An open letter to Ron Wisner

[Michael Kadillak]

The legal system ie. small claims court is your best option preferably in the geographical area where he does business. Unfortunately, international customers are at a disadvantage in these situations unless you take matters in your own hands. With the emphasis of doing this as inexpensively as possible I would find out how to legally assign agency of your claim to a local lawyer and run this up the flag pole as expediently as is possible. I also feel that it is very reasonable to attempt to collect interest to offset some of the unintentinal currency risk you incurred during this process.

Word is that after selling his building and coming into some money now is the time to get this done. It is very sad to see these course of events taking place. Several years ago I told Ron on this forum that if he did not change his ways it was only a matter of time until other camera makers that understand customer service would erode his sales to the point where it would take him out of the game. All I heard from him at the time were excuses about how hard it is to get good workers or how difficult it is to juggle the enormous demand and continue to bring out new products. Complete denial of the issues at hand and a continuation of the poker table business practices. Collect money on future orders from people that should know better, promise the moon to the pleading clients and hope that there is enough cash flow to make payroll and pay the rest of the bills.

People like Ron that have this personality type continue to look for external factors to blame for the sequence of events that take place rather than taking personal responsibility for the fact that you should not say one thing and do another. He is the reason that his business is at risk and we in the LF community are the ones that suffer. An extension of this mentality will blame the demise of film or needing a rest of something for his departure from the game hoping that customers will be pleading with him to make them a camera and once again - front the continuation of his "new" business with pay ahead orders. Not a good thing before and surely not one in the future.

The LF industry will survive quite well without him for as long as he decides to be a victum. Maybe one of these days he will buy a full length mirror and start looking into it on regular intervals.

Keep us posted on your efforts to get your refund!

Onward!

[Lars Åke Vinberg]

Thank you all for you advice and support. Mr. Wisner has contacted me in order to resolve this issue ASAP.

As soon as this issue is closed I will of course notify this forum. Meanwhile, please do not post more advice on legal action, I feel that to be completely unneccessary. I have no doubt about Wisner's good intentions - sometimes we all need a nudge or two in the right direction.

[Ron Wisner]

Michael,

I am happy to disabuse you of several or your assumptions. First, I certainly do not feel like a victim. I am very happy with my decision to downsize after 22 years and do some other things that have been on my list. Nothing makes me happier than taking care of old obligations so I can move on.

It is true that the orders got out of hand, which is why in the future I will only take orders that I can build in a reasonable time. And contrary to your futher speculation, we will no longer take deposits. I am sorry to say that in the last two months I have turned down dozens of orders from customers with cash in hand, some from our dealers, many from existing customers. They accept that they will have to wait.

Finally the "word" about anything regarding my finances is pure conjecture. I am looking forward to my new building being finished, and a smaller, simpler business.

Best regards
Ron

[Dan Jolicoeur]

The question Mr. Wisner is why you have not refunded his check in two years, you seem to dance around that very nicely.
Best Wishes to the Both of you,

[Ron Wisner]

Because I am a disorganized businessman. I do recall that we attempted once but there was a problem in the transaction; a wrong card number or date or the address didn't match. I can't remember now. Perhaps Mr. Vinberg will remember. In any case, I am glad to get this cleared up.

Ron

[George Stewart]

On a lighter note, and perhaps a biased one: I have met Ron on many occasions and been to his factory. I own one of his cameras and have ordered accessories from him before, without problem. If one has been to his factory and met him and his employees, one would know that Ron makes LF cameras out of love and not profit. The amount of work that goes into making one of his cameras is amazing. I didn't see any CNC equipment when I went there, just employees with 100 year-old equipment making old-fashion cameras the old-fashion way. His employees seemed happy, as I'm sure are most of his customers. Everyone makes mistakes (some that last a long time), but as long as they are ultimately rectified, and steps are taken to ensure that the same problems do not recur, all should be forgiven.

[John Z.]

Ron,
When you get situated in your new building, make some ground glass protectors! I know that many of us are still trying to get them for 11x14 cameras, and Quality Camera tells me they have had some on order for a long time- two years in fact. These are the kind of details you must pay attention to in order to keep us happy; and lens boards-very hard to come by. We would all appreciate the protectors for or cameras, and extra business for you; a win-win situation.

[Michael Kadillak]

Ron:

It is a truly exceptional individual that accepts professional criticism within the context that it is offered. Fact is that successful people get to where they are not by continuing to do what comes easy for them but by understanding their weaknesses and methodologically working on each aspect to measured improvements.

You are clearly a very ingenius camera designer. For that we in the LF community are graced beyond our wildest expectations with your capabilities.

But as someone that decided long ago to meld this skill set with a manufacturing, marketing and customer service enterprise I can honestly say that over the last eight years that I have been following the LF comunity you have regularly broken every possible rule of prudent business operation. In other words your business skill set really sucks with a capital S. Your willingness to continue to use your camera business as a sacrificial anode to your personal designing, innovating and ancillary pursuits has been a disappointment to say the least. We are a very small community in large format and this ends up hurting us all.

I learned my business skills the hard way and can only tell you that if you do not make a personal decision to let someone else that has the right skill set handle your customer service and customer interface in the future, you will have a very difficult time making ends meet upon re-organization. You should focus singularly on seminars, educational pursuits and creative designing which clearly are your strengths. Do youself and all of us a favor and stand aside and let someone else do the day to day stuff and answer the phone.

Looking forward to a re-visit this subject in the fall.

Here is to hoping that you can in fact pull this rabbit out of your hat!

Cheers

[Richard Schlesinger]

Lars has got to be the most patient man I have ever heard of!

[Armin Seeholzer]

"Because I am a disorganized businessman"
You got it Ron and you really should change exactly that point otherwise your bussines will go down the river like Kodak's!
Good luck in finding a good organiser for your company!