Is ORWO in trouble or a scam? Preordered 2500 rolls and not received a single roll for a year now.

Don_ih · Jun 20, 2023

The main incentive for a film company to honour an agreement at present is repeat business. Selling to one entity a dozen times will tend to make more money than ripping them off once. Orwo seems to want to be in business and I doubt they want to cheat anyone trying to buy a large number of rolls of film from them. They stand to gain nothing. That's why it seems to me they probably can't get the film and don't have the money to refund.

It's not a big company with massive resources. Hopefully, they deliver in one way or the other.

brbo · Jun 20, 2023

Don Heisz said:
The main incentive for a film company to honour an agreement at present is repeat business. Selling to one entity a dozen times will tend to make more money than ripping them off once. Orwo seems to want to be in business and I doubt they want to cheat anyone trying to buy a large number of rolls of film from them. They stand to gain nothing. That's why it seems to me they probably can't get the film and don't have the money to refund.

They sent film to online retailers before they fulfilled paid preorders. Now, it might be the only thing to keep them afloat, but I very much doubt they will see repeated business from those customers very soon...

All is not lost though. Maybe preorders will be fulfilled from the next production run and in the meantime they will also make some much needed improvements to the emulsion. At the moment this film is somewhere between terrible and awful for a normal C-41 film, it's in the Lomo experimental Metropolis category.

pentaxuser · Jun 20, 2023

Thanks for the reply in #42 Sirius

pentaxuser

Sirius Glass · Jun 20, 2023

notoriousLT said:
I’m glad you’re finding out here, rather than when you’re in deep shit in the UK and use your call for INTERPOL, but hey maybe they’d call the right agency for you

In the UK use Scotland Yard. Hmmm .... I wonder if they will ever go metric and become Scotland Meter-? The '-' because they would be slightly smaller than a meter.

pentaxuser · Jun 20, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
In the UK use Scotland Yard. Hmmm .... I wonder if they will ever go metric and become Scotland Meter-? The '-' because they would be slightly smaller than a meter.

pentaxuser

Sirius Glass · Jun 20, 2023

pentaxuser said:
pentaxuser

Good! I was hoping someone would understand.

notoriousLT · Jun 20, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Good! I was hoping someone would understand.

Haha made me chuckle

pentaxuser · Jun 20, 2023

notoriousLT said:
Haha made me chuckle

Yes if we did more chuckling I have a feeling we might actually get on better

pentaxuser

foc · Jun 20, 2023

pentaxuser said:
Yes if we did more chuckling I have a feeling we might actually get on better

pentaxuser

Oh no we wouldn't..............................oh yes we would...................

Kodachromeguy · Jun 20, 2023

Ian Grant said:
AgX has not posted here since January, he knew the ins and outs of the Kickstarter lens frauds plus a lot more apparently fraudulent activity by the same person. {Moderator's deletion - the use of the pronoun "he" was highly problematic}

Where has AgX gone? He occasionally wrote to me offline, and we exchanged some notes. But the last 2 times I tried to reach AgX, no response at all. Did the moderators exile him? The note about the pronoun does not make sense.

MattKing · Jun 20, 2023

Kodachromeguy said:
The note about the pronoun does not make sense.

It wasn't clear which "he" was being referenced in the deleted part, and in the context of the post, confusion could have been very problematic/unfair.
In less problematic situations, I would have responded to the lack of clarity by either leaving it be or by just posting "huh????"
And AgX has never been "exiled" - it appears he just hasn't been around since January.

koraks · Jun 21, 2023

Kodachromeguy said:
Did the moderators exile him?

Certainly not. I've been in regular touch with him up to early December 2022; we've exchanged many dozens of messages in 2022. He disappeared shortly after. I don't know what happened or if anything in particular happened. I just hope he's OK.

Sirius Glass · Jun 21, 2023

@AgX has provided sage advise on APUG and Photrio for years. It would be nice to see him become active again.

Agulliver · Jun 21, 2023

@AgX is certainly missed. I hope he's OK.

foc · Jun 24, 2023

Agulliver said:
@AgX is certainly missed. I hope he's OK.

+1

Also, Henning Serger hasn't been heard from in a while as well.

I was cooperating with him on a film testing project and the last emails I had were in January this year. In March I email again and got an automated reply saying the mailbox was full.

I hope he is also OK.

Both AgX and Henning have great behind the scenes knowledge.

ADOX Fotoimpex · Jul 8, 2023

It is not our first choice to disclose informations about other businesses but I think a bit is fair to disclose since this informationn is publicly available. The company called Filmotec has always been an honest company run by former ORWO employes and is located in Germany. This company was then bought via Inoviscoat by a US investor named Jake Seal. Shortly after this several companies around the world were set up with the name ORWO. Various disputes about the ownership of the trademark followed. If the topic starter has not received his films for over a year he should check where he sent the money to. I can only speculate that it was not Germany but either the US or the UK where "the investor" set up his various ORWO companies. If it was the US maybe his chances are better or even the UK who is closer to the US in business law.
Lets all hope that Filmotec makes it out of this mess and becomes again what it was before.

ic-racer · Jul 8, 2023

There are some pictures like this on one of his 'Social3' web sites, but other than the promotional pictures, no content.

cmacd123 · Jul 8, 2023

I know I miss the ORWO N74, last time I orderd some I got some of the N75 which seems to be slower and had a very dense Anti-Halo dye which does not clear in Processing. even that seems to be no more. I have a vague feeling that the oroginal crowd at Filmotec where more into Flm technology than marketing, while with Seal and the crew it is the opposite. I hope in the long terms I am proved wrong, Cause as I say, I loved the N74 and it was a good and cost effective choice.

PaulYW · Jul 9, 2023

ADOX Fotoimpex said:
It is not our first choice to disclose informations about other businesses but I think a bit is fair to disclose since this informationn is publicly available. The company called Filmotec has always been an honest company run by former ORWO employes and is located in Germany. This company was then bought via Inoviscoat by a US investor named Jake Seal. Shortly after this several companies around the world were set up with the name ORWO. Various disputes about the ownership of the trademark followed. If the topic starter has not received his films for over a year he should check where he sent the money to. I can only speculate that it was not Germany but either the US or the UK where "the investor" set up his various ORWO companies. If it was the US maybe his chances are better or even the UK who is closer to the US in business law.
Lets all hope that Filmotec makes it out of this mess and becomes again what it was before.

We finally received the films last week. I hope we can handle those units since the Chinese are selling at a lower price than we purchased.

Sirius Glass · Jul 9, 2023

PaulYW said:
We finally received the films last week. I hope we can handle those units since the Chinese are selling at a lower price than we purchased.

Frustrating and scary, but finally success.

Yashica · Jul 17, 2023

BMbikerider said:
I have just searched for their website and came up with this.

Address: Guardianstraße 16, 06766 Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany
Hours:
Closed ⋅ Opens 8 am Mon

Phone: +49 3494 369700

So it seems as if they are still active and operating I doubt that the themselves have scammed you it is more likely to be a shadow Web address not there own. Having lived and worked in German this is not their usual business ethics.
What was the response you got when you were last in touch with them?

Depending on what the reply was, can I suggest sending and E mail to Photoimpex GMBH who are one of the largest Photographic outlets in Germany based in Berlin, not that far from Wolfen. Don't mention that you are having problems but ask if they know if the company is still in operation.

It may sound like a basic question but has any cash been taken from you card account?

It's being called Fotoimpex, not Photoimpex. It's the biggest store for analog (film) into EU, located into germany.

Fotoimpex Berlin - The Analogue Photography Specialists

The Shop for analogue photography. Stocking more than 3.000 items for photography. Fast shipping and excellent customer service are always included. Downtown store in Berlin plus a large mailorder center in Brandenburg.

www.fotoimpex.com

Is ORWO in trouble or a scam? Preordered 2500 rolls and not received a single roll for a year now.

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