GH1 Shipping Today! According to Panasonic Sales Rep
- Thread starter Coco Bermudez
- Start date
Roger - I feel for you - hang in there - looks like rolo (just above your response) has his May 7th order lined up. I feel so bad being one of the May 6th orders - ALMOST enough to give you mine! Trust me, it's worth the wait! best 'O luck!
When I called L.L.Lozeau in Montreal 2 weeks ago they told me they were expecting a shipment from Panasonic last week, but that they didn't know if the shipment would contain any GH1. I called again last week and was told that they had not received any GH1.
I suggest you try calling them again to see if their story has changed. I'm quite curious to hear what they tell you. If you do get the same answer from them, please ask the name of the employee so we can get to the bottom of this.
It would be great news if the GH1 was indeed arriving this week!
Have you actually ordered the camera from L.L.Lozeau, cause if you haven't, then maybe they are telling you the camera is coming so you commit to ordering from them?
Is there anyone on this board who has received a camera from L.L.Lozeau in Montreal?
Yeah, let me tell you a little more about it all. 1 part Engineer, I'm pretty curious by nature.
The camera seems brand new as best as I can tell. The box had been opened. When you open a GH1 box (I'll try and take pictures tonight, but I don't get home until about 11:30), the power cord is WAY at the bottom.
Ok, my first clue that something was fishy was that the box had obviously been handled. It was torn a little by the "L" shaped thing that goes into the slat on top to close it (If you don't know what I'm talking about, just imagine about any consumer electronics box...).
Still, I opened the box. Warranty card on top. Looked it over. Sure enough, it's a STORE warranty, not a factory warranty. This doesn't really concern me, I had strongly considered picking up a warranty from SquareTrade.com anyway, and they explicitly say they'll warranty grey market items.
So once you get into the GH1 box, the camera is on top. The camera is in a Tyvek bag, and the lens in in a Tyvec Bag, and then in bubble wrap.
Underneath that there was...what the?? The GH1 charger is like most Panasonic chargers...you attach a figure-8 cord to it, and then the other end of the figure-8 goes into the wall. My GH1 had a EUROPEAN style figure-8 cord in the box...alongside a US plug.
So what they've done is open the box, carefully dig down to the bottom to drop in a US plug, take out the warranty card for the intended country, and then drop in their store card. They charge you $40 "handling" for this.
When I went to set the home country on the camera, it defaults to "GMT +8 Beijing, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore" Though it's common for a camera to always default to the same country, it's also equally common for the manufacturer to set a flag in the firmware that sets the time zone to at least be close to your country. So US cameras always default to eastern time, cameras for France come pre-set to French time, etc. If somebody with a legit US camera wanted to perform a settings reset, and then re-set their time zone...we could confirm this.
I believe the camera was intended for China, I'll scan a page from the users guide tonight that's more supporting evidence.
So anyway, as soon as I saw the euro plug I was like "Crap...USA is the only country that is NTSC, (turns out I'm wrong, but I'd never looked up NTSC on Wikipedia before just now) I bet this is a PAL camera." I started pulling out the charger and stuff, and then for kicks I started feeling twist ties. The twist tie on the euro-cord and the dummy battery (That can plug into the charger, just like every other Panasonic I've ever owned) were like thin wire with paper-thin mylar-like coating, while the US cord was a more traditional waxy plastic twist-tie...not that you cared, but it just was one more piece of evidence for me that the US cord did not come from Panasonic!
So I went ahead and got a card in it as fast as I could, took a little video in my house, and pulled it into Final Cut. Sure enough...50 FPS. A couple minutes later I looked at the side of the box, sure enough, it says "PAL" right on the box.
So no -- I don't think they're selling refurbished cameras. They are importing them from somewhere and re-selling them. There's nothing illegal about that, in and of itself. I thought maybe they were importing them from Canada, which would have given me an NTSC camera (Ok, so I guess I knew the US wasn't the only NTSC country, but that euro-plug immediately set PAL warning bells off in my mind just the same) -- but it turns out that whatever country they are importing them from is a PAL country.
I think I'm going to go ahead and stick it out. They charged me $1,469.99 for the camera. They charged $69.99 for the 3rd party battery, which I am returning, and they are refunding. They charged $39.99 for handling...which I am writing off as the overnight shipping charge.
In the end I will end up paying them $1,509.98. They paid for overnight shipping to me, now they'll pay ground shipping back to them, and probably ground shipping back to me. If they send me a PAL camera, then they'll pay for shipping a 4th time when I ship the camera back to them. I guess I want to burn through some of their cash for what they do to everyone else.
They are NOT an authorized Panasonic USA dealer, so the only way I'm going to get an NTSC model is if they can get somebody else with an NTSC model to sell to them.
And it's after I make a statement like that that I realize this is futile and I should probably just get a refund.
But the curious side still wants to know...
The camera seems brand new as best as I can tell. The box had been opened. When you open a GH1 box (I'll try and take pictures tonight, but I don't get home until about 11:30), the power cord is WAY at the bottom.
Ok, my first clue that something was fishy was that the box had obviously been handled. It was torn a little by the "L" shaped thing that goes into the slat on top to close it (If you don't know what I'm talking about, just imagine about any consumer electronics box...).
Still, I opened the box. Warranty card on top. Looked it over. Sure enough, it's a STORE warranty, not a factory warranty. This doesn't really concern me, I had strongly considered picking up a warranty from SquareTrade.com anyway, and they explicitly say they'll warranty grey market items.
So once you get into the GH1 box, the camera is on top. The camera is in a Tyvek bag, and the lens in in a Tyvec Bag, and then in bubble wrap.
Underneath that there was...what the?? The GH1 charger is like most Panasonic chargers...you attach a figure-8 cord to it, and then the other end of the figure-8 goes into the wall. My GH1 had a EUROPEAN style figure-8 cord in the box...alongside a US plug.
So what they've done is open the box, carefully dig down to the bottom to drop in a US plug, take out the warranty card for the intended country, and then drop in their store card. They charge you $40 "handling" for this.
When I went to set the home country on the camera, it defaults to "GMT +8 Beijing, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore" Though it's common for a camera to always default to the same country, it's also equally common for the manufacturer to set a flag in the firmware that sets the time zone to at least be close to your country. So US cameras always default to eastern time, cameras for France come pre-set to French time, etc. If somebody with a legit US camera wanted to perform a settings reset, and then re-set their time zone...we could confirm this.
I believe the camera was intended for China, I'll scan a page from the users guide tonight that's more supporting evidence.
So anyway, as soon as I saw the euro plug I was like "Crap...USA is the only country that is NTSC, (turns out I'm wrong, but I'd never looked up NTSC on Wikipedia before just now) I bet this is a PAL camera." I started pulling out the charger and stuff, and then for kicks I started feeling twist ties. The twist tie on the euro-cord and the dummy battery (That can plug into the charger, just like every other Panasonic I've ever owned) were like thin wire with paper-thin mylar-like coating, while the US cord was a more traditional waxy plastic twist-tie...not that you cared, but it just was one more piece of evidence for me that the US cord did not come from Panasonic!
So I went ahead and got a card in it as fast as I could, took a little video in my house, and pulled it into Final Cut. Sure enough...50 FPS. A couple minutes later I looked at the side of the box, sure enough, it says "PAL" right on the box.
So no -- I don't think they're selling refurbished cameras. They are importing them from somewhere and re-selling them. There's nothing illegal about that, in and of itself. I thought maybe they were importing them from Canada, which would have given me an NTSC camera (Ok, so I guess I knew the US wasn't the only NTSC country, but that euro-plug immediately set PAL warning bells off in my mind just the same) -- but it turns out that whatever country they are importing them from is a PAL country.
I think I'm going to go ahead and stick it out. They charged me $1,469.99 for the camera. They charged $69.99 for the 3rd party battery, which I am returning, and they are refunding. They charged $39.99 for handling...which I am writing off as the overnight shipping charge.
In the end I will end up paying them $1,509.98. They paid for overnight shipping to me, now they'll pay ground shipping back to them, and probably ground shipping back to me. If they send me a PAL camera, then they'll pay for shipping a 4th time when I ship the camera back to them. I guess I want to burn through some of their cash for what they do to everyone else.
They are NOT an authorized Panasonic USA dealer, so the only way I'm going to get an NTSC model is if they can get somebody else with an NTSC model to sell to them.
And it's after I make a statement like that that I realize this is futile and I should probably just get a refund.
But the curious side still wants to know...
Ok...let's play off each other and work this thing, ok?
I ordered mine from them July 1. They immediately placed a hold on my card for the amount, but the charge never went through, and after a few days I had the full credit limit of my American Express back.
I called several times. I called Monday the 20th and she said the packing slip had printed and it would ship that day. I looked on my American Express that night, and again there was a HOLD placed, but the charge did not appear.
The charge finally appeared today.
But what I was trying to say there, was it took them 2.5 weeks to ship it...not 2-3 days.
So how about I send this camera back on their dime, by the time it gets there...yours should have shipped (And make sure you start calling if it doesn't ship on time, they'll upgrade you to overnight for sure). If yours has not shipped by then...uhh...yeah I'm not sure where I'm going with this...but it seems like if they can't ship your camera but he time they get mine back, then they're not going to have a NTSC model to give me, know what I mean?
I'm maybe putting too much confidence in American Express to cover my tail if this all goes south, but I've heard Credit Card companies are (Much to the chagrin of resellers) very biased towards consumers when it comes to disputes, and with a record like these guys have -- I can't imagine I'd be the first dispute filed against them -- I'm hoping it won't take much for them to decide in my favor...again...if everything goes south.
Lastly (I have to leave work here and go to school, so last post in a row I swear)
They seem to be part of Broadway Photo (Vomits a little in his mouth)...
...which is recently, and currently under close monitoring by the state.
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They seem to be part of Broadway Photo (Vomits a little in his mouth)...
...which is recently, and currently under close monitoring by the state.
Reading Material
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Nitsuj
Well-known member
Oh good lord that just made me freak out a little more. They said my order would arrive in 7-10 business days. I honestly think I would be okay with a PAL camera at first then later getting an NTSC after this all settles down. I just hope I get a camera and not some go-around deal. At least I know where to post a complaint now if it has to come to that. Since they are being monitored maybe things will be a little smoother. If I get to the point you got to then I would be okay with that as long as it is in working condition and all. Guess we will see what happens to these other people that got theirs from ebay recently since it is the same place apparently.
Watch and see... you ship yours then they pack it up and send to me.
Nitsuj
Well-known member
The card is on HOLD and not charged. I have been reading horrible things about this. I can't believe I fell into this because I usually do all my homework before I do something. Turns out I read fake reviews from these guys. I want to cancel and am going to call tomorrow. If it is in the HOLD status it seems like I should be able to cancel.
Yeah, if you're decided on canceling, call your bank. If it's still on HOLD, then tell them that you don't want to do business with that company any more, and have them block that charge from going through.
Then call dbuys.com (You should call through the phone number on iBuyDigital.com and see if they can find your order...maybe you don't have time to wait on hold), and cancel. If they tell you you can't...just tell them you've already blocked the transaction from going through on your credit card. You took the money back. Not much they can do at that point.
Then call dbuys.com (You should call through the phone number on iBuyDigital.com and see if they can find your order...maybe you don't have time to wait on hold), and cancel. If they tell you you can't...just tell them you've already blocked the transaction from going through on your credit card. You took the money back. Not much they can do at that point.
Nitsuj
Well-known member
I called my bank fraud department and had them freeze my account. I told the 24 hour bank fraud department I wanted to cancel because of my new learned info of this company while being on hold for hours to cancel. They were not answering and I suspected they saw my number on caller ID. I wanted to know if there was anything they could do? He said absolutely and that he deals with this sort of thing all the time. I explained the card says HOLD but he said it went through. I said "Well can my bank help me knowing this?" He said 100%. It will take 72 hours get credited back to my account after I go in and fill out paperwork but it will get taken care of. I think I will be able to rest now. I hope everybody else gets what they want. I'm not taking chances and am trying to stop it now while it is still fresh. I'll just go to the back of the line and wait.
Oh and the only reason I did buy it was because I read 2 review sites that were all good. Little did I know that the sites were actually reviews by them and not legit customers. After I went to resellerratings.com I got the true scope of it all. Now I just hope all goes smooth with the bank tomorrow. The guy seemed very confident that it will get handled but there is always that little thing in my head that makes me brace for the worst. Lesson learned.
Oh and the only reason I did buy it was because I read 2 review sites that were all good. Little did I know that the sites were actually reviews by them and not legit customers. After I went to resellerratings.com I got the true scope of it all. Now I just hope all goes smooth with the bank tomorrow. The guy seemed very confident that it will get handled but there is always that little thing in my head that makes me brace for the worst. Lesson learned.
Good luck. I think you'll be ok. These guys...they're not squeaky clean business people, that's for sure, but I think they're on the lower end of the 'fraud meter' -- I'd say you probably don't need to worry about getting new social security numbers or anything drastic like that. Glad your bank was able to help you out.
I was promised a return shipping label by tonight. I got nothing.
I was promised a return shipping label by tonight. I got nothing.
Ok, I figured out my final plan of attack for these scumbags. I am going to first call and see if the note even made it onto my order that I need an NTSC camera. If it did, that's great. I always believe it's just best to be straightforward and honest, so I will calmly tell them that I need an NTSC camera by August 6. No later. (This is the truth, I am going out of town, and while life won't end without the camera, if it's not here by then, I have 0 interest of continuing business with them).
If they think they can meet those requirements (I'm sure they'll say they will. They always tell you what you want to hear on the phone) then I'll go forward. If not, then game over for them.
If they think they can meet those requirements (I'm sure they'll say they will. They always tell you what you want to hear on the phone) then I'll go forward. If not, then game over for them.
jpkeenan24
Member
So I called them today and they said they're expecting to ship a large amount the 2nd week of August. Now I ordered mine June 24th and she said she was fairly confident that my order would be in that shipment. So for anyone who ordered earlier than that sounds like mid august is your best bet.
I messaged Nathan, the ebay guy, and asked to confirm whether the camera he is selling is ntsc or pal. His response was this:
"no scams here, ntsc for sure, ships today or tomorrow the latest, thanks, nathan"
That's a bit more reassuring but it's just still his word. *sigh*
Just to clarify....who's them?