I thought I'd relay this story to you all. Back in July I was looking for a long lens for the 67 since the longest lens in my bag was the 165mm f4 LS. I was thinking about buying a new 300mm and a teleconverter (from the results posted on Luminous Landscape this seemed like a good option) but I saw a used 400mm ED on Ebay at a good price and jumped at it with the Buy It Now option. The description said the lens was well used but "optically perfect."
So, the lens arrived about a week later and boy was I not happy. The lens was shipped in its dedicated trunk case but in a box with packing peanuts and miscellaneous scraps of styrofoam. The trunk was not packed snuggly and it shifted around inside the box. When I took the lens out of the truck case to inspect it I had it tilted slightly on end and my heart sank when I heard a loud "thud" from inside the lens. Yep, the IF helicoid was stripped and was just sliding back and forth. And that wasn't the worst of it. Upon looking into the lens from the front element I could see that one of the internal elements was scratched at the edge, a fairly large scratch, maybe 4-6mm long. I was wondering if there was a screw loose inside that caused it but I never saw or heard one. So, I contacted the seller and explained my dismay and told him that he needed to claim it (yes, I insisted on insurance) and that even though the box had no obvious damage it should've been more carefully packed (the box wasn't even marked 'fragile'). I told him that even if the focus was operable I would insist on a refund since there was no way I was buying a lens with a scratched element, especially one described as "optically perfect." After a few terse emails the seller told me that the claim was going through and that UPS would be by to pick up the lens for inspection. In the end, UPS decided to pay to have the lens repaired at Pentax in Colorado. I told the seller to have them fix everything, including replacing the bad element, and I'd be happy to have it. Suprisingly, I got the lens today, over two months later from the close of the auction, packaged nearly the same way as before, but this time in good shape, no focusing issues, no scratched element and freshly aligned and CLA'd from our friends in Golden, Colorado. Even so, when I went to fit the lens on the camera, well to be honest, with this lens you fit the camera to the lens, it wouldn't present flush. I tried it again and still no luck. When I examined the lens mount In noticed that one of the six screws holding the mount to the lens hadn't been fully tightened and was proud of the surface. I tightened it down and then mounted the camera with no trouble. Finally, being a cautious guy, I checked the focus scale against a tape and it matched almost exactly. In eight years as a seller and buyer on eBay this was first time I had a major issue with a seller. I suppose I should count myself very lucky in that I was dealing with a seller who was committed to making the transaction work one way or the other. But, then, before I bid I did what I always do which is check his feedback rating, read a few comments (especially the negative ones, if there are any) and look at the seller's eBay store if they have one. In this case, the guy was camera retailer from Florida with a good rating so the purchase seemed very safe. In the end, I'm happy with result but wondering if I'll be buying gear like this off eBay in the future. -Brendan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
