I sent my R8 and motor to Leica in New Jersey for service. They had several problems caused by hard use and bad environments. In five working days Leica performed a full overhaul on both units, upgrading all older or trouble-prone components and shipped the units back to me at no cost via overnight air freight.

I am a professional user but I never got this level of service from Canon or Nikon. I am very pleased. I never even had to send them a proof of purchase or anything else. Just a letter outlining the problems.

With other manufacturers I would be arguing about whether the troubles had been caused by abuse and whether they should be covered under warranty.

I was called three times by the Leica service people: Once to confirm receipt, once to confirm shipping and once to give me the UPS tracking number.

I was amazed at the follow up and the level of caring professionalism. WOW.

-- kirk r. tuck (kirktuck@kirktuck.com), February 28, 2002

Answers

What a great story! Nice to hear that Sherry and Don have real competition!

-- Patrick (pg@patrickgarner.com), February 28, 2002.

Nice to read your happy story, Kirk. Maybe you should follow up your great photo.net review of the M6 with a review of Leica service? :-)

-- Ray (ray_moth@yahoo.com), March 01, 2002.

I was also amazed at the nice people at Leica in NJ. After switching from Nikon, there were aspects of the R8 motor that I had trouble with. I e-mailed with my concerns, and they offered to try a modification for me - for free!

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Although I was a 10 year NPS member, and a 20 year Nikon shooter, i never got anything but bad repairs, bad attitide and trouble from Nikon. I am incredibly happy to have made the switch, and the Leica pictures are a LOT better!

-- Mike Levitt (insol@ix.netcom.com), April 19, 2002.

I bought a used early serial number R8 that soon developed electrical problems. It blinked "P" in the viewfinder and the shutter could only be released with the self timer. Also the display on the back was showing exposure compensation although none was set. Removal on the batteries overnight restored it to normal operation.................for a while. I sent it to Leica in NJ for a repair estimate. I was informed by mail that the camera would be fixed at no cost to me! What a shock! Estimated repair time was 2-3 weeks. The day it was finished a nice man from Leica NJ called me to let me know of the completion and the UPS tracking number. The repair bill said "repair circuit board, clean and lube, upgrade to current standards". Outstanding service from a company that cares about their customers!

-- Terry Dent (dentkimterry@cs.com), May 26, 2002.