A cautionary tale about Borrow Lenses.com

Perhaps. Re-reading I can see the OP's point that if he had infact been promised $600 in 'compensation' then it was taken away it would be a source of irritation.

Couple that with the fact that apparently this isn't the first time this 'error' (lenses being shipped out unaccounted for) has occured it seems that perhaps the lens rental place doesn't have it's crap together.

I'd write it off, and move on. I don't much like the asking for a reward for doing the right thing though. I'd have just sent them in. Carry on.

charliecurran wrote in post #14280183
I absolutely agree that demanding a reward is in bad taste, and that is not and did not happen here.

By declining the $200.00, you did exactly that...

Ya know what, we really have no idea what's going on at the company, do we?

Could be this 'happens' when a couple of people, who would get mad if they were close to being discovered, just slipped lenses into friends packages as extra... OP could have just been an unwitting recipient, meaning someone stealing at the company made a mistake and sent them to him instead of the confederate to the theft.

It would explain the seemingly irrational behavior of the people he talked to.

It would make a GREAT premise for a letter to the owner of the company, wouldn't it?

(Told ya I'd be a lot meaner) -- "Dear Owner, I'm willing to be wrong, but when X and Y happened I thought perhaps someone is stealing from you and I got these lenses in lieu of someone involved."

Pow.

Talk about people getting fired, or at least put in a pressure cooker.... And for abusing him, they deserve it.

Thought i'd share some of the comments I got from other students on my facebook when I shared a link to the blog. My friend Bryce had a not so great experience either.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

See above, dude, you can fry them without being a d(ck if you report what a reasonable person might conclude is evidence of an attempted theft -- after all, that was some seriously specific expensive glass, and two? Why not one? Why not a cheap Sigma? Hmmmmmmmmmmm Burn 'em.

For me, moral opinion on the reward situation is irrelevant.

The fact is: the company made an agreement but later reneged on it. The failure of their authorisation procedures is their problem and a good company would have honored the agreement and dealt with the authorisation matter internally.

Instead, the manager who offered the compensation does an ass-covering exercise and as a result, an honest customer who acted in their best interests is accused of being a liar.

There's a lot of trust involved in renting lenses. If I return an expensive rented lens to them and Mr Ass-Covering drops and breaks it while unpacking, how do I know he's not going to try the same trick again and shift the blame on to me? I've certainly learned now that Ms Lisa isn't going to be on my side and I may be called a liar.

You just don't call your customer a liar. There's no excuse for this no matter how tense the conversation. This was not the way to handle this situation.

tats wrote in post #14280895
I would like to know how much this thread has increased the chances of the next person just holding on to them and not saying anything....(or the person after that)

$600 seems like a small amount to "pay" (since there is a chance that they wouldn't have been out any money during his usage periods) for some nice PR.

This easily could have a been a thread about how great borrow lenses is - but instead this will sit in google databases forever just waiting to turn off someone and drive them somewhere else.

This was bungled.

+1

This event may end up costing BL at lot more the $600 in publicity - right / wrong or otherwise.

"Please reward me for doing what I'm supposed to do as a good human being! Thank... hey, wait, this reward isn't enough!"

Just be happy that you're the kind of person that would return the items. Feel ashamed that you're the kind of person who would barter over what kind of reward you should get for doing the right thing.

Last chance I can really post, but @chakalakasp...there's a big difference between telling them that I demand no less than $600 dollars, and attempting to defend my honesty by telling them what I had previously been told by the manager when Lisa tried to backpedal by attacking my integrity.

I either accept their take that I'm a liar and take $200, or walk away, which I did. This happened last quarter of school, and I had made peace with the situation...it was the rejection of my most recent order that left me feeling upset enough with their service that pushed me to post this. I doubt this specific situation would ever happen to anyone in exactly the same way, but for me the take away from my dealings with Borrow Lenses was said best above in the thread by Quizzical_Squirrel.

- C

chakalakasp wrote in post #14281061
"Please reward me for doing what I'm supposed to do as a good human being! Than... hey, wait, this reward isn't enough!"

Just be happy that you're the kind of person that would return the items. Feel ashamed that you're the kind of person who would barter over what kind of reward you should get for doing the right thing.

I think you're missing a bit. They offered a reward (granted, sounds like he maybe fished for it), then when it came time to give him said reward, they reneged and called him a liar.

chakalakasp wrote in post #14281061
"Please reward me for doing what I'm supposed to do as a good human being! Than... hey, wait, this reward isn't enough!"

Just be happy that you're the kind of person that would return the items. Feel ashamed that you're the kind of person who would barter over what kind of reward you should get for doing the right thing.

Re-read the thread. He didn't ask for a reward, the rep (unknowing to the OP) wrongfully offered what would have been a $600 credit towards a future loan.

To borrowlenses.com, that's not $600 - it's the usage of equipment that has been bought and paid for via numerous other rentals, etc. It doesn't mean that giving the rental to the OP wouldn't cost BL anything -- but the mistake effectively cost the OP $600 because he chose to re-budget his already low budget, thinking that expense had been covered.

Granted, we're only getting one side of the story (I'm almost surprised nobody from BL has found or commented on this thread yet), and until we hear from them it's the OP's word against theirs, but if I were BorrowLenses, I would have given him the rental for sure (and then I wouldn't have canceled a future order from someone who prove that they had integrity), unless the OP wasn't completely forthcoming in how he responded during communications.

Man, I didn't even see Quizzical_Squirrel's response above, nailed it.

Mistabernie wrote in post #14281221
Re-read the thread. He didn't ask for a reward, the rep (unknowing to the OP) wrongfully offered what would have been a $600 credit towards a future loan.

To borrowlenses.com, that's not $600 - it's the usage of equipment that has been bought and paid for via numerous other rentals, etc. It doesn't mean that giving the rental to the OP wouldn't cost BL anything -- but the mistake effectively cost the OP $600 because he chose to re-budget his already low budget, thinking that expense had been covered.

Granted, we're only getting one side of the story (I'm almost surprised nobody from BL has found or commented on this thread yet), and until we hear from them it's the OP's word against theirs, but if I were BorrowLenses, I would have given him the rental for sure (and then I wouldn't have canceled a future order from someone who prove that they had integrity), unless the OP wasn't completely forthcoming in how he responded during communications.

Man, I didn't even see Quizzical_Squirrel's response above, nailed it.

What I found disturbing is that the manager lied to him about a reward for returning the lens...because he is afraid the OP won't return it. The OP could just keep the lens since they have no records of the lens being shipped out. Once they got the lens back, they didn't care about the OP and to ban him!!!

They ban him because.......they are afraid this is a theft and an inside job? They are afraid they can no longer trust their gear to the OP? For whatever the reason, they are afraid of him...

tats wrote in post #14280895
I would like to know how much this thread has increased the chances of the next person just holding on to them and not saying anything....(or the person after that)

$600 seems like a small amount to "pay" (since there is a chance that they wouldn't have been out any money during his usage periods) for some nice PR.

This easily could have a been a thread about how great borrow lenses is - but instead this will sit in google databases forever just waiting to turn off someone and drive them somewhere else.

This was bungled.

Really? I wouldn't in a heartbeat be turned off of Borrowlenses.com because of this thread (and I don't even use them -- Lensrentals.com is my preferred site). They offered him $50 as a reward. That makes them awesome, in my eyes. The fact that someone came online to suck sour grapes because they wouldn't give him the $600 he wanted is what blows my mind.

I was a bit harsh, granted. But expecting a reward is not doing the right thing. Yes, he should return the lenses and a good company would reward this. But to expect a reward and be angry when the offered reward is too little, is wrong. Being told he is a liar is, at least, bad customer service. Although I suspect there is two sides to this tale. But, make no mistake, if he had kept the lenses, and the company was able to track down where they were, he would be facing much unpleasantness. Probably in the form of local law enforcement, possibly the Feds.

TooManyShots wrote in post #14281281
What I found disturbing is that the manager lied to him about a reward for returning the lens...because he is afraid the OP won't return it. The OP could just keep the lens since they have no records of the lens being shipped out. Once they got the lens back, they didn't care about the OP and to ban him!!!

Actually, since he admitted he had the lenses, if he didn't return it the next step would have probably been a call to the police department. Theft of that size is a felony.