Well, on my side I'm still waiting for my 500$ bucks...

As most people knows here, approx. the same story for me, apart that I did pay only 500$ and was supposed to pay the remaining on the shipping date.
Of course, no communication and so on (even what I would call lies: he told me twice, 2weeks apart, that the stuff were just coming out and just needed to be assembled... I guess he forgot he already tried that excuse).

Anyway, I also did cancel after all this mess and I'm still waiting for my money back. You are fortunate that you could just cancel it (and somehow I am fortunate that I only paid 500$).

So, my advice for your rig... I would say do what I did: buy the steadicam Flyer. Yes that's a lot more expensive but you will receive it within 1week (if you buy it on B&H Photo for example), and their customer service is really good. What is somehow funny is that, because of the 3months wait I had with magiqcam, I end-up having enough money to buy the steadicam.
If you paid in 3 months, I guess you are less fortunate, but really, really, I would advise you to just wait and buy the Flyer.
By the way, when I received the Flyer and I used it, I realize how important the tripod is. I don't recall that the magiqcam come with a mounting tripod. And quite frankly it must be a pain to balance the rig without it. And I don't talk about docking the sled to rest... The Flyer also come with a nice 7'' monitor.

So again... I really suggest you just wait 6 more months, and then break your bank account (this part is quite painful...) to buy the Flyer.

Hope it helped,
Quoc

Hi Jim,

Well my story is simple, I paid in full, with good faith that I would receive my magiqcam in a reasonable time frame, still waiting no magiqcam as of yet.

It was a large chunk of money for me to outlay with shipping etc, currency conversion..that's not the issue, but when you give someone money
"upfront" without any hassles and you get no feedback, it kinda @#$! you off.

I believe John should be a gentleman and true to his word, and to be fair, deliver or refund the money, it's that simple.... no hard feelings

I do hope John comes around before Christmas with my magiqcam, I don't
feel like booking a flight to US to sort out this mess.

Cheers
Sean Morris

A dude in Italy has contacted a lawyer here in the states
 

Hi Sean -
I feel for you bro since you paid in full and you're over seas. I just received an email today from a guy in Italy who's having the same problem and he's contacted a lawyer in the Boston Mass. area. He asked me if I wanted to join with him in his fight to get our money back. Here's his email (minus his email address)
--------------------------------
Hi, i saw that you bought from magiq cam a steadicam i bought one and paid in july but never received it. i'm italian and I have taken a lawyer in Boston. if you want contact me, you don't have to pay.
my e-mail is ******@yahoo.it or ***@*******.it.
I send you his contact.
sorry for disturbance, have good day
sorry for my English
----------------------------------
Since I paid using my credit card, I MasterCard and I currently have a dispute in progress with Magiqcam. If you want, I can send you his email address and you can contact him if you would like to join him in his fight to get your money back. It states that "you don't have to pay" so you may want to contact him to get more info. Good luck Sean. It seems like Magiqcam is going down for the count - too bad for John. But that's what you get when there's no response to find out where the heck your order stands after paying big hard earned bucks for and it seems that we here are on a real tight budget so this is a big chunk of money for us. Keep me updated....

Flyer looks awesome
 

Hi Quoc -
Thanks for the info about the Flyer. It looks awesome and everyone that has it raves about it. Big bucks though. I might save some money over the next 6 months to get it. What's your opinion on the Varizoom Prolite? It's half the cost of the Flyer. Do you think this is a good rig for the money? Also - see my post above to Sean about a dude that contacted me from Italy. He's hiring a lawyer from Boston to try to get his money back from Magiqcam. If you want I'll send you his email. It seems like he's trying to gather a group of magiqcam buyers who never received the product. Thanks again.
Jim

MagiqCam - new owner?
 

I recieved an email from Animagique today. They say they are sorry it is taking so long and will be trying to ship the rig next week (heared this story few times already). The most important thing is, that the email is subscribed as follows:

Nate Goldstein (New Owner and Manager of Animagique)

I hope that this is not just another part of Johns marketing strategy, and that there is someone named Nate Goldstein in head of Animagique. Hope this guy will try to sort their orders ASAP.

(Since I found this information very important, it was posted also on HBSboards)

Had a simalar reply martin, fingers crossed, I really dont want to cancel my order seeing as i've waited this long already.......

Anyone else recieved similar email?
Or does anyone know this Nate Goldstein and confirm that he really exists? :)

Website gone too
 

Seems magiqcam also recently took down their site...
www.magiqcam.com

I finally received an answer from John. He said he was going to send me a check. We'll see...

Quoc

Hi Quoc,

How is your flyer going?

Regards
Leigh

Those of you who have posted to this thread may be interested in the following:

http://ag.ca.gov/consumers/consumer_complaint.htm

My Flyer is flying good ;) , especially since the gimbal was fixed.
I didn't have much time to practice lately though, because I moved to a new house. Hopefully, I'll have more time when I get back from Christmas vacations.

Quoc

If you google magiqcam you get this...
 

http://www.filmwareproducts.com/MagiqCam/MCSIIA.html

I went to that site, inquired about it, a very nice gentleman answered and gave me 2 phone numbers both of which I will not give out. One was for the business the other was a cell phone. I did call the cell phone and the man that answered, denied ever knowing anything about Magiqcam. Somethings not pretty here. The gentleman who works at filmwareproducts did say they have some of the magiqcam products in stock but would not be receiving anything until next year.

Directly From Nate Goldstein
 

I have not asked for permission to post this but I'm sure it's not going to cause any problems:

The original owners of Magiqcam encounted some opportunities, and ended up in somewhat of a back log of orders. Mr. Goldstein the Fabricator of the rig has been filling orders to the best of his abilities. They are indeed still in business, just under new ownership.

I myself am very interested in this stabilizer but found myself with an opportunity my self to possibly get a different one at half the original cost. I am in such a quandry I do not know what to do.

So for what its worth, keep your eyes and ears open for the Magiqcam, its gotten decent reviews so far, just give them a chance to get back on track. Good luck Mr. Goldstein, give'm hell!!!

It is to bad that a company like that seems like to be in a sort of trouble. I have ordered the Magiqcam IIA about 2 years ago. Had many emails with John, nice guy and quick response via email. Also normal available thru telephone calls.
Received the Rig complete with case and low mode. About one year later the communication seems a little bit out of order. Long waits for reply and sometimes no answer via telephone. During that period there were several customers with big problems, like the famous Gimbal problem.. !!!

Mine advise is :

- If you are running a serious video business, invest in other stabilizer products. I know, there are several out there.. many of them costs a lot more then the Magiqcam.

I myself have sold the Magiqcam. I was afraid that someday during a important shoot something would break and with no service at all from the States from Magiqcam can costs maybe your good business name..

I have ordered now a Steadicam Flyer. Only 2 weeks from now it will be available.

Erik

(BTW I'm also known as Erik Brul.. with several comments on other Magiqcam topics.. )