Finally after a post on a Panotool forum I got a message that I have to take contact with them on MSN. Really, after I bought and paid they didn't reply any of the emails with just a simple friendly asked question "When can I aspect the head?"
After installing MSN (I never use MSN, neither mine customers) I got contact but found the contact still very difficult. I have to say a lot of people on this very good panorama forum are big friends and defenders of 360Precision.
Finally I received 19 January the PrecisionHead.
Very well made but still very difficult to comminicate with 360Precision. They send me a tab for Sigma 8mm F3.5 and I have the Sigma 8mm F4. They never ask which one I need. I didn't know of the difference but they blame me. No solution or something like that.
They have 6 ways to communicate but not with email or phone.
I'm sorry but you are now really starting to get on my nerves. How many forums and email lists do you need to post this on ? If you put even a small percentage of this time and effort into contacting us there would never have been any problems. Instead I'm now having to waste hours of my time dealing with this nonsense.
Firstly during the ordering process we offered to ship you the 1Ds/8mm head on receipt of payment THEN ship the Sigma 15mm camera tab after it had been CUSTOM machined. You told me not to worry about doing that as you weren't in any hurry. If you urgently needed the equipment why tell us this ? You then post all these messages on forums and email lists but fail to explain the entire story.
Even now with this post you fail to mention that it was your fault for ordering the wrong Sigma 8mm tab. I specifically asked you to place the order via the website for the 8mm head and I'd manually add the 15mm tab to the order. Did you do this ? No, of course you didn't but do you explain this in your numerous posts or emails ? No ! My only mistake was making the assumption that a customer with a 1DsMK2 and 1DsMK3 would be using the newer version of the lens and not a version that had been out of production for over two years.
When you were quoted the timeframe for delivery you clearly failed to understand that the 7-10 days were business days. You submitted the order on the 17th of December and we were closed from the 23rd of December until the 7th of January. Technically 360Precision wasn't closed but the machine shop and anodisers close down during those dates. If you take the holidays into consideration then the build time on your CUSTOM order was nine days. You then received it on the 10th business day.
As for the communication methods, I have well over 1,000 customers on my iChat, MSN and Skype accounts combined. Very few and I mean less than a handful have any issue with using chat software. Just because your clients don't use up-to-date communications methods doesn’t mean we can't. It clearly explains on the website that we do not accept telephone calls from international numbers due to the massive numbers of marketing and junk calls received. I simply do not have the time to answer 50 calls to get to speak to 1 customer.
As for email, we have very few issues with customers using paid or professional email accounts like yourself. When I check back through my records I can see that all your emails were answered in the 24-48 hours as quoted in our automated replies. When and if you receive the replies is beyond my control hence the insistence on using one of the chat methods or the online support desk.
If you choose to ignore the support channels that we have in place that's purely your choice. But to then go onto the internet and complain about it is really unbelievable. Running a business like 360precision gives me the opportunity to deal with and meet some really fantastic people. Some of my customers are amongst my best friends that I visit with on a regular basis. But it only take a few customers like you to really put a dampener on things and sometimes makes me wonder if it's worth the effort. Seriously though it's so depressing having customers unjustly post like this after all the effort we go to, to bring our products to market.
You just have to remember that the product you ordered was custom made specifically for you which in itself is a massive undertaking. You'd be hard pressed to find any company in any industry that will custom machine a precision product for ONE customer so quickly and for no added cost. PLUS you also fail to mention that you were given one of the camera tabs for FREE and the shipping was also FREE.
Matthew Rogers
co-founder
360Precision Ltd
http://www.360precision.commsn: support [insert symbol here] 360precision.com
iChat: threesixtyprecision [insert symbol here] mac.com
