PETE SMITHSUTH
Member
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2014
- Messages
- 11
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Dear REDUSERs,
Sadly, I have a cautionary tale about buying used equipment through Mark Smulson of Alimar Company (www.alimarcompany.com)
On May 5th, 2015— I engaged Mark Smulson on behalf of a client who was looking to buy a used set of Masterprime lenses. Mark sent us a few options, and we finally settled on A set. We agreed on a price, and he sent us an invoice under the Alimar Company letterhead— my client proceeded to pay for this through a bank transfer on June 24th, 2015.
In the set was 6 used Masterprime lenses, and 1 new Masterprime lens.
On July 16th, after payment was finalized, I got a call from Mark that the lenses arrived at his office but needed some maintenance done at Focus Optics in Burbank, CA— we waited because we wanted the best possible lens since Mark recommended us that some lens elements conditions were not up to his delivery standards.
Mark said he’s ordered the parts and readied them to be swapped onto the lenses. A day later…
On August 10th 2015,I received an email saying that the lenses he bought were stolen and he was subpoenaed by the US Grand Jury because they are part of a stolen set from New York. (Specifically from Arri Rental in NY).
I was asked to contact the NYPD detective who was on the case to check the facts, and indeed the detective told me Mark had acquired the stolen lenses and since were confiscated.
After hearing this news, I clearly made my request for a refund, as Mark was not able to fulfil our order as promised. Mark, through many emails and phone calls, refused responsibility and said that I would have to follow up with the NYPD as they were our lenses that was confiscated.
This is the point where I asked for help through a well respected DOP (with an ASC last name ) and through him I was assisted in hiring an attorney to represent us.
Through many phone calls and emails— Mark Smulson kept refusing and pushing the responsibilities onto the NYPD detective who is in charge of the investigation, saying that it would be them who could refund us.
He says there are many moving parts in this issue, but for us it’s quite cut and dry— Money Paid for Goods, Goods not delivered, refunds demanded and were refused.
This is breach of contract since the money we paid did not amount to Mark delivering anything, so the transaction was never completed.
It doesn’t matter to us that the lenses were part of a stolen set as we were never delivered these lenses. The ongoing investigation of the NYPD should not even have affected the transaction between Alimar Company and us. There was the other half of the set that was delivered to another customer by Mark, and from my understanding the NYPD detective tracked them down and confiscated them. However, we never had possession of these lenses— nor an attempt on delivery has ever been done in my knowledge.
In an effort to ease the pressure from my client, we tried to at least get a refund for the NEW Masterprime (still undelivered, and while Mark said he had ordered them, we have yet to receive any proof of this) and along with the commission that Mark had made on the set (total around 30,000 USD) in good faith before we wait and see what could end up happen with the investigation, but Mark refused to pay this amount back to us — and said that the commission is rightfully his (even though the lenses were never delivered…. and won’t be delivered).
At the moment an attorney is representing me with this case— we are filing a police report but meanwhile I wanted to warn future buyers on REDusers to be aware of suspicious activities that could be going on when buying through what seemed to be a public broker who advertises that they are licensed to buy and sell this type of equipment.
Before we made our purchase, I did research online and did not find any records of wrongdoings on the forums by Mark or Alimar Company, besides their feud with FJS, which I thought was ugly, but mostly competitive trying to win each other’s customers. A lot of the lenses listed on Alimar is also very similar or same as the ones listed on other Used Lenses websites. We properly engaged in an email conversation which lawfully binds us in a written contract and we were never honored this contract so now we will continue our pursuit to get the money reimbursed.
Let this be a warning for all of you, who plan to find used lenses or equipment through lens dealer and specifically through Mark Smulson at Alimar Company— instead of having a nice set of lenses, we have an outstanding transaction and now we are waiting on an ongoing investigation, in which the dealer has not shown any financial responsibility towards the improper procurement of these lenses to sell us.
Sadly, I have a cautionary tale about buying used equipment through Mark Smulson of Alimar Company (www.alimarcompany.com)
On May 5th, 2015— I engaged Mark Smulson on behalf of a client who was looking to buy a used set of Masterprime lenses. Mark sent us a few options, and we finally settled on A set. We agreed on a price, and he sent us an invoice under the Alimar Company letterhead— my client proceeded to pay for this through a bank transfer on June 24th, 2015.
In the set was 6 used Masterprime lenses, and 1 new Masterprime lens.
On July 16th, after payment was finalized, I got a call from Mark that the lenses arrived at his office but needed some maintenance done at Focus Optics in Burbank, CA— we waited because we wanted the best possible lens since Mark recommended us that some lens elements conditions were not up to his delivery standards.
Mark said he’s ordered the parts and readied them to be swapped onto the lenses. A day later…
On August 10th 2015,I received an email saying that the lenses he bought were stolen and he was subpoenaed by the US Grand Jury because they are part of a stolen set from New York. (Specifically from Arri Rental in NY).
I was asked to contact the NYPD detective who was on the case to check the facts, and indeed the detective told me Mark had acquired the stolen lenses and since were confiscated.
After hearing this news, I clearly made my request for a refund, as Mark was not able to fulfil our order as promised. Mark, through many emails and phone calls, refused responsibility and said that I would have to follow up with the NYPD as they were our lenses that was confiscated.
This is the point where I asked for help through a well respected DOP (with an ASC last name ) and through him I was assisted in hiring an attorney to represent us.
Through many phone calls and emails— Mark Smulson kept refusing and pushing the responsibilities onto the NYPD detective who is in charge of the investigation, saying that it would be them who could refund us.
He says there are many moving parts in this issue, but for us it’s quite cut and dry— Money Paid for Goods, Goods not delivered, refunds demanded and were refused.
This is breach of contract since the money we paid did not amount to Mark delivering anything, so the transaction was never completed.
It doesn’t matter to us that the lenses were part of a stolen set as we were never delivered these lenses. The ongoing investigation of the NYPD should not even have affected the transaction between Alimar Company and us. There was the other half of the set that was delivered to another customer by Mark, and from my understanding the NYPD detective tracked them down and confiscated them. However, we never had possession of these lenses— nor an attempt on delivery has ever been done in my knowledge.
In an effort to ease the pressure from my client, we tried to at least get a refund for the NEW Masterprime (still undelivered, and while Mark said he had ordered them, we have yet to receive any proof of this) and along with the commission that Mark had made on the set (total around 30,000 USD) in good faith before we wait and see what could end up happen with the investigation, but Mark refused to pay this amount back to us — and said that the commission is rightfully his (even though the lenses were never delivered…. and won’t be delivered).
At the moment an attorney is representing me with this case— we are filing a police report but meanwhile I wanted to warn future buyers on REDusers to be aware of suspicious activities that could be going on when buying through what seemed to be a public broker who advertises that they are licensed to buy and sell this type of equipment.
Before we made our purchase, I did research online and did not find any records of wrongdoings on the forums by Mark or Alimar Company, besides their feud with FJS, which I thought was ugly, but mostly competitive trying to win each other’s customers. A lot of the lenses listed on Alimar is also very similar or same as the ones listed on other Used Lenses websites. We properly engaged in an email conversation which lawfully binds us in a written contract and we were never honored this contract so now we will continue our pursuit to get the money reimbursed.
Let this be a warning for all of you, who plan to find used lenses or equipment through lens dealer and specifically through Mark Smulson at Alimar Company— instead of having a nice set of lenses, we have an outstanding transaction and now we are waiting on an ongoing investigation, in which the dealer has not shown any financial responsibility towards the improper procurement of these lenses to sell us.
