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Scam Alert
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WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
SCAM ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT TAKE OR SEND SOUTHERN TECHNICAL PHOTO SERVICE ANY EQUIPMENT TO REPAIR.
Do a filtered search of these reviews. Look at the bad reviews. You will see a pattern. Overcharging and terrible customer service over and over. Read these reviews, believe these reviews and avoid these scam artists. They deserve to be put out of business.
If you do send them items to repair you may or may not be sorry, but you WILL GET RIPPED OFF! You just may not realize it.
Ask yourself, how do I know if they actually did all the work they charged you for? Answer: You do not know. They may fix the problem you sent it in for but how can you tell if they did all, or even any, of the work they claimed they did? Answer: You send it to a credible repair shop instead of these con artists.
I have sent them 3 different cameras. There was some issues with the first two. I should have taken that to heart and avoided sending in this last camera.
So, why am I claiming they are scammers?
I sent them an old Olympus OM-4T for overhaul. As well as a 180mm Olympus OM lens to see if they could clean a couple of spots of fungus on the inside of the rear element. Total cost of "repairs" $580.68. They supposedly replaced the film loading assembly, transport gears, electrical circuit and replaced the release switch on the camera. They supposedly replaced the cam ring on the lens. And cleaned fungus "as best as possible".
When I got the camera and lens back, the first thing I noticed was a lot of debris inside the rear element. The fungus was gone but replaced by debris that was many times worse. If they had it apart, why would they put it back together with all that easily visible debris? Did they just flush it with a chemical cleaner?!
The next thing I noticed was the little light that lights up the shutter speed reading of the light meter inside the viewfinder when you push a button on the camera, was not lighting up. Even though the entire electrical circuit had just been replaced. I sent it back to have this little light fixed. Four months later, nothing. But they never call you when your camera is ready. I called and had the camera returned without the light being fixed. On the invoice that came back with the camera it said, "Parts needed are NLA". NLA, I assume, means Not Locally Available. Odd. They had all these parts to replace them in the camera but now they don't have the parts to fix a little LED light?
So, I sent it to another camera repairman to have the light fixed. I asked him if it looked like any work had been done to the camera. He replied:
"Absolutely not (my name redacted). It seems like nothing was done to this camera. Not a drop of oil was noticed on the winding or shutter mechanism either. Camera was not even cleaned externally.
They may have only tested the camera."
It's truly a shame that these phony con artists are a major manufacturer warranty service shop. If you send your camera in for warranty service you might want to find out where they are sending it. If you have a choice DO NOT send it to Southern Technical Photo Service.
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