Are there places that rent monitor calibration "tools"

cdifoto wrote in post #15988089
You can rent mine for 3 days for $50. If there are 5 more takers, it'll pay for itself.

Unless one of them decides to just keep it.

There's a kid locally who posted an ad on CL begging someone to lend him a calibrator . At first, I wanted to help. The problem is, thought, if he refuses to return it, there's absolutely nothing you can do. Other than getting a useless and unenforceable small claims court judgement.

2OP: just buy one, it's a good long term investment.

Amamba wrote in post #15992272
Unless one of them decides to just keep it.

There's a kid locally who posted an ad on CL begging someone to lend him a calibrator . At first, I wanted to help. The problem is, thought, if he refuses to return it, there's absolutely nothing you can do. Other than getting a useless and unenforceable small claims court judgement.

2OP: just buy one, it's a good long term investment.

It's actually criminal theft. Has it ever occurred to you that things are rented all the time? Lenses, cameras, lighting, computers....vehicles. People rarely rent with the intent to steal because their name is all over it. Well that and most people are actually honest. How often do petty thieves provide their name, home address, and intentional view of their face to the owner of the items(s) they're stealing?

Not that I'd actually rent mine out anyway. I kinda sorta need it.

cdifoto wrote in post #15992306
It's actually criminal theft. Has it ever occurred to you that things are rented all the time? Lenses, cameras, lighting, computers....vehicles. People rarely rent with the intent to steal because their name is all over it. Well that and most people are actually honest. How often do petty thieves provide their name, home address, and intentional view of their face to the owner of the items(s) they're stealing?

Not that I'd actually rent mine out anyway. I kinda sorta need it.

They do it all the time on eBay. I agree that the majority of people are honest, but it only takes one dishonest prick to screw up your day. He pays you $50, you send him the rented item, he claims all he got was a box with a piece of wood inside, and demands his money back. On eBay, he'd probably get it, too, as they typically side with the buyer (which is why I am hesitant to sell really expensive items there). Even the PayPal will likely let him withdraw the funds. So now you're out of money and the item. And don't expect the police to help you much, other than may be sending an officer over to get his version of the story. (If they bother at all, since there's no evidence and it's now his word against yours). Heck, he may even file first, accusing you of mail fraud or whatever this falls under.

I am sure Lensrentals get screwed every now and then, too. However, being an established rental business with thousands of successful transactions, they should at least have better luck establishing their credibility in case of a lawsuit. Between two individuals, one's word is no better than the other's.

Not saying the world is full of crooks, I do believe there's still the majority of honest people out there. But, it pays to be careful.

Amamba wrote in post #16001871
They do it all the time on eBay. I agree that the majority of people are honest, but it only takes one dishonest prick to screw up your day. He pays you $50, you send him the rented item, he claims all he got was a box with a piece of wood inside, and demands his money back. On eBay, he'd probably get it, too, as they typically side with the buyer (which is why I am hesitant to sell really expensive items there). Even the PayPal will likely let him withdraw the funds. So now you're out of money and the item. And don't expect the police to help you much, other than may be sending an officer over to get his version of the story. (If they bother at all, since there's no evidence and it's now his word against yours). Heck, he may even file first, accusing you of mail fraud or whatever this falls under.

I am sure Lensrentals get screwed every now and then, too. However, being an established rental business with thousands of successful transactions, they should at least have better luck establishing their credibility in case of a lawsuit. Between two individuals, one's word is no better than the other's.

Not saying the world is full of crooks, I do believe there's still the majority of honest people out there. But, it pays to be careful.

I certainly agree with the general information here.

That said, this is when you file a claim with the shipping company. UPS will send someone out to do an investigation. I've actually had this happen to me before where I personally knew the buyer (but was located in another city). After all was said and done, I received a check in the amount that it would cost me to replace the item.

Amamba wrote in post #16001871
I am sure Lensrentals get screwed every now and then, too. However, being an established rental business with thousands of successful transactions, they should at least have better luck establishing their credibility in case of a lawsuit. Between two individuals, one's word is no better than the other's.

The number you're thinking of is 4% of all orders placed. Of course, we're pretty good at screening out most of that before the order is shipped, and fairly good at getting back what does get stolen. But there's a reason a lot of rental houses open and close in the same year, and that's why.

Roger Cicala wrote in post #16003328
The number you're thinking of is 4% of all orders placed. Of course, we're pretty good at screening out most of that before the order is shipped, and fairly good at getting back what does get stolen. But there's a reason a lot of rental houses open and close in the same year, and that's why.

Wow 4% thats still a lot. Not sure how people think they can get away with that kind of stuff.

Roger Cicala wrote in post #16003328
The number you're thinking of is 4% of all orders placed. Of course, we're pretty good at screening out most of that before the order is shipped, and fairly good at getting back what does get stolen. But there's a reason a lot of rental houses open and close in the same year, and that's why.

Wow. That's 4x what I expected. I thought maybe under 1%. That's crazy.

Really? You guys think 4% is high? Let's figure this out...

For sake of topic here, the ColorMunki rental from Lensrentals.com is $40 for 4 days. To make the numbers easy, let's assume 100 rentals; which brings us to $4,000 after 400 days. Obviously this assumes consecutive rentals, which probably doesn't happen, so let's disregard the length of time since it's really not of concern here anyway.

The ColorMunki is priced at $450 from B&H today. Let's use the 4% and assume that 4 people take theirs, claim it wasn't received, didn't work or whatever. That accounts for $1800 ($450 x 4), but realizing that those 4 people probably aren't going to be your last 4 customers you still have to have a 5th one (at least) to continue to rent - so product cost is now $2250.

So, out of 100 rentals, you could bring in $4,000 off $2250 in product (and you still have the 5th one to continue to rent until you get one of those 4% to come along again and try to steal it). Not to mention, they're fairly good at getting back those items anyway... Yes, I'll take that return anytime.

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #16003355
Wow 4% thats still a lot. Not sure how people think they can get away with that kind of stuff.

If someone is ordering an expensive item and claiming they got a block of wood instead, how do you prove they're lying ? This could be a lie, or the item could be stolen by a dishonest rental employee, or the package could be tempered with along the way.

There was a thread somewhere (here ?) about people ordering expensive cameras (5D2 me thinks) and getting boxes filled with plywood. IIRC after what must've been a fairly extensive investigation it was determined someone in a FedEx warehouse along the route was helping themselves to the goods being shipped. I am sure this took more than one complaint and more than one customer getting screwed.

So, unless the thief puts the item on eBay, or immediately advertises on local CL, how do you catch him ? The police isn't going to obtain a search warrant over a lost rental item in a situation where three sides point fingers at each other (especially if the customer doesn't have a prior criminal history).

Amamba wrote in post #16005014
If someone is ordering an expensive item and claiming they got a block of wood instead, how do you prove they're lying ? This could be a lie, or the item could be stolen by a dishonest rental employee, or the package could be tempered with along the way.

There was a thread somewhere (here ?) about people ordering expensive cameras (5D2 me thinks) and getting boxes filled with plywood. IIRC after what must've been a fairly extensive investigation it was determined someone in a FedEx warehouse along the route was helping themselves to the goods being shipped. I am sure this took more than one complaint and more than one customer getting screwed.

So, unless the thief puts the item on eBay, or immediately advertises on local CL, how do you catch him ? The police isn't going to obtain a search warrant over a lost rental item in a situation where three sides point fingers at each other (especially if the customer doesn't have a prior criminal history).

It's actually very simple. The shipper has to call the shipping company and file a claim that the item shipped was either damaged or stolen during shipping. They generally send a representative out to the receiver's location (generally the delivery driver) who speaks with the receiver about the package. They do a visual inspection of the package and ask about how the item was received. Once the claim is approved, a check is mailed back to the shipper (since they paid for shipping and/or insurance), who can then reimburse the buyer.

Realize, that this process is easy enough that (unfortunately) I knew people who were purposely doing this. Anyone have a broken item in their home? They would ship it to someone (maybe a friend located in another state), make a claim, and get money out of it. Sad, but true. I did a decent amount of e-commerce and shipping between 2001 and 2007. I can say that I've only made claims on items that really were damaged during shipping (maybe 2-3x); I was able to receive reimbursement from the shipping company each time.

drvnbysound wrote in post #16004999
Really? You guys think 4% is high? Let's figure this out...

For sake of topic here, the ColorMunki rental from Lensrentals.com is $40 for 4 days. To make the numbers easy, let's assume 100 rentals; which brings us to $4,000 after 400 days. Obviously this assumes consecutive rentals, which probably doesn't happen, so let's disregard the length of time since it's really not of concern here anyway.

The ColorMunki is priced at $450 from B&H today. Let's use the 4% and assume that 4 people take theirs, claim it wasn't received, didn't work or whatever. That accounts for $1800 ($450 x 4), but realizing that those 4 people probably aren't going to be your last 4 customers you still have to have a 5th one (at least) to continue to rent - so product cost is now $2250.

So, out of 100 rentals, you could bring in $4,000 off $2250 in product (and you still have the 5th one to continue to rent until you get one of those 4% to come along again and try to steal it). Not to mention, they're fairly good at getting back those items anyway... Yes, I'll take that return anytime.

That's the theory, except we don't lose 4% to theft, that's the attempts, so your theft loss numbers are high.

On the other hand very few items will last 100 rentals. Actually we've never had one of anything last 100 rentals and we've had lots of things. Especially when you realize that a really "hot" item rents 2.5 times a month, most items far less frequently than that.

Not that it's a bad business, mind you, or I wouldn't still be in it.

Roger Cicala wrote in post #16005829
That's the theory, except we don't lose 4% to theft, that's the attempts, so your theft loss numbers are high.

On the other hand very few items will last 100 rentals. Actually we've never had one of anything last 100 rentals and we've had lots of things. Especially when you realize that a really "hot" item rents 2.5 times a month, most items far less frequently than that.

Not that it's a bad business, mind you, or I wouldn't still be in it.

Certainly.

The use of 100 just simplified the math. I wasn't trying to quantify the business model, just trying to explain that 4% of attempted thefts is fairly low. I'm actually surprised it wasn't higher.