I am Sorry Scalpers, But Fujifilm USA Cares: Large Number of Limited Edition X100VI Order Canceled and Raffle Announced

 

Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

 

Ein Beitrag geteilt von FUJIFILM X/GFX USA (@fujifilmx_us)

Fujifilm USA X100VI LE Raffle

You know what’s funny?

When scalpers grabbed a large numbers of limited edition Fujifilm X100VI cameras using bots, they started bragging about how many they were able to snatch.

And when somebody called them out and said that Fujifilm USA is looking manually into every order, they just gave a cheeky reply that Fujifilm is bluffing and they won’t care, as you can see from this screenshot.

And look, I get their mindset. I mean, Fujifilm couldn’t care less who bought the cameras. Bots or not, Fujifilm cashed in its money and could move on happily.

But sadly for scalpers, Fujifilm actually cares about its customers and on their social media they announced they have looked into every order, canceled a large number of them and will offer a raffle in future to give a fair chance to loyal fans.

Now it will be funny to follow all those scalpers on their discord servers and see their reaction when hundreds of their orders get canceled.

Sorry guys, this is what happens when a company actually cares about its customers!

What’s Good Customer Service

It’s when things go wrong, that you really see how good a customer service is. And things definitely went wrong in many countries with the limited edition X100VI sale.

And I call it great customer service that Fujifilm USA admitted that things went wrong, then manually checked every single X100VI LE order, canceled all suspicious orders and found new ways to distribute the X100VI LE.

Here in Europe (except for UK) we might have had the same scalper issue judging by the sheer speed all the X100VI LE sold out all across Europe. And I can find lots of X100VI LE now sold in Europe at a higher price on eBay. But I have no information on which steps Fujifilm Europe took (if any) to minimise the scalpers issue.

Scalpers Possibly Grabbed 92% of Limited Edition Fujifilm X100VI Cameras in USA thanks to This Bot

A FR-reader found some clues as far as the bot goes that people used to purchase multiple Fujifilm X100VI limited edition.

The scalpers seem to indicate in their Discord server that their checkout software (bot) secured 92% of orders on day 1.

This assertion appears credible, especially considering the notifications of successful purchases visible in the Discord server. In fact, as shown by the video below, hundreds of X100VI LE units seem to have been ordered through this bot.

One guy claims that he was able to grab four X100VI LE and he was planing to snatch a 5th model (screenshot above).

Also, below I will share a video that shows which software was used and how it works.

The video shows the time stamp of when those hundreds of orders were placed (for March 21/22). As far as the order for March 23 goes, I share them as screenshot here and here.

My hope is that the time stamp will help Fujifilm to track down every single scalper, cancel their order and find a better way to distribute the X100VI LE to make sure it falls into the hands of enthusiasts and not scalpers.


Fujifilm Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Kodak

Fujifilm Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Eastman Kodak Company

Hanover Park, Ill. – FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Communication Division today announced that FUJIFILM Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: KODK) in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Fujifilm has asserted four patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 10,427,443, 10,525,696, 10,875,346, and 11,294,279) pertaining to various aspects of processless lithographic printing plate technologies, including method and apparatus claims.

Fujifilm is seeking remedies including damages and injunctive relief related to Eastman Kodak’s unauthorized commercial manufacture, use, offer to sell, or sale within the United States, and/or importation of its processless lithographic printing plate products that infringe the four asserted patents, including those sold under the product name “SONORA X” and the brand umbrella name “SONORA XTRA”.

“Fujifilm is committed to protecting its significant research and development investments, and in bringing innovative printing plate technologies to customers around the world,” commented Toyoyuki “Tommy” Katagiri, division president, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Communication Division. “We will enforce and protect our innovation and intellectual property rights in the United States and around the world when we believe others infringe unfairly.”

Separately in October 2023 and December 2023 respectively, Eastman Kodak’s European subsidiaries, Kodak GmbH, Kodak Graphic Communications GmbH, and Kodak Holding GmbH, were sued by FUJIFILM Corporation for infringement of the related European counterparts of the US patents-in-suit in the Unified Patent Court and in Germany.

“We will continue to protect our intellectual property in processless lithographic printing plates, to the benefit of our customers, including small, family-owned printing businesses, as well as medium- and large-sized printing businesses,” added Katagiri.

Updated Notice of Applications Software Used with “macOS 14 Sonoma”

Updated Notice of Applications Software Used with “macOS 14 Sonoma” (previous notice here)

＜Update details＞
March 22, 2024 addition
We are planning to release the software compatible with “macOS14 (Sonoma)” as the following timeframe.
FUJIFILM X Webcam (Mac): scheduled for April
FUJIFILM PC AutoSave (Mac): scheduled for the end of March

＜Original Notice＞

** CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of the Article **

Fujifilm USA Verifies X100VI Limited Edition Orders for Fraud as Overpriced X100VI Limited Editions Flood eBay

It could not work. And it didn’t.

Fujifilm USA and Europe opened the door to scalpers by deciding to sell the limited edition Fujifilm X100VI on a first-come-first-served basis.

Well, today was D-Day, and of course all units available today sold out within minutes.

The demand was so high, that the Fujifilm USA website even crashed as we can see also from reports over at our massive X100 user group.

And then the inevitable happened: within minutes, lots of overpriced Fujifilm X100VI limited edition cameras started to show up on eBay (usually sold for around 5K).

So far all as we expected.

But now Fujifilm USA has issued a statement (see above), that they are “manually verifying orders for fraud and suspicious activity“.

So not only the server crashed due to the traffic overload, but it seems also other problems might have occured.

We can only speculate on the nature of the potential fraud Fujifilm is investigating. Maybe some people found ways to grab several units using different accounts?

We do not know, but at least it’s good to know that Fujifilm USA is aware of it and looking into it.