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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 :)

Red Rental Nightmare...

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Dan Lorenze

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Hi there, my name is Dan Lorenze. I'm a partner in a Red one camera #235.. I'm in love with the camera and I've been having a great time with it as most of you have. I had an opportunity to rent my camera package out to a friend who was producing a short student film.. The production would actually involve 3 Red one cameras, My friend Ricardo, myself and another Reduser local many of you know well from this site, a popular, high post count user.. I arranged a special price for a day of shooting to my friend Ricardo.. Well, after I received his insurance we had scheduled to have the production pick up my camera.. My camera and all of its accessories are brand new from Red that we purchase from our solid rep from Red, Randy Stift.. After the shooting day I got a call from my friend telling me that my Raid Drive was not mounting up and having difficulties, this went on for hours, many, many phone calls of worrying about all the possible lost footage... Ricardo asked me if he could hang on to the drive to see if they can get the footage off the drive and salvage the days work... No problem, do what you have to do, I said...

Red has this drive now, trying to pull the footage off... Not sure what the problem is...


During one of the conversations during the day on the shoot I was asked if my Raid drive was older with a Matte finish on it??????? NO!!!! Why do you ask???? Well, the drive that's having all the problems is an older drive with a Matte finish and some wear and tear on it, small scratches etc..... WHAT????

No way is that my drive.......

Obviously, my brand spanking new drive had been swapped out by the other Red users on the shoot.... Worst of all blamming it on mine... It was his drive that was having the problems mounting up the whole time...

Guess what? My brand new batteries were also swapped out by this individual...... Yep, I got old batteries back that looked like they were used on the last season of Survivor..... Total BS!!!!!!! Do people actually think that you wouldn't notice these things???

I was questioned by this Reduser and my friend Ricardo if I had bought my drive used.... WTF?..... Nope, not in a million years.. All of my equipment was brand new and NEVER USED, EVER!! I took it out of the anti-stat bag and packed it up for the shoot... I waited almost three years for my red and this is it..

After the production confronting this so called RED DIT, I got my batteries back, he blammed it on an AC on the shoot... I called the AC on the shoot "Robbie".. He told me that his story was a lie.

I had a heated conversation with this individual about swapping my parts out, he admitted that the battery swap was a mistake but continued to hold his story that I was the one with the old, defective drive... Nope, it's brand new!! Unbelievable

My drive had three painted silver dots on it, confirmed by the AC who picked up my package, he confirmed it, swore by it... He's my witness, as is my partner in the camera..

My friend Ricardo ended up giving me one of his drives because he felt so bad about the swap...

Raid drives have no serial numbers on them, so there's really no paper trail on it..

As a kicker, he low balled his price on the camera when I've seen him participate in threads about low balling... go figure..... People are so fake.

The only way he could be telling the truth is if The Camera House (where the package was prepped) swapped out my drive for an older one of theirs... The AC "Robbie"said "NO WAY", the drive never left his hands... The producers went to The Camera House to try to find the missing drive, they denied any wrong doing and had no raid drives in their building....

Bottom line:

Engrave your stuff guys.... Make sure that this won't happen to you!! This was my first rental and I got taken advantage of big time.....

Be carefull who you rent your stuff to....

I never mentioned this guys identity, he claims he'll sue me for ruining his reputation...... If he wants to reveal himself, he's free to do so......

Take Care, Dan
 
Dan, that's pretty unfortunate. You have to be careful out there I suppose. It's going to continue to get more competitive, and who knows what level people will lower themselves in order to compete.

My advice would be to have everything you send out be catalogued and "stamped". In other words, have a way to track each piece via a database and corresponding label/engraving on the item. Otherwise, it's probably leaving it open for the taking/swapping.

I wish we lived in a more honest world. When you're honest with everyone else and this stuff happens, it can take a lot out of you.
 
Thanks Dan. There's so dang much to think about and although its' a bit sad we have to think about these things too, it's better to be fully prepared. I will definitely be engraving my accessories before ever letting them out of my sight, especially on a shoot where another Red will be present that may not have been taken care of quite as well as mine.

-shooter
 
Do keep in mind that if you engrave your gear, it could impact resale value. It's a tough balance.
 
Wow. I'm not sure what to do with this...

Some good lessons learned and learned the hard way. Good advice -- engrave / ID all your gear. I doubt that in the case of a RED Drive, resale value will really be effected. IMO, resale on such units after a year of regular use, would be pretty low anyway.

I also find it curious that there's no visible serial numbers on RED Drives or the RED LCD ( don't recall seeing any on the couple EVFs I've encountered ). I wonder if there's a way to get a RED Drive serial number? Perhaps with some drive info or profile tools? ...Haven't tried it.
 
Lesson learned.
I will put difficult to temper with, inventory stickers on all parts.

Thank you for sharing with us.
 
Anyone have a good source for those hard to remove aluminum stickers for parts (security labels)?
 
Film rental houses always engrave their gear for this very same reason.

If any of you are in South Florida, I have a Hermes pantograph engraver and can engrave small items such as the RED Drive. You can get an electronic serial number for a drive through the computer it's mounted on. This SN could then be nicely engraved on the drive casing, by cutting just below the anodized surface (silver numbers against a black background). I think this would add to the resale value, not detract from it.

I also have a Swiss Arglo etcher which can write on any type of metal (except anodized aluminum), but this must be done by hand, so it's not as neat as the Hermes engraver.

Most trophy shops are using computer driven engravers these days, and some have laser engravers. You can try to see if they will do the job for you. The biggest trick is mounting the part to be engraved on the machine and holding it securely.

There are also very tough decals with 3M High Strength Adhesive that are commonly used by rental houses. These decals are quite hard to remove.
 
Have you considered sewing his parched testicles to the interior of your Pelican Case? That should act as a strong deterant for future customers who may consider tempting fate ... Works wonders.

DogDay

buzz_saw_cam01.jpg50793541-36c8-4ac4-acb4-29c70dee1c2bLarge.jpg


Not only for slicing pizza.


_
 
Come forward you coward!

Dan, sorry to hear of your troubles. From now on, don't rent your camera without going to set and delivering the camera yourself, thats what I do everytime that my labor isn't needed. That way you're inspecting it at the dropoff and the pickup and all confrontations, if they arise, can be handled immediately. This really sucks that it was a REDUSER that caused you all this B.S.
 
Dan Lorenze said:
I never mentioned this guys identity, he claims he'll sue me for ruining his reputation...... If he wants to reveal himself, he's free to do so......
Click to expand...

Whether or not you decide to say his name is irrelevant to me (LA is a long ways from here), but for your peace of mind, in the US (as well as many, many other countries) you are perfectly allowed to ruin the reputation of whomever you please, as long as what you are saying is true. Now I'm not a lawyer so don't take this as legal advice, but it seems to me that you have a pretty strong case to prove that what you are saying is true so you don’t have anything to worry about from a defamation standpoint.

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_defamation_law
 
you could mark your accesories with your logo.....

sorry to hear all that....
 
hmm.... now I'm all interested about who in the heck this other reduser is....

I think you should start another thread. In this other thread ask, "hey, anyone ever worked with _______ ?"
 
A digital camera is also a useful tool. Just prior to delivery, while everything is bundled neatly, a couple digital shots is a good way to profile and catalog your kit. And is a good visual reference in the case of any problems.
 
Wow, 2 big warning signals should have been going off for you on this shoot:

1. Student shorts - things ALWAYS get nicked on these things...be very wary.

2. 2 Red cameras - how were you going to ensure parts weren't going to get mixed up (there are loads of bits and pieces but who'd ever guess their entire battery & Red Drive collection would get swapped? I'd like to believe this is just an unhappy coincidence, I really would - the alternative is just too sad to contemplate).

I would just add that imagine if it was an accident (caused partly by accessories not being labelled & maybe partly by ACs accidentally muddling up different kits in their haste to get away at the end of a long day) and say someone falsely accused you of purposefully trying to switch them - you'd feel a bit offended, no? So it's sensible to walk carefully in these matters, until you're 100% sure. By the way did you mark your Red Drive with three dots like the batteries too? And did the other Red owner have his own gear labelled?)
 
If what you're saying is true then you aren't ruining his reputation, he did by stealing your drive and batteries.

If this guy truly believes it's his drive then he should come on this thread and explain his case.
 
Dan Lorenze said:
The only way he could be telling the truth is if The Camera House (where the package was prepped) swapped out my drive for an older one of theirs... The AC "Robbie"said "NO WAY", the drive never left his hands... The producers went to The Camera House to try to find the missing drive, they denied any wrong doing and had no raid drives in their building....
Click to expand...

Hey Dan,

First of all - I am really sorry for your experience. That really sucks!!!

I just wanted to say that I have dealt with The Camera House for years and they are a stand-up group of people. Rufus and Chad would never do anything like this, and if you call them directly, they will do their best to help you figure this out.

Best,

Lucas
 
spotshooter said:
Make a claim against their insurance. If the did not return your property, you have a claim. That will get their attention.
Click to expand...

I would have... But, the two guys that produced this short offered to give me their new drive and batteries to make this situation go away. So, It's all straight with me. Even though I never got my personal drive and batteries back they gave me theirs. I agreed to the deal.. It's over...
 
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