Spherical Thinking » Rant

A Tale of Manfrotto Woe

Ben — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:14:50 +0000

This is a tale of why I now own, and love my first Manfrotto tripod, yet will never again buy one. I have used Manfrotto tripods for the last 5 years or so. I believe that they are a wonderful tripod and have yet to fail me. This will however, be the last Manfrotto I buy in the foreseeable future. Please continue reading for the complete story behind my seemingly knee-jerk reaction.

A little while back I decided to purchase some things in order to be able to start doing some of my own, and others freelance type jobs. I chose to order from multiple places including Crutchfield.com (which I highly recommend) and Amazon.com who both where efficient and informative with their shipping process. I ordered all of the items on a Friday.By the very next Monday the first item, a Zoom H4N audio recorder ordered from Amazon, was in my possession. The coming day, Tuesday I received the Canon Vixia HF S20 camcorder from Crutchfield. I also received something else on Tuesday that I ordered the same day, but has no relevance to this post subject.

The tripod that I ordered through the Manfrotto website on the same Friday as all the rest did not even ship until Monday. It did arrive on Wednesday, but I give all of that credit to UPS on getting it to me quickly. I arrived home from work to gleefully open and assemble my new tripod. To my dismay however, when I pulled the tripod out of its packaging, I saw a set of silver tripod legs looking at me. I had ordered a tripod with black legs. I proceeded to email the customer service of the US company that shipped my tripod. I knew they would be closed and did not want to wait on being put through a long ordeal of phone menu mazes.

I figured that I would receive an email the next day resolving my problem by shipping me the correct tripod and I would ship the wrong one back to them. I did not receive an email all day. I then proceeded to call the customer service number. I spoke with a representative and was told that they would ship out the correct tripod and for me to use the prepaid label that would be emailed to me within 24 hours to ship the incorrect one back to them. I did not receive that label for 3 days.

I did receive the correct tripod on Tuesday. But alas! The tripod was missing the 75mm bowl that connects the tripod legs to the head, therefore leaving me with no way to assemble my tripod. Not pleased at all. Again I did not return from work until after the business had closed. I called anyways and after waiting 15 minutes or so on hold, left a message with someone who said they where the the manager and that the case would be given priority status. I assumed to receive a call sometime in the early morning, at the very least an email regarding the issue. I did not receive a thing all day. While driving home, I decided to call again since I had left a little early, and use the normally wasted driving time on possibly accomplishing something. After waiting for 7 minutes or so on hold I spoke with someone who then attempted to transfer me to a different area. It was after being on the phone for 11 minutes that I was either hung up on, or they dropped my call. I know it wasn’t me, I checked and had full service.

I was beyond angry at this point. I called again and waited for a few minutes of being on hold I was answered by someone new. I explained my new situation and asked what they could do to resolve it. They asked a few questions that seemed completely irrelevant to the situation and then placed me on hold again. When I returned from being on hold I was speaking with someone new again. (this was the 4th person I had spoken with that day) This person seemed to be in a higher position as they knew answers to my questions and concerns as well as saying that I could simply remove the 75mm bowl from the first incorrect tripod and place it on the correct one. Then they would mark down that the one being shipped back to them would be partially incomplete and to have it sent to him. (Again he sounded like he had more power than any of the others) So when I made it home I did just that and finally had a completed tripod that was the correct model.

This whole ordeal took an extra 7 days from when the tripod was originally delivered to me. A full week of hassle and stress for something that should have simply been correct the first time around. After going through all that I have decided to retract any want to purchase from Manfrotto in the future as I see it. I will move on to a different brand from now on. Don’t get me wrong, I love the product. I respect the craftsmanship and quality. It is everything else about the company that I do not agree with any longer.

Getting into the spirit

Ben — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:53:19 +0000

Getting into the winter spirit is always a catch 22 for me. I love the snow and being able to go snowmobiling and enjoying the outdoors (a topic of which I will go into further in a following post). But events leading up to said activities almost always end up driving me mad. The holidays just before, as well as during and some right after are what makes the time such a drain for me. I was raised in a house and family that, up until my generation, has been gung-ho about holiday and the decorations involved. The main offenders that I will refer to are Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s both have their annoying qualities. Come, let’s take a walk down the twisted path that leads to the soul rending story of my youth.
From the time that I was very little up until around the time I moved away for college I was bombarded with holiday cheer. This, of course, means anything and everything from decorations to music to activities. Both my mum and my aunts are all very big on playing Christmas music during the months leading up to Christmas. This could mean that you started hearing jingle bells sometime around anywhere from just after Thanksgiving to more than a month before it. Then, when you go out to a store or event or restaurant, if you are past Thanksgiving, chances are you will be hearing “holiday” music. It was for that reason that I now loathe almost all forms of aforementioned “holiday” music. The few songs that somehow make it into my enjoyable list are those which have appealed to my music loving side. Songs that still convey a holiday message, yet are encapsulated in a much more appealing music genre are those that can make me listen. Songs such as those performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, or those that are done by musical artists that make the songs in their own style are those I make exception for. One such exception is something I actually just came across, and goes by the name of Weezer!! (Christmas With Weezer) Now, I know that sounded like they are some band I’ve never heard of before and now am hopping on the bandwagon. To the contrary, I have been a Weezer fan since partway through high school and was simply unaware that they had made a Christmas CD. Well, that basically covers my beef with Christmas music, most of the other holidays don’t have a specific genre of music that is overplayed and makes me hate life, so I will end here.
The other half of why I have issues with the holidays, and I guess it goes for all holidays not just those around the winter time, is all the fracking decorations. Again, my mum and all of my aunts are pretty “in to” the decorating thing, and it drives me bonkers. All the effort of buying things, wasting the money on them for one thing, and then storing them baffles me. Then comes the time to get them all back out of storage and the pain of putting them all up. For less than a month in most cases. Then, lo and behold, its a new holiday! Time for different decorations! Quick, take the turkeys and leaves down, its time for Santa’s and snowflakes! Holy crap, up until just now I had forgotten about Halloween! Now, Halloween I like, and I do enjoy putting up some of those decorations, but those are the kind I would also have up at almost any time of the year so again, there is an exception. But here, as with all holidays the family goes overboard with Halloween. Any way you look at it, the end of fall and beginning of winter is the worst of all decoration nightmare’s. This is because there are so many of them packed into such a tight timeframe that it is a constant up and down in and out of decorations and hassles. I for one choose to simply not decorate for the most part because it is just easier. I end up with less headaches and backaches because of it, and also have more time to spend doing things I have to do or want to do.

Bad-morning wake up

Ben — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:25:26 +0000

Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning I was brought to a groggy awakened state as I heard some sounds outside my apartment. There were 2 odd thunk sounds followed by the shatter and tinkling of glass. Oh joy. Someone just had their day ruined. Might as well check and make sure everything is ok out there. Alright, I see her car…mine is a little farther out and there is a glare on my window. I guess I will go into the other room so I can make sure things are good with mine. Out there I can’t really see anything..but then all of a sudden..I see my cars interior lights turn on. My car was locked. My cars window has just been broken out as someone pillages my things. Great. Luckily my neighbor runs out and scares off the would be car thief and nothing is taken. Thank you little Mexican boy, for making my day shine.