get their act together

Lumoid let me down and I can’t trust renting from them again. My first Lumoid rental of a 5d Mark III and a Canon 24-70 f/2.8L II USM Lens on June 3rd was very smooth and I ordered one again on June 9th for a rental on the 13th. I called Lumoid on Weds the 11th after 3 PM PDT when I didn’t get a shipping notice. They said that FedEx had messed up and that they were going to pay for overnight shipping on the 12th so that I would have the camera and lens on the 13th. I received a shipping notice, but the FedEx tracking number didn’t show any progress on Friday so I started getting nervous and called Lumoid. Again, I was assured that the package was shipped and that I would receive it before 8:00 PM. I called FedEx at 7:00 PM to check and they said they couldn’t do anything until after 8:30 PM. At 8:35, I called FedEx and spoke with someone who said that Lumoid purchased the shipping, but never called for a pickup. I then called Lumoid and left a message that I was in trouble.

I receive a call from someone at Lumoid around 9:45 PM who offered to pay for a local rental, but I had an early morning client and couldn’t wait until 9:00 AM when the local store opened. Besides, I would have to setup and test the camera to make sure it matched my 5d for the two camera shoot. The Lumoid person was very nice on the phone and offered me a $50 discount on my next rental. I was pretty upset as this client was pivotal for our business and reputation with a large group of potential clients. I have a XF305 that I’ve never been able to match perfectly to the 5d and knew it would require lots of time to color correct 2 hours of business video footage shot indoors and outdoors.

I felt I needed more compensation for the frustration, stress, loss of time and potential customers. Zachary offered a free next rental that Monday and I let him know that wasn’t close to covering my losses and suggested they cover the next four rentals to partially compensate me. This has been going on now for two weeks and he has yet to get back to me this week when he promised he would call on Monday. The issue is that they again blamed FedEx as the reason my shipment didn’t arrive. I don’t feel like they really care about me as a customer and of course I’ll be renting in the future from a company with a well-established track record. I hope that no one else has to go through the stress and expense that I experienced and that they get their act together.