Dear Mr. X,

Where we are. In 1993, XXXX PHOTO featured me in the cover story of its newsletter's maiden voyage and used two of my images on covers of its technical brochures. In 1996, I'm a client who has to listen to people who work for XXXX PHOTO tell me, "You want to sue, go ahead. We have bigger lawyers. " Not only can I not get service, but I can't get anyone to be civil. And I can't seem to get any resolution either, which is why I write to you.

How we got here. I'll skip chapter and verse. I'm not out to impugn, Just get this righted fairly through your stewardship. I bought an $8,000 machine--the XXXX PROCESSOR--that has never worked correctly. Worse, I haven't been able to get it properly serviced, and it hasn't been able to be properly "tweaked" into any kind of reliable working order. Still worse, an XXXX rep offered me a new one, which, I felt at the time was fair and reasonable--sound business practice all the way--and the appropriate action considering the problems and inconveniences; the overall unpredictable and unreliable nature of the processor. But, less than two weeks later, your rep denied offering me a new one and, leaping over events, sent a repairman out to my office without so much as contacting me to make even a half-hearted effort to coordinate day or time with me. However brash I am, I deserve better treatment if only because I am a customer. Then again, our relationship extends beyond that.

The $8,000 problem. Blown fuses, a defective dryer, intermittent streaking (more regular than intermittent), wasted paper, fan vibrations, wasted chemicals (due to over-the-phone diagnosis). Different technicians, different diagnoses. (On the average I was gettitig 250 prints per chemicals and not the 1,000 advertised!) You need a new dryer, they say. You'll get a new dryer, the say. You'll get a new machine, they say. I don't get phone calls returned, I say.

"Musta been a misunderstandin'. " I don't know how this got off course, but I am willing to write it off as a "misunderstanding" if you would gently intervene and turn this around for us both. I have $80,000 worth of equipment that works and when I need service or maintenance, that service and maintenance does the job. I cannot count on the processor. I don't want it. It's a lemon. A new one will no longer suffice. My losses are considerable.

Another $4,500 invested, including $1,000 worth of RC Paper useless to me without your machine--which sits empty and dry on a box (built for $500, wired for another $500) as I hope and pray that you will tell someone to call me to make arrangements to take it out of here and give me my money back. Then we can forget the indignities and that this ever happened.

The way it was. I am writing to you, Mr. X, to ask you if you would take care of this in an open and fair way, with a sense of history and vision that something larger is at stake here--for us both. Your swift intervention and a correct outcome would be more than deeply appreciated. It would simply be "the right thing to do."

"Imagine." It was XXXX film that I used to record images that XXXX has used on newsletter covers and on covers of its technical information brochures. It was XXXX film I used when I took portraits of former President George Bush, Phil Donahue, Jason Robards and Michael Bolton. We are planning to do a seminar at PHOTO' 97 at The Javitts Center in New York and I want to continue to represent XXXX film, but only if, through you, XXXX shows me that what's happened is, indeed, some grand misunderstanding--an aberration from the general daily business practice, if you will--and not at all indicative of the way and manner that you really treat your customers or, for that matter, any customer, whether he be a big man or a small man.

Again, I hope that we can soon move back to the mutual good feelings that led to our professional association in the first place and, of course, I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,