Anyone known a repair to take 5 months?

[jonogilmour]

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So i sent in my M-E for a weird freeze-when-turned-on bug, sent it to Camera Clinic (the Melbourne authorised repairer). 4.5 months later I'm still without my favourite companion.

 

The basic process was as follows:

 

1. Be told they need to order some parts in from Leica themselves
   
2. Should take 4-6 weeks, 6 weeks later get told it will take another 4-6 weeks (max 12 weeks total)
   
3. 6-8 weeks later, be told it's "ready", but there's a software bug, will be held for a few days for testing
   
4. 2 weeks later, be told that Leica has said it's a "software calibration problem" and Leica will need to send them software to have it calibrated
   
5. Over a week later, Leica still hasn't sent them the software apparently.
   

 

A huge process, but thankfully they've lent me a ragged old M9 as an interim solution. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience, and also why Leica seems to be dragging their feet with sending things over. I don't think I've ever heard of anything taking 14 weeks to send via the post. I've had economy rate products from China arrive 4x faster than that.

 

Frankly I think I should have just sent it direct to Wetzlar.

[tom0511]

I think its not acceptable! I would call Leica Germany and ask whats goin on and if this meets their quality goals?

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[sanyasi]

There are several forum members who report excellent repair service from Leica. I am not one of them. http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/339278-leica-should-take-page-out-canons.html

 

Your post demonstrates the hit or miss nature of Leica repairs.

[jaques]

in particular your unacceptable situation seems more common for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere...

[FlashGordonPhotography]

There are several forum members who report excellent repair service from Leica. I am not one of them. http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/339278-leica-should-take-page-out-canons.html

 

Your post demonstrates the hit or miss nature of Leica repairs.

 

That's Leica NJ and Germany. This is the Australian repair centre. There's a 10 page thread on Camera Clinic in this forum.

 

To the OP. Yes. 4-5 months for an M9 shutter and sensor replacement. 7 months to have a 90mm Sumarit lens calibrated. 3 trips back over a year and threats of legal action to have a 135APO telyt calibrated properly. Most people have had good experiences with CC. Mine have been terrible.

 

Gordon

[sanyasi]

A company should provide consistent repair service no matter where you send the product. It is ridiculous for someone in the U.S. to have to send a camera overseas if there is a repair facility in the U.S.

[jonogilmour]

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That's Leica NJ and Germany. This is the Australian repair centre. There's a 10 page thread on Camera Clinic in this forum.

 

To the OP. Yes. 4-5 months for an M9 shutter and sensor replacement. 7 months to have a 90mm Sumarit lens calibrated. 3 trips back over a year and threats of legal action to have a 135APO telyt calibrated properly. Most people have had good experiences with CC. Mine have been terrible.

 

Gordon

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I would say it's "comforting" to hear I'm not the only one, but this simply shouldn't happen to anyone.

 

I think I'm mainly interested in whether it is Camera Clinic dragging its feet, or if Leica is the one to blame. I mean, from my communications with CC, it would appear that Leica are taking a while to respond to their enquiries.

 

Of course, they could be just covering their behinds and shifting the blame onto Leica, in which case that's pretty deplorable.

 

In the case it is Leica's fault, I don't think sending an email to Leica complaining about CC's performance is a suitable course of action. I'm not too cut up about this, as I do have the M9 to play with in the mean time, but I'm seriously dissatisfied with the level of service for such a premium product.

 

I would have thought that if a Leica user comes in, having a valid warranty (the camera is but 6 months old) and having paid thousands upon thousands for the product, they would, at the very least, keep tabs on the situation instead of sending me vague, intermittent emails stating, "Yeah, it will take another 4-6 weeks".

 

It's a shame really, because I have a couple of old lenses that I'd love to get a CLA done on, and CC seemed to be the place to go for, but now I'm not so sure.

 

EDIT: Does anyone know where I should direct a complaint? The Australian Leica office is just down the road from work, but I don't know if I should contact Germany directly. Preferably email, so I have a paper trail.

Edited July 22, 2014 by jonogilmour

[jonogilmour]

OK so I contacted Leica Australia and explained what happened, got a call from the manager and he explained everything. He contacted Camera Clinic and got the full story, and he's personally sorting this situation out for me. Should be done within the week.

 

Very happy with the response from Leica Australia, very professional. Essentially CC were progressing, but there were delays with parts availability and other things, but the problem for me is that they weren't communicating these things to me so I was left in the dark.

 

He said it's appalling to have a repair take this long, and personally apologised. So, I'm happy to wait until the end of the week. +1 for Leica

[FlashGordonPhotography]

My communication with Leica Australia was pretty good as well. I really think they do care about this stuff and they want to see improvements. Hopefully as more customers get to communicate directly with them they can demand some improvements. More communication would help, especially when there's a delay.

 

I think that having the official importer as a different company to the official repair agent is an issue that creates a layer of complexity that just doesn't help. Plus Leica Austraia just doesn't have the power to make changes to the repair process. For example. One of my lenses, in for the third time, sat on a bench for 6 days because while it had been serviced, they missed the regular delivery by a day. So I had to wait an extra week. After 3 times in you'd think they's sort a priority return. But because they don't just repair Leica they don't understand that a premium product needs better handling and process.

 

Gordon

[MarkP]

I agree. It is unfortunate and very frustrating that problems arise in the first place, but Leica Australia and CC are very good in addressing customers problems.

Edited July 22, 2014 by MarkP

[jonogilmour]

My communication with Leica Australia was pretty good as well. I really think they do care about this stuff and they want to see improvements. Hopefully as more customers get to communicate directly with them they can demand some improvements. More communication would help, especially when there's a delay.

 

I think that having the official importer as a different company to the official repair agent is an issue that creates a layer of complexity that just doesn't help. Plus Leica Austraia just doesn't have the power to make changes to the repair process. For example. One of my lenses, in for the third time, sat on a bench for 6 days because while it had been serviced, they missed the regular delivery by a day. So I had to wait an extra week. After 3 times in you'd think they's sort a priority return. But because they don't just repair Leica they don't understand that a premium product needs better handling and process.

 

Gordon

 

I'm just seriously crossing my fingers that it hasn't been damaged during repair, or that the repair actually worked; hearing a lot of CC horror stories on these forums.

[jonogilmour]

Well it's back in my hands, and like new too. They even left my screen protector and thumbie on, basically gave it back to me as I left it, so I'm happy. Checked the focus and everything is a-okay as well!

 

Big thanks to Ryan Williams from Leica Australia for helping me out with this.