Any luck with vendor "Collect888"???

[lee]

my question is Why do business with this guy? Every thing seems like a bad experience. Why not just buy your film from some other vendor?

lee\c

 

[jd callow]

my question is Why do business with this guy? Every thing seems like a bad experience. Why not just buy your film from some other vendor?

lee\c

That is what I did 4 years ago when he and I had our first and only transaction. I alerted those who read the first thread dedicated to him and also gave him a chance to make good. Alas, I'm still waiting for my missing propack and members are still learning the hard way.

 

[collect888]

It is quite surprise to me too that I am getting so many orders year by year. I guess there is some good reasons there and many buyers are very reasonable. I offer honest service, good price and good films, and sometime slow shipment. Most buyers are coming back and some established buyers only need to give me a call or email and I send them the film before even sending them an invoice.

All negatives are due to slow shipment which is not easily overcome with my busy schedule. But I will start to change my store policy to allow slower shipment. I guess knowing up front the buyers will feel better in case a delayed shipment. Then I can just work with those buyers who shopped early enough to give me enough time to work on the shipment.

With film business rapidly shrinking it is obvious I should concentrate my main course instead spent more time on the films. I have enough film to use for myself already. But I always get those calls from my friends to offer me some good films I cannot reject.

 

[PHOTOTONE]

my question is Why do business with this guy? Every thing seems like a bad experience. Why not just buy your film from some other vendor?

lee\c

I guarantee that I won't. You see, I had never ordered from this vendor, but I saw a text ad on THIS forum. I respect the posters on this forum, it is a good forum, I thought the forum moderator would screen the advertisers. Well, you live and learn. Never again.

 

[PHOTOTONE]

I guarantee, if I "get" this second shipment, I will gladly pay for it. But, I seriously doubt I will get it. Up to now, I have never had a bad transaction with anyone in online purchases on ebay or otherwise. Of course, this was "otherwise" as I did not use ebay for this film purchase.

 

[collect888]

JD,

I pay respect to the work you have done here. Give you some free propacks is an easy thing. I decided not doing it because I was afraid of you are not behaved very well during our private email communications a few years ago.

If you send me an email, swear you never behave like that, then I will send some free propacks to you .

 

[Dinesh]

JD,

I pay respect to the work you have done here. Give you some free propacks is an easy thing. I decided not doing it because I was afraid of you are not behaved very well during our private email communications a few years ago.

If you send me an email, swear you never behave like that, then I will send some free propacks to you .

Collect 888, you're killin' yourself in this thread.

 

[jd callow]

JD,

I pay respect to the work you have done here. Give you some free propacks is an easy thing. I decided not doing it because I was afraid of you are not behaved very well during our private email communications a few years ago.

If you send me an email, swear you never behave like that, then I will send some free propacks to you .

That was your excuse in the other thread and then you claimed that you had lost the emails and could not remember the sale so there was nothing you could do. The best part is that you claim in the feedback you left for me that I didn't email you at all!? As a way to combat negative feedback you claim not to have gotten the email, when it comes to making good you remember the emails like they were yesterday, and when it comes to backing-up your story you don’t know where you put that pesky email.

The bottom line is you had a misleading auction and would not accommodate a customer. In this instance a guy who buys many 100's of rolls a year.

I’ll take a pro pack of any of the following:

EPT
E100g/gx or vs
E200
100 Ultra
Or
TXP

120 or 220 would be fine…

 

[collect888]

Gene,

You are getting both packages as I told you many times. USPS will have the delivery information updated when the second is delivered.

Your postings are misleading and with a purpose. I hope this reflects your ability instead of your integrity.

 

[jd callow]

Oh scratch that. I'll take a pro pack of 100T.

 

[collect888]

JD,

I am not seeing any swear from that. Instead of lot of accusations. But I decide to give up a propack of E100GX 220 to get some peace. I have no time to discuss this instance further because it is too old and also because I would like to spend time on more productive stuff. I have five 8x10/10x10 enlargers sitting here and I have no time to do anything with them yet.

Email me your address. Just make sure you understand that is outdated film. Please don't post here that I promised sending you "short dated" film.

I don't sell "short dated" film. All outdated .

Updated: OK one propack of 100T 120. I don't have 220 of this. Again, outdated, not "short dated".

 

[SchwinnParamount]

...All negatives are due to slow shipment which is not easily overcome with my busy schedule. But I will start to change my store policy to allow slower shipment. ...

Slow shipment is a problem you should be able to solve if you really want to. Perhaps you should try a different shipping agent. If USPS continually presents a problem to you then maybe try FexEx or UPS. Heck, even DHL is into the game now.

I've purchased over 100 items from various Ebay vendors over the last couple of years. Probably 90% of the vendors have gotten stuff to me very quickly. Usually the stuff comes USPS. They all seem to have solved the slow shipping problem, you should be able to as well... that is, if you REALLY cared about customer service.

 

[collect888]

SchwinnParamount,

I agree with you mostly. Another option, which I have talked to one friend a few times, he is also a major film seller, is let him pickup the shipment part of the business for me. I am a one man business. He has a team of people doing the shipment for him all day. The reason I am still debating this solution, is it will increase the final price for every transaction, and I have to move most of my inventory to his warehouse. Let's see. I may go for this route if nothing else work out. Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[butterflydream]

You see that.

Customer purchases the whole package including price and delivery. You had good price and people expected 'normal' delivery time. In fact, delivery was slow, thus many people give up repeat order because the assumed benefit of the whole package is not up to the price due to poor delivery. You're losing competitveness there.

Now you want to improve delivery time from the accumulating complaints but you have to increase the cost and price. Then the competitivenes of whole package doesn't improve. That's the nature of business.

It's ok when your business is still good. But when it's not, that will put you in trouble - if the price is increased and yet people don't trust your delivery time.

I would improve the delivery without increasing price firstly. If I'm sure I recovered the customers' trust about the delivery, then I would very carefully consider price increase only when the business volume increased by the quality of the delivery.

Pricing is not assigning costs to the customer.

 

[Curt]

Sounds like Bush, "I'm going to take my time and look it over".

 

[collect888]

Ernie,

Good point. The delays are typically initiated by something, like this time the direct cause is my Microsoft Outlook email software killed all recent order information. (A Microsoft Outlook 2GB bug)

Many new films are still coming. No one stocks and offers more variety of outdated films, period. The varieties, the value, including the good quality of those films make the sale very attractive. The issue is, I need to maintain a balance of sale volume and a reasonable shipping speed. One decision made a while ago, my yahoo online store will be closed. That store mostly was there for those who don't use eBay. In future they can order from the homepage www.collect888.com directly. And there will be better promotions to buyers who order a larger quantity because of the time savings. As I have wrote before, I will start to change my store policy to allow slower shipment.

I guess knowing up front the buyers will feel better and I can just work with those buyers who shopped early enough to give me enough time to work on the shipment. I hope this order volume decrease will lead to a better service quality in future.

 

[keithwms]

This has been an informative thread (and somewhat shocking) thread. Thanks to everyone who chimed in; this is going to save me a lot of inconvenience.

 

[jstraw]

Me too. I wouldn't touch this vendor with a ten-foot pole. I hope Sean keeps the ad off the site.

 

[collect888]

Response: A gift for the holiday from collect888

Here is part of the announcement from collect888 today:

For most buyers in November and December affected by the slow shipment, there will be a gift of 5 rolls professional film, or a $10 discount for next purchase if the buyer opts for it.

Happy holiday!

(Please contact collect888 for more details)

 

[JosBurke]

My 2 cents--I DID purchase a case of Fuji RMS from collect888 and got it in a fair amount of time and it is excellent film----When I order I do expect the item(s) to be promptly shipped and if there is an issue I do want to be advised !! Hmm!! Will I order again ?---I'm kinda skeart !!!

 

[collect888]

Jos,

Your points are well taken. Thanks for letting me know the case of RMS 120 is good. I have sold a lot of the film and I shoot that film not long ago and found it to be really good.

If you are ordering another case soon I will give you additional 10 rolls. Do remind me if you are brave enough to order .

 

[jstraw]

I don't really understand why a vendor that has had his advertisinf pulled from the site is allowed to continue to advertise by using the threads.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

I don't really understand why a vendor that has had his advertisinf pulled from the site is allowed to continue to advertise by using the threads.

I would say we should give the guy one more chance. It is possible that he now understands the gravity of the shipping issue and will fix it. Why don't we do this: Some brave APUG'er should order film (heck, I'll do it) and report back to APUG the shipping time. If service is good then maybe we won't nail the coffin shut. On the other hand...

 

[Petzi]

I don't really understand why a vendor that has had his advertisinf pulled from the site is allowed to continue to advertise by using the threads.

I wonder why his advertising was pulled when he paid for it. Does he get a refund? Do the TV networks and magazines pull any Ford ads because they were slow at delivering certain cars at some point?

If I was advertising here, I wouldn't prepay for more that a month, because the site owner seems to make arbitrary decisions as to when he lives up to his contractual obligations (placing my ad on his site.)

 

[Sean]

There were more than enough valid reasons to pull the add for now. The advertiser has been refunded in full. This was far more than 'slow delivery' issues. When these issues are worked out they are welcome to contact me for reassessment. I'm closing the thread and those involved can PM colect888 and keep me aprised of things if they like.
Thanks,
Sean