Cameraleather.com experience

[danieldumanescu]

Appologizing in the end for something you knew from the very beginning it was going to go wrong is called hypocrisy.
Letting people know their order would be ready in a week and then 45 days later (but only after a PayPal dispute threatening message) simply informing that it takes "three or more (how much more?!!) weeks" is called... (well I do have to strive to avoid bad language here). Of course, it's all been just silence again ever since. All my (so many) messages to him have been more than civilised. Yet no answer whatsoever. Since it's about customers who have already paid in advance, this is at least lack of repsect.
The guy does have behavioral problems. Severe ones.

[David Murphy]

I had excellent product and service from the owner

[kokoshawnuff]

Ordered a couple leathers from Morgan. First I waited about 1 month before asking an eta, next day I received an email with tracking. Next I waited again a month before asking an eta, received an email a few days later with tracking. Both leathers are great quality and perfect fits. Cameraleather.com isn't a full time job for Morgan, just something he does on the side with no staff and likely dozens of orders per week. If you aren't willing to be patient (really patient in some cases), it's best to order elsewhere. I've only heard of a couple people that never got their leathers and that was after they admittedly sent threatening and harassing emails after a couple no replies; if you're patient and polite you'll get your leathers.

[Archlich]

It would be nice getting goods ONLY being patient and polite.

In reality you pay the cash, and spend time, and have to pray for luck - PLUS being patient (really patient in some cases) and polite in order to get a tracking number, or the chance for one, sometimes.

It's never big deal, but always makes people wonder.

[danieldumanescu]

Originally Posted by Archlich

It would be nice getting goods ONLY being patient and polite.

In reality you pay the cash, and spend time, and have to pray for luck - PLUS being patient (really patient in some cases) and polite in order to get a tracking number, or the chance for one, sometimes.

It's never big deal, but always makes people wonder.

I fully agree with Archlich. I do not see why I have to be so polite after an instant full payment at the moment of placing my order followed by:
- being intentionally mislead about the ETA
- getting an answer ONLY after threatening him (actually after POLITELY explaining that I felt an increasing impulse of asking my money back because of a total lack of any kind of answer for over one month)
- getting no more answers whatsoever after the "money back" short discussion.
He admittedly completed 4 out of my 5 ordered kits. Since I POLITELY let him know I needed my camers for a trip in July he could at least have sent those 4 kits.
I'm already preparing to "recover" my cameras with the old coverings, at least for the time being.
I'm really sorry, but the "pricing" section of his website should mention "frustration included". If I had read there something like "some of my customers had to wait over one year but they were really happy with the quality of the product when they eventually got it" I would still have placed my order. But telling your customer his order would be ready in a week (after having fully acknowledged the exact items required) and 40 days later eventually switching to "it takes 3 or more weeks" is absolutely... (well, you fill the dots with whatever you deem appropriate). See, I'm being POLITE.

[dave lackey]

Originally Posted by danieldumanescu

I fully agree with Archlich. I do not see why I have to be so polite after an instant full payment at the moment of placing my order followed by:
- being intentionally mislead about the ETA
- getting an answer ONLY after threatening him (actually after POLITELY explaining that I felt an increasing impulse of asking my money back because of a total lack of any kind of answer for over one month)
- getting no more answers whatsoever after the "money back" short discussion.
He admittedly completed 4 out of my 5 ordered kits. Since I POLITELY let him know I needed my camers for a trip in July he could at least have sent those 4 kits.
I'm already preparing to "recover" my cameras with the old coverings, at least for the time being.
I'm really sorry, but the "pricing" section of his website should mention "frustration included". If I had read there something like "some of my customers had to wait over one year but they were really happy with the quality of the product when they eventually got it" I would still have placed my order. But telling your customer his order would be ready in a week (after having fully acknowledged the exact items required) and 40 days later eventually switching to "it takes 3 or more weeks" is absolutely... (well, you fill the dots with whatever you deem appropriate). See, I'm being POLITE.

Politeness only goes so far. Remember, rewarding bad behavior yields only continued bad behavior.

IMO, and it is only my opinion, buying from somewhere else or not buying at all is what I will do even though I have been generally happy with the leather covering on my M3. (It really is not as durable as most people think so I will not be using another.)

This has been going on for what?...years? And yet everybody makes excuses and continues buying.
You pays your money and you takes your chances. Not me. Not unless this business wants to send me a camera cover and wait forever for me to pay for it instead of the other way around.

Hopefully, this small business will get better but I have better things to do than reward continued bad service. Life is too short.

YMMV.

[danieldumanescu]

Yep, Dave put it so well: "rewarding bad behavior yields only continued bad behavior".
I should have asked my money back. Not (necessarily) beacuse of the delay, but because of the lack of communication (or should I write "respect"?) he exhibits.

[dave lackey]

Originally Posted by danieldumanescu

Yep, Dave put it so well: "rewarding bad behavior yields only continued bad behavior".
I should have asked my money back. Not (necessarily) beacuse of the delay, but because of the lack of communication (or should I write "respect"?) he exhibits.

Like Joe said before, old story.

Hopefully things will improve someday.

[danieldumanescu]

More than 3 months from my order now. More than 50 days with total silence. The nickname of this guy should be "The Unreachable".

[Ranchu]

Good luck. edit

[Zathros]

I tried surfing over to cameraleather.com and the site seems to be closed. Not surprising though, considering all the complaints I have read. My one and only transaction with Morgan was less than stellar. After ordering a leatherette set for my Minolta Autocord, which was an in stock item according to his web page, I ended up waiting about five weeks before contacting him with proof of payment from PayPal asking where my leatherette was. He said that he accidentally shipped it to the wrong customer and would ship out another kit the next day. He actually did mail out the kit, and two days later I had it, but this delayed my sending camera to Karl Bryan for repairs by five weeks. As I was not in a huge hurry at the time, I did wait before contacting Morgan, but I still allowed myself time to open a dispute with PayPal if I needed to.

It is too bad that his customer service record is so spotty. I can not fault the quality of the leatherette he sent, but I will be ordering any future leatherette kits from Aki Asahi and saving myself much frustration in the process.

[digitalintrigue]

Wow. That's a bizarre way to not take orders.

Morgan just needs more competition, or people need to stop ordering. These threads have been going on for years...

[danieldumanescu]

It's now been more than 4 moths since Morgan has been ejoying my money with me enjoying frustration in return.
I sent him another email yesterday. Just for fun, of course...
I can't help wishing I was his electricity and running water provider. 4 months late with the payment? Sorry, not one single electron and not one single H2O molecule for you any more.
Or, to put it in a serious way, he should have to pay penalties for delays. I assume at least one of my 5 kits should be for free by now.

[dfatty]

Originally Posted by danieldumanescu

It's now been more than 4 moths since Morgan has been ejoying my money with me enjoying frustration in return.
I sent him another email yesterday. Just for fun, of course...
I can't help wishing I was his electricity and running water provider. 4 months late with the payment? Sorry, not one single electron and not one single H2O molecule for you any more.
Or, to put it in a serious way, he should have to pay penalties for delays. I assume at least one of my 5 kits should be for free by now.

4 months is ridiculous. i'm at 4 weeks and not happy. really wish there was an alternative.

[Jani_from_Finland]

Originally Posted by dfatty

4 months is ridiculous. i'm at 4 weeks and not happy. really wish there was an alternative.

There is an alternative.
http://aki-asahi.com/store/

Good and fast service.

[dfatty]

Originally Posted by Jani_from_Finland

There is an alternative.
http://aki-asahi.com/store/

Good and fast service.

yes, i've bought from aki-asahi before, but for old TLRs there really isn't an alternative as far as i know. perhaps i need to figure out how to create a template and then order a sheet of material, but i'm not so good with that kind of thing.

[ark8012]

I have placed my order about a month ago. Morgan was answering my email in 1-3 days before placing the order, and promised that he will send my order in a week.

I have not yet received any packages from him, and he is not responding my emails.
I am seriously considering to take an action with PayPal.

[jtm6]

Originally Posted by ark8012

I have placed my order about a month ago. Morgan was answering my email in 1-3 days before placing the order, and promised that he will send my order in a week.

I have not yet received any packages from him, and he is not responding my emails.
I am seriously considering to take an action with PayPal.

I think you have 45 days to get your money back without much effort.

[goamules]

I ordered a griptec cover for a Leica once, and emailed a couple times a few days after I paid to make sure they got it since their website gives no confirmation. At that point I got an email confirming it was mailed, and received it about 1 week later. I think it's a disorganized, mismanaged business if people have to ping them to receive their orders, but I was happy to get mine in 2 weeks.

[benji77]

I should have researched this thread before paying Morgan my US$$$ for a goat skin. Its been 9 days since my Paypal payment, and numerous emails later, I have yet to hear a whisper from him.

I am holding back the claim from Paypal, in hope that I get a respond or magically my kit arrives in the mail.

Morgan if you are reading this, would you mind....??
Or are you not in business anymore?

[Gumby]

Running a small business making/selling specialty niche products is a real challenge... trust me, I did that once for five of the most horrible years of my life. I was actually relieved when we were driven out of business... not by bad business practices but by rapid changes in technology that made our design/tooling obselete. Those difficulties, of course, do not absolve the businessman of striving for good business practices. But it is tough and consumers often need to chill and realize that these guys are not really making a living at this stuff so they sometimes get distracted by real life and a real career.


I agree with Garrett that competition helps. There isn't much competition in this field. Tooling up to effectively compete is likely beyond economic gain. Dies like I suspect he uses aren't inexpensive. Too bad for us. Maybe the next best option is buying leather and hand-cutting.

[Gumby]

... and for those who recently placed orders but are now scared or disappointed -- the information has been available and it is a shame the homework wasn't done. Give the guy a reasonable chance, but don't lose sight of the opportunities to rectify the situation. Paypal dispute is your friend.

[anthony_semone]

anybody got a good definition of "theft by deception"? How about this:

Theft by Deception is defined as follows:
Quoting Pennsylvania Statutes Chapter 39 § 3922. Theft by deception.
(a) Offense defined.--A person is guilty of theft if he intentionally obtains or withholds property of another by deception. A person deceives if he intentionally:

1. creates or reinforces a false impression, including false impressions as to law, value, intention or other state of mind; but deception as to a person's intention to perform a promise shall not be inferred from the fact alone that he did not subsequently perform the promise;

2. prevents another from acquiring information which would affect his judgment of a transaction; or

3. fails to correct a false impression which the deceiver previously created or reinforced, or which the deceiver knows to be influencing another to whom he stands in a fiduciary or confidential relationship.

(b) Exception.--The term "deceive" does not, however, include falsity as to matters having no pecuniary significance, or puffing by statements unlikely to deceive ordinary persons in the group addressed.

Just sayin....

[benji77]

I understand that running a 'side' business other than a daily job/career is tough to manage. If he cannot sustain the speed to complete the 'cuts', I understand. But not having to even communicate, yet have the cheek to accept payments and orders is atrocious.

[anthony_semone]

I'm not a lawyer, anywhere, but I gotta say that there is something pretty damn weird goin' on where a guy can accept payments, stuff the money in his bank, pay his f'g bills, all the while stiffing the folks who paid him this money.

It'd be a cold frickin' day in hell before I'd buy from this guy. And if I had, I damn well guarantee you I'd be on the phone to the Attorney General of the State of VT and blow the whistle on this guy if I had the experience some of you all have had. What are you waiting for? Ring his ass up. Why give a rat's ass that this is a side job. He's offering out a service and not delivering, except just often enough for lots of good folks to cut this guy a break, and, as has just been posted, reward his ****ty behavior.