Il Fotoamatore Reviews 46

DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM THEM

I ordered a canon accessory and they told me that they ordered it from Canon. Why do they sell something that they do not have in stock. They have taken Euro 300 and not supplied me the product and ignoring my emailS. I called them and they promised it will com, howveer nothing delivered.

No one should buy anything from them.

Ordering from this store has been quite an adventure..

On Ebay I've found a very good deal on a manual focusing lens, this is what led me to their website, since the lens in question was even cheaper there.(ilfotoamatore has 98.9% positive feedback on Ebay)

I've registered & I've set my foreign address in my profile. I ordered the lens, the address in my profile has shown up okay at ordering. I only noticed a few hours later that whoops, the shipping method indicated it's domestic Italian shipping. I panicked and I have emailed them asking what's going on etc.. Meanwhile I have also found out that I was not supposed to use the website for international orders, despite being able to select my country. This information is pretty well hidden by the way.

They were rather slow at responding to emails, but considering it's holiday season and all that's pretty forgivable. They have assured me that there would be no problems, they would ship the lens to my address in Hungary. They claim to ship orders within 24 hours, but it took them 3 days to ship my lens. Sure okay, it's still holiday season, I'm a reasonable person, whatever..

Once the lens arrived, upon opening the box I felt quite impressed with the packaging. I don't think I have ever seen a lens packaged this well, this safely.
Unfortunately my happiness was short lived, because the lens had some very obvious mechanical and optical flaws. (loose front barrel at the MFD & near infinity and strong decentering at infinity)
The lens looked new, but Cosina does not seal the box of Zeiss & Voigtlander lenses, so who knows if someone has tested the lens before. It's a little suspect that presumably they only sold one lens at a strong discount. (Shortly after my processed order the discount disappeared.) Still I could be totally wrong in this regard, I'm just suspicious by nature..

I've not hesitated at all. I have immediately informed them via email about exercising my right to cancel. I sent the lens back as soon as possible. After being notified of the successful delivery of my return, I have immediately asked them if they have received the lens unharmed. They responded saying that I would get my refund after they've finished checking the returned lens.

The next day I've noticed that I've received a partial PayPal refund. (Full Payment amount MINUS shipping costs) I took it upon myself to inform them that it's against EU consumer law to not refund the shipping expenses. (the consumer is only responsible for return shipping) A few minutes later they have refunded the reminder of the money.

I have decided to rate them at 2/5, since they are not bandits. Still I strongly recommend against ordering from them as an international customer.
I also strongly regret not checking Trustpilot before ordering...

It was the worst customer service I have ever experienced. There was a problem on a product delivery and their personal reacted really careless. At the end, I had to figure out and solve the problem by myself with no help from their side.

If you have a problem with your online acquisition, you may be on your own.