Got scammed here.
Bought their used 600d light for $550. Tested it at their shop it worked. Take it straight to set literally an hour later, doesn't turn on. Immediately text the owner to let him know. Had to send talent home and cancel the shoot. Show up next day, they test it, it doesn't turn on. I'm extremely polite, not blaming them at all. I'm saying let's work something out. They had another identical unit that worked. I offered to add cash to exchange the dead one for the one that worked. Staff seemed hard working and normal. The owner though got immediately confrontational and tried to get me out of there. I remained calm and asked him to put himself in my shoes and work something out with me that was fair. Nope. He immediately accused me of lying, put words in my mouth, accused me of threatening him ( what? ), etc. Well here's how I know I got scammed aside from just bad business. He claimed multiple times that in 20 years in the biz that he's never had the 600d break on him ever. He goes "You probably dropped it" ( I did not ). When I offered to go half and half to cover the damage he literally said "It costs $500 to fix that light I don't want it, we tested it, you bought it, it's your problem". He said the dollar amount confidently, not a random number, he said $500. Meanwhile the talent is waiting for me on set I'm running super late. Super stressed out. No apology of any kind by the way. I beg for at least a free 1 day rental, he immediately accuses me of trying to swap the bad light for the good one ( what? ), but finally to get rid of me agrees to 1 day of free rental ( $75 value ), puts a $500 hold on my CC, I shoot return the light. Well here's the fun part, he sends me to the repair shop ( Lux ) that he says "will fix it for sure". Just got the estimate from lux. Guess how much. $514 ( light has multiple issues ). So if he's NEVER had a 600d go bad in his 20 years in business how did he know the repair was gonna cost exactly $500? Lol. If I had to guess he plugged in the good one during the test and slipped me the bad one. I have no proof of that but I'd bet my house that's what happened. But what I do know for sure is that he treated me like some lying scammer homeless bum off the street, super rude, disrespectful, unapologetic, couldn't care less that he wasted my time, money, and ruined 2 days of my shoot. Having a keylight to not turn on on set in front of talent and makeup and client is extremely stressful and embarrassing to have to send them home, they drove 2 hours each way to get to the location. I'd stay away from these guys at all costs. If anything goes wrong you'll get treated like trash. Would have been one thing if I had it for a week. But for it to not turn on after 1 hour is crazy. I told lux unless they wanna do me a favor and half the repair cost due to the circumstances that light will have to go straight in the trash can. Lesson learned. read more