Beware Of Gary Fong - updated: problem rectified

[Kelly Grannell]

Beware of Gary Fong

I ordered my Lightsphere on Sunday June 11th 2006. The Lightsphere itself cost $48 and I opted for 2-day delivery which cost another $47.

According to their website, the item will be shipped within the next 2 business days which means Tuesday the latest and I should receive the item by Thursday June 15th the latest.

To my surprise, even until Saturday June 17th, the item have yet to be shipped. I did received a UPS tracking number but according to UPS it's only a Billing Information. As stated on UPS website: Billing information received does not indicate shipment pickup or drop-off. Please contact the shipper for more details.

Now it's Monday June 19th, I still can see that the item have yet to be picked up by UPS. Meaning the earliest possible time for me to receive the item will be Thursday June 23rd.

The moral of the story:

I urge you to not buy anything from Gary Fong. Not because the product is bad, but because the shipping is a blatant scam. Charging $47 for 2-day shipping for an item weighing less than 1 lb AND you don't get your product for 2 weeks !!!.

 

[boBQuincy]

$47 for shipping?!!! What a crook!

Then not shipping it for days? Double crook!!!
I won't be ordering one (and I was considering it).


boB

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I try contacting the CSR five times, everytime they reply with "we'll check with the warehouse, we'll advise you soon" (or variations of that).

PS: they no longer have phone CSR, everything by e-mail only.

 

[tinksdad]

What a shame! A business that has an interesting product like that and completely falls down on the "last" leg of the process.........

Hope all works out!

 

[tmt martins]

I hope you paid by CC and disput the charges for shipping as they did not in any way hold to there contact .Unless it states that item might be shipped at a later date but will arrive 2 days after shipping.

That does stink though.

 

[MICKEY88]

that bites, when did they start offering 2 day shipping ?? when I bought mine last month they only offered UPS ground.. and they{GAry Fong} were definitely among the slowest shippers I've dealt with for camera gear..

 

[Kelly Grannell]

The 2-day shipping is for Canada only (UPS Expedited).

BTW, I found their phone number through my friend who live in California (he looked it up from his local phone book). Their direct phone number is (310) 291 3506.

The person on the other line sounded surprised when I told her that I called from Canada. She actually said "how did you get our phone number? it's not listed on our website!" LOL !!!

 

[MICKEY88]

The 2-day shipping is for Canada only (UPS Expedited).

BTW, I found their phone number through my friend who live in California (he looked it up from his local phone book). Their direct phone number is (310) 291 3506.

The person on the other line sounded surprised when I told her that I called from Canada. She actually said "how did you get our phone number? it's not listed on our website!" LOL !!!

what did they have to say, once they got over the fact that you had their number...LOL

 

[Kelly Grannell]

the usual "we'll investigate and will advise you" to which I replied, "well, you do your investigation, and I will start my own investigation through American Express".

I know for a fact that they can be black-listed as a vendor (especially because they are not THAT big of a business) by American Express if there are enough complaints regarding their questionable business practice.

 

[geetey]

Ugh, Kelly. That really stinks! It's crazy to charge that kind of shipping and then not follow through for DAYS. Is it possible to get a similar diffuser elsewhere? I hope Gary Fong does something to try and fix this (like free shipping and get it there tomorrow).

Too funny about the phone number though.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

nope, they're the sole distributor for it. B+H has it but not the version for my flash. Vistek (really snobbish store, downton Toronto) also has it, but again not the version I need.

We'll see what'll happen next.

 

[JR6ooo4]

I guess you are one of those,
need it, find it, buy it and expect to get it kind of people.

Now we know.
Mikeeee

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I guess you are one of those,
need it, find it, buy it and expect to get it kind of people.

Now we know.
Mikeeee

LOL!

still no LightSphere today

 

[captaincrash]

So -

- I've only recently discovered these Light spheres. What is the advantage they offer over say a soft box on the flash? That's what I have. I picked it up in Vancouver a couple years ago. It does soften the flash - so does the Gary fong device perform that much better?

And 2nd) what is particular aout the version you need that differs or is unavailable throught the local stores or B&H. Why counldn't you get it through them and let them deal with the acquisition? Unless, of course simply you thought you'd have gotten it last week the way you did it.

So, on another note I went out to sort of handle and test shoot a 70-200 2.8 L and the IS version. Boy are those lenses HEAVY. I don't know WHAT I was thinking earlier when I was considering them - except - of course - the durability and faster speed over my mild mannered 70-300 f4-5.6 IS. So later tonight I'll start examining the images and - already I can say I am not sure I can use (or need) an f2.8 zoom given the extreme weight of the puppies. My usual applications are with decent light and otherwise travel. No wonder the things have tripod collars as robust as they are!

Sorry about the diversionary comments.

TTFN

 

[Kelly Grannell]

okay, first things first.

1. Using GF LS, when taking pics in portrait mode (vertical), all you need to do is bounce the flash to the ceiling and you will virtually eliminate the usual shadow-on-the-side-of-subject problem without the need to use flash bracket. Lumiquest 80/20 can do a similar job, but the GF LS is more than 100% more effective than Lumiquest 80/20

2. What B+H, Vistek don't carry is the mount size for my flash (it comes in 4 mount sizes, they both only carry the ones that fit Nikon and Canon flash but not Metz) The stores can special order them but it will take up to a month for me to receive it and I don't want to wait that long. Also I decided to pay the 2-day shipping because this pst weekend I had a fashion shot session and i try not to use my Custom Bracket which is as heavy as my camera itself (imagine camera+grip, flash, 70-200 f/2.8L IS, flash extension cord, the bracket as heavy as the camera)

3. once you get used to it, it's not heavy anymore. As I mentioned somewhere else, I covered an 8 to 10 hour session while running around from one end of a building to the next (basically circling 50% of the building circumference) using 30D + grip + 70-200 f/2.8L IS. Funny thing is that I can never get used to 30D + grip + 70-200 f/2.8L IS + flash + Custom Bracket. Dunno why. Maybe it's way beyond my max handling capacity.

 

[0bli0]

for those who don't know what the custom bracket looks like

as you said - you get used to it quite easily. i generally carry this around at events and skateboard comps with secondary camera slung to the back.

it keeps the flash over the lens and the camera rotates through the bracket. the second flash is used mostly for skateboard shots for extra light during bursts, but also for portraits onsite to keep from flatly illuminating the subject's face.

BTW hopefully Mr. Fong will compensate you for your poor service. i know it has happened before.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Cool set up, 0bli0 !

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Things getting worse with Gary Fong,

Somebody from Gary Fong Inc posted on dpreview (which apparently there are a LOT other people got ripped off in terms of service by his eStore) stating that the lateness of my order is due to the product being out of stock and my credit card is not charged until is shipped.

to which I replied:

THIS IS A BLATANT LIE !!!

My CC was charged on the 13th, the item was shipped out on the 19th evening. That's after 5 e-mails and 2 phone calls of complaints.

If proof is needed then I can send you all the e-mail I sent to your CSR and telephone logs when I called your CSR which I've sent to American Express, they are currently investigating this issue.

Also, it is NOT indicated that the item is out of stock. When I click "purchase" it was clearly stated that the item is "IN STOCK".

Last but not least, on the 19th Keits mentioned that she will immediately refund the US$47 shipping. 3 days later, nothing has been done to refund my money. Tried calling Keits again today, TWICE this morning, and all I got is an answering machine.

I left two messages, no reply from her.

I tried calling her again TWICE in the afternoon, all I got is... an answering machine. This time I didn't even bother leaving any message.

 

[MICKEY88]

Things getting worse with Gary Fong,

Somebody from Gary Fong Inc posted on dpreview (which apparently there are a LOT other people got ripped off in terms of service by his eStore) stating that the lateness of my order is due to the product being out of stock and my credit card is not charged until is shipped.

to which I replied:

THIS IS A BLATANT LIE !!!

My CC was charged on the 13th, the item was shipped out on the 19th evening. That's after 5 e-mails and 2 phone calls of complaints.

If proof is needed then I can send you all the e-mail I sent to your CSR and telephone logs when I called your CSR which I've sent to American Express, they are currently investigating this issue.

Also, it is NOT indicated that the item is out of stock. When I click "purchase" it was clearly stated that the item is "IN STOCK".

Last but not least, on the 19th Keits mentioned that she will immediately refund the US$47 shipping. 3 days later, nothing has been done to refund my money. Tried calling Keits again today, TWICE this morning, and all I got is an answering machine.

I left two messages, no reply from her.

I tried calling her again TWICE in the afternoon, all I got is... an answering machine. This time I didn't even bother leaving any message.

that bites big time,,,I've watched you recomend gary Fong lightsphere for a few months, so I finally decided to order one, liked it so I ordered another for my other flash, I guess I got lucky, although it took longer than ordering from other camera retailers at least I received mine..

 

[Kelly Grannell]

After a long an arduous journey, I've finally received the LS 2 (literally 2 days after the eStore actually shipping it.

Tracy from the eStore personally called me at around 9pm EST and without making any excuses apologized and refunded the entire amount of my order.

The LS 2 also works BETTER than the original LS. I really no longer need to use my bracket anymore unless it's extremely critical (such as product/catalog shots).

Tracy's action on behalf of the eStore and the quality of LS2 have restored my faith to the store.

Thank you Tracy for all your help and thank you Gary Fong for inventing LightSphere (and futher improving it).