Jamestown or Elite Please Advise - Page 20

How do these screens stack up to the Visual Apex screens which are in the same price range?

Kinda like this:

Nothing comparable in price, which is why we're all here commiserating about the slow shipments.

The VisualApex screens that ProjectH mentioned are about $90 more, and I'm sure they are more likely to ship before Jesus returns.

There was something about the corners of the frames on the Visual Apex screens that bugged me when I Googled the reviews, but if you like 'em... Mozeltov.

I ordered my screen on Nov. 13. I never even got a confirmation email that my order had been received - only a confirmation of payment from PayPal.

I called on Nov. 29 and was told the same story as everyone else. He couldn't confirm a ship date, but said they'd be working through the weekend to get caught back up and thought maybe my screen would ship by the end of the week. Told me to send him an email and he'd look up my order and get back to me by the end of the day. That was 2 weeks ago. I've still heard nothing.

Just send him a final email. If I don't get a response by the end of the day, I will be initiating the refund process on PayPal and shopping for another screen. There is NO excuse for a lack of communication with your customers, especially when they've paid in advance.

You are 100% correct, Soulcamp.

You are saying -- almost verbatim -- what I said when I was in your shoes. If there's a difference between you and I, it was that I said to myself, "GEE DEE IT!!! If I don't hear back from him by this afternoon, I'm going to-- Oh. Look. There's an email from James."

I'm not making excuses for James. He absolutely needs to get his fecal matter gathered. He is absolutely pissing people off with his Bubba business demeanor.

I will meagerly offer the following:

* He's not a scammer. If you find enough patience/tolerance/Bourbon you will get your screen and it's a nice screen.

* He's a bubba, making screens out in the workshop behind the house by himself. If you cancel your order, it only means somebody else will get their screen a day earlier. Right or wrong (and I vote wrong) this is James' business plan. Clear $500 a day, every day he feels like working until the monkey dies.

* You can't currently find a competitive screen this nice for this cheap. The discount is because it's going to take forever to ship and you're not going to get the communication you'd expect from a "real" business.

Sorry man. Most of us following this thread have been in your shoes, Soulcamp. No one could blame you if you bail and pay a few more dollars for a faster shipment.

Guess what appeared in my inbox about an hour ago?

I'm going to wait for my screen. I still need to finish painting the room, so I'm in no hurry. Just figured I'd give him one more ping from a peeved customer, though it doesn't seem like it'll matter. He doesn't appear to possess much business-saavy. If he's so backlogged to the point where he can't even reply to email, and hasn't yet figured out that he could easily hire a couple of people to help him out and eventually take over production while he sits back and watches movies on his own screen most of the day, I doubt my email will do the trick.

If my screen actually makes it out by the beginning of next week, as he claims, I guess I'll just have myself another Christmas present. :-)

I recently received my 120" screen from JT. I went with the Seymour screen and black backing. I have it setup but still need to tighten one area. It took me about 4 weeks to get this but I had to call and email him several times.

Mini Review:

Good-- I will say that the screen quality is superb. I work for a company that resells Da-Lites and this is as good if not better. I was using a bed sheet for my screen and even though that looked good this just made my new Panny 8000 look even better. My wife was even impressed. The black velvet was done very nicely as well.

Bad-- The screws that he gave with the screen were not the best. I am actually going to replace them with a different screw as when I screwed them in to the wood they just kept spinning and I didn't feel like they are holding things together to securely. I will report back once I change the screws out. Because of the screws not feeling very secure the framing seemed some what shaky. He also said that there was predrilled holes but he must have forgot about some of them.

Overall putting the screen together was not very hard. I think I am also going to change how I mount it to the wall. I haven't decided on this yet though. Overall for the price I am very happy with the screen. I think after adding a better screw for the construction I will much happier.

I am in sales and I am very inpatient so the wait was killing me. I will say it was worth the wait

Only four weeks? What, are you James' brother-in-law or something, Chad?

Yeah, you are correct about the screws. This is from memory -- but I think there is something in the instructions about just tightening them to "snug" and not putting the gorilla arm to them. They will strip if you over-do it. I think he's using a hardwood like ash that crumbles instead of stretching under the torque of the screw thread.

IMHO, when the screws are tightened to "snug" there's plenty of rigidity in the frame and plenty of friction kiss to hold the screen tabs in place, but YMMV. I understand why you think that. I'm pretty sure I stripped a couple screws, and I also took a sample of the provide JT screw to HD and bought the next fattest one to replace my overtightens, just in case. (I was there buying extra screws for the French Cleats anyway, so why not?)

Thanks for the comparison to Da-Lites as well, Chad. It's tough to get apples-to-apples comparisons on screens. Much more likely that people will run multiple projectors on the same screen than multiple screens on the same projector.

If you can handle the wait, his screens are worth it for this price class. You get a much better, higher quality product for less money than the imported Chinese junk with inflated margins that plagues our industry. The only value competition is if you do a full DIY build.

If you either can't stand the wait or have a little more room in the budget, then the next best value is Carada's Precision series. These two company's products put your money into the product instead of sales channels, and are what I always recommend to my friends and families, of course when appropriate.

Cheers,
Chris

LOL....no I am not his brother in law or any relation to him. I just called him multiple times to follow up on the deadlines that he gave me. That is the sales guy in me ! My screws just kept spinning and spinning even after tightening them up. I feel it will hold but I want to put something in that is a little more secure feeling

The da-lites that I have seen at work are mostly conference rooms and they are not always super high def projectors but my image seems to be better then what I have seen

Well, my Elite Sableframe 92" screen arrived in less than two weeks (via an Amazon seller in Canada - TechDepot) and putting it up was fairly easy, did it myself in less than two hours. Hanging was extremely easy, just two clips to screw into the wall studs but of course, I hadn't done my homework and hung it far too high! I've lowered it but I still think I need to bring it down another 5 inches or so, as my seated position is very close. Fortunately you can't see the holes in the wall in the dark......
While the price difference was about $40 I I have no experience in different screens so I can't say if it is better or not but it's very bright (maybe a bit too bright?) and colors are very vivid. I'm going to re-calibrate with the WOW disc and see if I can tone it down a bit....
Many thanks for all your help!

Wow, Alexdad. You got a screen in ten days!

Ten Days.

TEN DAYS.


James, are you reading this? Alexdad got his Elite in TEN (echo: Ten.... ten... ten...) Days. (Days... days... days...)

Ten days Vs. Seven weeks.




I guess we now lose you to this thread, Alexdad: http://www.avsforum.com/t/585554/the-official-elite-screen-thread/1350
Edited by cshawnmcdonald - 12/14/12 at 9:42am

What can I say? I am currently on vacation and needed to get it asap!
Also, it seemed a lot easier to hang......now stretching it and using the fasteners was quite a hassle (I was actually thinking of another word than hassle...).

Now though I have to drill another set of holes because it was still too high. I'm looking at the bottom of the screen being 32" from the floor as I'm sitting in a low-slung Ikea chair. Is this perhaps too low? The screen is 50" in height....
Edited by Alexdad54 - 12/14/12 at 11:07am

Ordered on Nov 16, still waiting.

Spoke to James yesterday via email told me 10-15 days if I order today. I could not sleep so I just ordered the 130 white after reading this thread. Hey it is Chritsmas

This is my first screen and now I will need my first projector to go along with it.
I will have very little ambient light to deal with. Have up to 20' for throw distance. Seating will be at 12'
Going to paint the ceiling flat black

Welcome to Purgatory, Red Boots.

It won't be 15 days. It will be seven weeks. But... Welcome.

Ha! Yea figured so much so.
No worries gives me some time to get the area together.
I'm looking at the Panasonic PT-AR100U Projector
or any projector for that matter. Hoping to catch a good after Christmas sale on something, or even a refurb unit.

Thanks for the welcome. I'm new to all this, so a work in progress for sure

Assuming the ups estimated delivery date is correct, mine will arrive 35 work days from my order date.

Are you only going to watch movies on "working days?"



So... 35 working days = seven weeks, or.... subtracting Thanksgiving and Christmas... Eight weeks.

Thanks for the update, Purdue. It helps RedBoots and others to "get their minds right."

My original quote was 10-15 workdays so I assumed Boots was the same. UPS did update today, so it will actually be closer to 30 workdays than 35.

Can someone please have hillcrest6 email me wera612@gmail.com

Thanks in advance. I didn't realize I only get 2 pm's a day

Got my UPS tracking notice on Dec. 24. UPS says it actually shipped Dec. 27. It is due to arrive Jan. 3. I ordered it on Nov. 13. Was told it would ship by Dec. 7, than again by Dec. 17. If nothing happens to delay shipping, actual delivery time will be 7 weeks & 2 days from the date of order.

10-15 days, my ass. Poor customer communication is one thing. Flat out lying is quite another. Even if my screen is perfect and worth twice the price I paid, I still can't recommend Jamestown Screens to anyone else. His business demeanor is simply unacceptable.

By going through this thread you knew it is gonna be not 10-15 days but like 5 weeks
You still ordered because of the rave reviews people have posted
You accept the quality by saying "my screen is perfect and worth twice the price I paid"
And then say "still can't recommend Jamestown Screens to anyone else"
You have to take your pick buddy...

Au contraire, mon frere.

Campy can be pleased with product and grumpy about the buying experience.

The custom-order, cash-up-front buying experience is an exercise in trust. Trust is -- by its nature -- stressful. James has a way of making the exercise in trust just about as stressful as it can be while still eventually delivering the product.

Campy would assert that it need not be as stressful as James makes it. As do I.

I have no illusions that James hired somebody to do his web site and has no idea how to change it to reflect actual manufacturing times. But really.... really... REALLY... It's 2012. When somebody shoots you Three hunnert and fiddy through the interwebs, that warrants an email back that says, "Got it. Thanks. Your order is in the queue."

Minimum. Minimum. "I got it. Thanks. Your order is in the queue."

Ah, but according to Red Boots above, he quoted him 10-15 days OVER THE PHONE. That's not a lack of technological prowess. That's flat out deception. Just like I was told twice over the phone that my screen would ship within a week and it didn't.

There comes a point in time when your business practices overshadow the quality of your product and when word of mouth (which is the primary driver for his business in the first place) no longer works in your favor. For me, that time has come. My screen has shipped and hopefully, I will be satisfied with my purchase. But his verbal deception to Red Boots over the phone was the straw that broke the camel, as far as I'm concerned. If my order hadn't already shipped, I would have canceled it. If he had been honest with RB and said, "We've been backed up over the holidays and we're trying to get caught up, but our turnaround times are still around 6 weeks," then I'd be fine. But he didn't. He didn't want to lose his business (and his money) and so he lied. That's unacceptable, no matter how good of a value his product is.

My personal recommendation to RB is to cancel your order and look elsewhere. I simply don't trust James and I can't recommend him.

It was via email he told me 10-15 days, but I feel what your saying. I didn't ask or question him about it. Maybe I can't handle the truth is why
Maybe it would of pissed him off & he would have taken even longer? All I know is I didn't want to be the one to find out!
I agree it probably isn't the correct way to do business. Also with the super bowl coming up I would think he would be a little busier & backed up then usual.

Ordered mine nov 19. Was told via email two times will be finisshed in a few days. Still has not been shipped. I cancellled my order today and filed a disput with paypal. I paid more for my new one,but I do not care as I need my screen now. I would NOT reccomend jamestown to anyone regardless of price vs quality because to me integrity is worth something.

anymore pictures of the finished product? im curious to see the quality.

Question unrelated to shipping / production time (it took mine about 3 weeks from order time to arrival time back in August, not too bad).

I have a 106" white Jamestown screen in our basement. The finished product is great, but I've already had to take it down once to tighten the screen due to wrinkles, and it's in dire need yet again. It's a little frustrating to have to do this on what will appear to be an every-other-month basis. Has anyone else had these same issues? Is this just "the way it's going to be" and there's not much we can do about it? Or does anyone have a magic bullet to keep these wrinkles from forming? I can't think of anything (and I'm guessing being in the basement it might be a humidity issue or something along those lines) but would love to hear from anyone else who might be having similar issues.