Terrible experience with Retro Photographic. Don't know how to proceed. Help needed.

[ath]

AFAIK the dealers in Germany have to give 3 to 5% to the credit card company - far too much for the profit margins in todays market.

[Aurum]

AFAIK the dealers in Germany have to give 3 to 5% to the credit card company - far too much for the profit margins in todays market.

Typically 2.5% "handling fee" in the UK.

They aren't just picking on the Germans

[apochromatic]

I spoke to Silverprint today (4th June 2009) who told me Retrophotographic were no longer trading "We went up and collected all their remaining stock". Not gospel, but that confirms what most people have suspected for some time now.

[Ian Grant]

The link from Fotoimpex (Berlin) no longer works it points back to Fotoimpex.de, as does the Fotoimpex.co.uk website, Retro haven't advertised in B&W magazine for 2 or 3 months.

If that's what Silverprint said it will be true.

Ian

[railwayman3]

Laparn,

I've noticed what you mention as well; German suppliers not seeming to accept credit / debit cards (plastic money).

Tom.

I've read that some of the problem is that Bank Transfers within the euro-zone inside Europe are the norm and very inexpensive, hence German suppliers don't need, or are reluctant to accept, credit cards with their high charges. But we Brits get stung for huge bank charges for transfers from £'s to euros (which perhaps the suppliers did not realise).

It used to be the same on Ebay, where it wasn't worth buying stuff from continental sellers who didn't see the need to accept the costs of Paypal when a bank transfer seemed simple enough(but not realising that they were losing UK buyers who did realise the extra cost.). It seems that things are getting much better now, almost every Ebay seller accepts Paypal.

Edit:- Nearly forgot, seems that we can now thank the posters who flagged-up Retrophotographic problems....looks as thought they might have saved some of us money and frustration. I certainly held back on buying, and will now use Silverprint or RK Photographic.

[Martin Reed]

The link from Fotoimpex (Berlin) no longer works it points back to Fotoimpex.de, as does the Fotoimpex.co.uk website, Retro haven't advertised in B&W magazine for 2 or 3 months.

If that's what Silverprint said it will be true.

Ian

I'm not sure who said here that Retrophotographic were closing, NOT CORRECT. Nigel Dear at Retro is re-profiling the range of products he is offering, but is certainly not leaving the business.

To help out with this we took a variety of his stock which is no longer in his catalogue, which we are adding into our range. The intention is that Nigel can then concentrate on stuff which he is best geared up for, while at Silverprint we can increase stock of more bulky Adox products, especially the papers.

[keeds]

Martin, will you be stocking Moersch chemicals?

[Martin Reed]

Martin, will you be stocking Moersch chemicals?

We've got some of the Moersch range in stock now, can you let me know what you use? It's such a large range taking into account all packing sizes that it's rather daunting to get it all established, a few indications of what people are using would help.

[Tom Kershaw]

Martin,

Will you be stocking the Adox Premium Variotone paper?

With lower VAT compared to Germany will Moersch products be less expensive purchased through Silverprint compared to directly from Moersch?

Tom.

[Martin Reed]

The VAT difference probably won't account for much, but by shipping the chemistry in bulk hopefully the end-user price will be lower. We are just sorting out our first Moersch order so I can't give on-going prices yet.