Leica needs to fix Service and Customer Support department

[diogenis]

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Yep, it's changed. First M9's sold by the UK had 2 years warranty and that's now reduced to 1 year. Passport for the M9 is 1 year.

 

My MP has just passed into it's 3rd year of it's 5 year Passport. Not sure what's being offered on film M's this week. Maybe it's all changing because of the mitching.

 

Hey, anything sold within the EU is supposed to get 2 years warranty under Directive 1999/44/EC isn't it?

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[lct]

... Maybe the US office didn't want to add to the retail prices to offer Passport, or terms that suit the French market, for example...

OK but the question is not to know if Leica USA should offer a Passport extension or not. It's to know if they should offer the regular Leica warranty during 2 years. Or am i missing something?

[Guest malland]

I hesitated saying this when the post was born, but now after so many responses I can't resist. If this situation meets your criteria for "horror", you live on a different planet than I do, one where real horrors don't ruin the lives of untold numbers of human beings on a regular basis. I find the choice of adjective offensive. I really don't care who's at "fault" in causing this minor inconvenience, this triviality, not this horror.

Are you kidding? The pomposity here is unbelievable: "horror story" obviously is a colloquial expression with which you should be quite familiar if you live in the States, as you seem to.

 

—Mitch/Paknampran

Barrier Series

[Rolo]

OK but the question is not to know if Leica USA should offer a Passport extension or not. It's to know if they should offer the regular Leica warranty during 2 years. Or am i missing something?

 

I thought it was a mitch about not being able to transfer the warranty on an M9 without the required paperwork. :rolleyes:

[diogenis]

Yea well I can understand him being so negative after all that he has endured, but in the end he needs to also realize and respect Leica's procedures on the matter and follow them.

[jaapv]

Hey, anything sold within the EU is supposed to get 2 years warranty under Directive 1999/44/EC isn't it?

That is unaffected. The Passport is an extra courtesy insurance.

[jaapv]

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Jeez .... WTF ..... that's not good for the Corporate image.

 

Is it transferrable ? If so, transfer it to mine ...... :D

Swop for an S2?

[Guest malland]

Yea well I can understand him being so negative after all that he has endured, but in the end he needs to also realize and respect Leica's procedures on the matter and follow them.

Sure, but there is no reason that Leica shouldn't show some flexibility when the camera has been back to them twice; when they know that I own it and have registered it; when they have my signature on record with my warranty; and when I requested that they accept a scanned copy of the warranty together with a signed letter. Incidentally, none of this affects me because the camera had been sold been paid for. It is for the assurance of the buyer being able to have warranty service if something goes wrong in the coming 6-8 weeks, before I can get to Europe and send the original papers to him.

 

To compare Leica's rigid posture to the need for original documents such as passports is risible and overwrought — and to rhyme "mitch" and "bitch, as one of the resident twits here thinks is the height of cleverness, is merely puerile.

 

—MItch/Paknampran

Barrier Series

[plasticman]

I think people are being unfair to Mitch here - they underestimate the massive strain of running households on several continents, and not least the inconvenience of living part of the time in Paris, an extremely primitive town.

 

In addition, the psychological strain for a white western male, who has become accustomed to a semi-colonial lifestyle in the east, where every childish whim is unquestioningly catered for, of accommodating oneself once again to the petty regulation of European life, must be both intolerable and extremely stressful.

 

So let's show some more support for downtrodden Mitch here - I'd say the 'horror' of having to own an M9 and then sell it at practically no loss to oneself definitely warrants the drama of the thread's title.

[jaapv]

Now have to wipe the coffee off my screen....

[diogenis]

Sure, but there is no reason that Leica shouldn't show some flexibility when the camera has been back to them twice; when they know that I own it and have registered it; when they have my signature on record with my warranty; and when I requested that they accept a scanned copy of the warranty together with a signed letter. Incidentally, none of this affects me because the camera had been sold been paid for. It is for the assurance of the buyer being able to have warranty service if something goes wrong in the coming 6-8 weeks, before I can get to Europe and send the original papers to him.

 

To compare Leica's rigid posture to the need for original documents such as passports is risible and overwrought — and to rhyme "mitch" and "bitch, as one of the resident twits here thinks is the height of cleverness, is merely puerile.

 

—MItch/Paknampran

Barrier Series

 

Mitch, you are conflicting with the "German" cultural way of doing things with excess discipline. Their romantic side would say: the hell with rigidity, long live flexibility, but in the end and correct they have to follow their procedures to maintain ISOs, final product quality and all that. So in the end all this behavior results in helping us.

[Westerwald-Leica]

Being German I surely understand the need for rules and clearly defined procedures

 

But running a business of my own I also know that there are times when it is wise to go the extra mile to please a customer and make him a happy camper again or win him back at a later point in time.

 

Parts of the discussion sound really strange to me as if Mitches character were to be discussed. This I find quite futile. The whole issue is about the way Leica defines customer friendliness and flexibility and what effects this has on a customer who once set out to enjoy a product and now turns away and goes somewhere else.

 

I have been using my M7, M8 and M9 with great pleasure and excellent support from Leica. But what good does this do for Mitch? Not much, I think.

 

A horror-story? Certainly not. But also no story for a textbook on customer retention.

 

Bernd

[earleygallery]

I don't think it's unreasonable for Leica to insist on the documentation - rather like trying to take something back to a shop when you've lost the receipt.

 

Is this just a storm in a teacup? Was the camera sold on the promise that the paperwork would follow? The purchaser has taken that risk in buying the camera 'as is'.

 

Ultimately there is AFAIK from the above, no problem with said camera, so when Mitch can put his hands on the documents and forward them on, the issue will be resolved.

 

Simples!

[Ecaton]

No it's not Rolo' date=' it's MY opinion as well.

 

Wish he'd go and moan somewhere else as it's depressing me reading his attacks on Leica.

 

MSOAB ![/quote']

 

+1. I almost said drama queen, but could hold myself back.

[vanhulsenbeek]

+1

[Jager]

Sure, but there is no reason that Leica shouldn't show some flexibility

—MItch/Paknampran

Barrier Series

 

 

There's the crux. Leica has a defined process for warranty and service issues. Intrinsic to that process is that the customer must provide certain documentation.

 

You're asking them to make make an exception to that process.

 

The question has nothing to do with uncertainty regarding your ownership. Leica clearly has the information at hand to verify that.

 

The real question is whether Leica should go out-of-process to deal with your request. That may seem entirely reasonable to you, looking at it purely from your single, personal viewpoint. Leica, however, has to look at it more broadly. If they are willing to extend "flexibility" to you, then that infers they will also for others. And if they do that they'll quickly find they have some percentage of out-of-process service activity. Which inevitably will amplify into other issues.

 

Processes exist for a reason. I see Leica's stance as being perfectly reasonable, and very consistent with other professionally run companies.

[jaapv]

The irony of the matter is that chances are that Leica, should the next owner have a problem, would probably do a courtesy repair. (provided it would not be splashed all over the Internet in banner headlines:rolleyes:)

[lct]

...The question has nothing to do with uncertainty regarding your ownership. Leica clearly has the information at hand to verify that...

Then i don't see any good reason why they refuse to help out one of their regular customers. I know Leica is not Rolls Royce or Van Cleef but i would expect a better service from one of the dearest photo brands in the world. In 30+ years of practice i've not been accustomed to such a rigid behavior. Is this the new Leica?

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[snaggs]

I think you being unreasonable as well.

 

You gave up, your wishlist reeks of PEBKAC.

 

Here, have a kleenex

 

Daniel.

 

Sure, but there is no reason that Leica shouldn't show some flexibility when the camera has been back to them twice; when they know that I own it and have registered it; when they have my signature on record with my warranty; and when I requested that they accept a scanned copy of the warranty together with a signed letter. Incidentally, none of this affects me because the camera had been sold been paid for. It is for the assurance of the buyer being able to have warranty service if something goes wrong in the coming 6-8 weeks, before I can get to Europe and send the original papers to him.

 

To compare Leica's rigid posture to the need for original documents such as passports is risible and overwrought — and to rhyme "mitch" and "bitch, as one of the resident twits here thinks is the height of cleverness, is merely puerile.

 

—MItch/Paknampran

Barrier Series

[Guest malland]

Then i don't see any good reason why they refuse to help out one of their regular customers. I know Leica is not Rolls Royce or Van Cleef but i would expect a better service from one of the dearest photo brands in the world. In 30+ years of practice i've not been accustomed to such a rigid behavior. Is this the new Leica?

Glad to hear the voice of reason in the midst of all these ad hominen attacks. In any case, Leica has now informed me if there is a need for the new buyer to have warranty service before I am able to send him the original papers all he has to do is to send them together with the camera the scanned copy of the warranty card that I gave him, which is stamped by the dealer.

 

—Mitch/Paknampran

Barrier