Cinemek G35: Does It Exist?

gregstrange

gregstrange

Active member
I am posting this to get other people's feedback on any experience they may have had with ordering and receiving the Cinemek G35. I ordered and paid for the Cinemek G35 seven weeks ago and it still has not shipped.

I bought the Cinemek G35 dof adaptor on Feb. 24 with a HVX200 camera mount and a Nikon F mount. Jonathan Houser, "President" of Cinemek, promptly acknowledged my (credit card) order via email and said that it would take a couple of weeks to ship. One month passed so I sent Jonathan an email asking when I could expect shipment. Jonathan replied saying the Nikon mount was holding up the order and that it would ship in one more week. On March 31, I sent another email saying,
Please offer me some assurance that I will receive the item no later than Friday of this week.
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I received no response. Another week passed and on April 7th I sent an email stating that I needed a straight answer on the delivery of my order or I would have to cancel. Again, I received no response. So I began calling. Every time I call the number posted on the Cinemek website, I get an answering machine.

Yesterday, April, 14, marks 7 weeks since I placed my order. Despite the fact that I continue to leave messages on Cinemek's voicemail and send email, I have not heard from Jonathan Houser since March 24 when he emailed me saying it would ship in one week.

Has anyone ordered from Cinemek and received their product? Did you receive any communication from Cinemek? I feel like I'm getting the runaround. Ignoring a customer that has paid more than $1,400 is a poor business practice.
 
wow that sucks, i feel bad for you considering phillip bloom got his not long ago. maybe you should have posted in the 35mm adapter section.
 
I definitely understand your frustration, I would feel the same way.

I have the G35, and Jonathan can be hard to get a response from. I have a feeling he is
doing nearly everything himself. Which yes, you should be responded to, but you aren't
being scammed. I have no doubts that there is a legitimate reason for the hold up.
But you do have every reason to be frustrated in not receiving details, and responses.

Good luck!
 
they must be poor in communication.
I thought it was just me but I often didn't get replys back when I send them an email.
which never happend to me at Redrock or Shoot35.
and it's funny but I own both the M2 and the Sgpro

well I'm sure you will receive the product but I understand that frustration.
specially when you get ignorred after you mentioned "Canceling order"
 
Aarrrggggh...I'm in the same boat but only ordered mine two weeks ago. I sent an email but recv'd no response. I do have faith it'll show up in the mail.
 
Although I purchased my g35 directly from Jonathan when he came down to LA to demo his product. I could only say my experience with his customer service has been good. My g35 i purchased from him had a smudge, and i contacted him and immediately he made arrangements to send me a new one. I got my g35 the same week.

I really don't know what is going on with your issues. But I hope they are resolved.

o
 
That is so frustrating. I have been through that situation with other companies. I am looking at buying a G35 and was also going to post here to see if I could get some info. I have contacted Cinemek through the website as well as directly e-mailed Jonathan with queries and get no response yet. Maybe he's busy leading up to NAB? But surely someone can address customer enquiries.

It shouldn't matter how busy someone is. As a customer it's important to be acknowledged. Even if you were told, can't talk now... very busy but will get back to you in a few weeks, it would be something.

It's a shame because it looks like a great product and I'd love to get my hands on one! But with a lot of these companies I feel like there's a shiny logo, brand identity, internet buzz and "CEO" but behind the curtain is a struggling small business and it is extremely difficult to keep on top of everything at once.

I'm hoping someone will have them at NAB and I can buy one and walk away. No shipping it down to Australia!
 
I don't mean to come across as defensive on behalf of Jonathan. and again
I understand the frustration, I experienced it myself.

But I tried to remind myself that they are essentially a new company, and are now
just getting there product out since October I think. and I remember reading the same
complaints on here when all the other adapter makers were first selling there gear.
I am %100 sure no one is being ignored. It just sucks that unfortunately things suffer
when one person is the whole company.

That said, be annoyed and frustrated, just give him a chance to get things worked out.
 
I ordered my G35 on the 20th of Feb - still patiently waiting. I talked with Jonathan a few times on the phone and I believe that he's a straight up guy that is commented to delivering an excellent product. My order included the new HPX170 mount (brand new for their company). He communicated that the machining for this was taking a little longer than expected.

He may also have unannounced plans around NAB that are delaying things as well. (???)


I'm certainly anxiously awaiting my order too!


Keep the faith ya'll.



dmc
 
Jonathan is a straight up guy. probably running the whole thing himself. I will try and get in touch with him, but I expect he is crazy NAB at the moment like most people
 
I have had a G35 since around December of 2008. And I've personally met Jonathan Houser. I'm not sure why it is taking so long to fulfill orders and return messages though. I can only imagine he is extremely busy running the company that some things are slipping through the cracks. Not trying to make excuses, just hypothesizing.

The delay in shipping the HPX170 Bayonet mount may be partially my fault. He was using my HPX170 as a test camera for his design, to perfect the machined final product. I got my camera to him a little later than he originally wanted it, as I was needing it for awhile. But as far as I know, he was able to successfully craft that bayonet mount.

With NAB right around the corner, I'm thinking he is swamped with prepping for it. If I see him at NAB, I will personally let him know people on here are desperately trying to straighten out their orders.

(BTW, the G35 is an excellent product!)
 
I also placed my order roughly 6 weeks ago too, and is yet to receive any news about shipping or any replies despite sending Jonathan two emails in the past 2 weeks. I did conversed with Jonathan when I first placed my order as the website was faulty and I ended up paying 4 times for 1 adaptor. He was very responsive, and cancelled 3 of the transactions immediately.

I just hope that he can get in touch with his customers soon, as I will need the adaptor for a upcoming shoot. Fingers crossed.
 
Paid for in Feb? Paid for 6 weeks ago? Paid for 7 weeks ago? Won't reply to emails? Won't answer the phone? Won't reply to voicemail messages?

One word: chargeback

Seriously. Even if he's a one man show and is busy, you're taking a huge risk by letting it go that long. What happens if you find out something has happened to him in real life and he's not able to ever complete the orders? If possibly losing your money doesn't bother you, then I guess that's okay but with some credit cards, 30-days is the limit for a chargeback.

And the reality is that no matter how many people here vouch for him being a straight-up guy or guarantee you that you're not being ripped off, the fact is that you never know what might be going on. Selling product that you don't actually have in your hand to sell, and that might take months to produce is a recipe for disaster.
 
I have no doubt that Jonathan's legit, but if you've got a shoot and you need an adaptor it might make more sense to cancel the order and rent a Letus/Brevis/SGpro. I personally couldn't plan a shoot around an unknown delivery date for an adaptor.

If someone has his contact info pass along this thread to him because spotty customer service will definitely hurt his sales.
 
Isaac_Brody said:
I have no doubt that Jonathan's legit,
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And so are other people in this thread obviously, but my guess is that nobody here will actually guarantee an order placed for a G35. If Jonathan were to get into a car crash, or lose his job, or have a relative who got sick then he might not be able to fufill any orders at all. Companies fold all the time. People make bad business decisions all the time. Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition.

Sure, it's nice for Jonathan that there are people here supporting him and reassuring customers and telling them to just "give him a chance", but that's easy for them to say, they're not the people who are going to lose their money if the product never comes.

The people being encouraged in this thread have paid actual money for something they haven't received and while it's nice for Jonathan that there are people here encouraging them to NOT file a chargeback, the longer they hold off, the bigger risk they are taking. I see nothing wrong with me trying to inject a little dose of that reality into the situation.

Jonathan may send them their adapters, or he may not, so unless somebody here is going to financially guarantee these buyers that they'll get their product, it's only reasonable that they take a look at their rights and their options.
 
I can't believe you ordered from this company and paid that much money when you can purchase the letus35 for a little less and have a better product from a better company.
I still remember the first cinemek website so many moons ago and all of their promises.
Cancel your order and go with letus35 or Redrock micro.
 
UPDATE: After weeks of nail-biting, I decided to cancel my order. Yesterday, I sent Jonathan an email requesting that he debit my card for the purchase price of the G35 and mounts. Several hours later I received an email from Jonathan. In short, he apologized for the lack of communication and offered me three options: (1) a full refund, (2) ship the product immediately or (3) bring the G35 to NAB (I live in Las Vegas). I told him that I never wanted to cancel my order in the first place because I believe all the buzz on these forums and elsewhere about how good this product is. Couple that with the fact that I've purchased Zacuto supports that specifically fit the G35 and the time I've invested in waiting--cancelling my order would be a huge setback. So I asked that he not go through with the cancellation and ship the unit instead.

One hour ago I received a UPS shipping confirmation from Cinemek, so the unit is on it's way.

I don't know what the holdup was. I don't know why my emails and phone calls were ignored. I don't know why the G35 was suddenly available hours after I formally requested cancellation of the order. I didn't ask. I'm just happy it's on its way.

I understand there is a tremendous amount of pressure when you're a one-man operation but I have been a "one-man operation" for 9 years. Honest communication is always the best route, even if it means a potential loss of sale. If the unit wasn't ready, I would much rather have at least SOME communication alerting me to that fact. This would have at least afforded me the opportunity to weigh my options. As it was, I was afraid I had been sucker-punched.

Thank you all for your valuable input. ALL of the comments show clear, level-headed thinking and serve to strengthen the community as a whole. I don't have many posts on DVXUser but I'm on here all the time, reading the posts, staying current. This is a great group of people.

I can't wait to get the G35 and see what this thing can do. I will certainly post a follow-up (and maybe some footage) after I've had a chance to work with it.
 
christriplet said:
I can't believe you ordered from this company and paid that much money when you can purchase the letus35 for a little less and have a better product from a better company.
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"Better" is a subjective term. You'll have to define "better"... because (not to knock Letus) if given the choice, I think I would buy a G35 over a LEX. I also seem to remember hearing about all kinds of build issues with the first Letus adapters.

I can understand the long delay with shipping it out... Shoot35 has been upfront about how long customers have to wait between when ordered and when delivered (and the delay I think is well over 6-7 weeks). But at least Wayne at Shoot35 has been upfront about it and good with communications. So I can definitely sympathize... Jonathan really ought to be better about communications with the folks who bought it. Even if he's a tiny shop and slammed with stuff to do... a bulk email explaining the situation and giving an update to everyone waiting wouldn't hurt and wouldn't take too long to write.

My $.02

[EDIT... wrote this while Greg was writing his post.]
 
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