durst enlarger

[Jens J Jensen]

Mike Kadilak,

Thank you for your support. May I suggest that you also mention to the readers of this forum that;

1) The mirrors you are waiting for is not for a condenser head delivered by our company. The mirrors that you are waiting for is for a head that you purchased from a third party.

2) When you placed the order for mirrors for the condenser head and I could not deliver the correct front surface mirrors I had a set of temporary mirrors made for you, and sent you free of charge. I shipped the temporary mirrors via UPS next day air and did not charge you a penny for either mirrors, shipment or handling.

3) We took your order for the correct mirrors and prepaid our supplier without asking you to prepay.

….then the reader may understand that we do support the fine art market.

Sincerely

Jensen

[Jens J Jensen]

Mike Kravit,

Meeting you in Florida was a pleasure. Based on those of your photographs I saw and your level of technical expertise I see you as a sensitive and intelligent photographer.

Thank you for your support.

I have asked Dr. De Santos to confirm yours as well as my own explanation. And I am sure he will do that. I have met Louis De Santos and have high regards for him. I see his display of frustration more as a frustration directed against his situation as a whole rather than against my company and my self personally. Louis engaged in building a gallery with darkroom. At first he ran into problems with his architect causing delays and then he ran into huge budget increases on the building and finally his entire project dragged out for months. Then after the darkroom and studio is finally finished, and he leans back, saying to him self, “Finally I am there – ready to print - now I will call Jensen and get the rest of my equipment” only to realize another delay.

I totally understand Louis’ frustration.

The only thing I object against is being hung out as having “shafted” Louis. I have not.

Had Louis planned differently and opted to store the equipment him self, my mistake would not have mattered because there would have been plenty of time to fix it while he was building. Had I planned differently it would never have been a problem. I could have made the equipment ready months before Louis called to get it delivered and would then have discovered the faulty power supply in time. Neither I nor Louis planned correctly. Mistakes happen.

I took the responsibility for my mistake and generously solved the issue.

Conclusion:

The power supply sold to Louis was a used unit. It was a used unit creating this problem in the first place.

We sold 7 other CLS300 light heads in the last part of 2003, which were to be supplied with used power supplies. We had delays also on these deliveries. The power supply is the most expensive and most vital part of a CLS300 system. Therefore it is in both my and the buyers interest to cut a corner and supply a used power supply, even with a new CLS300 head. It is much less expensive.

We had, and I write “had” because we no longer have, a customer in Washington State who found a used CLS300 head on Ebay. It is worthless without a power supply and the one supplied did not work. This previous customer of ours called me to purchase an EST300 which I could not deliver. I tried to find one for him too. The wait got so frustrating that he also got upset with the lack of what he called “service” received from our company. He had previously bought a used EST300 from us with which he was experiencing problems and also needed a plug we could not supply. He decided we could not live up to his expectations and made it very clear that he would no longer be a customer.

The kind of critique displayed here in this large format forum and by the previous customer in Washington we only experience in connection with the sale of used equipment. I should have stuck with our previous decision of not to sell used. It is hard though. When a customer calls and wants an inexpensive unit one wants to help and also to secure the sale.

Therefore I announce to the Large Format market: Yesterday we decided to adhere strictly to our previous decision of not selling used equipment. We will in particular no longer supply, or attempt to repair, the following power supplies: EST450, EST301, EST300, EST1000, EST2000, TRA450, TRA301 and TRA301. The factory discontinued these units back in 1985 and 1991.

Those, of the above mentioned units, that we have delivered from 1994 till today will be repaired under warranty or replaced by the new EST1500 at no or little cost for the customer for a period of 6 months ending October 31, 2004. We will announce this in writing directly to involved customers.

When trying to be helpful and frugal results in comments like the ones currently displayed on this Large Format Forum I believe that discontinuing these units and entirely discontinuing selling used is not only justified but also a responsible action.

It is my hope that the Large Format market will understand this explanation and that it can restore the faith in our work and our company so that the Large Format Market will see us a a worthy partner, which I strongly believe that we are.

Sincerely

Jens J Jensen

[Michael J. Kravit]

Jens,

Thank you for your timely and thorough posting to this forum. Your candid assessment of the situation. I do agree that it is much too easy for people to post complaints on the forum that go on to destroy business for the vendors supporting the LF community. I am as guilty of this as anyone else. We must stop and think what our words might do to impune the reputation of those dedicated to helping us.

You can see the nonsense that I had to endure because one individual misconstrued both my intent and what I was actually saying.

Thanks for your detailed and apparently thorough posting.

Michael

[Jeff Segar]

My response is to Mr. de Santos - In the last 2 years I have purchased 3 enlargers from Jensen Optical (Durst) and am completely satisfied with both the performance of the company and the enlargers. All of them have reconditioned components but were refurbished to new condition. These are beautiful machines and well worth the price I paid. Jens flew out to my gallery in Florida and spent 3 days installing the 8x10 with Digital light head and the much more complex 5x7 Optopia. Everything went great and Jens is a straight up and nice guy.

As are many companies who are trying to make equipment for us that is not digital, they are small. Their customer base is shrinking daily. And Jens's operation is very small. I expected problems and some minor ones did occur. But over all I am thrilled with the equipment and Jen's service.

I am sorry for your problems and I really know nothing about them. I just thought you might be glad to hear a successful Durst story. Feel free to email me if you wish. But for the others on this forum, please do not bother me with snide comments.

Best regards,

Jeff Segar

[luis a de santos]

Although I posted the original question I have been silent since I have felt the back and forth dialog has been brutal. My only purpose in posting the question was to see if other people had had similar problems and I found the answer positive. This was helpful. It is not my intention to destroy any bussiness,as owner of a small bussiness I know how difficult is to survive.On the other hand bussiness have to be responsible and I have suffered from not having the rquipment. Mr Jensen has promised that I would get the rest of my enlarger Tuesday.When I get the rest of the equipment and if everything is ok I will post a final note. In the meantime and to be fair I must correct Mr Jensen in his response. I did not change my order in mid course indeed it was Mr. Jensen who called me and offered to upgrade the head from the one I ordered to a better one for the appropiate additional fee and I agreed to this . I was happy about the upgrade but it must be made clear I did initiated the change. And yes I may not have made exactly 200 calls but there were very many. Perhaps something good came out of all this since Mr Jensen will be offering a more readily available equipment,this will result in faster turn around and happier customers. I have no ill feelings toward Mr Jensen.If this helps to a better understanding I feel I have done my job

Luis A de Santos

[luis a de santos]

In my last post there was a typographical error. It should say "I did NOT initialized...."

[M. DeSalvo]

Wow, I was in search of some new enlargers for our Studio and I came across this notice. The reason I am looking for the enlargers is because of Jens!!!!!!!!!!! We used our Durst enlarger for Appox. 6 months before it completely shut down. Jens assumes the promblem is something out of warranty and will only come look at it for a min. of $3000.00 plus parts, plus airfare, plus hotel stay!!!!!!! His customer service is terrible if I ran my studio the way he runs his business, I wouldn't be open. So whomever is out there defending Jens, STOP! Or you could just by my Dusrt Optimo CL, and I won't be out THOUSANDS of dollars.

[Jens J Jensen]

OK-here we go again....

In December of 2002 Mr. deSalvo purchased an OPTIMO CL 4x5 Autofocus enlarger. It was installed by my self. During installation Mr. DeSalvo further purchased a Densitometer for the OPTIMO and a lamp. The lamp and the Densitometer was returned mid 2003 due to lack of payment.

In November of 2003 - 11 months later, Ray, Mr. Desalvos assistant, calls and asks for help solving a technical problem. I spend part of one day, and part of the next day going through the test routines with Ray. The test routines do not disclose any problems. a total of five call the longest call was 28 minutes. NO CHARGE.

When we get deeper into the problem Ray tells me that OOPS - I forgot to tell you: "We had a lightening strike, the whole building went black and our refrigerator broke too".

From there on I told Ray that I could help no more over the phone and would recommend a service visit. This instigates a call from Mr. Desalvo him self where he calls me all sorts of names and in graphic terms describes what I can go do to my mother. Based on that conversation I close Mr. DeSalvos file.

Ray later confirm the surge problem in an email, and claims that it was my duty to install a surge protector on the enlarger.

I February of 2004 we get a request from Durst in Italy in February to reopen the file and perform service to Mr. deSalvos machine. I get a call from Mr. Desalvo who requests a service visit. Mr. DeSalvo book servicve visits three times at different occasions. Each time my assistant books flight and schedules service. We never receive the required pre-payment. Due to the lack of payment for previous parts delivered we did require pre-payment.

All is documented in this case due to the involvement from Italy. Rays initial call, Mr. Desalvos initial (rude) call are both documented and transcribed word for word.

Anyone who desires can call my office and get a full set of copies.

I am getting tired of having to defend my business on the internet.

As of today I ask that everyone that wants to criticize me do so honestly. As of today, starting with Mr. Desalvo I will have our lawyer deal with all deliberate smearing! And I will post the results.

I can further ad to this case; Speaking to Ray in connection with the later scheduled service visits, which never was performed due to lack of payment, it came up that the OPTIMO CL had also been moved, and dropped, prior to the call for service.

Sincerely Jens J Jensen

[izaack]

This just in from the APUG.org dated 12/11/04:

"Mark Noble



Subscriber

Join Date: Nov 2004

Location: Olympia, WA

Shooter: 8x10 Format

Posts: 1

Mark Noble is offline



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For your protection I would only purchase by COD or credit card. What They say is in stock ain't necessarily so -- Jens is a nice guy but over a year and $9K Later.....still have yet to see the goods."

Is there a pattern emerging here? And has luis a de santos received his order? Would Luis please update this thread?

[izaack]

http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?p=84084#post84084