A cautionary tale about Borrow Lenses.com

I am a general manager of a pretty large casual theme restaurant and when we screw up, not only do we send a gift card for compensation for their bill, but we take it directly to their house and hand deliver it. When I ran a fairly rural store, we gave them a $10 VISA cad for the gas they spent as well. No lie. And I've driven close to an hour to do so more than once.

The question sometimes arises, "are they scamming me?" Long ago I made the decision to always take care of the guest, even if you KNOW they are lying, because I'd rather be out the money and not give them the opportunity to be able to say we screwed up and we didn't take care of the guest.

I've had to cover my manager's asses because they'd done something similar to the company in the OP's thread. Granted, I've NEVER and HAVE NEVER said something to the guest like, "what would you like for compensation?" because I KNOW what will most likely happen.

Now, I know that the company didn't screw up on the OP's order, but regardless, the manager or whomever he was made the offer, then accepted the OP's offer. Period. Freaking take care of him and mark it up as a "don't do that again, dumbass" coaching session for the guy that made the offer.

And to the OP, FWIW, anytime I ever had anyone call and say we sent them an entree they didn't order, I DID NOT require them to send it back. Just sayin'....

So I wonder what they would have said if you called them and said, "hey, just to let you know, you sent me two lenses I didn't ask for. And I'm not sending them back." Would it have been enough trouble that they would have involved the police or something since they knew who had their lenses? If so, they, by all means, owe the OP two rentals.

Now that is an interesting tidbit. The OP should have kept it, woulda been less headaches

Numenorean wrote in post #14282411
Actually, yes they can. It can be an agency issue and by law someone who is reasonably perceived to be an agent of the company can speak for that company.

Imagine that you go into a bank and deposit $1000 with a teller. Later the bank comes back to you and says that the teller really snuck into the bank and pretended to be a teller and stole $50,000 in cash deposits, of which your $1000 was part.

Do you think the bank can just tell you "well too bad, that person was not authorized to do that, and he got away with your money..."

Nope....doesn't work like that.

How does that analogy even remotely relate?

Suppose you go to Walmart and the guy in the back says he'll give you 600 off on a tv
Go the the register......manager comes over and says...sorry no way. That is closer to what happened

You-by-Lou wrote in post #14283958
How does that analogy even remotely relate?

Suppose you go to Walmart and the guy in the back says he'll give you 600 off on a tv
Go the the register......manager comes over and says...sorry no way. That is closer to what happened

The guy who verbally agreed to the compensation was a manager though and he didn't even have to legally return the items.

Mistabernie wrote in post #14282609
Almost as ridiculous as getting two Zeiss lenses included with your rental with a retail value of $8000+, right?

No, yours was WAY more ridiculous...

CMfromIL wrote in post #14283685
Seeing as they didn't even know that they left the warehouse it would be a little difficult to pin that on the OP.

Of course, we're talking about what transpired after the OP made the phone call...

No they wouldn't.

They would have to do that to get a conviction or a judgement. However, they don't need to prove collusion to have the lenses declared evidence...

Now you're just spewing absolute stupidity, so you're no longer worthy of any time or consideration...

bikeboynate wrote in post #14283992
The guy who verbally agreed to the compensation was a manager though and he didn't even have to legally return the items.

To me, this is the big thing here. He could have kept the lenses, and the company couldn't really have done anything about it. He obviously did the honest thing by returning them. If I were in charge at Borrowlenses.com, I would gladly have let him have the two rentals for free.

whmeltonjr wrote in post #14284561
To me, this is the big thing here. He could have kept the lenses, and the company couldn't really have done anything about it. He obviously did the honest thing by returning them. If I were in charge at Borrowlenses.com, I would gladly have let him have the two rentals for free.

+1! Borrowlenses is the party that is out of line here, NOT the OP.

Hi everyone

I've just read each and every post made in this thread including Mr. Curran's detailed write up. Here at BorrowLenses.com we strive to provide the best lens rental service period with great selection and customer service. We like to think we do a pretty good job at that, and our stellar ratings reflect that:
http://www.resellerrat​ings.com/store/BorrowL​enses
http://www.yelp.com/bi​z/borrowlenses-san-carlos

Unfortunately there are infrequent occurrences where a customer will be dissatisfied and we do our best to resolve these situations through direct communication via phone, email or chat. Before anyone passes judgement let me say that there are always two sides to every story. We always make every effort to provide the best experience possible for our customers.

We greatly appreciate Mr. Curran doing the right thing by returning the lenses that were accidentally shipped to him. Accidents happen. While it might seem like an open and shut case that we somehow wronged Mr. Curran based on the story presented, the circumstances surrounding this situation are different than what have been shared here. It's important to clarify that Mr. Curran suggested a reward of two complimentary rentals in his original conversation with our staff, but no such offers were made or agreed to. We regret that a simple misunderstanding may have triggered Mr. Curran's dissatisfaction. Several attempts were made to communicate our policies as they relate to situations such as this, emphasize our appreciation, and even making an extra efforts to extend a reward that in two instances were flatly rejected.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Curran decided to turn down our kind offers of thanks. We certainly appreciated his effort to contact us and return our lenses.

We have a great track record of serving and satisfying tens of thousands of photographers who use our service. Moving forward we look forward to working with many of you here and establishing a great relationship. If you have questions about our service or need an issue resolved feel free to contact us at help@borrowlenses.com

There are always two sides to every story. I read and then re-read the first post.....and it sure sounds to me like the OP was fishing for a reward for doing the right thing. People do good deeds every day and get (not to mention, expect) nothing more than a sincere thanks. Why does honesty entitle you to a huge reward?

The real shame here is the large number of people that decided to dog pile without having all the facts.

I spy a cookie cutter, face-saving, generic/umbrella statement made by a Borrowlenses PR person.

@bikeboynate Actually I took several minutes to read and reread this thread and custom created that response. We do actually care about what is said here and we really do take great pride in developing meaningful relationships with our lens rental customers. It was not a cookie cutter response.

markol wrote in post #14285053
@bikeboynate Actually I took several minutes to read and reread this thread and custom created that response. We do actually care about what is said here and we really do take great pride in developing meaningful relationships with our lens rental customers. It was not a cookie cutter response.

I put a smiley face on the end of that post for a reason
I was being sarcastic
PS: I wonder if you saw my interesting experience with your company?

@bikeboynate I did see that. Sorry you got spooked. I'm hoping you'll give us a try again and we become your main lens and gear rental resource. If you pick up your next rental from our office be sure to ask the front desk to talk to someone in marketing (referencing this thread). An in person meeting always helps melt away the anonymity of the Internet. We're staffed by deeply passionate photographers and videographers and happy to help folks in any way we can.

markol wrote in post #14284882
We have a great track record

Feel free to send me by mistake two Zeis Canon mount primes anytime.