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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Birger Lens Mount Reservations

I'm not trying to say thats its a good thing, but it's what happens (hell, its happened to me - not Birger) and to a certain extent you have to live with it. Of course it would be much better if everything shipped exactly on time, payments were taken at the proper time and people kept in the loop. Unfortunatly that doesn't always happen. It makes you see the benefits of Apples no announcement until shipping (with a few exceptions - Final Cut Server) policy.

Just an attempt to add balance; something I suspect lies in the foggy middle of the views in this thread.
 
I understand everyone's pissed.. And there are reasons to be for sure, but I believe this is a complex project and it's just going to be this way.

You don't like that Erik's communication is spotty? Well, sorry... It just is. It get's better when he's not slammed, and he clams up when there's other things going on... It's a small company, you'll just have to deal.. Or leave, he will understand.

If his product is half as good as it's suppose to be, Erik will have little trouble getting the business.. There's a lot of cameras out there.

You are all involved in a massive beta test here, not just Birger, but also RED. Like it or not that means you carry more responsibility than usual. You cannot easily fall back on the "I'm a customer damnit!" line... You should not NEED the Birger mount.. You should have made other arrangements so that you would not be stressed out.

I love Erik, but I cancelled my reservation long ago and picked up a Nikon mount. Not cause I was pissed, but I could see where the wind was blowing and putting all my eggs in Erik's basket was simply NOT a good idea.

I will get a birger, no doubt, but I won't be stressing out while I wait for it.

I visit this thread for the entertainment value.

Jay
 
Its interesting the people who are not invested in the Birger Mount come on here to defend the Birger business style. And are actually apologizing for the company.

I have a Pl mount and a Nikon mount but would also love to add the Birger mount to my kit. I am glad to see Alesniak canon mount is coming a long nicely.
 
We are talking about 30 seconds of his time. I don't care how busy or important you think you are; you can always spare 30 seconds. You can defend Erik until you're blue in the face, but there is simply no excuse.

Ten bucks says Erik is defending himself under the alias Karl Gustav :)
 
Honest to God, I'm not connected in any way to Eric, and there is at leat 3000 nautical miles between him and me (assuming he is in the states). I'm sure a moderator could check me IP address to alleviate any doubt.

Anyway, thats me out of stuff to say.
 
What worries me is that Erik said orders up to 107.260200 were packed, ready to ship and would go out on Tue. He followed that post with ....

"Originally Posted by birgerEngineer
If you did not receive a tracking number today, and have already received a shipping email, you will receive an email tomorrow. I just do not have the humor left in me to get an email out to people tonight. "

Which indicates the packages were shipped but he just didnt send a tracking number out. Or am I missing something?

Also a few weeks ago he said mounts were trickling out daily, but not in volume. Each day he would say something like 'a few more mounts were shipped today'.. So where are these mounts? Nobody seems to have one. Not 1 reduser.

If someone outside the beta testers has recieved a mount, please just say so. It would give me much more confidence. I have no idea what Erik has been shipping the last 2 weeks but it doesnt seem like they were Red Birger mounts.
 
remember he has much bigger clients than us. It's understandable if a big corporate order takes precedence over all our little single orders. It's just business. He's been selling that canon mount to corporations long before April 07 when he announced he would screw it to the RED camera. I seem to recall that he said a lot of those existing customers were getting shipped a revised mount which happened after the surge issue was discovered.

I'm hoping Andy comes up with a shipping mount soon since I was one of those foolish people who based my shooting plans around a mount that was projected to ship in August 07. I'm screwed basically. Really really hosed. Thousands of dollars worth. (and I already bought the nikon mount and have been renting nikon glass)

But as Jay and Gustav and Wigby pointed out, I can't blame Erik, it's my own dumb fault.

Ah Erik.
I hope you're ok.
As you've said :
"this board has a tendancy to overreact"

so... we're all trying not to react...

please...
when you get a chance...
please ship me my mount....
please...
 
maxwax said:
remember he has much bigger clients than us. It's understandable if a big corporate order takes precedence over all our little single orders. It's just business.
Click to expand...

No, it's not. That's a ridiculous thing to say and an idiotic way to run a business. If I treated my clients differently, they would walk away. I have to treat the order of 50 extra DVDs replicated just the same as I treat the client who has just contracted with me to produce a TV show. Say what you will do and execute it. At the end of the day, your integrity and your reputation are the primary ingredients that your business is built on, not some sort of afterthought that follows your brilliance and your genius....

Erik has lost a lot of sales of these mounts on the integrity issue. I saw the prototype at NAB, and I believe this is a brilliant product. I hope to own it someday, when the integrity issues are resolved. Or maybe the competitor's model....My money will go to the one who builds a Canon mount which looks like it can be serviced after it breaks down. That will be the company with the track record worth trusting. My biggest concern isn't even whether Erik can ship mounts (he will, gradually) but rather that, if the thing goes bust, will it ever be repaired, given the record of service reflected in this thread?

If you think it is hard simply to obtain one, try getting one fixed once several hundred are out there breaking down. We have watched RED struggling mightily to keep up with servicing issues every single day on this forum...and they do a very good job of squeezing every drop of performance from their people.

If you're one of the "little people" whose order doesn't count for much now, how much worse will it be when you're an even littler insignificant person whose mount requires a warranty repair?

Now that the latest maelstrom of worry is hitting the Birger thread, I'm actually just chiming in to say that, when I cancelled my order, my credit card was promptly refunded. I actually find that quite encouraging, that movement is actually happening on the customer service side. I think it is important to stay on these companies that promise, take your money, and then don't deliver. But I think it is important to say when they are doing things right, too.
 
Meryem Ersoz said:
No, it's not ...
Click to expand...

Meryem, your post is an island of sanity. The issue is not about beta testing or about adding balance to this thread. Instead, the reactions are justified as nobody knows what is really going on and able to take sides on whether the situation is getting better or worse. Putting the reservation holders in the situation their credit cards are fully charged but leaving them in a concern that perhaps they will never get anything in return for their money should be a major alarm indicating things are getting sour. It's up to Erik and solely on his responsibility to clarify the waters. Personally I truly hope the next time we hear from him the first batch is already on its way to the reservation holders with Erik's sincere apologizes explaining the silence was due to the major effort he put to fulfill his part of the contract.
 
We probably scared Erik off. He's probably not going to say anything on this board until a number of people can claim they've gotten their mounts.
 
Meanwhile. . . we all just keep waiting. . . for Birger and View Factor both.

:-(

Stephen
 
Really interesting. I've been away on holidays for 2 weeks. And it is good to know that some things never change. The big Mac always taste the same.... if you spit to the sky you will get wet and the Birger Mount is endlessly shipping without really shipping.

In a few hours I am flying back home where I was told my Red Camera arrived. I would like to know if there is any "Red Bricked Camera association" that I could join and maybe get special discounts in renting lenses or lectures on how to make your own pinhole lens to use your Red Camera until the Birger mount ships. I need to get ready for using a camera without lens, and i guess there are many experts out there that could help me out. Obviously I am painfully putting aside 600$ for the Nikon mount because sadly I don't expect to see anything anytime soon.

I still can not understand how people can defend certain unprofessional situations. It doesn't bother me that things are delayed. Plans change, Red Camera mount changed, so things get delayed, it is OK. Creating a complicated engineer mount is not easy and it takes time. Problems with cables, fine, with machines... fine. But if you state the mounts are ready to ship until #107.??????, and either today or maybe tomorrow will ship, that should mean THEY ARE SHIPPING. So unless a meteorite hits Birger's warehouse and melts those mounts, or UPS and Fed EX go on strike those mounts should be shipped long time ago. What's going to be the next statement? "The pressure of the bubbles in the bubble wrap was not the right one to protect the Mounts and we have to order a new Bubble wrap from China that will arrive in 3 days. So you will get a tracking number Next Week"

Irony aside, am I missing anything? Is my English level not good enough to understand what's going on? Because I do not understand anything.

I'm sorry to be this harsh and Birger might be a great guy, but I've seen these statements long enough. His mount is going to be amazing, but by now I think we deserve to trust a little bit in Birger and honestly I cant. We all have our own projects and we are dealing with expensive equipment, deadlines and I found this situation so misleading and frustrating.
 
It has become clear to me from some things aqua said in another thread that this birger thread is becoming divisive and drawing lines between people who should respect each other as we take sides on the birger saint/sinner debate.

I'm out of this thread. I'm not going to post here anymore. I don't want to lose the respect of anyone here.

I can afford to wait only a very short time more for Erik, but I start making my plan C tonight. The nikon mount and renting nikon lenses is not a long term plan for me.

best of luck and much respect all.
 
I dont think anyone here is being divisive, just expressing a long built up frustration. There are a few who are not waiting for a mount who can always come in and offer a calming perspective. I'd probably do the same. As long as people remain respectful I think we have a right to ask the questions and show our dissappointment.

What you're seeing here is just the result of a pressure cooking going pop. Some words from Erik could go a long way to calming people's fears.

The main difference from before is that I have to now pay my credit card in the next week for something I haven't received. I don't know whether to dispute the payment, ask Erik to refund until he can ship (but he probably wont read my e-mail for a few weeks), or pay it and wait on the hope it arrives soon.... until he makes a new announcement I'm stuck.

I still want my mount and I think it's going to be a great piece of kit. I will go quiet untill we hear from Erik himself. But I don't feel any guilt for asking the questions about what's happening.
 
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