Gen-One M8 Owners in the USA

[craigrmurray]

Have any of you Generation One M8 owners in the US been contacted (by phone or e-mail) about returning your camera for repair? I bought mine in mid November, and registered for the filters (for which I did receive an e-mail acknowledgement) in early December.

I know from the forum that UK and European owners have been contacted about repairs, but because of the holidays, I haven't been keeping up with the posts, especially concerning this side of the Atlantic.

Hope everyone has had a good year so far.

[colorflow]

I also bought my M8 in mid-Nov. Nothing so far from Leica. I did contact their techincal support in N.J. and received this email.

Technical Info <technicalinfo@leicacamerausa.com> wrote:

Good Afternoon,
Upgrading is currently in progress...
Since you have registerd your camera and have selected your filters...
They should start shipping in Feb 2007... These will take care of your
magenta color shift...
Also, use the Capture One software that came with the camera, if you
are shooting DNG images...
There was one internet dealer swapping cameras... This was not
authorized by Leica...
**********************************
For your free upgrade... Please send your camera to the address
below...
Leica will take care of getting your camera to Germany for you...
Mark the outside of the box with the number "8". This will help direct
it to the priority area...
Pack well...
Upgrade should take no more than 2-4 weeks... usually closer to 10
days...
Remember Leica will be closed from Dec 23rd to Jan 2nd... Plan
accordingly...
Many of our Pro Photographers are waiting until after the Holidays;
with some waiting until Feb/Mar to send theirs in...
******************************
Leica Camera Inc.
ATTN: M8 Upgrade
1 Pearl Court - Unit A Allendale, NJ 07401
******************************
***For your Protection please insure contents***
For proper tracking, send using UPS, FedEx, or DHL only...
Do not send by USPS... Tracking inadequate
Send along a complete description of work you are requesting...
Please keep a copy of the letter you send to Leica... Also, record your
serial number...
If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact me...
Thanks Jim

James Butler / Technical Info
Leica Camera Inc.
1 Pearl Court/ Unit A / Allendale, NJ 07401
Leica Camera AG - Home
technicalinfo@leicacamerausa.com

[rpierce]

Call the service department in NJ; it is best to take the initiative. I believe it is a toll free call.

I called and they said to send it in. I paid to FedEx mine in early Dec. On the Leica service website, I was able to see some action prior to the holidays, but lately it does not recognize my serial number. The consensus seems to express hope that it will only take 8 weeks.

Let's hope we get them back fixed.

Good Luck,

Bob Pierce

[butter71]

Originally Posted by rpierce

Call the service department in NJ; it is best to take the initiative. I believe it is a toll free call.
[...]
I was able to see some action prior to the holidays, but lately it does not recognize my serial number.

i emailed them early december and they told me to send it in. my service receipt was dated 12/13 and claimed 3-4 weeks. i took the initiative because i wanted to make sure i had the camera back before a trip to thailand in march.

i also can't get the online service thing to work for me. i've tried IE6 (and IE7) on windows (as well as many other browsers on a mac).. it just cycles back to the same page.

[LJL]

I purchased my M8 the first week of November. I did the online registration and got a confirmation on the filters. I called Leica NJ around Dec. 7, and spoke with a woman that asked me if I wanted to arrange a pick-up for my camera. She advised only using the smaller top box, and packing it well. They would schedule a DHL pick-up from my residence or wherever. At that time, I declined sending the camera in, as I was, and have been using it for my professional work, and did not want to be without during the holidays. She told me that whenever I was ready, to contact them and they would arrange the shipping to NJ, Germany, and return to me when finished. I will probably due this later this month, as I still have some shoots that I would like to use the M8 for in the next week or so.

I also received the paper mail about the "inconvenience", and the offer for the lens discount. I received a separate email from Germany regarding the pricing errors, but have not received any other communication from Germany or NJ since then.

I guess a question I have is how are folks deailing with getting Leica to reimburse them if they ship the camera back, versus arranging with Leica to have it picke up and handled for you? Unless you are also sending in lenses for coding or something else, why would you not want to have Leica handle all the arrangements? You just pack it properly and let them take it from there, versus you paying the shipping, and having to deal with reimbursement. Unless I missed something, has anybody gotten things squared with Leica yet? I know several folks have reported getting their cameras back already, or are tracking the work progress, but I have yet to hear about how shipping was handled and how costs have been offset.

Guess there are four or five options:
1) return camera to your dealer and have them handle it
2) have Leica dispatch a shipper to pick it up from you
3) ship it to Leica NJ and figure out the reimbursement
4) ship it to Leica Germany and really hope things work out
5) do nothing until more information comes and just keep shooting.

I have opted for the last item so far, but will probably go to option #2 in a couple weeks.

LJ

[xrogers]

I got my camera mid November, did website/filter registration, got the "we're sorry" letter and "we're sorry about the bad prices on the %30 offer" email. I'll likely call Leica next week, but they'll have to be confident about timing or I'll hang onto the camera until April so I can be sure to have it for a trip in late March.

Clyde Rogers

[woodyspedden]

I think it may be best to wait. My reasoning is that there are still items being discovered that may have an impact on M8 hardware. I would prefer that when mine goes to Germany it comes back with most, if not all, of the hardware issues settled. The remaining stuff will be handled in firmware with version 1.1 supposedly going to ship in February. Given Leica's track record on firmware (see thread on DMR firmware) I wouldn't hold my breath.

[leicaM8freak]

i also can't get the online service thing to work for me. i've tried IE6 (and IE7) on windows (as well as many other browsers on a mac).. it just cycles back to the same page.[/quote]



This "cycling" back as you call it occurs when your serialnumber is not in their repair system yet, which means your camera has not arrived in Solms.
My M8 was collected on December 18 (from Ireland) and it took up to December 27 before it appeared on their system as being in repair,,...

this is what it reads on their page:

Date State
27.12.2006 Service order registered on
27.12.2006 Quotation sent on
27.12.2006 In repair


hope it helps

[craigrmurray]

Thanks, everyone. It's always good to know that one is not alone during a crisis.

[craigrmurray]

Originally Posted by woodyspedden

I think it may be best to wait. My reasoning is that there are still items being discovered that may have an impact on M8 hardware. I would prefer that when mine goes to Germany it comes back with most, if not all, of the hardware issues settled. The remaining stuff will be handled in firmware with version 1.1 supposedly going to ship in February. Given Leica's track record on firmware (see thread on DMR firmware) I wouldn't hold my breath.

Thanks, Woody.

I'm beginning to agree with you that waiting is perhaps the best course of action. Now that the holidays are over, and I've begun reading the Forum threads again, and have seen several from Sean Reid and others, concerning vertical banding on the already fixed cameras. I haven't yet upgraded (?) to firmware 1.09, and am hesitant to do so for the same reasons.

Do you get DHL over in Ft. Collins? I'm not sure if we do here in the mountains.

[mitchell]

Bryan,

The "cycling back" may be because you're using the wrong number. I got no response to my serial number or the number on my REPAIR ESTIMATE that starts with a V.

A third 6 numeral number that Leica US gave me over the phone worked on the website repair tracking, and tells me my M8 has been "In Repair" since the 12/20.

It was recieced in NJ on the 12/6.

Best,

Mitchell

[butter71]

Originally Posted by mitchell

The "cycling back" may be because you're using the wrong number. I got no response to my serial number or the number on my REPAIR ESTIMATE that starts with a V.

A third 6 numeral number that Leica US gave me over the phone worked on the website repair tracking, and tells me my M8 has been "In Repair" since the 12/20.

It was received in NJ on the 12/6.

I hope that's the case! I tried both the V number and my Serial #. Mine was received in NJ on 12/12.

I'll call Leica on Monday and see what's what. They also have had my 50 Summilux for 6-bit coding for the last two months..