]

Well, I've just received my leather kits. They are just flawless. The only gigantic flaw was the 200 days waiting time. Yes, two-zero-zero.
Morgan kept his word and sent everything without asking for any payment, so I kept mine and after I got the kits I sent him back my (his) money.
Bottom line, the guy seems overwhelmed by his business. He could definitely use more employees.
I'll be back with photos of the finished cameras when I have time.

[Travis L.]

Originally Posted by ColSebastianMoran

For what it's worth, the material and the service from Aki Asahi are exemplary.

Seconded!

I've ordered several kits from Aki Asahi and always receive them within a week. The fit, finish and service is always perfect.

If you're looking for a Vulcanite replacement it doesn't get any better.

[back alley]

i am sad to say that morgan stiffed me this last order...i have been a staunch advocate of his for years and had most of my cameras redone with his skins...i love that grip tac...but this last time he never sent my order or answered his emails...i went to paypal and filed a complaint and got my money back...my m4-p is now wearing an aki asahi skin and looks pretty good.
i still miss the grip-tac tho.