wlaidlaw Posted February 21, 2007 Share #1 Â Posted February 21, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) About three weeks ago I bought a VGC Elmarit-M 90mm from a very helpful dealer in Germany. He offered to arrange to have it 6 bit coded for me. Prior to agreeing to that, I asked him to phone Leica to get a time scale. They said about 2 weeks as they had the rings in stock. It has now taken them nearly two weeks to even enter the lens into their repair system and when the dealer phoned them again today on my behalf to chase them, they are now saying it will take another 4 to 6 weeks. This is just not good enough. Someone needs to get a management handle on this issue and stop p******g off their customers in a huge way. I now have to decide am I going to have it coded or not. I am steaming! Â Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrewer Posted February 21, 2007 Share #2 Â Posted February 21, 2007 Hello Wilson! Â It is wonderful to see you posting here again, even though the circumstances are frustrating. Â Have you tried entering the tracking process yourself online? Perhaps you could follow the lens' progress easier that way. Â There is a sticky at the top of this page with the third post containing a link to the site. Â Good luck in resolving the problem. I've missed your terrific car shots in S&L. Also, have you any updated photos of your wonderful little place in the south of France for us? Â Thanks. Â Allan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted February 21, 2007 Share #3 Â Posted February 21, 2007 I can only guess that they've be swamped with lenses to be coded. Doesn't make your situation and better though. I don't know if Leica have updated their dealers with the true turn around time. When I got my M8 last month the dealer said that it would be 2-3 weeks. Obviously things have changed since then. Â I'm off to France for a short break over Easter, I'll probably wait until I get back before sending my lenses off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nryn Posted February 21, 2007 Share #4 Â Posted February 21, 2007 When I stopped by their facility in Solms, I was told that they are, in fact, swamped with lens codings, and that wave started in late summer. Something like 900 lenses were shipped the week prior. Â Whether they kept the coded lenses until they had a mass amount to ship or what amount of time it took them to code those lenses--these things I did not ask about. I seem to recall being told they only had 3-4 people to work on lenses though. I got to meat the guy who coded mine and gave my 50mm a CLA; that was kind of cool. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share #5  Posted February 21, 2007 Hello Wilson! It is wonderful to see you posting here again, even though the circumstances are frustrating.  Have you tried entering the tracking process yourself online? Perhaps you could follow the lens' progress easier that way.  There is a sticky at the top of this page with the third post containing a link to the site.  Good luck in resolving the problem. I've missed your terrific car shots in S&L. Also, have you any updated photos of your wonderful little place in the south of France for us?  Thanks.  Allan  Allan,  It was after seeing your "sticky" that I decided to stoke up my Windoze computer and have a look this morning. The tracking only runs in Internet Explorer 6 or 7. After I hit the roof, I then contacted the dealer to see what was happening. I knew he had sent the lens to Leica on the 7th to arrive the 8th. They only entered it into their system on the 19th. I have decided to get the lens back from Leica and just not bother to have it coded. As someone said in my thread on the firmware update, best business practice is always always to under-promise and over-deliver. Please will someone explain that to Leica. If they have someone on a trader stand at Focus on Imaging on Monday, I will put that to them - forcibly!  Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocker Posted February 21, 2007 Share #6  Posted February 21, 2007 Allan, I will put that to them - forcibly!  Wilson  Good management practice that! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share #7  Posted February 21, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hello Wilson!   Good luck in resolving the problem. I've missed your terrific car shots in S&L. Also, have you any updated photos of your wonderful little place in the south of France for us?  Thanks.  Allan   Allan,  On a happier note, thought you might enjoy this shot. I regret to advise only the nearer one is mine but I have had a "go" of all of them.  Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share #8  Posted February 21, 2007 Good management practice that!  Keith,  If they don't know how irritated they are making what is a pretty loyal clientèle, they need to be told in a manner which they cannot fail to understand. It is no use smiling nicely at them and making gentle suggestions. They are making a total hash of this lens coding issue and someone at a senior management level needs 1) to be made aware of the problem 2) control what is being told to customers, to make sure it is factual 3) Look to see if it is possible to ramp up production of coding - sub-contract it out if necessary. 4) Post on their website a regularly updated chart of timescales of coding by lens.  If they are, as I suspect, getting swamped with this issue, then there will be a lot of angry customers out there. None of this is rocket science. If they don't have someone in house who can "organize a p**s up in a brewery" then hire someone on a well paid, short term contract. At 900 lenses per week, that is a cash flow of €90,000, which pays for quite a bit.  Wilson - otherwise currently known as Colonel Angry-Person of East Sussex Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_h Posted February 21, 2007 Share #9 Â Posted February 21, 2007 Wilson, Â It's nice to have great friends like that, stunning collection, pretty much the pick of the automative world... Â Â Best of luck on the lens:rolleyes: Â Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skorpio Posted February 21, 2007 Share #10 Â Posted February 21, 2007 Leica don't appear to be on the list of exhibitors at 'Focus' this year. Â Bob Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisC Posted February 21, 2007 Share #11 Â Posted February 21, 2007 Leica don't appear to be on the list of exhibitors at 'Focus' ... Â They should be there. They definitely will not be there. Â ....................................Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocker Posted February 21, 2007 Share #12  Posted February 21, 2007 Keith, Wilson - otherwise currently known as Colonel Angry-Person of East Sussex  Perhaps you could get relief by signing one of the Downing Street e-petitions - but the road pricing one has finished I'm afraid :)  Seriously Wilson I just don't agree with giving it in the neck to relatively junior people in any organisation - its the well-paid buggers at the top who should get it - but they rarely do. I understand your frustration but uncoded lenses seem to work OK in most situations and I have decided to let the rush die down before I send off mine.  best wishes Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim B Posted February 21, 2007 Share #13 Â Posted February 21, 2007 When I spoke to my (London) dealer on Monday, in addition to telling me that after 6 months I was No.3 on the waiting list and due my M8 this week or next (!! ) (sorry, I couldn't resist putting that in!), he said that certain lenses could now be coded at Leica UK. This included the 21mm, which I was interested in, but I didn't ask which others. Why not any, or all? Â I know that doesn't answer the poor management issues here, but it might help people in the UK to know. As far as the management issues are concerned why haven't Leica UK told us that this coding can now be done here? Perhaps they are worried that they'll be inundated, but it is symptomatic of the problems _ Â Tim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share #14  Posted February 21, 2007 Perhaps you could get relief by signing one of the Downing Street e-petitions - but the road pricing one has finished I'm afraid :) Seriously Wilson I just don't agree with giving it in the neck to relatively junior people in any organisation - its the well-paid buggers at the top who should get it - but they rarely do. I understand your frustration but uncoded lenses seem to work OK in most situations and I have decided to let the rush die down before I send off mine.  best wishes  Keith,  I suspect every Leica person has decided that a holiday in the Faroes or Easter Island would be good idea for Focus on Imaging days. Nevertheless, if I find someone, it will be: You take Leica's shilling, you accept the bouquets and have to live with the brickbats.  Wilson  PS Already signed the Road Pricing petition. Don't want any civil servant finding out what speed I am doing every minute of the day. W. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocker Posted February 21, 2007 Share #15  Posted February 21, 2007 Keith, PS Already signed the Road Pricing petition. Don't want any civil servant finding out what speed I am doing every minute of the day. W.  Somehow - call it sixth sense - I thought you might have I haven't Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted February 21, 2007 Share #16 Â Posted February 21, 2007 Hey I will but you a coded 90 apo for that car in the front or the back , oh hell i will settle for the middle one too. LOL Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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