What's considered to be within acceptable tolerance?

[tom1803]

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?

[tom1803]

Thanks to everyone who has participated in this discussion.

One simple solution would be to describe all my lenses as "Junk.  No warranty." to avoid any claims but then who's going to buy them?  LOL

I think I will need to amend my listing to include some more cluases to cover myself, but the trick will be to do so without scaring off any potential buyers.

[dazzledayz]

Tom, I don't know if you use it at all but I've found stiff focus rings usually respond well to white lithium paste.

A good dab to the helical grooves and a lighter smear to seals and rings usually does the trick.

I applied this to a Sekor 80mm  while back and it's behaving itself quite well now.

Just don't overdo it on PushPull style zooms or they'll continually droop when pointed downward.

[lyndal1838]

I have had an even longer association with Pentax cameras than you have............

In late 1957 my father bought a second hand Asahi Pentax to take on a trip to New Zealand.  I was 12 and still happily using a Box Brownie so felt very grand to be allowed to use the Pentax occasionally.

Eventually the Pentax was given to me and I in turn gave it to my daughters.   Same camera has just returned from a trip to the USA with my granddaughters.

The biggest problem is getting the film processed and printed.

In the meantime I was married to a professional photographer and later, my second husband owned a chain of camera stores so my current film camera is a Canon EOS with all the accessories.....which has not seen the light of day for years.

If I was buying a lense from you the question I would ask would be how loose/tight are the focus and zoom rings?  Are they within normal parameters or tighter/looser than normal?

[tom1803]

Thank you for your message.

I would respond by saying, "It feels normal to me but your opinion may differ."

This is the whole point.  What I consider normal may not be within YOUR parameter of normal.  Unless there's a published specification for eech lens, giving the minimum and maximum torque forces that is considered to be within manufacturerer's tolerance and I actulally measre it, it's all subjective.

As I mentioned above some people like it a bit tight, some prefer it a bit loose. 

[tom1803]

Thanks for your message.

I don't have any problems with actually fixing the stiffness.

Cheers.

[digital*ghost]

If it's a "your mileage may vary" kind of situation, is it possible to just include some information in the descriptions, and / or packages detailing how to fix them to their own liking? 

eg Need to adjust XXX? Here's how... 

[tom1803]

Thank you for your message.

Adjusting the torque is not a trivial matter for an amatuer.  Besides, it would require disassembly of the lens, thus voiding any warranty.

[chameleon54]

I think you hit the nail on the head with an earlier comment. " The buyer is always right " on ebay. Ebay's policies are heavily weighted to keeping buyers happy, often at the expense of sellers. Selling used items which are subjective as far as condition etc. goes is always going to be tricky.

If we sell those types of items, we need to accept we are going to lose out from time to time and factor that into the profit margin of every item. If there is not enough meat on the bone to cover a few losses, the product line may simply not be viable on ebay long term. It helps if you can adopt an easy come, easy go attitude as getting upset every time something goes wrong can make selling on ebay an unpleasant experience.

I try to factor all of this into pricing and postage costs, run on very high profit margins ( minimum 500% ) and usually just cop it sweet and move on when things go wrong. ( unless a buyer is blatently trying to steal or lie. )