Rockys cameras

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So I went on the rockys Camera site and saw a canon canonet ql17 in Black for £145, described as mint. I had a look and for Black Friday it was 50% Off everything, so I bought it for £80 including delivery.
I received and email from world pay saying it had gone through but nothing from rockys and the Camera was still on the site. I emailed and got a reply saying I hadn’t complete my transaction, which was wrong. They gave me a link to “complete” it and it just took me back to the shopping cart. I tried ringing for a few hours but couldn’t get through until I tried a mobile number and I assume Rocky himself picked up.
He said he had been out all day (not sure who had emailed back the first time) and when he got home In an hour he would send a confirmation. He did do this and it said the order was now pending and I should expect the goods soon.
I thought this was just a quirk of a small or old school business until I googled the website, there are a LOT of bad reviews. Should I be worried? I ordered and received the confirmation on Saturday so I’m not expecting it just yet, I’ve asked is there any tracking information this evening so we’ll see what is said.
I’m happy to give them the benefit of the doubt for now but £80 is a good amount of money to me at the moment so I’m a bit tentative!
 
Oh and luckily I had taken a screen shot of the ad for the canon before it was taken down, I also have screen shots of all the emails and confirmation emails from worldpay
 
FWIW he seems to have been trading for some years but looking at companies house there was an issue this October which he resolved to the satisfaction of them. Just makes me wonder if you will see the goods or not especially as your comms with them have been somewhat "confused"???

Good luck with however it turns out for you!
 
That’s my feeling, I’m prepared to wait till Friday maybe Monday until I start to push for the camera/refund
 
Pretty sure this is same place someone on the Sony thread had an issue with recently. One lens never turned up and one wasn’t as described if memory serves.
 
Yea I’ve seen a thread on here saying similar. As I said some people have said they got what they paid for but a lot haven’t. Until the week is over I won’t contact him, just trying to get an idea of what I’m dealing with.
 
Does anyone know how reliable worldpay are regarding refunds? Not at that stage yet obviously
 
Does anyone know how reliable worldpay are regarding refunds? Not at that stage yet obviously

Worldpay are just a Payment Transaction company, don't believe you get any additional protection from them, unlike say Paypal.
How did you pay for it? Credit/Debit card?
 
Even searching this forum (or asking for opinions in the film and conventional section) on Rocky would have probably been deterrent enough for me to not risk the purchase tbh...

hope it goes well - he punts out loads of stuff, is still in business after quite a few years, and I guess we pretty much always hear the horror stories and not the smooth transactions.
 
Plenty tales of woe in the film & Conventional section regarding Rocky and his bizarre retail practices, be had my own problems with him and my experiences and mistrust of him are well documented. There’s a list of suggested do’s and don’ts in one of the threads that I don’t have time to track down now but taking a screen shot is definitely high on the list.

I hope you get this sorted and you can relate a positive Rocky experience but to be honest I won’t be holding my breath.
 
Does anyone know how reliable worldpay are regarding refunds? Not at that stage yet obviously

if you paid via debit or credit card your first port of call is to report it to your card issuer. they should then credit you and will liaise directly with Worldpay to recover their loss from them/Rockys
 
It was by debit card. As I said I’ll give it till Friday until I chase him up. I’ve already managed to talk to him on the phone so I have a mobile number that works.
I have screen shots of everything, money leaving my account, the advert for the camera and all the emails from them so I’d happily go to small claims court if it came to it. Either that or Dorset is a 3 hour drive away, I’d lose the petrol money to get the refund out of principle :)
 
I've bought maybe half a dozen cheap lenses off him without a problem... apart from slow communication (he said he was busy and would sort it out later in the week) when I wanted to exchange something but everything was eventually sorted and he was even very helpful but... other people have had problems and I don't think I'd risk spending a lot of money with him. My view is that with an old Rokkor lens or something for £30 what could go wrong? but I wouldn't buy anything complex or expensive off him because of the problems others have reported.

And a PS.
I think I read somewhere that he just acquires his stock from wherever he acquires it and sells it on without doing anything in the way of inspecting, testing or servicing. I don't know if that's true or not but that's how I view him and if it is true maybe it explains a lot.

Hope you get it sorted.
 
Cheers. Yea apart from the confusion with the email confirmation I have no reason other than reviews to think anything is wrong just yet, I don’t expect to get anything until the end of the week, that’s when I’ll chase it all up
 
He eventually got chucked off Ebay years ago after starting numerous accounts due to stuff not turning up and dodgy descriptions (and that takes some doing when you are paying Ebay a fortune in fees). He would also get people to send stuff back and if they didn't send it by some sort of tracked delivery he would deny all knowledge and the buyer would be left out of pocket. I had dealings with him and in the end had to resort to threatening to go round and collect my money (he doesn't live far from me) before I got a refund.

I know some people have actually got stuff as described but personally I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole now..
 
He eventually got chucked off Ebay years ago after starting numerous accounts due to stuff not turning up and dodgy descriptions (and that takes some doing when you are paying Ebay a fortune in fees). He would also get people to send stuff back and if they didn't send it by some sort of tracked delivery he would deny all knowledge and the buyer would be left out of pocket. I had dealings with him and in the end had to resort to threatening to go round and collect my money (he doesn't live far from me) before I got a refund.

I know some people have actually got stuff as described but personally I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole now..
Yea it sounds hit and miss, mainly miss? I’ll see what happens. As I said I’d happily waste the petrol money to get a refund if it meant a 2hr 30min drive :) but I’ve got screenshots of absolutley everything so if it went to small claims it wouldn’t be a problem
 
UPDATE
Just received an email with a tracking number for Royal Mail which doesn’t work, does anyone know how long it takes to activate? I know that tracking numbers don’t work straight away
 
UPDATE
Just received an email with a tracking number for Royal Mail which doesn’t work, does anyone know how long it takes to activate? I know that tracking numbers don’t work straight away

I've had this in the past and them not work even when the item has been delivered!
 
UPDATE
Just received an email with a tracking number for Royal Mail which doesn’t work, does anyone know how long it takes to activate? I know that tracking numbers don’t work straight away
He probably has access to a supply of Royal Mail tracking numbers. He uses one when he packs your gear, and advises you. He then waits until Royal Mail collect the stuff and scan it into their system. This can take any amount of time. It probably means that your goods are on the way.

Last week I got a tracking number about 9.30 one morning, and it didn't show on Royal Mail until 11.58 PM. I'd long gone to bed, but it was showing for me first thing next morning.

I would say that is good news.
 
He probably has access to a supply of Royal Mail tracking numbers. He uses one when he packs your gear, and advises you. He then waits until Royal Mail collect the stuff and scan it into their system. This can take any amount of time. It probably means that your goods are on the way.

Last week I got a tracking number about 9.30 one morning, and it didn't show on Royal Mail until 11.58 PM. I'd long gone to bed, but it was showing for me first thing next morning.

I would say that is good news.
Sounds good! It’s the same amount of digits as the example code so time will tell :)
 
And a PS.
I think I read somewhere that he just acquires his stock from wherever he acquires it and sells it on without doing anything in the way of inspecting, testing or servicing. I don't know if that's true or not but that's how I view him and if it is true maybe it explains a lot.

I certainly remember someone posting to that effect - basically "buys job lots of old cameras, sight unseen, un-bundles, and punts them on with nary a look at the kit other than what's needed to ascertain what the name of the item is..."

treat it as buying from a car-boot sale or fleamarket rather than a shop basically...
 
Well still no lens. I got the tracking number Tuesday but Royal Mail are having issues with their website. On the websites I’ve looked at everyone is saying they get a message saying system problem. The issue is accordaing to Royal Mail system problem is also what the website says if they haven’t received the item so god knows if it’s the Royal Mail or not. Emailed rocky to ask what day he sent it out and haven’t heard anything yet. Getting to the point where I’m going to be asking for a refund, forceibly asking
 
Well still no lens. I got the tracking number Tuesday but Royal Mail are having issues with their website. On the websites I’ve looked at everyone is saying they get a message saying system problem. The issue is accordaing to Royal Mail system problem is also what the website says if they haven’t received the item so god knows if it’s the Royal Mail or not. Emailed rocky to ask what day he sent it out and haven’t heard anything yet. Getting to the point where I’m going to be asking for a refund, forceibly asking
Royal mail, in my experience, have the worst tracking system ever. I've had tracking numbers that never worked and they matched the numbers on the item when it arrived.
 
Royal mail, in my experience, have the worst tracking system ever. I've had tracking numbers that never worked and they matched the numbers on the item when it arrived.
I agree, that’s what makes this situation more difficult lol, for all I know the camera is waiting to be delivered. I’m not patient at the best of times, Royal Mail isn’t helping lol
 
Another update, no Camera has appeared. Have sent load and emails and today tried phoning, no answer on Home number and mobile is switched off...small claims it is :)
 
As you're finding out you only spend money you can afford to lose with Rocky, and don't expect anything to match the description if it does turn up.
 
Yea slightly annoying, I was hoping it wouldn’t need to go as far as this but I’ve emailed him saying my intentions and he didn’t reply so not much else I can do. My hope is when he gets the summons he just acknowledges that he owes money and just pays it rather than going through the whole process.
 
He didn’t respond to me until I raised a dispute through PayPal.
 
Looking for 'reviews' he used be seen as a good source for old kit and indeed seemed to serve buyers well...............then went off a cliff!!

Some reviews of how poor he has become date back to 2014, with folk saying they will or had reported him!

I looked for CCJ's but none listed though the public financials illustrate that he has no money.........therefore arguably trading in a fraudulent manner because he is accepting monies and then not supplying said goods.

Where is trading standards and/or the police in dealing with his behaviour???
 
His website look quite good and it would appear you can pay by credit card, surely if enough people have got refunds via their card supplier they should also be looking to see his activities stopped.
 
Pretty sure this is same place someone on the Sony thread had an issue with recently. One lens never turned up and one wasn’t as described if memory serves.

yeah that was me...

I ordered two items from him (£45 and £29). £45 lens was dusty and has sticky aperture blades, he never sent me the other lens.

I called him many times and eventually did manage to get through to him. He promised he'd send the other lens but her never did. So I managed to get my credit card provider (Tesco bank) to refund me the £29.
They said they'd refund me the £45 if I can get a inspection note from a professional camera shop saying its not in full working order. This costs £10. In meantime we had a baby, so all my time is taken up attending to him and missus. So messing about claiming £35 hasn't been high on my priority list (I suppose this is how he makes his money :mad:).

whatever you buy online ALWAYS pay with credit card. I think it even covers you if buy things from abroad with warranty and the overseas company stops providing you cover.
 
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Well finally got my money back. It did however take me sending an email about going to small claims court, me and 2 other work friends calling and leaving messages on his machine. after one of them left a message saying they were “interested “ in a couple of cameras on his site he called back, probably because it was about sale. No one answered the phone but I then got an email saying he would refund me and a couple of days later I got the money back. It was almost as if he didn’t bother with anything until there was a message about a sale.
Lesson learnt, credit card applied for!
 
@Ben johns glad you got it resolved :)

He comes across as having no scruples at all :(
 
Well I looked the company up on company house or something similar and from memory it appeared that it was in debt, so maybe someone gets a decent deal, he realises and doesn’t want to let stuff go for that cheap.
It’s pretty clear from the email he sent about the refund that he hasn’t sent it. All he said was “sorry it hasn’t turned up, I’ll refund you the money, let me know if the Camera turns up”. If I was him and I had really sent it I wouldn’t refund the money and trust the person to admit it it the Camera had turned up, I’d go through Royal Mail for the money.
Either way it’s sorted, ebay from now on!
 
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