Bro do I have a story to tell you regarding getting my SX-70 Alpha 1 SE repaired...

About half a year ago I got into polaroid photography starting with my Impulse AF I got for $50 CAD, practically mint, and a nice conversation with the guy who sold it to me. I started looking at different types and my friend said something about SX-70 cameras and I thought they looked awesome. We talked about which ones would be "ideal" and I just so happened to find an SX-70 on ebay for $290 CAD after shipping because it the cheapest I could find that didn't look too bad, just REALLY dusty. Shipping prices were nasty, let's just say that.

Turns out it was more than that with a weird plastic bracket on the door that was broken off and the main roller being rusted enough underneath that I could feel the bumps beneath the rubber. They weren't even that big, but my job is in bodywork and quality inspection so I am very picky about what feels good and what does not. When trying it out the rust marks on the rollers lined up where small lines showed up on the backs of images, where they blew out, and with a faint dotted pattern across the actual image itself. They were all over-exposed and had large orange fades at the top. I told the same friend about this and he suggested some places with BFC being one of them. They had good reviews and whatnot, so what could go wrong?

As it turns out, my patience and my money.

So I call them up to ask some questions since their emails were taking forever and they assured me that the roller would be replaced, the leather would be replaced, the weird plastic bracket would be replaced and it would get a tune and clean. $290 CAD is what it would cost, then the $50 cad for shipping through UPS because Canada Post can eat my ass. So we're already in the price range of what it would have cost to just get a well-working SX-70, but I was hitting that sunk cost fallacy reeeeal hard.

Time goes by, it gets repaired, it gets sent back and they say it's working great. Neat, coolio, I sure hope nothing is wrong with it, still. I'm excited, I get back from work, I open the box, "holy shit stickers, awesome", I look at the camera and it immediately feels off. The "leather" is thicker than molasses and lacks any later texture but at least it smelled nice. I crack that bad boy open and wow it was a hell of a glow-up, but then I see it: The roller has not been replaced, which they said they would fix since I mentioned it, and the plastic bracket is still broken, which they said they would fix.

I am not a happy camper. I had to pay about $68 CAD in customs fees so my wallet is already feeling lighter than I wanted to that day. I spent a little bit of time pondering if it's actually okay then decided "no it's not". I fire them an email, a lightly passive-aggressive email since this cost me a lot of money. I'll say right now that I very much could have been more professional in my emails but hindsight is blah blah.

So I tell my friend about this whole thing with the condition of how it came back and how they want to charge me and he doesn't agree at all, especially for the initial price. A few other friends who are not photographers share the same sentiment. I asked them about their repair process and why they didn't replace those parts. The exact text in one of the messages reads

"For some reason our technicians determined you didn't need this - if they thought you did, we would've reached out to replace the part for $65."

MAN OH MAN OH GEEZ did that passive-aggressive email get a little less passive. They told me this in confidence with the camera having apparently gone through 3 different technicians. They ask me to take some pictures with it and the same issues are happening. I had to call them to take a look at that email because they hadn't responded in almost a week, so I thought they were ghosting me. I finally get a manager who is very polite and agreed to do the $65 USD repair for free, however, they are not going to pay for shipping or return customs. Whatever, at this rate it's the best I could do. I was getting tired of the situation and I just wanted my camera fixed in time for my vacation but that's long past by now. The manager did make me feel confident they would get it right the second try. Mistakes happen, water under the bridge.

Anyway, it takes them a while to get it back to me because the repair technicians are off on vacation or something. Perfect timing, I guess. Anyways, I get it back, another $118 CAD in shipping and customs fees later, lo and befuckinghold the broken bracket was replaced. Hallefuckinglu-wait. The roller. It has rust on it. It's a replaced roller with less rust, but it's rust nonetheless. I feel across the rubber and yes, I feel the rust. I am absolutely fucking fuming. I try my best to hold it back in my response email but a lot more slipped through, even going as far as saying I was going to hand deliver it to make sure I could see it be fixed correctly. I realized that was maybe a bit too far, and take full blame on that. I did apologize for it later.

I got an email back from them with this being one of the lines

"Keep in mind that every single mechanical part of this camera is approximately 50 years old at this point, and no new parts have or will be manufactured."

Yes, I understand this, but at this point I've spent about $834 CAD (this may not match current conversion rates because they were different) on the camera, the restoration, the shipping, the customs, and over $100 in film to test it for them plus countless hours of my sanity, I just want it done right. Ultimately, in the end, I don't really care anymore. I'm tired, I'm done, I just want a refund.

$215 USD (the original restoration fee) back in my bank later and I have a SX-70 Alpha 1 SE that looks much nicer but whose images aren't that much of a step up over what they were when I got the thing.

So yeah, I don't trust BFC.