[Konvas] About Anatoliy Pleshko

[Bibekanand Satpathy]

Apart from poor packaging, the most important things to remember are the description and representation of items with pictures that buyers rely on making their good faith purchasing decision.
 
On one of the unpleasant occasions, Anatoliy advertised on eBay a LOMO anamorphic round front 35mm lens as brand new and the pictures were beautiful.  While we know that LOMO does not manufacture anamorphic lenses any more and brand new is not possible, the pictures depicted very clean and like new condition of the lens.  Anatoliy insisted on being paid by Western Union, that I complied with additional cost.
 
Unfortunately, what I received in the mail was a very old, dirty LOMO lens with big chip on the front element of the lens and fungus inside with oily looking foggy liquid as seen through the lens.  The lens was practically unusable.  I had the lens evaluated by a lens technician in Hollywood, California, who confirmed that the lens was unusable and told me, it would cost much more to repair the lens than what it would be worth.  Being surprised, when I contacted Anatoliy, he replied stating that his assistant made a mistake, sent the wrong lens (serial number of the lens advertised vs. received was different)  and if I returned it to him, he would replace it with the correct lens.  In good faith again, I shipped the lens back to Anatoliy with additional cost.  
 
To my biggest surprise, after numerous emails, I received the same old lens back from Anatoliy with no explanation.  Of course, I did not receive any refund.  Anatoliy even started blaming me for the transaction and kept my money.
 
I still have the damaged and unusable lens with pictures to prove.  Our good friend Rafael tried to help, contacted Anatoliy, but he still refused to refund the money.
 
As far as I know, eBay received numerous complaints from different buyers who had similar experience with Anatoliy and kicked him out.  Now, he uses another eBay User ID and is selling again.  There are many victims who have lost money with Anatoliy.
 
Once again, this may or may not happen to you.  But be careful in dealing with Anatoliy.  After you send the money by Western Union or bank wire transfer, you have practically NO recourse to get your money back.
 
Thanks.
 
Bibekanand.

--- On Thu, 7/23/09, Peter Haas <peterhaas at cruzio.com> wrote:


From: Peter Haas <peterhaas at cruzio.com>
Subject: Re: [Konvas] About Anatoliy Pleshko
To: "Konvas Discussion List" <cinema at konvas.org>
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009, 6:42 PM



On Jul 23, 2009, at 6:25 PM, vonat8 at verizon.net wrote:

> I've bought from him a couple of times.  Nothing I bought was broken, although none of it was in great condition either.  The financial transactions were convoluted and a big hassle: he insisted on being paid by bank transfers, which cost me money and time and were very, very slow.  He does seem to have a treasure trove of stuff there, though.
> 
> You're right about the canvas bag thing--it seemed to be standard procedure from some FSU countries, though I haven't received one of those sewn-into-a-bag parcels in a few years.

All the above is pretty much spot-on.

I once bought a complete set of brand-new primes in a fitted foam hard-case.

When the parcel, stitched as described, arrived, all the lenses were found to have banged together again and again during shipment as the foam had completely disintegrated.

None of the lenses were usable without extensive, and expensive repairs.

I received what I would consider a reasonable, but not an overly generous reduction in price, with the very terse message, "I don't want those lenses back, you can keep them".

I have never had them repaired.

I found another complete set of primes from another seller, and at a somewhat lower price, too.

Word to the wise: whenever packing for international shipment, any foam should be considered to be useless. Pack every item separately in bubble wrap, or better. And then pack it again, in bubble wrap. If you really DO want the Russian hard-case, then ship it as another item within the shipment, with nothing of value contained within it.

I would NOT do another purchase using Western Union wire transfer!



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