wilfredo Posted March 22, 2007 Share #1 Â Posted March 22, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Some of you may be aware of my saga buying a UVIR 486 cut filter from the Ebay seller in Germany below. After making an immediate payment, and being charged 38.00 Euro for shipping to California, it took well over six weeks for the filter to arrive, and then it arrived with abrasions on the surface. I contacted the seller about a refund and got no where. They advertised the item as available for immediate shipping, but it took forever, and communication was lousy to say the least. If you run across these folks, in your quest for equipment from Germany, I suggest that you abort any intention to buy!!!!. I was left with no recourse but to post negative feedback. They in turn returned the favor, even though I made an immediate payment to them, and received an item that was damaged. This is the type of operation that gives Ebay a bad reputation. Â Â eBay: B+W Digital UV/IR Cut Sperrfilter 486 40,5mm 40,5 mm (item 7600910629 end time Apr-10-07 07:57:25 PDT) Â Cheers, Wilfredo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 Hi wilfredo, Take a look here Buying Filters on Ebay - Beware. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
John Maio Posted March 22, 2007 Share #2 Â Posted March 22, 2007 I bought a 55mm 486 from Tony Rose at PopFlash. It arrived in perfect condition. He has a good selection available now. Â PopFlash.Photo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertknappmd Posted March 22, 2007 Share #3 Â Posted March 22, 2007 Sorry but not surprised, Wilfredo !! EBay is and has been rightly called the fraudsters paradise... I would never buy any optics or bodies from them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilfredo Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share #4 Â Posted March 22, 2007 I've had very good experiences with Ebay but I should have checked the sellers track record more closely, that was my own fault, I broke my own rule. I could have bought from Tony Rose but this seemed faster, but in the end it tuned out to be slower, and more expensive. I'll probably buy a replacement from Tony Rose. Even though this filter works fine - I can't see any signs that the abrasions are hurting the image - it irks me to have a new filter with abrasions on the surface. I'm fanatical about keeping filters and lens surfaces free from abrasions and clean. Â Wilfredo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted March 22, 2007 Share #5  Posted March 22, 2007 Some of you may be aware of my saga buying a UVIR 486 cut filter from the Ebay seller in Germany below. After making an immediate payment, and being charged 38.00 Euro for shipping to California, it took well over six weeks for the filter to arrive, and then it arrived with abrasions on the surface. I contacted the seller about a refund and got no where. They advertised the item as available for immediate shipping, but it took forever, and communication was lousy to say the least. If you run across these folks, in your quest for equipment from Germany, I suggest that you abort any intention to buy!!!!. I was left with no recourse but to post negative feedback. They in turn returned the favor, even though I made an immediate payment to them, and received an item that was damaged. This is the type of operation that gives Ebay a bad reputation.   eBay: B+W Digital UV/IR Cut Sperrfilter 486 40,5mm 40,5 mm (item 7600910629 end time Apr-10-07 07:57:25 PDT)  Cheers, Wilfredo  ....After all...a filter... a tiny piece of glass... Just to say that in my opinion buying on Ebay is worth the risk only if you look for "simple" gear (and, let's admit, filter is so... even if a Leica one) .... I will never dare to buy there a camera body or a lens : I bought lot of items of this kind on the Net, but ALWAYS from specialized dealers : you cannot have the best price, but you can talk and discuss with them on right tech and commercial basis. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted March 22, 2007 Share #6  Posted March 22, 2007 I'm sorry you have had a bad experience. The seller has good feedback but €38 for shipping is an obscene amount to charge. I'm afraid many sellers see an opportunity to profit from excessive shipping charges and hopefully the new ebay feedback detail will allow buyers to check out the sellers in more detail.  Some of it stems from the US concept of "handling", whatever in the world that is. This company HP service parts wharehouse and hp printer service wanted to charge me $127 to ship and "handle" a 1 ounce piece of plastic from CA to London, so I declined. When I sell items on ebay, I charge only the actual shipping cost; I have a mountain of recycled/recyclable packing material and what are secretaries for if not to wait in line at the Post Office?  For those buying filters from Europe, I've have good experiences with Willkommen bei Foto Huppert. What would be so much better though would be for Leica to get their act together and get the filters out to their customers and their dealers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chetccox Posted March 22, 2007 Share #7 Â Posted March 22, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) I just shipped a filter to someone on this forum. I am in Poland and he is on the West Coast. I shipped it on Thursday, and it arrived the following Wednesday. Total cost was 20 pln (Polish money), or about $7 US. Mail to and from the US to Europe generally takes 4-6 days, and is not expensive. How they can justify 38 euros for a 6 week shipping time is impossible to believe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
canlogic Posted March 22, 2007 Share #8 Â Posted March 22, 2007 I just had a piece for my car shipped from Europe. It ws 15 euros including shipping and I got it in 4 days to Canada. It was about the size of an M8 grip. Shipped by post. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venkman Posted March 22, 2007 Share #9 Â Posted March 22, 2007 Well, there's always two sides of the medal - I purchased a filter from that exact seller, had no trouble at all and got the filter within two days. Â He's probably just way in over his head, dealing overseas without speaking the language very well (as I took from some earlier post). Â Oh well, yeah - the postage fee is a ripoff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
parigby Posted March 22, 2007 Share #10 Â Posted March 22, 2007 I'm with Mark on this one, if you want filters from Germany, Foto Huppert are the people to deal with. Not necessarily the fastest, but you can rely on them. They do what they say they will do. Â If they haven't got it, they'll come back and tell you when they have. When they say it's been sent ... it means it has. Â philip Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilfredo Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share #11 Â Posted March 22, 2007 I've also sold items on Ebay to Europeans, charging only for the postage when it came to shipping, which was no way near what I got charged for shipping on this filter, to boot, the items were much heavier, ie. cameras, lenses. I've also received items from Europe, promptly, but this seller is not reliable. I'm glad to hear someone else got lucky with these folks making a purchase from them, I got screwed. I think the only recourse for situations like this is to alert potential customers. Â I filed a report with Ebay but I seriously doubt Ebay will do anything about it. You win some, you lose some, what can you do? I'm glad it was not an expensive camera purchase. Sadly my Ebay rating has been affected negatively. This is an area where Ebay really needs to change its policies. Many sellers won't post feedback until the buyer posts feedback, and it will be tit for tat, not a fair practice. Â Wilfredo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steich Posted March 22, 2007 Share #12 Â Posted March 22, 2007 Of course Foto Huppert are fine- they are from Wuppertal, where I was born! BTW, I ordered my filter there, too. They said they were waiting for BW to deliver the filters, it would take at least 2 weeks. After 5 days, my filter was there. Surprise! Stefan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravastar Posted March 22, 2007 Share #13  Posted March 22, 2007 Well, there's always two sides of the medal - I purchased a filter from that exact seller, had no trouble at all and got the filter within two days. He's probably just way in over his head, dealing overseas without speaking the language very well (as I took from some earlier post).  Oh well, yeah - the postage fee is a ripoff.  I also purchased filters from that seller, but was not so happy about the way they conducted their business.  On their eBay page it said they accepted PayPal. Immediately after winning the auction I received an email asking me to pay using their automated system with cash by registered mail (which doesn't work over international boundaries) or bank transfer, no mention of PayPal. When I tried to use PayPal I was told the vendor supplied insufficient information to completed the transaction - contact them, to pay their PP charges I suspect. I ended up using bank transfer where my charges were almost as much as the filter, and that didn't include shipping.  I've had nothing but excellent service from foto-huppert with several orders to the UK. They part ship as items come into stock and let you know the expected delivery of outstanding items.  Bob. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted March 22, 2007 Share #14 Â Posted March 22, 2007 Many sellers will charge high postage too inflate the actual price of an item as well as covering the e bay fees. Its against the rules but e bay don't seem to enforce them much at all. Â I also think that whilst buying from a dealer on e bay, its a good way of them offloading shop soiled stock, taking the view that people probably won't want the hassle of complaining and returning items with very minor defects. Â I agree that e bay should give buyers more protection otherwise they will lose confidence in their site. I've had mostly very good experiences but the one or two bad ones have been a pain. Â I recently bought an item with 'issues'. I'll post more later when its reached a conclusion. So far the seller has been very cooperative and seems to genuinely want to resolve the problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 22, 2007 Share #15 Â Posted March 22, 2007 Not to mention that Michael Huppert is a thouroughly nice and knowledgeable guy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrism Posted March 23, 2007 Share #16 Â Posted March 23, 2007 I had also ordered from this eBay seller, but cancelled when told it would cost 34 Euro/$54Can to mail a single filter to Canada. Â Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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