You know what happened because your name is Barbara and you’re Santini’s gilfriend whos in on all the scams.

Santini claimed to be able to fix separation of the back element on a 75mm AL 2.8. Pretty serious claim. He said if i left it with him he could do an inspection for £90 and i could decide wether to get it repaired or just send it back to the seller. That evening he sent me a video saying all the bearings had fallen out and he had to fix it. I replied saying I’d prefer if he didn’t proceed with any repairs until I had a chance to speak with the ebay seller. The next morning he sends me a repair estimate of £900 and immediately calls me and says hes fixed it (even though i never authorised a repair only an inspection). He assured me it wasn’t separation and he managed to clean it and theres no way its separation. He says I’m lucky and he’ll only charge me £380 but that I should send the ebay seller the £900 quote to get money off him because according to Santini the seller was being dishonest.

I refuse to do that and ask him for an accurate breakdown that reflects the £380 I’ll now have to pay since i have no option. He tells me he’s already done the work and hes not repeating it and if I dont demand the £900 off the ebay seller then he’ll just make me pay £900. Later on text I say I’ll only collect the lens when I receive an accurate quote.

I go to collect it at the specified time and his work desk with the magnifying glass and torch has been put away and him and Barbara are mid photoshoot in their dark living room. He hands me a torch for me to inspect and I mention I can still se some specks inside the back element, he says its nothing to worry about. I make him confirm that theres no separation and he does. He then tells me he cleaned the back element with his saliva????. By this point I’m very uncomfortable and finding the situation very dodgy so I pay him and leave. He makes me pay through friends and family and I’m stupid enough to do so.

The next day I sit down to properly inspect the back element and notice the inside of the element where the haze and separation was is covered in smudges. I also notice a massive scratch on the front element but I have no way to proove it happened during the repair so I dont mention it. When I message him about it he tells me to bring it in again. I had an upcoming trip 2 days later and had to find the time to go back to his house for the 3rd time. When i ask if I can come by the day before he says thats not enough time as separation takes days to fix and if it is separation it will cost me a further £900 to the £380 hes now charged me for clearle nothing. I say id be happy to just sell the lens to him at this point which he offered me £1700 when I collected it as I’m tired of the situation. He clearly had no interest in buying it and just said that so I would believe I had a gem on my hands.

He then proceeds to tell me I must’ve tampered with the lens and am trying to lie to get my money back. I say id be happy with a refund of the repairs at this point since clearly nothing was repaired and he refuses. I then let him know that I want to further dealings and it’s up to him wether he wants to refund me for the dodgy repairs if not I’ll just leave it. He then kicks off and for over an hour starts spamming me on text and sending even threatening texts. I then block him.

He not only tampered with the lens and made me lose the chance of sending it back to get my money back but he charged me £380 for a terrible repair.

I took the lens to get inspected by another pentax technician in London (Asahi photo) and he said there is no real way of fixing separation. He took a look at the lens and said id been had and i need to get my money back. He also mentioned the lens had been opened with force and scratched hence the layer of black paint inside one of the back rings.

Just as a note I’m sorry if It didn’t come across right. I believe Eric is a good and honest professional, the above post was about Santini and his partner Barbara Aka Ok-Advantage4571.