I will never buy another Cinevate product… and you shouldn't either, in my opinion
I'm posting this as a warning to fellow DVXusers, and I feel it's important that others are aware of this. My ordeal with Cinevate goes back to a year ago, and I will detail it for all so you understand how terrible Cinevate's customer service is, how their products aren't that great, and how they are flat out dishonest and deceptive with pricing.
Last year I ordered my AF100 and a GH2 and needed new support gear for them. I liked the look of Cinevate's gear, and already owned the Durus follow focus, so it made sense. At that time Cinevate was running their annual 12 Days of Festivus sale. 2 of the products I wanted was the DSLR Rig with Uno Grips. Upon inspection of the pricing I noticed that the individual items that make up that kit totaled less than the sale price. When I questioned Cinevate's sales team about this I received a lot of runaround and a refusal to explain why it was like that or to correct the pricing. This forced me to contact Dennis Wood (owner of the company) directly, to which he told me there was something wrong and gave me a 10% discount off my entire order. I was thankful for that and it actually ended up saving me even more money as I was also ordering other additional products from them including the Titan Matte Box. However, as their sale continued and I also continued to have issues with what I ordered I noticed that the pricing problems were never fixed during their sale, so it essentially was not a sale and really was Cinevate deceiving their customers on that kit as well as other products they had in their "sale".
When I finally received my order I immediately found compatibility issues with their Proteus rails system and matte box. The rods were thicker than other rods I had from Indisystem, Redrock, and Zacuto, and would not fit in most of my other accessories from those companies or from Varizoom. The other rods I had from those companies did slide into the rods slots on the Proteus plate and the Titan matte box, but I could not tighten them enough with the small thumbscrews they provided without great effort or risk that they'd slide out eventually. Upon contacting Cinevate and Dennis Wood about this they refused to acknowledge any compatibility problems and said it was within their tolerances, clearly not taking into account the shiny coating they put on their rods is probably what made them too thick. It was an ordeal to get the issue resolved, but eventually they took the Proteus mount and rods back from my after I told them I'd keep the shoulder pad, grips, counterweight, and matte box if they provided the larger thumbscrews so I could actually tighten them down on the other rods. Initially they didn't refund the proper amount and I had to request and even explain the correct amount to be refunded to me. I also had to pay for the return shipping from US to Canada, even though it was clearly a manufacturing issue with their products and working with other industry standard and widely used equipment.
Cinevate also wanted to refund my return as an in-store credit only, even though their return policy stated nothing about no refunds or in-store credits. I had to show them their own return policy before they would agree to give me a refund.
Around the same time I also started finding the necessity to actually use a whip and crank on my Durus follow focus for the first time and found the accessory port was too small. Upon contacting Cinevate I discovered my Durus had been in a batch that had a manufacturing flaw. I had to ship the follow focus back to them and wait for it to be replaced. Issues with this are that Cinevate should know which customers buy their products from them directly and should have contacted me when they found out about the flaw. Second, if it's a manufacturer flaw, the customer shouldn't have to pay the shipping. Third, Cinevate would not cross ship the replacement to me. I had to wait until they received the defective one before they would ship the good one to me, even after I provided proof of shipment. It comes down to good and proper customer service, which they clearly don't possess.
With that ordeal finally dealt with and in the past I continued to use the gear over the past year with relatively no issues… until very recently I've had issues with the Titan matte box. First is the top flag, which I never needed to use until a very recent shoot, won't stay up, no matter how much you tighten it. Move it a couple times and it just falls down. The finish on the front of the matte box is also becoming discolored in a purplish tint. I contacted Cinevate about this on November 6th (a Sunday) and didn't get a response until Thursday the 10th. Cinevate admitted to the issue and said they were still working on a fix. Really? It's been a year already since I had it and the product has been out longer than that, and other manufacturers don't have this issue, and you can't fix it? They offered to send my an alternate screw that might work better. It's not December 21st and I've yet to receive the screw. I've contacted Cinevate multiple times about this and get slow responses or saying "Hi Mike; I will talk to the shipping department about the screw. If it went regular post it does take a longer time to get to you, but I imagine it would have been there by now. I will contact you again shortly." and then nothing else. Very bad customer service. Just terrible. And they are denying any issue with discoloration of the front of the matte box.
Below is the correspondence I've had with Cinevate that demonstrates their poor customer service and should serve as a good warning to others.
--------------------
I have removed the emails since I did not have permission to post them.
--------------------
That is the last correspondence with Cinevate. I think this demonstrated how terrible of a company Cinvate is and why I will never buy another Cinevate product and why I think others shouldn't either.
I'm posting this as a warning to fellow DVXusers, and I feel it's important that others are aware of this. My ordeal with Cinevate goes back to a year ago, and I will detail it for all so you understand how terrible Cinevate's customer service is, how their products aren't that great, and how they are flat out dishonest and deceptive with pricing.
Last year I ordered my AF100 and a GH2 and needed new support gear for them. I liked the look of Cinevate's gear, and already owned the Durus follow focus, so it made sense. At that time Cinevate was running their annual 12 Days of Festivus sale. 2 of the products I wanted was the DSLR Rig with Uno Grips. Upon inspection of the pricing I noticed that the individual items that make up that kit totaled less than the sale price. When I questioned Cinevate's sales team about this I received a lot of runaround and a refusal to explain why it was like that or to correct the pricing. This forced me to contact Dennis Wood (owner of the company) directly, to which he told me there was something wrong and gave me a 10% discount off my entire order. I was thankful for that and it actually ended up saving me even more money as I was also ordering other additional products from them including the Titan Matte Box. However, as their sale continued and I also continued to have issues with what I ordered I noticed that the pricing problems were never fixed during their sale, so it essentially was not a sale and really was Cinevate deceiving their customers on that kit as well as other products they had in their "sale".
When I finally received my order I immediately found compatibility issues with their Proteus rails system and matte box. The rods were thicker than other rods I had from Indisystem, Redrock, and Zacuto, and would not fit in most of my other accessories from those companies or from Varizoom. The other rods I had from those companies did slide into the rods slots on the Proteus plate and the Titan matte box, but I could not tighten them enough with the small thumbscrews they provided without great effort or risk that they'd slide out eventually. Upon contacting Cinevate and Dennis Wood about this they refused to acknowledge any compatibility problems and said it was within their tolerances, clearly not taking into account the shiny coating they put on their rods is probably what made them too thick. It was an ordeal to get the issue resolved, but eventually they took the Proteus mount and rods back from my after I told them I'd keep the shoulder pad, grips, counterweight, and matte box if they provided the larger thumbscrews so I could actually tighten them down on the other rods. Initially they didn't refund the proper amount and I had to request and even explain the correct amount to be refunded to me. I also had to pay for the return shipping from US to Canada, even though it was clearly a manufacturing issue with their products and working with other industry standard and widely used equipment.
Cinevate also wanted to refund my return as an in-store credit only, even though their return policy stated nothing about no refunds or in-store credits. I had to show them their own return policy before they would agree to give me a refund.
Around the same time I also started finding the necessity to actually use a whip and crank on my Durus follow focus for the first time and found the accessory port was too small. Upon contacting Cinevate I discovered my Durus had been in a batch that had a manufacturing flaw. I had to ship the follow focus back to them and wait for it to be replaced. Issues with this are that Cinevate should know which customers buy their products from them directly and should have contacted me when they found out about the flaw. Second, if it's a manufacturer flaw, the customer shouldn't have to pay the shipping. Third, Cinevate would not cross ship the replacement to me. I had to wait until they received the defective one before they would ship the good one to me, even after I provided proof of shipment. It comes down to good and proper customer service, which they clearly don't possess.
With that ordeal finally dealt with and in the past I continued to use the gear over the past year with relatively no issues… until very recently I've had issues with the Titan matte box. First is the top flag, which I never needed to use until a very recent shoot, won't stay up, no matter how much you tighten it. Move it a couple times and it just falls down. The finish on the front of the matte box is also becoming discolored in a purplish tint. I contacted Cinevate about this on November 6th (a Sunday) and didn't get a response until Thursday the 10th. Cinevate admitted to the issue and said they were still working on a fix. Really? It's been a year already since I had it and the product has been out longer than that, and other manufacturers don't have this issue, and you can't fix it? They offered to send my an alternate screw that might work better. It's not December 21st and I've yet to receive the screw. I've contacted Cinevate multiple times about this and get slow responses or saying "Hi Mike; I will talk to the shipping department about the screw. If it went regular post it does take a longer time to get to you, but I imagine it would have been there by now. I will contact you again shortly." and then nothing else. Very bad customer service. Just terrible. And they are denying any issue with discoloration of the front of the matte box.
Below is the correspondence I've had with Cinevate that demonstrates their poor customer service and should serve as a good warning to others.
--------------------
I have removed the emails since I did not have permission to post them.
--------------------
That is the last correspondence with Cinevate. I think this demonstrated how terrible of a company Cinvate is and why I will never buy another Cinevate product and why I think others shouldn't either.
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