I didn't want to make this public, but...

[John Fitzpatrick]

EDIT*

JARRED LAND & The RED team replied extremely quick after I posted this. They helped me sort out the situation and I greatly appreciate it. This is really amazing customer service, Thank you to the RED team, Im very grateful.


Hello,

So I didn’t want to take this public because I don’t get any satisfaction out of bashing camera companies but this is really aggravating to me. I invested in a brand new RED Gemini package a little over a year ago.

- One year ago I purchased a 480gb mini mag which ended up shitting the bed, this particular mag only had about 50 hrs on it and was in perfect condition. I sent the mini mag to red and the response was

“our techs are unable to pin point the problem but here is a link to buy a new one”.

Shooting aside, I was a camera assistant for 10 years and have seen what these mags are able to handle in the field, thousands of hours in varying conditions. My question is, in what world would anyone spend 1500$ on a hard drive that lasts 50 hrs? Personally I wouldn’t spend 50$ on something that lasted 50 hrs. It’s bad enough they have recently switched to much more affordable CFast cards but I already knew going into this company that they weren’t going to make any decisions based on helping their customers investment, I just really liked the Gemini sensor.

Red replied and is willing to take 300$ off a new card. I told them I want a replacement.
Am I crazy?

UPDATE**

RED told me I took too long to respond and considered my card Abandoned due to Terms and Services, they "consumed" my card and will not return it broken.

This is wrong to do to a customer who invested 40K into your company. So what if I took a little longer to respond after having 4 pages of conversations, not everyone has 1500 a year to spend on new media that keeps breaking.

Just to make this clear, I spent 1500.00 on a card that lasted 50 hrs... they're response was to throw it away to get me to buy a new one.

WTFFFF.

I guess I can't due anything because they are clear about not wanting to help their customers.

=

 

[Phil Holland]

Just a quick question John.

The Gemini was new, but you purchased the media used?

I'd be curious where that media was in it's warrantee and all that. Do you know how old the media was if it was purchased used? Don't think I've ever heard of a card being "consumed". Sounds a bit odd.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Buy the kipper tie longtake mags instead, twice the amount of storage for less cost and you do not need a mag reader just a usbc cable to offload.

If nobody bought mags from red price would likly change quite quickly.

And yes as I see it red really miss an opertunity here. With the prices they charged for these cards and the constantly falling prices for ssds... To me the obvious best route red could take would be to replace all broken redmags free of charge no question asked. And second to that replace all broken mags and charge something in line with the maket cost for replacement ssds and handling.

 

[Kalechi Noel]

Poor customer satusfaction

Poor customer satusfaction

This is terrible . I hope this issue can get resolved . I would be so angry .

 

[Scot Yount]

Almost all my gear, I bought used. The reality is, you don't know what that mag has been through, 50 hours or not. The previous owner might have dropped it into a toilet. I have to say, that's not RED's fault. I understand your frustration about them not fixing it, however they should return the broken card. Maybe too much time has elapsed and they can't find it? Who knows. IF they can't find it then perhaps they should just give you a new one?

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

This is not good at all. I don't think this is the right way to look after your customers.

In general I agree with Björn that Red could easily offer at least a very long warranty on the cards. That way, they could still charge a premium and also be able to replace them without charging the customer. In some cases they can even afford to send a courier out on location if needed.

 

[Lee Poston]

1. How long did red have this before you got the "thrown away" message? 2. Did you buy this as a used item or new? IF used was it in warranty period?

 

[John Fitzpatrick]

Hey Phil, I purchased the card brand new from RED, my warranty expired a week before it broke.

Just a quick question John.

The Gemini was new, but you purchased the media used?

I'd be curious where that media was in it's warrantee and all that. Do you know how old the media was if it was purchased used? Don't think I've ever heard of a card being "consumed". Sounds a bit odd.

 

[John Fitzpatrick]

Just to be clear, I purchased the card brand new from RED, it was a backup. Low hours of use, my older card still worked fine. If I treated the card poorly I wouldn't be so upset. The fact that they told me they couldn't diagnose the problem is what got me so upset. Followed by throwing it away without letting me even know.

 

[Jarred Land]

This isn’t right..lemme look into it .

 

[Mike P.]

This isn't right..lemme look into it .

#ThisIsReduser

 

[Jarred Land]

Just to be clear, I purchased the card brand new from RED, it was a backup. Low hours of use, my older card still worked fine. If I treated the card poorly I wouldn't be so upset. The fact that they told me they couldn't diagnose the problem is what got me so upset. Followed by throwing it away without letting me even know.

Sorry still digging in, it took a bit to find you as the information you posted was incorrect. This card was not purchased brand new from RED a year ago, it was purchased from a 3rd party dealer just shy of 2 years ago. Which all doesn't matter as it's not the point of the card failure or the issue ... but since you double downed on that incorrect fact just wanted to correct. We definitely fell down here on a few things so meeting with the team to resolve and get you sorted.

 

[Scot Yount]

We definitely fell down here on a few things so meeting with the team to resolve and get you sorted.

You won't get that kind of service from Arri or Sony. Good on you Jarred!

 

[John Fitzpatrick]

Hey Jarred,

Wow, I just got the voicemail. This is extremely helpful and incredible. I appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to look into this and I am very grateful.

Just to be clear so it doesn't look sketchy on my end. I mailed RED the card around 6 months ago. Also, I purchased the package brand new through Abel cine, which is an authorized RED dealer. I should have been clear on that, my apologies. They told me I had to go directly to RED for handling media issues.

Regardless this is really cool, I thank you and RED very much for being so personal.

All the best,

John

Sorry still digging in, it took a bit to find you as the information you posted was incorrect. This card was not purchased brand new from RED a year ago, it was purchased from a 3rd party dealer just shy of 2 years ago. Which all doesn't matter as it's not the point of the card failure or the issue ... but since you double downed on that incorrect fact just wanted to correct. We definitely fell down here on a few things so meeting with the team to resolve and get you sorted.

 

[Luka Sanader]

Sorry still digging in, it took a bit to find you as the information you posted was incorrect. This card was not purchased brand new from RED a year ago, it was purchased from a 3rd party dealer just shy of 2 years ago. Which all doesn't matter as it's not the point of the card failure or the issue ... but since you double downed on that incorrect fact just wanted to correct. We definitely fell down here on a few things so meeting with the team to resolve and get you sorted.

Jerred this is cool that you looked in the small issue like this one your self. But when you say " card was not purchased brand new from RED " dose that mean that all things we buy through the network of authorized dealers are considered sketchy and not trust worthy if we have an issue down the line with that product?

 

[Jarred Land]

Hey Jarred,

Wow, I just got the voicemail. This is extremely helpful and incredible. I appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to look into this and I am very grateful.

Just to be clear so it doesn't look sketchy on my end. I mailed RED the card around 6 months ago. Also, I purchased the package brand new through Abel cine, which is an authorized RED dealer. I should have been clear on that, my apologies. They told me I had to go directly to RED for handling media issues.

Regardless this is really cool, I thank you and RED very much for being so personal.

All the best,

John

All good man... happy to sort ya. Apologies for how this all rolled out.

 

[Jarred Land]

Jerred this is cool that you looked in the small issue like this one your self. But when you say " card was not purchased brand new from RED " dose that mean that all things we buy through the network of authorized dealers are considered sketchy and not trust worthy if we have an issue down the line with that product?

No of course not, authorized dealers are good. It was just relevant here as John said multiple times he bought directly from RED but he didn’t , that made it impossible for us to look up his order as there was none and the time frame also incorrect so looking that way didn’t help either and left me scratching my head, Luckily the team found him in the support system so after we found him we were able to revisit how it was treated and resolve.

 

[Michael Hastings]

You won't get that kind of service from Arri or Sony. Good on you Jarred!

If you mean you won't get handled by the president - that's true since Sony is a massive publicly traded company with thousands of products vs Red - closely held small company with a few dozen products (only if you include accessories for the half dozen main products.)

I have seen this kind of statement numerous times on Reduser and in my experience it isn't true. If you mean responsive service to fix a problem I know of a number of situations of my own and my customers' where Sony bent over backwards to fix an issue (sometimes even when there isn't any legal or moral obligation for them to fix) so it might be better to simply say Kudos to Red for getting into it and avoid bashing other companies when you might not be well informed.

There doesn't seem to be a Sonyuser.net owned by the CEO so when Sony fixes an issue for a customer they don't normally publicize it.

 

[Scot Yount]

If you mean you won't get handled by the president - that's true since Sony is a massive publicly traded company with thousands of products vs Red - closely held small company with a few dozen products (only if you include accessories for the half dozen main products.)

I have seen this kind of statement numerous times on Reduser and in my experience it isn't true. If you mean responsive service to fix a problem I know of a number of situations of my own and my customers' where Sony bent over backwards to fix an issue (sometimes even when there isn't any legal or moral obligation for them to fix) so it might be better to simply say Kudos to Red for getting into it and avoid bashing other companies when you might not be well informed.

There doesn't seem to be a Sonyuser.net owned by the CEO so when Sony fixes an issue for a customer they don't normally publicize it.

Respectfully disagree. I worked in broadcast TV news for three decades, with mostly Sony equipment. Hundreds and hundreds of cameras. Not one single time did Sony "fix" anything for free. Further, when I first entered the RED Universe with a used 2011 Scarlet-MX from eBay in 2014 - No warranty - it "bricked" within the first two weeks that I had it. I had no choice but to send to RED expecting a bill much larger than the camera was worth. RED fixed the offending board, found a bad audio jack and fixed that, tested it, (maybe changed the sensor because it came back to me with zero hours) and overnighted it back to me. guess what the bill was? Free. I stand by my statement.

Edit: YMMV

 

[James Sielaff]

anyone else not able to talk to red support over the phone. is it only through their messaging center? i feel a 2-10minute phone conversation of a few questions back and forth turns into a week or two via their messaging center.

all other cinema brands allow a direct phone call.