Rafik Film & Video Tape Company

Rafik did a decent job for me, but there were some problems because some of my originals were damaged, so I gave them back some of the tapes to redo. But here’s the problem: they have disappeared. They don’t answer the phone, there is no room on their voicemail to leave a message, and they don’t return my emails. And they are in possession of my portable hard drive with many precious files! and my video camera!!! This is completely horrible. The website now says they have a new address and it’s «Union Square.» WHAT??? WHERE ARE YOU, RAFIK??? I want my camera and my hard drive back!!!

I’ve never felt compelled to write a Unilocal review before, but my experience with this company was too frustrating to not share. I would give zero stars if I could. I have used Rafik for several years for business purposes, but I will be taking our future business elsewhere. This place, and their communication, are awful.
In the midst of my time-​sensitive order, they called to let me know that my files were too large and would have to be converted in order to get put on a DVD. Without much choice in the matter (after all, I needed my order complete by a certain date), I gave the okay. I was informed there would be an additional charge per file to do said conversion, but was never told what it would be before they made the change and charged me for it. No one explained that doing this file conversion would result in terrible video quality. I should also mention that I sent them the *exact* same files as I did a year ago, when my DVD came back with great quality footage. When I questioned the video quality, I was made out to feel like the whole thing was my fault, like I was uneducated about file conversions (which, yes, that is why I’m hiring you!) They took absolutely zero responsibilities for their actions and were plain rude. I had some technical questions about my order when my files weren’t playing correctly, and on multiple occasions found myself faced with stubborn, childish responses from them. Unless you want to deal with very unprofessional behavior, take my (and the many other Unilocal reviewers that share similar sentiments) advice and find somewhere else.
Oh, and they also charged me at least a week before my order was delivered/​completed, which as far as I’m concerned is not a proper business practice. At least not from a reputable business.

THIS IS THE WORST PLACE! DO NOT GO THERE!
I gave them a tape to dupe, told them when I needed it by, which was weeks away, and they said no problem. Called them that day and asked if it was done. It was not. They said it would take another week. I couldn’t wait that long and asked for the tape back. They refused. They were rude and surprised that I was upset that they had not delivered. They were like, «but you seemed so cool about when you would get it so we didn’t think it mattered.» Um, what?
They tried to explain that something was technically wrong with the tape. I know my tech and I knew they were lying.

Rafik saved the day! They were able to help me with digitizing in a timely and courteous manner an important archival footage on Beta tape. It was a time sensitive situation that they were able to handle with a great ease at a reasonable price.

Over charged me
Lost 2 of my reels
Rude, hung up on me, lied to me.
I lost thousands of dollars of footage and delayed my feature film for a year because they were so incompetent.
Go somewhere else. Go ANYWHERE else.

This place is the pit of Hell.
Rafik takes complete license to:
1. Lie
2. «estimated» delivery date means +/​-​3 weeks or more, and they won’t tell you that at the point of transaction.
3. delivery date will be pushed back perpetually without discretion. And they will say «the date was an estimate»
4. written guarantees will be changed later — nullifying the meaning of a written guarantee.
5. cancel your order despite having an order to complete it.
6. take no responsibility whatsoever for their actions.
Like other reviews here, these guys have no ethics, professionalism, and are impotent with their job. Rafik has opened my mind to new subterranean levels of service in New York. We live in an ego based culture, and these guys are the cherry on that shit cake.

Horrible place. Stay away for your own good. Completely incompetent.

I send so many people there over the years. And they used to be good.
But those times are over. Stay away from this place.
They’ve held numerous of my clients hostage with their prized footage, asking for cash to get them the footage back. These people are the worst.
Go to Postworks, now THAT place is a class act! Never had a problem there. AND they’re cheaper!

Seems as if a lot of people only joined Unilocal to bash these guys. But they are helping me tremendously. I came to them needing 24 dvd’s re-​copied and quadruplicated. They immediately started and I’ll be able to get most of the copies tonight (mind you they started yesterday). As far as customer service goes Mindy, and Barrett are cool, funny, extremely helpful and gave me a tremendous deal to boot. And how can you not love little nanu? Seems like no one will ever post if they have a good experience but will open the flood gates if they have something bad to say. Shame that more people don’t feel the same about this place as I do, or are too apathetic to post a review. Stop by the shop and try for yourself!

F — Rating
Rafik Video has been an unethical and horrific company do business with. They have the worst business practices I have ever experienced with any company. They have lousy customer service, they lie, they have lost material, they have never delivered an invoice, they blackmail you, and they have wasted enormous amounts of time and energy for our company. They have been so rude to my staff that I cannot get people to go back to their offices to pick up work. No one wants to deal with them and I can’t believe they are still in business. We cannot find certain important elements and we believe they have them; our computer system crashed so we have no way to verify it, but we believe that material we left with them to transfer is lost in their holdings. I did a considerable amount of work with Rafik Video and paid a considerable amount of money.
We requested an important ½ reel to reel be transferred to miniDV as per the label. The material that we expect is on it is extremely valuable, as it is the only video of the person and that person is now dead. When the miniDV came back to us it did not have that material on it.
We returned the reel to reel to them about8 months ago to recheck their work, and see if in fact, the material for which it was labeled exists beyond the first segment (which they did transfer to mini DV and which is of no use to us.)Rafik Video not only did not provide this service they promised, but they failed to give back my property after multiple phone calls and email requests. I also requested a detailed invoice for the work done, for which I paid. Again these items were requested for more than
8 months via telephone and email.

STAY AWAY!!!
These people are so incompetent it’s embarrassing. How they are still in business also boggles the mind. If you don’t believe me, read the following or the other reviews.
I brought in a DVD of my reel to be copied. Once I got it back, I proceeded to hand out these copies to potential employers. Little did I know that THEY COPIED SOMEBODY ELSE’S REEL! Or the DVD’s were completely blank. And not only did they lose my master and burn somebody else’s film, but they screwed up that person’s copy as well!!! It would only play his deleted scenes and not the film itself.
Now I have somebody else’s short (Anybody looking for their film «The Meeting»?) in the hands of people that I want to hire me. And they can’t even play that person’s film cause the DVD is fucked.
I went into complain and try and find my film, but as it was after 30 days, the disinterested slacker said it would «take forever» to try it down. I left my info, but obviously I don’t expect to ever get my film back.

F rating with the BBB!!!
I’m a filmmaker and photojournalist. I have used Rafik a handful of times over the last 20 years. They always did a terrible job, were rude and completely incompetent, but I would use them for unimportant things because they were cheap.
Last October I needed a video transfer and I didn’t want to pay a lot of money so I went to Rafik. When I got to the top of the stairs and entered I thought I was in the wrong place. The room was empty and seemed to be turned into a gallery run by a confused looking woman by the name of Mindy Wyatt. She told me that in fact they were still in business. Ok. I told her what I needed and she told me it would be $ 250. I left the tape and was told to return to pick up the transfer in 2 days.
45 minutes after leaving I realized that I might be able to do the transfer myself, so I phoned them and asked them hold the job. They told me that the tape was already being transferred. Fair enough, I thought. Being that is was already being done I asked if I could pick up the completed job tomorrow. The girl on the phone said yes.
It wasn’t ever started. When I arrived the next day nothing had been done. They assured me that it would be ready the follow day. Well, no it wasn’t. The day after that… yeah, still no. The day after was a Friday and still nothing was done. I decided to pull the job.
They told me that they would NOT refund my money, but would give me a store credit. I argued that they had done nothing, and had actually passed all four of their OWN deadlines. They said that once a tape in in the queue that the charge is irreversible. «In the queue» mind you was my tape sitting on her dusty desk. My response to this was, «Are you fucking kidding me?». I explained that I would dispute the charge with my bank and I left.
THE NUT JOB CALLED THE POLICE.
She told them that I threatened to attack her, so about 20 minutes after I stormed out of the store I got a call from a police officer. Normally the police would take a threat like this very seriously, but they could see that this woman was unstable, to put it kindly. They got mad at her while I was on the phone and told her not to use 911 like that. They apologized to me and hung up.
The following are parts of a letter that I wrote to her that same evening.
«I want to give you the opportunity to refund the $ 250 before I take action. I assure you that I will take all legal avenues to go after Rafik for my money and your illegal business practices.
It is ludicrous to say today that it was my fault that it wasn’t done, when on Friday you apologized for it being your (Rafik’s) fault and offered me a credit for my trouble. You didn’t do the job.
When I called 45 minutes after I left the tape with you originally and asked to put the job on hold so I could see if I have a DVCAM tape version, I was lied to and told that the job was being done and would be ready the following day. Of course nothing was done and you just wanted to keep the job with you. What arrogance to think because someone leaves a tape with you, that you have the right to refuse cancellation even if you’ve done absolutely nothing.
First, I have disputed the charge with my bank. I am confident that it will be reversed.
Second, I have filed a complaint with New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. They will contact me in the next few days and if this is not resolved to my satisfaction I will proceed.
Third, I will contact the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and report you for tax fraud. When I brought in the tape you clearly told me that I could avoid paying sales tax if I either had an EIN number or paid cash. The later is illegal and I will report you. Can you can withstand an audit? Also, if your workers and not documented or off the books I promise I will make sure you will be investigated for that.
Fourth, I will take you small claims court on principle even if it costs me more than $ 250. This is not about the money. This is about dishonest and deceptive business practices. I will seek to recoup money for my time wasted as well as the $ 250. You made a big mistake lying to the police. People that know me know that I would never physically threaten anyone, especially not a woman. I will use this against you. I will also seek affidavits from others you have wronged in business.
Fifth, I will file a negative report with the Better Business Bureau.
These are not the only roads of legal recourse I can or will take. I want to state in no unclear terms that I will not back down until I am wholly satisfied. I recommend that you reconsider and refund the $ 250. If you do this I will abandon any recourse. You have until 5:00 PM on November 2, 2010 to reply. If I do not hear from you by that time I will assume that you are not interested and I will push forward.»
I got a FULL REFUND by November 5^th. Looks like they could meet a deadline after all.
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JUST AVOID! Thee WORST transfer facility ever.
Just do yourself a favor and don’t even consider this place as a legitimate option. If you want to know why then continue reading.
This is all from personal experience. Your transfer will be done horribly, your money will be wasted, your time will be wasted. Just spend the extra money however much it may be and get your transfers done elsewhere, there are plenty of competent and respectable places in NYC, do some more research.
To give you an anology. Would you go back to the the same doctor that committed malpractice on you to fix what they they already screwed up? NO! why would you expect different results and trust them on a second try?
So why would anyone that received a horrible transfer (scratches, dirt, out of focus, off center, over/​under lit, wobbling) go back expecting better results? You won’t. Don’t fall for the trap, of «we’ll retransfer it» because if they can’t get it right the first time, you’re asking for more trouble.
The owner is a willful idiot. Her employees are oblivious passive minions. They won’t respond to emails or phone calls. If you go in there they just repeat their nonsensical mantra of «I don’t know» & «Bring your film back in we’ll re-​transfer it.(when we feel like it)»
Their «technician» is never in, maybe because they don’t actually have one and they outsource all of their work to other places, or do it themselves in a bathroom.
AVOID!!! You’re money will not be refunded. If your hard work is ruined, destroyed, lost etc. trust me I went through it. Don’t let months of pre-​production & production be completely wasted and dragged through the mud because of this places façade of having a history of being a film transfer place.
At one point it may have been but not anymore. The business used to be run by a competent owner that actually knew what they were doing but this new owner doesn’t not belong in the business, she lacks a thing called knowledge and business ethics.

it hurts to join the one-​star club for rafik given their long storied history with the downtown choreographers of the 80s and 90s, as i feel great empathy for that contribution and tradition.
but i went all the way down there today and 10 minutes later walked out scratching my head, seriously peeved with nothing to show for it. i wanted a simple video to digital transfer so i could do some editing on imovie. i really wanted to do it at rafik. but after first a totally unsatisfying phone call in which i was made to feel stupid, and which offered me nothing informative, and then going against my instincts to give them another chance by going down there in person, figuring that would cut through whatever dysfunctional communication was going on, i ended up walking out thoroughly disappointed. a customer they had in the bag they let get away. astonishing.
so here are my helpful hints for rafik:
when someone takes the trouble to come all the way down to your shop, NEVER let them get away. be nice. make them feel welcome. let them know you’re glad they came. for example, you can pretend you’re japanese. a japanese proprietor would welcome you, thank you, tell you how honored he is that you chose him. maybe you are not japanese, but you can imagine. use your experience to ascertain what the customer needs. if you don’t know right away, work hard to figure it out. ask questions. listen carefully. try to understand their needs. assess their level. do they want a rolls royce or a camry? do they know anything about the technology? present options. don’t confuse them or add to their burden by complicating things. answer questions directly. and don’t ever tell them to come back later to accomplish what they are already there to accomplish in the first place.
sorry, this business is old-​fashioned and brain-​dead. i don’t know how else to put it. you can’t make money treating customers indifferently in this day and age. there may have been a time when people paid a premium to be treated rudely, in certain circles i guess it was called «charm.» they thought it made them cool, gave them edginess. but now it’s like the grandma in the bikini. it’s not the 1980s any more.

terrible service and the woman at the front desk is the rudest person i’ve ever dealt with in any business. rafik video should get rid of her.
person reading this, save your time and money and take your video business elsewhere!!!

i honestly don’t understand how this place stays in business. i’ll spare you the character assessments of the «individuals» running the place, but i must report that their incompetence caused them to be so confused that when they redid a job (that they very willingly offered to do) which they did incorrectly the first time, they ran my credit card without authorization and gave me a fictitious account of conversations saying i told them to do something that didn’t make any sense. to make a long story short, it’s not a good price if you have to pay twice. Stay away!!!