- LEICA Service: are you pleased with it ?

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Dear LEICA- friends,

occasionally there have been complains about the technical service of the LEICA company. IŽam aware, that LUSENET contributors from all over the place turn up here, so the response might differ quite a bit according to the region where you live.

My question: Did you have technical problems with your LEICA gear in the past and where you pleased with the performance of the LEICA people or their local agents. This should include the normal repair and work carried out under factory guarantee.

I hope I do not stir up too many ghosts this way. But perhaps the one or other LEICA rep visits here and learns a little about customers feedback.

Best wishes

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), December 07, 2001

Answers

I've used Leica USA service for my R bodies, since nobody else seems to want to touch them. Both times, they came back fixed ok, albeit in about 6 weeks. One body I sent back again to have the shutter speeds reset closer to correct tolerances (I'm a camera repairman's worst nightmare: a customer with a shutter tester!). The other body had had a malfunction corrected by them just before I bought it; a year later it went sour again, and they fixed it for free. I've got no real complaints with their service.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), December 07, 2001.

Leica USA fixed a jammed shutter in my new M6 TTL 0.72 last year under Passport Warranty. This year they CLA'd two M3 cameras. I have no complaints about the quality of the work. But in each case I had to wait about 3 months to get the work done. That I thought was unreasonable. It took them 6 weeks just to take a look at my one- month-old M6 TTL. I am not surprised that few professionals use Leica cameras these days. They would expect overnight servicing of cameras and lenses!

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), December 07, 2001.

I've not used Leica repair recently, but in April of '99 I sent my new TTL to New Jersey for cleaning of the viewfinder. I won't bore you with the details. But I had the camera back within about 2œ weeks. If it matters, I'm in southern Cal.

-- jeff voorhees (debontekou@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001.

The quality of service is good, albeit pricey (but this is Leica...). They can be very slow though. I agree with Muhammed that for a pro this is probably not really acceptable, but I think it also fair to say that if you tell them you need it then they can hurry up sometimes. I guess this means you really do need some kind of backup. In 2000 it took them 2 months to return my R6.2. and three months for the CL. The CL had to wait for a new meter cell from Germany.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), December 07, 2001.

I've been very pleased with Leica service here in Canada. Yes, NORMAL service is slow (4-6 weeks), but guess what - so is everyone else now. Both Nikon and Canon quote 4-8 weeks for service, unless you call ahead, talk to the service manager and explain extenuating circumstances. Last year I had my R3 go down and needed it for a shoot the next week. Fed Ex'd it to Leica in Toronto on Monday and it was returned Friday afternoon of the same week. But I called first and NICELY asked if they could help me out. The old 'ounce of sugar goes a long way' scenario......

-- Bob Todrick (bobtodrick@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001.


I don't know if you wanted to hear this here (hope you at least don't mind so) but I've never had any problems in this regard. Neither regarding any repairs in Solms' technical service, nor any of the stores here when it comes to problems as of trade-ins or up-date purchases. And nothing ever took a whole week. But then we're a lot smaller than the U. S. and Canada.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), December 07, 2001.

I had a new M6 fixed under warranty in 1999, and it took one week from the day I sent it out until I got it back. The camera was 2 weeks old and the rangefinder was off. Since then the camera has been fine. I had two M3's CLA'd, and changed to single stroke. They took about 8 weeks each for $$$$. I have not had any problems with either of them. One was done two years ago and the other this year. All were done in NJ.

MJ

-- Mark A. Johnson (logic@gci.net), December 09, 2001.


Except for a price about twice as much as you americans pay for a CLA at Van Stelten etc., I have only good things to say about the Danish Leica Distributor.
A recent M4 CLA and shutter curtain replacement took 1 month.
Although you can only submit repairs through camera shops, they were friendly and informative when I called directly to inquire about certain specifics about the repair. The reciepe I recieved when i submitted the camera included a name of a person at Leica, and he instantly knew what camera I was talking about when I called.
Also I think it is reassuring that they give a full one year Leica warranty on a 1968 camera, when it goes through an authorized CLA. It is like getting a new camera.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), December 10, 2001.

Thank you very much for your contributions/ answers to my question.

Going through them, shows that people are actually very pleased with the way the LEICA Technical Service is operating.

I did not ask this because I expected a completely different result. My experiences with repairs are just the same as the above: in general good and very good.

The reason for my question I found in some remarks of customers on the english site of the LEICA Co. Customers Forum recently. There were some serious complaines about the service, especially in Asia. Nobody from there answered, so things are not so bad perhaps ...

IŽam posting from the old world, so at least in this aspect of life things semms to be better here.

Best wishes

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), December 11, 2001.


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