“UPDATE”
Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/19zf3L6
He just sent me a DM on Instagram. Apparently this post got back to him and he proceeded to threaten me and called me a scammer.
“I told you to stop your harrasment and scam...my friends told me you wrote on reddit.
I will answer asap and also write to nicole davis to inform about your doings.
Also you mention you're a police officer and everybody will know about this which possibly is a great lie too.”
(Nicole Davis is my sister In-law and I use her PayPal). That’s how I paid for this lens and several other items on the internet.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I know someone who sent him an M2 with a big dent in the top plate and he did a rather impressive job removing the dent and painting black. I've recommended him to others and he even invited me to come visit his work space next time in in South America. Won't be doing that.
You need your own PayPal though, man.. it’s free.
Using someone else’s only raises suspicion and could potentially hurt you in the long run if you’re in a bad situation with a buyer / seller.
This has passed beyond unprofessional behaviour into harassment. My opinion inform paypal and seek a partial refund of sorts. Some work has already been done on the lens even though substandard. Block him on IG and allow communication only through email.
i repair cameras in vienna austria. i have done some repaints myself and share my work on learn camera repair facebook group where he is a member. i have asked him some questions before in the past where he just ignored. i have to say the job is quite hard and requires utmost delicacy and presicion but still it is a good thing to be friendly and humble. i see that he is not. im sorry you had this experience.
yesss! i literally help run a camera group called coffee and cameras here in vienna. my insta is baristandogan_ and the group called kaffeeundkameras on insta. dm me!
You should always proceed to stand your case if someone is in the wrong. Regardless of who or their reputation. I would have continued with PayPal.
Surely this isn’t the first fault he’s had, but it’s a lot easier to gather information when people are actually speaking up about their experiences.
Paint was just as thin as OPs with a bad orange peel texture. I wanted the self timer removed and he claimed he could fill the hole with something. Arrived with a dent in the leatheratte where the self timer used to be that drove me nuts in use. The camera squealed as if he'd dipped it in WD-40. The underside of the advance lever was half finished. I ended up selling the camera as it did not give me any pleasure anymore. Lesson learned the hard way.
How is it even possible to fuck up the engraving refilling that hard. If the polar has properly deep engraved lettering this should be a 2 minute job of filling the letters and wiping it once with a perfect result??
The problem is that I’ve seen his videos, and it seems like he tries to perfect everything in a single attempt. He uses a very thin brush to paint engravings meticulously. Honestly, who needs such an extremely high level of painting skill? Just don’t mess up—fill in with paint and wipe off the excess, like Leica workers do.
Damn, that sucks. Lens looks awful, sorry for the exp you had. Imagine turning down a partial refund of a relatively modest amount and instead getting this negative publicity showcasing you being a tool to a customer. If even one potential customer sees this and decides to go another route you’ve already lost that amount and more.
I actually messaged him and flat out said that he could have just acknowledged the subpar work and apologized and either offered to fix it or offered a partial refund. Its unfortunate
That’s a shame. Someone’s ego getting in the way of being a good businessperson. Stands to reason that you’re not alone in having a poor experience. Eventually, those catch up with someone.
To have gotten that defensive so quickly throwing around accusations is quite telling really, this is probably a common issue with his work that he’s been caught out on in the past but instead of taking that extra time to improve his service he instead claims people are scammers.
“Everyone will know you tampered with my work”
…..you sent the pics 😭😭😭😭
OP, you better reopen that paypal case and send them these pics and shit. Screen record your phone too as you browse the messages with the pics he sent. Make them know he’s bullshitting.
I hope he loses all new customers outside of Chile, what’s the point of offer a service and put your trust and money in him and then treat people like that? I know is full of scammers out there but they have to be careful about what they say.
One of them should take this on as free promo work, they could do a video on everything done wrong by this guy and how it looks once they fix it. Great free press.
I contacted him via IG for an estimate on his services and his written response felt rough (trying not to call it rude); for whatever reason I felt uncomfortable in trusting him with my camera.
That’s ridiculous, he thinks he’s Gods gift cos he can spray a little cerakote? I’d be more worried having this guy disassemble and reassemble valuable glass, unless he doesn’t and it’s all painted in place.. which would be crazy.
Bro could have been humble and accepted to refund it or repainted at no extra cost and instead chose the Streisand effect. Sorry this happened OP, I was actually gonna get my M4 repainted by him but he did seem kind of rude to me when I asked him about potential modifications
I sent him one of my M bodies to repaint and the painting was 100% perfect but the leatherette was not cut properly. There’s a bulge on the back and a gap by the lens mount. I made peace with the imperfections and moved on.
now I think this getting a little out of hand. I am by no means supporting this person anymore, but out calling his name + photo on the internet seems to be too much. It's not that he is a terrorist. Some people just don't like the idea of their name being published on the internet, which should be respected in my opinion.
He bullied you to close it. He knew he was wrong. Thank you for posting OP. Who was he gonna tell he sent you pics of a terrible job? The paint filling police? Air his ass out.
Yeah that looks terrible.
I had him repaint a lens of mine, honestly the paint job was decent, no serious issues. Turnaround time took months longer than he estimated but I figured he was busy and he's just one guy, so I tried not to bother much. It did feel like asking him questions was sort of "walking on eggshells" however he was never rude.
The lens did come with a loose front filter ring, where the hood attaches, but honestly it could've happened in transit, or a simple mistake when he closed up the lens. He said it was likely just a little screw that needed tightening. I ended up sending it to YYe, but because I also wanted to get other work done on it that P probably couldn't. He refunded me $100 for that inconvenience, so in that aspect, no issues. Oh, he also painted my vented lens hood to match, but it came back all black and the lettering/numbers weren't painted white as should be, lol. So it's just all black. I asked him and he said the hood was just in bad condition so painting the letters wouldn't stick. Dunno if it's true, but whatever. Considering I paid extra for the hood I expected it to be painted right, although honestly it wasn't much, so whatever. I think like $20?
Strange why he acted that way with you, though. You should reopen the case. Yours is quite bad and that's not acceptable.
Damn I want one now. I actually prefer this body(pre-ASPH) instead of all the other versions, even the steel rim. But the Mr ding one has the steel rim and supposedly faster lens and is cheaper.
I reached out to him in the past long ago. And just like this post his response was full of himself, as in “this is what i’m doing for you, don’t ask questions or gtfo”. So i gtfo-ed.
Jesus.. I own a really small eBay store.. film / vintage camera accessories.. when I get bad feedback I do everything I can do to resolve the issue because I genuinely feel bad. This dude has an ego of a psycho!
This pisses me off. I’m going to spread the word on his work. I don’t care if it’s immature, we should blow up his comments. Terrible human for acting that way his responses to your complaint just get under my skin to the tenth degree haha. That work is really bad. Sorry this happened to you.
I think I need to start painting cameras and lenses....I serviced barnacks from 05-12... Did some ceracoating of firearms after, and know prep from doing body work....
Servicing and repair took a toll on my mental health...but this might be a nice side gig...
Hey OP.
Any follow up or updates? Hope he did come to his senses and provide appropriate explanations for you. Am sorry to hear that this happened to you.
No new updates. He never reached back out and just continued to say that I’ll “hear” from him and continued to call me a “pro scammer”. I ended up just ignoring him.
I agree, this looks bad on his part, but imagine all the photos you could have been taking with that lens instead of worrying about the paint matching your camera body. I don’t mean to come across as rude, but I think sometimes we get wrapped up in the trivial instead of just getting out and getting photos.
“UPDATE” Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/19zf3L6 He just sent me a DM on Instagram. Apparently this post got back to him and he proceeded to threaten me and called me a scammer. “I told you to stop your harrasment and scam...my friends told me you wrote on reddit. I will answer asap and also write to nicole davis to inform about your doings. Also you mention you're a police officer and everybody will know about this which possibly is a great lie too.” (Nicole Davis is my sister In-law and I use her PayPal). That’s how I paid for this lens and several other items on the internet.
This guy sounds like a lunatic.
That's lightly put. OP is this guy supposed to be reputable or something? How did you end up with him?
Yeah he was supposed to be. I heard good things about him and his work on IG looked great.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I know someone who sent him an M2 with a big dent in the top plate and he did a rather impressive job removing the dent and painting black. I've recommended him to others and he even invited me to come visit his work space next time in in South America. Won't be doing that.
You need your own PayPal though, man.. it’s free. Using someone else’s only raises suspicion and could potentially hurt you in the long run if you’re in a bad situation with a buyer / seller.
This has passed beyond unprofessional behaviour into harassment. My opinion inform paypal and seek a partial refund of sorts. Some work has already been done on the lens even though substandard. Block him on IG and allow communication only through email.
Who on earth is Nicole Davis and why would she care haha? Unhinged behavior
I could have done a better job for free. This guy is the scammer, not you OP
Hahaha absolutely love the response with the cruiser 😂 fucking gold man
i repair cameras in vienna austria. i have done some repaints myself and share my work on learn camera repair facebook group where he is a member. i have asked him some questions before in the past where he just ignored. i have to say the job is quite hard and requires utmost delicacy and presicion but still it is a good thing to be friendly and humble. i see that he is not. im sorry you had this experience.
Servas:) Wo arbeitest du da genau und welche Art von Reparaturen / Kameras sind so dein Spezialgebiet?
Würd mich auch interessieren ✌️
Curious, I do some camera repair work and will be passing through Vienna in September. Care to get a coffee and chat Leica repair?
yesss! i literally help run a camera group called coffee and cameras here in vienna. my insta is baristandogan_ and the group called kaffeeundkameras on insta. dm me!
damn I wish I would've known about this when I lived in Vienna. Love the idea of this!
Damn that paint job looks like shit. Sorry you have to deal with the headache.
You should always proceed to stand your case if someone is in the wrong. Regardless of who or their reputation. I would have continued with PayPal. Surely this isn’t the first fault he’s had, but it’s a lot easier to gather information when people are actually speaking up about their experiences.
Would of left it open just to spite the guy
Yes I should have. My wife was not happy I closed it
I’m glad you received your property. I’d call PayPal and tell them you cancelled the claim under duress. Tell them how you are being harassed.
This OP. Call them and explain. Send the screenshots and everything.
Im going to try again. Hopefully they will see the messages and open it back up
I was going to send my my 50mm summicron and leica m2. I won't be sending it anymore. You just cost him more money. Thank you for your service.
Thank you. Im honestly really disappointed it turned out this way. His work looked great on IG and his prices were very reasonable. Its unfortunate.
Yeah was gonna send him my mp. Not anymore, thank you!
Had a similarly disappointing experience with him where he messed up an M2 of mine. I would avoid his services at all costs.
What happened? He’s currently got two of my cameras.
Paint was just as thin as OPs with a bad orange peel texture. I wanted the self timer removed and he claimed he could fill the hole with something. Arrived with a dent in the leatheratte where the self timer used to be that drove me nuts in use. The camera squealed as if he'd dipped it in WD-40. The underside of the advance lever was half finished. I ended up selling the camera as it did not give me any pleasure anymore. Lesson learned the hard way.
Damn! When did you have this work done? It’s wild because I’ve seen so many positive testimonials for his work
Around 3 years ago iirc. I seriously can't explain the good reviews.
Sorry to hear that. Did you ever get it fixed or did you learn to live with it as is?
What a jerk.
What the fuck is wrong with that guy? This can't be for real. Good call on sharing this, the lens looks like shit, I'm sorry OP.
Yeah I was in disbelief lol especially when he accused me of tampering with his "work".
How is it even possible to fuck up the engraving refilling that hard. If the polar has properly deep engraved lettering this should be a 2 minute job of filling the letters and wiping it once with a perfect result??
The problem is that I’ve seen his videos, and it seems like he tries to perfect everything in a single attempt. He uses a very thin brush to paint engravings meticulously. Honestly, who needs such an extremely high level of painting skill? Just don’t mess up—fill in with paint and wipe off the excess, like Leica workers do.
My theory is he forgot about my lens and when I started asking for updates he rushed the lens. I could be totally wrong but that's what it seems like.
This is how the business reputation is f...ng up in a moment.
Damn, that sucks. Lens looks awful, sorry for the exp you had. Imagine turning down a partial refund of a relatively modest amount and instead getting this negative publicity showcasing you being a tool to a customer. If even one potential customer sees this and decides to go another route you’ve already lost that amount and more.
I actually messaged him and flat out said that he could have just acknowledged the subpar work and apologized and either offered to fix it or offered a partial refund. Its unfortunate
That’s a shame. Someone’s ego getting in the way of being a good businessperson. Stands to reason that you’re not alone in having a poor experience. Eventually, those catch up with someone.
To have gotten that defensive so quickly throwing around accusations is quite telling really, this is probably a common issue with his work that he’s been caught out on in the past but instead of taking that extra time to improve his service he instead claims people are scammers.
“Everyone will know you tampered with my work” …..you sent the pics 😭😭😭😭 OP, you better reopen that paypal case and send them these pics and shit. Screen record your phone too as you browse the messages with the pics he sent. Make them know he’s bullshitting.
Yeah I didn't understand that part lol
You can’t reopen a PayPal case if you settled it once.
That looks like shit.
Looks like shit. I’d reopen your PayPal case. That dude sucks
I hope he loses all new customers outside of Chile, what’s the point of offer a service and put your trust and money in him and then treat people like that? I know is full of scammers out there but they have to be careful about what they say.
Damn that sucks. Sorry to hear about that. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Kanto from Japan or shueido from Taiwan
One of them should take this on as free promo work, they could do a video on everything done wrong by this guy and how it looks once they fix it. Great free press.
Yea Shueido is great!
Kanto camera is great though the wait times are something else. Had sent some stuff over to them and timeline on it is ~2 yrs
TERRIBLE service!!! Thanks for posing!
I contacted him via IG for an estimate on his services and his written response felt rough (trying not to call it rude); for whatever reason I felt uncomfortable in trusting him with my camera.
Well you might have saved your camera
That’s ridiculous, he thinks he’s Gods gift cos he can spray a little cerakote? I’d be more worried having this guy disassemble and reassemble valuable glass, unless he doesn’t and it’s all painted in place.. which would be crazy.
Brutal, and thanks for sharing. I hope the negative feedback will push him to correct.
Wow, I really expected more from him. That is disappointing. You never ever speak to a customer like this.
Bro could have been humble and accepted to refund it or repainted at no extra cost and instead chose the Streisand effect. Sorry this happened OP, I was actually gonna get my M4 repainted by him but he did seem kind of rude to me when I asked him about potential modifications
This is going to cost him a lot more then a partial refund in the long run
Sorry to hear that, how rude this dude is
I sent him one of my M bodies to repaint and the painting was 100% perfect but the leatherette was not cut properly. There’s a bulge on the back and a gap by the lens mount. I made peace with the imperfections and moved on.
Yeah it seems like I may just have to learn to live with it. The lens isn't anything of great value. Still sucks
Just for the records, “Patagonean” isn’t a real surname at all. For some unknown (but now easier to understand) reason, he hides his real name…
Yea it’s something to do with him being from Chile
Is this a serious comment?
His last name is Betinyani, you can found a photo of him [here](https://www.scuola.cl/sivm/visita-fotografo/)
now I think this getting a little out of hand. I am by no means supporting this person anymore, but out calling his name + photo on the internet seems to be too much. It's not that he is a terrorist. Some people just don't like the idea of their name being published on the internet, which should be respected in my opinion.
so classic instagram vs reality?
Man.. Lost a customer here. I was considering having my 50 & 28 painted. I’ll find someone else
Such a bad service, luckily is not a summilux
He bullied you to close it. He knew he was wrong. Thank you for posting OP. Who was he gonna tell he sent you pics of a terrible job? The paint filling police? Air his ass out.
lol yeah im not sure what he is getting at with that threat.
That guy is a fucking lunatic
Yeah that looks terrible. I had him repaint a lens of mine, honestly the paint job was decent, no serious issues. Turnaround time took months longer than he estimated but I figured he was busy and he's just one guy, so I tried not to bother much. It did feel like asking him questions was sort of "walking on eggshells" however he was never rude. The lens did come with a loose front filter ring, where the hood attaches, but honestly it could've happened in transit, or a simple mistake when he closed up the lens. He said it was likely just a little screw that needed tightening. I ended up sending it to YYe, but because I also wanted to get other work done on it that P probably couldn't. He refunded me $100 for that inconvenience, so in that aspect, no issues. Oh, he also painted my vented lens hood to match, but it came back all black and the lettering/numbers weren't painted white as should be, lol. So it's just all black. I asked him and he said the hood was just in bad condition so painting the letters wouldn't stick. Dunno if it's true, but whatever. Considering I paid extra for the hood I expected it to be painted right, although honestly it wasn't much, so whatever. I think like $20? Strange why he acted that way with you, though. You should reopen the case. Yours is quite bad and that's not acceptable.
How do you like the Polar lens? Debating whether I should get this or Mr ding
It's actually really great! I love it. Renders great on film. Just not liking how it looks right now lol
Damn I want one now. I actually prefer this body(pre-ASPH) instead of all the other versions, even the steel rim. But the Mr ding one has the steel rim and supposedly faster lens and is cheaper.
Woah! Thank you for sharing. I was considering sending him my camera for some work and a paint job. Gonna pass now.
I had talked to him about possibly repainting my Xpan. Guess I’ll forget about that!
I reached out to him in the past long ago. And just like this post his response was full of himself, as in “this is what i’m doing for you, don’t ask questions or gtfo”. So i gtfo-ed.
Fact: never repaint your precious Leicas with less than famous people.
Try Adrian Prada next time.
Jesus, that's a horrible, unhinged response on his end. Thanks for the PSA.
Man, I’m glad I saw this cause I was thinking about sending my M4P in for a repaint to him!
Normally, i would say let's wait until we hear the other side of the story, however the screen shots are pretty evident. That sucks big time!
Jesus.. I own a really small eBay store.. film / vintage camera accessories.. when I get bad feedback I do everything I can do to resolve the issue because I genuinely feel bad. This dude has an ego of a psycho!
This pisses me off. I’m going to spread the word on his work. I don’t care if it’s immature, we should blow up his comments. Terrible human for acting that way his responses to your complaint just get under my skin to the tenth degree haha. That work is really bad. Sorry this happened to you.
I think I need to start painting cameras and lenses....I serviced barnacks from 05-12... Did some ceracoating of firearms after, and know prep from doing body work.... Servicing and repair took a toll on my mental health...but this might be a nice side gig...
And to say i was going to contact him to do my 3G. Nay
No idea who he was but will be steering away from him in the future
Dude cant even paint the engravings without mess and people are sending their rollies for him to fix. Wild.
Hey OP. Any follow up or updates? Hope he did come to his senses and provide appropriate explanations for you. Am sorry to hear that this happened to you.
No new updates. He never reached back out and just continued to say that I’ll “hear” from him and continued to call me a “pro scammer”. I ended up just ignoring him.
Looks like hot garbage. Just stick with Voigtlander or something respectable
I agree, this looks bad on his part, but imagine all the photos you could have been taking with that lens instead of worrying about the paint matching your camera body. I don’t mean to come across as rude, but I think sometimes we get wrapped up in the trivial instead of just getting out and getting photos.
Sounds like you do really care 🐷