Communication with Leica Solms?

[delander †]

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A week ago my M9 developed a problem. I immediately emailed CS at Leica, to advise them of the problem and asked info on how to send the camera in for repair. To date no answer to this email.

 

And I am not happy about this!

 

But anyway, I phoned Leica UK customer service and they arranged for pick up by UPS, for sending to Germany and I'm waiting now for the courier to arrive as I write this.

 

Now I know it has been sorted, but why cant Leica Germany reply to emails? It is so rude. They seem to reply to Jaap's emails but not to mine, why do I get different (or actually no) service.

 

Jeff

[stuny]

Perhaps they are shut down for late August holidays.

[delander †]

Perhaps they are shut down for late August holidays.

 

Maybe they are but they shouldn't be. Perhaps they could at least set up an automated reply. Are you saying that when they get my UPS parcel they will be shut?

 

Jeff

[johnloumiles]

Yeah that was my impression, shut down for the month of August.

[bbbonthemoon]

I'd try to contact them via telephone

[jaapv]

A week ago my M9 developed a problem. I immediately emailed CS at Leica, to advise them of the problem and asked info on how to send the camera in for repair. To date no answer to this email.

 

And I am not happy about this!

 

But anyway, I phoned Leica UK customer service and they arranged for pick up by UPS, for sending to Germany and I'm waiting now for the courier to arrive as I write this.

 

Now I know it has been sorted, but why cant Leica Germany reply to emails? It is so rude. They seem to reply to Jaap's emails but not to mine, why do I get different (or actually no) service.

 

Jeff

Mails I send to CS<at>Leica-camera.com tend to get lost as well. I always address them to the person I want to contact.

[earleygallery]

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You did the right thing, i.e. what you should have done first, in contacting your local distributor.

 

E mail is not 100% reliable. Some get blocked or dumped into the spam folder. Also we don't know how many e mails Leica receive each day. Maybe it's 100,000 and one guy has to reply to them all? Backlog, August holidays (quite usual and to be expected for continental Europe) won't help.

 

Sometimes it's best to use more traditional methods of communication.

[guzzipap]

Hello,

 

I had the same problem, my Digilux 2 stopped working.

I mailed them twice an no answer from customer service.

It was the end of july.

Yesterday I got an answer. Andrea Frankl from customer service mailed to let me know that the factory was on holiday.

So why not try again they are back at work.

 

Charles

[delander †]

To my mind it is not acceptable business practice for the whole factory to be on holiday. Presumably someone will be there to take in my camera from UPS.

 

Jeff

[delander †]

You did the right thing, i.e. what you should have done first, in contacting your local distributor. …

 

 

You say that James but Jaap Leica afficiondo is always saying contact Solms direct, which is what I tried to do.

 

By the way for those that would like to see the fault I attach a jpg.

 

Jeff

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[bill]

To my mind it is not acceptable business practice for the whole factory to be on holiday.

 

Maybe not to you

 

Many factories shut down all production at the same time to allow essential maintenance of buildings and equipment with minimum disruption. It's not uncommon, particularly for smaller enterprises. There will always be a skeleton staff in the offices, but response times may be longer as a result.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[tappan]

The nice Leica man in Germany, who I bought a $400 ish US dollar extended warranty for my M9, answered my email when he needed my credit card number. Two weeks later the M9 upgrade program commenced. I emailed the nice man from Leica Germany to ask if that, if I was interested in the M9 upgrade, can I include the fact that I have already purchased the extended warranty and maybe Leica could work something of a discount for people like me who have JUST 2 weeks before the upgrade got the extended warranty. Still awaiting a reply from the nice Leica man in Germany. Anything will do sir, like an acknowledgement that you have received my e-mail 4 weeks ago. SO, yes. In my experience, Leica is slow and sometimes non-existent.

[Jeff S]

For Leica service in New Jersey, I use Jaap's process and establish a contact in advance, then communicate directly with that person (by phone and/or email). I have always gotten efficient service this way; and if the person is out, their personal phone message or email box says so. I wouldn't trust a general mail box or phone.

 

Jeff

[earleygallery]

To my mind it is not acceptable business practice for the whole factory to be on holiday. Presumably someone will be there to take in my camera from UPS.

 

Jeff

 

Take the issue up with Brussels, maybe you can raise a petition to have August holidays banned. I'm sure when they realise you were inconvenienced by your broken camera the MEP's will jump to it, it's not as if they've got any other problems to worry about!

 

Clearly there will be someone there to receive your parcel, but it might just sit on a desk for a couple of weeks until they're back to full staff.

[delander †]

Take the issue up with Brussels, maybe you can raise a petition to have August holidays banned. I'm sure when they realise you were inconvenienced by your broken camera the MEP's will jump to it, it's not as if they've got any other problems to worry about!

 

Clearly there will be someone there to receive your parcel, but it might just sit on a desk for a couple of weeks until they're back to full staff.

 

Of course James, I would not expect anything more from Leica, after all I'm only a customer.

 

To me it seems strange that few people feel as I do that customer service generally seems to have gone down the plug hole. On top of that people side with the company as opposed to the customer even though it is the company's manufacturing and other practices which are at fault.

 

Jeff

[delander †]

For Leica service in New Jersey, I use Jaap's process and establish a contact in advance, then communicate directly with that person (by phone and/or email). I have always gotten efficient service this way; and if the person is out, their personal phone message or email box says so. I wouldn't trust a general mail box or phone.

 

Jeff

 

Sorry I'm not going to absorb the expense of phoning Germany. Leica offers email addresses for communication, why do that if they dont reply? They have no excuse, it is just bad treatment of a good customer.

 

Jeff

[matlep]

I had communication with SC at Solms yesterday.

 

I sent my lens there last week. It arrived there on Tuesday. I got an estimate yesterday (Wednesday), sent the OK in yesterday afternoon. And now the service is being carried out.

 

I do not get the impression that they are closed for holidays.

[noeffred]

Same here. I sent a question concerning my gear yesterday and got a reply 2 hours later. Also my camera and lenses will be repaired during the next couple of days and be shipped back to me on Tuesday.

[andybarton]

To me it seems strange that few people feel as I do that customer service generally seems to have gone down the plug hole.

 

I have had cause to require Leica customer service recently. I found them to be absolutely first class. My camera shouldn't have required servicing at all, but when it did, I couldn't fault them.

 

One benefit of having used my local dealer, with good contacts in Solms.

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[jaapv]

Sorry I'm not going to absorb the expense of phoning Germany. Leica offers email addresses for communication, why do that if they dont reply? They have no excuse, it is just bad treatment of a good customer.

 

Jeff

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