What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

I sell used camera lenses and for the majortiy of the sales, there's no problem what's soever.

 

BUT, now and again I get a complaint from some buyers that the focus ring is too tight or too loose, zoom ring is too tight or too loose or the corners of the picture is too soft (not sharp), etc.

 

To keep the customers happy, I give them some discount or accept the return of lens and rerund in full including both shipping costs both to and from.  If the customer accepts the discount, it's not too bad, but if they decide to return the lens, the cost of return freight is sometmes prohibitively expensive, especailly from EU countries.

 

Now, for an old, used lens, surely there has to be some tolerance level for subjective issues such as mentiioned above.  I understand if the focus or zoom ring doesn't move at all or very sloppy then it's definitely faulty and responsibility is mine.

 

If I refuse to give customers the reimbursement for return freight for such cases, am I within my rights?  If the cusomer decides to file a complaint against me, which side will eBay take?

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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

If you are selling used items you have the be VERY clear in your listing about ANY faults, or anything that can be percieved as faults, for your own protection. If you describe them you should be protected, well as protected as any seller can be with Ebay rules.

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Education is what you get from reading the small print. Experience is what you get from not reading it.
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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

Selling used items to overseas markets is very risky on ebay. If the buyer opens a case for something that is not in your listing, as in your example the ring is too tight or too loose, then ebay will side with them and you can decide whether to let the buyer keep the item for free or fork out the cost of the return postage.

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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

Welcome to the Australian boards. Please be aware that ebay policies vary depending on your location. Some advice given by Australian posters may not be relevent to Japanese sellers such as yourself. 

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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

He probably knew, that was probably why he didn't ask the question in Kanji.

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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

Tom, I had a quick look at your listings and noted a couple of things:

 

1. You use a generic condition description - "In "Very Good +" condition cosmetically and in "Excellent +" condition optically."

 

2. You have a templated blurb that describes how you strip and service all lenses.

 

I think if you are not noting any item specific faults for individual lenses, you are opening yourself up to buyers being unhappy if there is anything at all wrong with the lens in question.

 

The old sales adage of Underpromising and Overdelivering is something of a truism.

 

Also, photographers are picky as they are buying a lens to shoot pictures and if that lens is soft in the corners or stiff or loose they will understandably be upset having read the lengths you go to in service.

 

A lot of buyers will also not understand that although you clean and remove fungus etc, that the fungal growth will have destroyed coatings on the intermediate elements and that's probably where the edge softening is coming from.

 

If you have a full frame DSLR you could always try shooting a lens chart for each lens though I don't think that would be a perfect solution by any means.

 

Probably, you'd be better off shooting a sample pic or two on film then scanning a print as illustration for each lens while noting any mechanical issues.

 

You've found a very tricky area to sell in I'm afraid.

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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

I should add to the above that you also say these lenses are suitable for digital.

 

They are most certainly not, as lenses for digital require a much more parrallel light path than lenses designed for film.

 

Better to say they CAN be used for digital though with subsequent quality losses (more pronounced away from the centre).

 

It would be bad enough with an APS-C sensor but if you stuck one of these on a full frame body it would be very nasty.

 

Lenses like these would really only be suitable for amateur novices shooting film.

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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions.

 

As I said, I have no problems with majority of my transactions.  It's only the very few, picky customers that cause issues.

 

 

During my final inspection, if I find the rings are not turning quite right, I either re-service or if I feel it's just out of tolerance level, I'll make note of it in my listing.

 

On one recent transaction, I accepted a return from an EU country and it cost me nearly 75 AUD in freight costs, 18 AUD to send and neary 55 AUD for return (both Standard Registered Airmail).  It's very hard to recover that sort of loss wnen working on very low profit margin.

 

My main point is, "What's normal?" and who decides it?

 

Well, it seems the buyer always has the final say no matter what.

 

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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

To me 'Normal' would be what a person would expect of the item, but it can be subjective so better to err on the side of caution.

__________________________________________________________
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Education is what you get from reading the small print. Experience is what you get from not reading it.
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Re: What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

Your problem really is you are selling second hand items that are not in' as new' condition. They don't have to be.

 

Most likely some buyers would accept what they get, but there will definitely be others who look for the slightest fault and a chance to claw back some of their money.

 

The things you're describing sound to me like a bit of a grey area, but when in doubt, I think ebay tends to side with the buyer.

 

If a buyer describes something to ebay as faulty, and says the items were not doing this or that properly or to the standard they would have expected from reading the ad, I suspect there is a high chance ebay would allow a return in most cases, unless you could prove the issue was clearly mentioned in the ad.

 

Another part of your problem is you are selling overseas so any time this happens, the postage charges are going to hurt.

 

I think you probably need to decide it selling second hand items overseas is worth it. If you decide it is, put a little extra on the price to cover the occasional problem.

Apart from that, I'd do what someone else suggested. Describe in detail, list every little potential fault.

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