Randy Panado
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It's been a few weeks since it happened though I finally got some time to type out this story. It's a prime example of RED and the company culture they are breeding. They give a shit about their customers, we are not just a number to them. This story has two parts to it, one part customer SATISFACTION (as opposed to service) and one part over the top relationship building.
Warning..bit of a long story. It'll be the longest I've probably ever typed on a forum. However, it was such an epic tale of the RED Bomb Squad coming to the rescue, I hope that at least one potential customer will see it and be put at ease with their decision to trust RED with their hard earned money. I'll have the tl;dr version at the bottom.
Back story, I went to the RED RECON meetup a few months ago here in the Bay Area. Got to meet all the gents that were driving up the coast. Sean, Nate, Cleigh, and Josh. Just the time spending with them chatting it up with a new, soon-to-be Red owner was a great experience. They were genuinely excited to meet US, some random dudes following them on instagram and the reduser boards, to give us a quick sneak peek at the soon to drop dsmc2 cameras. It blew me away that this camera company sent their employees on a massive road trip, lol. That really solidified my decision on investing the most money I've ever dropped on a single camera purchase.
Now spin time forward from there to a little under month ago. Scarlet-W came in and life was bliss. I bought a 1TB minimag in preparation for the upcoming shoots I had planned. I had several quick turn around projects that I wanted to showcase the new look of my camera compared to the stuff I was shooting prior with my Canon Cinema Series cams. These were important shoots as they would be used as my "showcase" shoots to sell future clients. First shoot went off fine...except for the fact that my 1TB card wasn't mounting in my gtech reader. I could record in camera, playback and review, and eject it without any issues. It was just when I tried to mount it to download the card, it maybe mounted once out of 10 tries (and this was me waiting at least a minute for it to mount each time). Card ended up mounting and I dumped the footage and went along my merry way editing the piece.
2nd important shoot: I was leaving for NAB on wednesday morning, I had a big shoot the day before. Quick turn around time, needed to be delivered by friday AM. I was spending all day wed and half of thursday at NAB so the only edit time I had was wed night and possibly thurs. I had a theory that my reader was bad. Chalked it up to third party issues. So wed night of NAB I used my friends red mini mag reader (official, not 3rd party) and wanted to make sure it was the reader. Went to insert the mini mag and hmm.....wouldn't go into the reader. Like it physically would not go in. Now if there's one thing I know about expensive camera shit, its NOT to jam things when they don't fit. By this time I'm getting a bit stressed. my 120GB mini mag slid in and out without problems and upon physical inspection, it looks exactly the same as the 1TB. WTF is wrong with this card. I need to edit this project. The first one was a test shoot, the second one was fully paid (and a relatively large amount of money), it HAD to be done friday as there was timelines needed for marketing of the project the client needed met. Anyway, my last ditch effort was that I would take the mini mag the following morning (thursday) to GTECH and RED to see if they could at least see if I was doing something completely wrong.
So I get to the GTECH booth early in the morning, right when NAB opens up. Met some great people there and one of them was assigned to help me get to the bottom of things. He tried 4 mini mag readers, the mag would slide in though as far as mounting.....nothing. After about 20 mins of trouble shooting I'm starting to worry. I didn't shoot another camera as I had a limited time on my second shoot to get it all in the can. Going back to the client and saying I had equipment failure especially after selling the merits of my "new badass camera system" would not go over well. I thanked the GTECH rep and went to the RED booth, hopes not super high...though if anyone could help me, surely it was the manufacturer.
As I walk in, I see a bunch of familiar faces. All the guys from the REDRECON meetup were staffing the event! Kinda strange though it was like seeing old friends, they were all stoked to see me stop by the booth AND REMEMBERED who the hell I was...lol. I chatted with Cleigh and Josh for a bit.. telling them my tale of woe. One thing I remembered from us chatting at the meetup was that Josh BUILT all of this shit in his previous position. He HAS to know wtf is wrong with this card. I bring him up to speed to the situation, he verifies it works in a weapon, and then scratches his head at the issue. LOL. He pow wows with another gent who KINDLY KINDLY KINDLY allows Josh and I to go into the backroom where a computer is setup to get to the bottom of this.
>>Now before I continue, Jarred and Brent, it may not have been protocol what these guys did, but fucking hell man, did I feel like they gave a shit. And not because they work there, but because they really care that I had a project that needed to get done and I was in dire, dire need. I kindly request that they don't get into any trouble for this
<<
Josh and another gent are chatting and diagnosing the issue. Card doesnt slide into the reader...uh oh (flashbacks from the night before). Josh takes a chance and pushes a little harder and *POP*, goes in. Now in my mind, I'm thinking shit...that was a crapload of money for the 1TB mini mag...hope it wasn't broken LOL. Anyway, doesn't mount. FUCK. Josh pulls it out again and inspects it. Says theres probably a small small small physical issue with the card and that this is the first he has ever heard of this happening, though nothing appears wrong. Great...not the thing I want to be the first to experience...he stares at it for a bit, contemplates breaking open the card and swapping it with my 120GB innards since I enthusiastically said "do whatever you have to do to get this footage offloaded", but refrains from doing so. haha
Then he has a stroke of genius. He gently pulls back on the card in the reader and BOOM. It mounts. WTF. I whip out my backup drive and pretty much beg for them to dump the footage right there....and they kindly obliged. Josh reasons that it was probably not making contact when fully inserted and as he pulled back on it, the pins were in the right place to make contact. Definitely said to have it looked at as that was a first time seeing the issue. I go and do my thing around the booth for 30 mins while it offloads. Come back and catch Sean's attention and he goes back and grabs my drive for me. I tell him the story and he's genuinely stoked that I was able to get my footage offloaded. And one thing I paid attention to when talking to him was if he was hearing me OR actually listening to me. He was definitely not just nodding his head and agreeing, he was in the moment and very much happy that it was all sorted out. I definitely felt taken care of by the RED team that helped me with my ordeal. I went on to edit my piece and turn it into my client, who was ecstatic at the result and none the wiser that anything possibly went awry.
So to sum it all up, my decision was between a Scarlet-W or a Canon C300MK2. I've been a canon shooter since I started shooting video 10 years ago, very much comfortable with them. Making the jump to RED was a leap of faith...and jesus was it a ton of money at the time for me to be investing into a new system. At the moment Sean handed me my harddrive, NOBODY in the fucking world could tell me that a camera company would give that much of a shit that RED did in that 1 hour. NOBODY. I'm truly fucking happy that I took the time to create these relationships, meet these people, drop my money and invest into RED, and trust them. I've read stories of how Jarred has sent his personal camera out to people during emergencies. That attitude he has to helping his customers has definitely trickled down in terms of company culture. GREAT FUCKING JOB RED TEAM. Jarred and Brent, i've tossed a thank you and two at you both on facebook and here on the boards, but this time it's not one of those thank you's that's meant as a passing acknowledgement. This is a deep down type of thank you.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You've got a customer for life.
I ended up returning the mag to the person I bought it from who was very much wiling to swap me out for another 1tb they were selling. Jesse Conti, you are a fucking stand up dude. Thank you for not sticking me with the issue and swapping me out. The card you sent me to replace the other 1TB works just fine. Much appreciated.
Cheers everyone!
TL;DR 1TB MINIMAG wouldn't mount, quick turn around shoot in jeapordy, RED TEAM @ NAB rescued my ass.
Warning..bit of a long story. It'll be the longest I've probably ever typed on a forum. However, it was such an epic tale of the RED Bomb Squad coming to the rescue, I hope that at least one potential customer will see it and be put at ease with their decision to trust RED with their hard earned money. I'll have the tl;dr version at the bottom.
Back story, I went to the RED RECON meetup a few months ago here in the Bay Area. Got to meet all the gents that were driving up the coast. Sean, Nate, Cleigh, and Josh. Just the time spending with them chatting it up with a new, soon-to-be Red owner was a great experience. They were genuinely excited to meet US, some random dudes following them on instagram and the reduser boards, to give us a quick sneak peek at the soon to drop dsmc2 cameras. It blew me away that this camera company sent their employees on a massive road trip, lol. That really solidified my decision on investing the most money I've ever dropped on a single camera purchase.
Now spin time forward from there to a little under month ago. Scarlet-W came in and life was bliss. I bought a 1TB minimag in preparation for the upcoming shoots I had planned. I had several quick turn around projects that I wanted to showcase the new look of my camera compared to the stuff I was shooting prior with my Canon Cinema Series cams. These were important shoots as they would be used as my "showcase" shoots to sell future clients. First shoot went off fine...except for the fact that my 1TB card wasn't mounting in my gtech reader. I could record in camera, playback and review, and eject it without any issues. It was just when I tried to mount it to download the card, it maybe mounted once out of 10 tries (and this was me waiting at least a minute for it to mount each time). Card ended up mounting and I dumped the footage and went along my merry way editing the piece.
2nd important shoot: I was leaving for NAB on wednesday morning, I had a big shoot the day before. Quick turn around time, needed to be delivered by friday AM. I was spending all day wed and half of thursday at NAB so the only edit time I had was wed night and possibly thurs. I had a theory that my reader was bad. Chalked it up to third party issues. So wed night of NAB I used my friends red mini mag reader (official, not 3rd party) and wanted to make sure it was the reader. Went to insert the mini mag and hmm.....wouldn't go into the reader. Like it physically would not go in. Now if there's one thing I know about expensive camera shit, its NOT to jam things when they don't fit. By this time I'm getting a bit stressed. my 120GB mini mag slid in and out without problems and upon physical inspection, it looks exactly the same as the 1TB. WTF is wrong with this card. I need to edit this project. The first one was a test shoot, the second one was fully paid (and a relatively large amount of money), it HAD to be done friday as there was timelines needed for marketing of the project the client needed met. Anyway, my last ditch effort was that I would take the mini mag the following morning (thursday) to GTECH and RED to see if they could at least see if I was doing something completely wrong.
So I get to the GTECH booth early in the morning, right when NAB opens up. Met some great people there and one of them was assigned to help me get to the bottom of things. He tried 4 mini mag readers, the mag would slide in though as far as mounting.....nothing. After about 20 mins of trouble shooting I'm starting to worry. I didn't shoot another camera as I had a limited time on my second shoot to get it all in the can. Going back to the client and saying I had equipment failure especially after selling the merits of my "new badass camera system" would not go over well. I thanked the GTECH rep and went to the RED booth, hopes not super high...though if anyone could help me, surely it was the manufacturer.
As I walk in, I see a bunch of familiar faces. All the guys from the REDRECON meetup were staffing the event! Kinda strange though it was like seeing old friends, they were all stoked to see me stop by the booth AND REMEMBERED who the hell I was...lol. I chatted with Cleigh and Josh for a bit.. telling them my tale of woe. One thing I remembered from us chatting at the meetup was that Josh BUILT all of this shit in his previous position. He HAS to know wtf is wrong with this card. I bring him up to speed to the situation, he verifies it works in a weapon, and then scratches his head at the issue. LOL. He pow wows with another gent who KINDLY KINDLY KINDLY allows Josh and I to go into the backroom where a computer is setup to get to the bottom of this.
>>Now before I continue, Jarred and Brent, it may not have been protocol what these guys did, but fucking hell man, did I feel like they gave a shit. And not because they work there, but because they really care that I had a project that needed to get done and I was in dire, dire need. I kindly request that they don't get into any trouble for this
<<Josh and another gent are chatting and diagnosing the issue. Card doesnt slide into the reader...uh oh (flashbacks from the night before). Josh takes a chance and pushes a little harder and *POP*, goes in. Now in my mind, I'm thinking shit...that was a crapload of money for the 1TB mini mag...hope it wasn't broken LOL. Anyway, doesn't mount. FUCK. Josh pulls it out again and inspects it. Says theres probably a small small small physical issue with the card and that this is the first he has ever heard of this happening, though nothing appears wrong. Great...not the thing I want to be the first to experience...he stares at it for a bit, contemplates breaking open the card and swapping it with my 120GB innards since I enthusiastically said "do whatever you have to do to get this footage offloaded", but refrains from doing so. haha
Then he has a stroke of genius. He gently pulls back on the card in the reader and BOOM. It mounts. WTF. I whip out my backup drive and pretty much beg for them to dump the footage right there....and they kindly obliged. Josh reasons that it was probably not making contact when fully inserted and as he pulled back on it, the pins were in the right place to make contact. Definitely said to have it looked at as that was a first time seeing the issue. I go and do my thing around the booth for 30 mins while it offloads. Come back and catch Sean's attention and he goes back and grabs my drive for me. I tell him the story and he's genuinely stoked that I was able to get my footage offloaded. And one thing I paid attention to when talking to him was if he was hearing me OR actually listening to me. He was definitely not just nodding his head and agreeing, he was in the moment and very much happy that it was all sorted out. I definitely felt taken care of by the RED team that helped me with my ordeal. I went on to edit my piece and turn it into my client, who was ecstatic at the result and none the wiser that anything possibly went awry.
So to sum it all up, my decision was between a Scarlet-W or a Canon C300MK2. I've been a canon shooter since I started shooting video 10 years ago, very much comfortable with them. Making the jump to RED was a leap of faith...and jesus was it a ton of money at the time for me to be investing into a new system. At the moment Sean handed me my harddrive, NOBODY in the fucking world could tell me that a camera company would give that much of a shit that RED did in that 1 hour. NOBODY. I'm truly fucking happy that I took the time to create these relationships, meet these people, drop my money and invest into RED, and trust them. I've read stories of how Jarred has sent his personal camera out to people during emergencies. That attitude he has to helping his customers has definitely trickled down in terms of company culture. GREAT FUCKING JOB RED TEAM. Jarred and Brent, i've tossed a thank you and two at you both on facebook and here on the boards, but this time it's not one of those thank you's that's meant as a passing acknowledgement. This is a deep down type of thank you.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You've got a customer for life.
I ended up returning the mag to the person I bought it from who was very much wiling to swap me out for another 1tb they were selling. Jesse Conti, you are a fucking stand up dude. Thank you for not sticking me with the issue and swapping me out. The card you sent me to replace the other 1TB works just fine. Much appreciated.
Cheers everyone!
TL;DR 1TB MINIMAG wouldn't mount, quick turn around shoot in jeapordy, RED TEAM @ NAB rescued my ass.
