New webinar coming up: Best of Nikonians annual review, 28-MAR-2024 4PM EST (for all members on Silver level and higher) >>> More info

X


Sign up Login
Home Forums Articles Galleries Members Galleries Master Your Vision Galleries 5Contest Categories 5Winners Galleries 5ANPAT Galleries 5 The Winners Editor's Choice Portfolios Recent Photos Search Contest Info Help News Newsletter Join us Renew Membership About us Retrieve password Contact us Contests Vouchers Wiki Apps THE NIKONIAN™ For the press Fundraising Search Help!
More5

Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale

Thu 25-Jan-07 03:41 PM
Bought this lense on 10-17-06 and it is still in great condition. we used this for football season, but have upgraded to the Nikon 300 f2.8 VR lense. No scratches, fungus, dust. Included are carry case, soft cove, front and rear caps, and carry strap. Not a bad lense for sigma. Clear images throughout the range. Asking $1850 or best offer. Will consider a comparable and fair trade. I will provide all contact information for the sale. Payment thru paypal, usps mo, western union, etc.

#1. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 0

Thu 25-Jan-07 09:36 PM
Is this lens the DG version?

#2. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 0

Fri 26-Jan-07 01:16 AM
the specs from the sales receipt (dated 10-17-06) sigma zoom telephoto 120-300 f/2.8 EX DG APO IF HSM Autofocus Lense for Nikon AF-D. Bought from sigma 4 less on 10-17-06. sorry for the misunderstanding.

#3. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 0

Mon 19-Feb-07 03:07 PM
Dear Forum Members;

I can't begin to describe how angry, awful, and humiliated I'm feeling about this, but this is important.

I have conducted a number of transactions through the Nikonians forums over the past few years. I have always believed that those who advertised goods here were honest individuals, and my experiences have always been 100% satisfactory. Unfortunately until now.

I contacted the seller of the lens above, Kevin Langley on the 28th of January, and over the course of a number of emails in the days that followed, I agreed to purchase this Sigma lens he said he had for sale as he described above. I asked for and he sent me three photographs of the lens, and although I thought the email dialogue between us was somewhat impersonal, I paid him $1,850 U.S. through paypal on January 30th after I recieved this message from him;

"That is correct. $1850 - total. What you get: The sigma lense (as in the picture), lense hood, carry strap (sigma - in picture), carry case, hard rear cap, and soft front cover, 1.4x sigma teleconverter.
Payment can be made to a paypal account, western union, or bank m/o. Paypal is the cheapest for you, b/c western union will cost per $100. Our paypal account is ebay7@netzero.com. out return address is listed below, so you are on the lookout for the package. thanks and look forward to hearing from you."


Today I received the package, and right away I was concerned as the box seemed to be too small for this lens. As my heart sank, I was horrified when I opened the box to find 3-6.5" farm implement pins, and an old beat up Vivitar 75-260mm f4.5 manual focus lens worth, you guessed it, nothing!!

I immediately filed a claim with Paypal, as it's quite clear the seller never had any intentions to ship the correct lens. I apologize for this, but I can't even begin to describe the feelings I have right now. I also think it's important for the community to know that there are sellers even here in this great community who are not always legitimate, this is one of them.

If Kevin would like to make this all good, and refund my money, I would be happy to ship his farm pins and Vivtar lens back. (I have pics of what I received if any one is at all interested)

Unhappy in Canada,
Blair Alderton


#4. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 3

Mon 19-Feb-07 03:47 PM
Unbelievable... I just did a search with his tag and looks like he was trying to stick it to Nikonians with several big ticket items... all in the same week.

Hope it works out for you.

#5. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 3

Mon 19-Feb-07 04:25 PM
Have you tried contacting the seller? As you just received the package today, I would have at least tried contacting him and given him a couple days to respond before posting a message like this in a public forum. Perhaps it was just a mixup and he shipped the wrong boxes to the wrong addresses. At any rate, I hope that you're able to get this matter resolved quickly and painlessly. Good luck.

Doug

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."
Bob Dylan

#6. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 5

Mon 19-Feb-07 04:43 PM
Doug,

You're right, I should contain my emotions when I have paid a significant sum for a high end piece of equipment, and receive a box of "bolts" and a junk lens. C'mon, I'm a pretty reasonable person, but even I'm having a lot of trouble with this. Giving the seller the benefit of the doubt, I emailed him photo's of the box and the contents as received today. Here's the email reply I have gotten in return;

"after checking with the secretary, she confirms that she did indeed mail the lense. i am not sure what you have there in the box, but the lens shipped. we are stuck in a dilemma. the tracking shows it arrived on Feb. 13 and you contact us 6 days later complaining? what are we to think. maybe you want a lens and your money. either way, as the paypal account remains locked, we can not access any of the funds until it is un-locked. we have shipped a lense and it was in the box.

"Not sure what you have there in the box"?? Excuse me?? I have asked the seller to call me so that we can resolve this. If I am refunded my money, I will ship him back exactly what I received! Oh, and btw, his email name is now Kevin Larson. I'm not regaining a lot of confidence here.


#7. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 6

Sun 25-Feb-07 08:42 AM
Hi all,

I read this chain of posting with disgust, then I realized that I also corresponded with someone name Kevin L..(something) on a 80-400mm VR that he was advertising as Used on Amazon.com. I checked kanku1's other posting and I saw one selling his D2H that states the email address that I corresponded with -- "gr8photo@gmail.com". Same address!! (Horrified)
Anyway, in his email to me, his email return profile shows his name is "Kevin Langley" not "Kevin Larson". Yet, his Nikonian profile shows his name as "Bob Johnson". (Obvious crook)


An extract from kanku1's other For Sale posting :
" ... "Nikon D2H For Sale .... I have a d2h for sale. ....... Contact me at gr8photo@gmail.com ...... I will provide all contact information and payment can be threu paypal, western union, or usps money order. other options are up for discussion. "


Back to my experience. I contacted "Keving Langley" (or whatever) through Amazon.com to request for more information and pictures of the lens. He responded from his gr8photo@gmail.com account. He said asked me to pay OUTSIDE of the Amazon.com system as Amazon has not paid his sales in 2 months.
I found that hard to believe as he had ZERO feedback on any past sales and I don't think a big company like Amazon.com will have bad payment practices! He said his other customers have paid outside ths system and are happy (warning: do not get coaxed into what he claims!)

I replied that I would still prefer to pay through Amazon.com for more peace of mind. The very next day, he removed the listing from Amazon.com!!!

I wrote back to ask him why the listing is gone, and he responded that he don't want to give away stuff for "free" on Amazon.

So, now that I am reading your postings ... I thank God that I procrastinated! Guys, I am sorry for your unfortunate experience.


Here's an extract of my email chain with "Kevin Langley" (I removed my email address for security reasons):-

(1) On 1/28/207 .. first email I sent through Amazon.com asking about proof of condition of lens, and his refund policy as Amazon.com requires it for customer purchase protection


(2) Kevin's 1st response to me:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kevin langley mailto:gr8photo@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 1:07 AM

All original items are included in the sale. refund policy is return within 7 days of receipt for full refunud, minus shipping. at this time we are having a small issue with being paid by amazon. they have not paid for us for the last 2 sales - 1 month now. so we are accepting payments via paypal, western union, or usps m/o . we are paying the shipping fees due to the inconvenience to the customers. this has been acceptable to other buyers, and i hope it is ok with you as well. hope to hear from you soon. thanks for the inquiry.

gr8photo
-----------------------------------------------------------------

I am having chills down my spine as I recall this now. So ... beware even on sites like Amazon.com

Buy safe, my fellow nikonians!

Regards,
Jerr
kbradbury

Is from: Ann Arbor, US
61 posts

Click to send email to this author Click to send private message to this author

#8. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 3

kbradbury Registered since 19th Nov 2004
Sat 24-Feb-07 10:21 PM
I would initiate a chargeback through your credit card issuer. That will increase the pressure on PayPal. I would also think that the shipment of a worthless package for the purpose of creating a tracking number and playing the PayPal dispute process would prove intent to defraud, which may raise the severity of the seller's crime. I am not a lawyer though, so I may be wrong about that.

Your credit card company may advise you to return the package you received; I have been so advised in the past in a similar situation. In an ongoing chargeback case that I have against a PayPal merchant, I returned the merchandise (which was not as described) the following day when the merchant didn't respond to my email. I then submitted my proof of return mailing along with other documentation to the credit card issuer. I started a file and keep everything related to the case in it.

The key to winning chargebacks is to keep very detailed records. This includes logs of phone calls (and unsuccessful attempts at calls). Faxing the information with written explanation of the documentation to your credit card issuer is critical, as the credit card issuers operate in a way that is designed around hard copies of things. It sometimes takes multiple follow ups.

-Kevin Bradbury

-Kevin

kennyg92 kennyg92

Is from: Seattle, US
251 posts

Click to send email to this author Click to send private message to this author

#9. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 0

kennyg92 Registered since 16th May 2006
Mon 19-Feb-07 04:37 PM
One thing to ALWAYS keep in mind... PayPal will not guarantee any amount over $200 for non-eBay transactions. I've been there myself.

1. KNOW YOUR SELLER. Get precise and correct contact information.
One thing noticed, kanku1 has absolutely no information contained in his profile.
Buyers have to be responsible for themselves to ensure they know with whom they are dealing, with reasonable certainty.

Some additional things to think about when transacting a high-dollar item:
If the person is on the Internet they have an ISP.
All ISP's issue ISP-based email accounts. If the person is using gmail, Hotmail, YahooMail, etc for contact I would ask for their "real" email address. Their information can be traced through their ISP with this, if necessary.
I would also ask for their home phone, not cell phone, and would then call them as verification.
If the seller is unwilling to provide such information I would say hasta la vista (baby).

2. SAVE ALL EMAILS AND ANY OTHER PERTINENT DOCUMENTATION such as photogpraphs. I'd strongly recommend against conducting business on the phone as you have no auditable trail.

3. USE A CREDIT CARD THROUGH PAYPAL. I've been there. If PayPal refuses to pursue full restitution (as they typically will do) you can have your bank or credit card company file a stop payment against PayPal, which will force PayPal to take action, or lose the money.

This goes hand-in-hand with item 2. Have your ducks in a row.

Another thing concerning payment. This seller also stipulated "Western Union" as an option in their other auctions. That should have raised a great big red flag that said "STAY AWAY".

Just my suggestions to try and avoid such problems.

-Ken


Visit my Nikonians gallery

#10. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 9

Mon 19-Feb-07 05:57 PM
Ken,

Great suggestions, most of which I subscribe to, however I let my guard down on this one, mostly because I have had such great transactions here. More than ever I should have been cautious, I have no one to blame but myself. I tried calling both the telephone no.s that he provided in his address,(home and studio). I got a voice mail message from a "Kevin" at home, and a weird "customer satisfaction center" voice mail message from the "studio".

I have a couple of options, and I guess I'll have to wait a day or two to see how this plays out, but it's still a pretty sickening feeling.

Blair




#11. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 10

Mon 19-Feb-07 08:50 PM
Mail & Wire Fraud is a felony... non-delivery or misrepresentation of mailorder merchandise.

I've had to use this in a software buy that went awry. Once i started down this road, I rec'd a refund immediately. Losing their freedom hits home to petty thieves.

Hopefully this was a mistake and you get it resolved amicably.

#12. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 11

Mon 19-Feb-07 11:32 PM
Sorry to here about that
man. I would go after him with everything I had if I were you.
rmigliaccio rmigliaccio

Is from: Bristol, US
4572 posts

Click to send email to this author Click to send private message to this author

#13. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 0

rmigliaccio Administrator Donor Ribbon awarded for his very generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2015 Awarded for his in-depth knowledge and high level of skill in several areas. Nikonian since 10th Mar 2004
Fri 23-Feb-07 11:31 AM
At the request of "amorin", please find below the contents of his email to me describing a transaction he had with "kanku1" (this text is verbatim from his email)(if you wish to contact "amorin", look up his profile for his email address):

********************************************************

"Buyer beware of kanku1 (Kevin Langley).

The short version: I paid for a Sigma 120-300/2.8 and got a Quantaray 70-300. He is not to be trusted. Please contact me if you were also taken for a ride.

The longer, 13 steps story below:

1- On Jan 25th, I contacted the seller about the lens and made an offer. He replied:

the specs from the sales receipt (dated 10-17-06) sigma zoom telephoto 120-300 f/2.8 EX DG APO IF HSM Autofocus Lense for Nikon AF-D. Bought from sigma 4 less on 10-17-06. sorry for the misunderstanding. i would be willing to take the $1500 for the lense and shipping is additional. Let me know because i have had 9 requests since the posting. thanks.

2- On Jan 26th, I sent him a second email asking for more information and to confirm the state of the lens, to which he replied:

Yes, the lense is in near mint condition. My wife always tells people how much of a "perfectionist" i am, and that means with my camera equipment as well. It is cleaned after every usage and there are no signs of wear. if you have read up on this lense, one "complaint" is how tight the zoom ring is. i.e. - the ring is still a bit tight because it has been used so little. it has loosend up since purchasing it, but still a bit tight.

He added his email and a phone number in California (omitted here). I phoned and got an answering machine. The recorded message mentioned that a Kevin (and a woman's name I forget) lived or worked there.

3- I PayPalled him the money on Jan 26th, and he replied:

Everything is good. I will ship lense out priority w/insurance and delivery confirmation first thing on monday morning. sorry for the delay - small issue at work/home today. the address here is at the end - so you will know what your looking for. thanks and enjoy it - i did. (he added his snail mail California address)

4- I did not receive the confirmation the following Monday (Jan 29th) , so, by the 30tht I emailed him asking for status.
He replied on the 31st:

just to let you know that the lense has shipped and i will forward the tracking info. in the morning - it is on my desk at the office. thanks and enjoy.

5- I did not receive the tracking info until Feb2nd, and it showed that the lens had not shipped the 31st, but only on Feb 2. At the same time I got the following:

due to an untimely death in the family this week, your package did not ship out on time as promised. therefore, i will be refunding the shipping fees to you. i am sorry for the inconvenience. thanks and enjoy the lens.

Considering the circumstances, I played it nice and told him that reimbursment of shipping costs would not be necessary.

6- On Feb 8th, I received a package. Too small for a 120-300/2.8 (I still have the package and can provide photos). And shipped from Philadelphia, Mississipi rather than California. Opened it with a sharp pain in my belly to find the Quantaray. I emailed the seller immediately and tried to phone him (got the answering machine again)

7- Opened a dispute on Feb 8th with PayPal. The automated response was that there was a issue with this operation and that the dispute could not be registered. So I immediately escalated it to a claim. I noted that the account of the seller has apaprently been frozen since I could not send it any money. I immediately got a PayPal automated answer:

Our investigation into your claim is complete. As stated in our User Agreement, the claims process only applies to the shipment of goods. It does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of goods received. Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a refund.

8- On Feb 8th, The seller replied to my earlier message:

i was away from the office today, and i would have been willing to correct the error. the lense still sits here b/c the secretary mailed the wrong one to you. but seeing as things have gone this route, i am unsure of what can be done. you have a lense of one of the intern photographers. and now you will recieve your money from paypal.


9-On Feb 8th, I simply replied:

Reimburse me and I will send back the lens sent to me by mistake. At this stage, I'd rather cancel the whole dealt. You reimburse me, and I'll send the lens I got at my expense. Once I get reimbursed, I'll contact PayPal to clear your name.


10- On Feb 9th, he replied:

you have to understand, that, since you made a complaint to paypal, they have frozen my account. i have $6,398.03 in there, but i am unable to send, recieve, withdraw, or anything else - until you say that the complaint is resolved. if you want me to refund your money - which i will do - then you must notify paypal that the issue has been resolved, they will then lift the "freeze" on my account and i can then "send"money to you in the form of a refund.

11-I replied immediately on Feb 9th, with the following:

I trusted you for 1500, now it is your turn. I did not break my word. I sent you real money. You (with plausible, but hard for me to confirm, reasons) did not send when you said you would, and then you had. You had the wrong lens sent to me.

You claim all of this is a series of unfortunate circumstances and mistakes. Playing the devil's advocate, what if it was not?

Conceivably, a dishonest person could proceed in the following way: (I am not saying that you are dishonest. I still reserve my judgment and have not yet contacted the police. I sincerely hope that we can resolve this.)

1- create an online identity,

2- put a series of expensive items for sales at good but not too good to be true prices,

3- get buyers money and send packages with some different items.

4- PayPal officially is not going to reimburse buyers because you have delivery proof. Buyer is not protected.

5- Once the money is out of the PayPal account, nothing can be done.

If I were dealing with such a dishonest person, I would not want to "un-freeze" his PayPal account.

I concede that such a dishonest person would not be likely to correspond with me, nor admit they sent the wrong lens. Unless, the account was frozen with quite a bit of money in it (maybe from multiple recent fraudulent transactions).

The bottomline is that this episode has eroded the trust I had in you. I may be wrong, and if I am I will do all I can to repair the damage I may have created. But what I am asking is not unreasonable, is it?

If you are not trusting me enough to reimburse me, why not send the lens I bought?


12- On Feb 10th he replied, now insisting that I had received the lens I purchased and that I was attempting to rip him off:

I have tried to make contact and i have done all that i will do. you will be paid by paypal and it is my understanding that you have what you paid for - according to my secretary. she says she sent you the correct lens! as for you net investigation - i have provided you my home phone number but yet you don't see that i live in one town and my office is in another. i have even called you from that same phone - to show that it is indeed my number. you do as you feel you need to - but, paypal will pay you and you have your lens. what do you want; the lens and the money - something for nothing!?!?!? bill

Indeed someone called my home from the phone number he declared his. But the person left no message.

13- Since then, no word from him. PayPal resolution center is giving me the runaround. I have dealt with 6 different people at PayPal by email, and none seem able to read as they do not answer my questions and simply quote some irrelevant info that is posted and that I am aware of. The seller PayPal account is still "unable to receive funds". Phoning PayPal is not of much use either, I first have to go through their first line where they repeat the rules but do not answer direct questions, and then I get a "supervisor" who is much nicer and promise that they will look into it and email me the same day. Got that story 3 times already. Bottomline, I have probably lost the money. There is a slight chance that there is really some money left in the seller PayPal account and that I and others could get something back. But PayPal is not letting any info out. I am afraid I would have to file charges, a nasty transborder affair. The morale of this: always use a credit card as the source of funds. You will need to register a second credit card with PayPal for that. But you wil be able to reverse charges and let PayPal deal with the dishonest seller rather than being stuck alone with the issue with no recourse. I have made extensive net searches about this person and found some info that could help finding him. If you want to join me in trying to recoup something, just get in touch with me."

********************************************************



Rob

My Nikonians Gallery

Team Page

Rob

Team Page

My Website

Nikonians® - Worldwide Home for Nikon® Photographers
"Share, Learn and Inspire"

flatlander22

Is from: Austin, US
201 posts

Click to send email to this author Click to send private message to this author

#14. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 13

flatlander22 Registered since 10th Jun 2002
Fri 23-Feb-07 04:03 PM
I replied to this ad as well...
If I were in your shoes, I would be taking a road trip to his house.

Will assist for food

stealth01 stealth01

Is from: Holden, US
51 posts

Click to send email to this author Click to send private message to this author

#15. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 13

stealth01 Registered since 13th Nov 2006
Fri 23-Feb-07 05:34 PM
Rob,
If PayPal will not answer your emails try calling them. The "Get Human" data base lists their number as: 866‑571‑3012 - Say "agent" at each prompt, ignoring messages. Let us know if this gets you through to them!

Ken

Ken

rmigliaccio rmigliaccio

Is from: Bristol, US
4572 posts

Click to send email to this author Click to send private message to this author

#16. "RE: Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lense For Sale" | In response to Reply # 15

rmigliaccio Administrator Donor Ribbon awarded for his very generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2015 Awarded for his in-depth knowledge and high level of skill in several areas. Nikonian since 10th Mar 2004
Sun 25-Feb-07 07:53 AM
Ken,

It was member "amorin" who had the issue - not me. He could not post a reply in the WTS forum as he is not a paying member. As a courtesy, I posted his response for him after he sent me the details in an email.

Should you wish to contact amorin, check his profile and email him from the email icon.

Rob

My Nikonians Gallery

Team Page

Rob

Team Page

My Website

Nikonians® - Worldwide Home for Nikon® Photographers
"Share, Learn and Inspire"

G