Leica should create a repair waiting list

[egibaud]

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I read many threads telling that some of us have to wait 8 weeks or more to get a body or lense repaired or adjusted at Solms.

 

This is nonsens to be without material during 8 weeks when, actually, the work to be done may take a couple of hours.

 

Leica should create a waiting list, a virtual repair appointment. And a week or so before the repair date, I'd send my material for repair. This way, I would not be without material during 8 weeks but only a couple of them.

 

This is really annoying when it is just for adjusment, like lenses, rangefinder etc. Some lenses may need fine tuning but can still be used until it is done.

 

This way Leica could also better plan their work, what is urgent, like dead bodies etc. and what can wait a bit longer like adjusting a lens.

 

As they also know that some people are pros and cannot be without material, they should also give an option of an extended garantee for people who wish to pay a yearly fee to skip the waiting list. It would be still cheaper than having 3 bodies, 1 + a backup + 1 backup of the backup !!!

 

Why wait for 8 weeks when it could be just one or 2 ???

 

Eric

[Laki]

well for sure a turnaround time of 8 weeks is quite long, but i can only say out of my own experience that i got 6 lenses plus my m8 send in and had all back after 3 weeks, it took them one week longer cause the mounts for the 21mm and 90mm were out of stock. all lenses needed adjustment and 5 of them coding. luckily i have some older ones which i kept, so i could still use my mp with them and even my d2x got rid of the dust .

 

also as i read most of the m8 users seem to have also some other equipment or at least 2 bodies, so maybe for that time shifting to the "leftovers" might help.

 

oh, for sure i'm not a pro and that is also a big difference, but i think most users here are non-professional-photographers.

 

forgot to add that i called leica many times before i sent my stuff in (since last year) and waited patiently till they said their turnaround time here in germany went down to 2-3 weeks, if i would have sent my stuff in last year or even up to june/july the time would have been much longer.

[wstotler]

Why wait for 8 weeks when it could be just one or 2 ??? Eric

 

Agreed. A few weeks--even three weeks--seems reasonable. I have read here that some people have gotten items back quickly (within two weeks or so).

 

But the times I've seen other people have to wait (six to nine weeks) to get a warrantied repair completed seem unreasonable to me.

 

Two months? Just knowing there is the possibility of a two month wait to have a repair made and the item returned is disconcerting.

 

"Buy a second body." This seems to be the answer. Whether it's stated explicitly or not. "That's just the way it is." The mindset. "Professionals have two cameras or more." OK. They probably do.

 

I bought a used M6TTL (after great recommendations here about the "backup camera") and I'm glad I did.

 

Is "buy a second body" really a good and rational response to potentially slow turn-around times for repairs?

 

We've *all* already agreed to their terms for price, design, etc. Why should we wait potentially for weeks and weeks to get something fixed?

 

Here's my experience with customer service:

 

I shipped a faulty Summicron off (damaged out of the box) for repair. The process was reasonably easy. Communication was OK.

 

It was a four-week wait to get it back.

 

It was repaired and works flawlessly now.

 

I considered this a "fast turnaround" and considered myself lucky.

 

When I mentioned the four-week wait to somebody at work I got this reponse: "Well, you purchased from a buggy-whip manufacturer. This *is* this the kind of experience you expected and are paying for, right?"

 

I thought about that pretty hard. Is it the kind of experience I expected?

 

Really, just because the M8's design philosophy and the fantastic lenses are hold-overs from a long heritage, why should customer service speeds still feel to the end-user like they're from 1971?

 

I'm sure there are *reasons* why Leica has made things so slow. But should they be? Really?

 

Anyway, not trying to stir it up but just weighing in on the thread.

 

Thanks,

Will

[john_nyc]

This is basically what I did when I needed to have my RF adjusted at Leica NJ.

 

They wouldn't tell me over the phone when they could actually take the camera, though. I had to show up in person for them to tell me when I should bring the camera back. That wasn't so they could evaluate it. The M8 never left the box. I'm only a 30 min drive from there, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

 

It ended up taking a little longer than they estimated (a couple of weeks instead of a couple of days), but it was better than the 3-4 weeks they estimated if I'd have just left it the first time I went.

 

It does seem that with a little bit of an investment in IT and workflow management they could make the repair process much more efficient for all parties involved.

 

John

[Eoin]

Where did 8 weeks come from?. Perhaps our brethren outside of the EU are having long waits due to equipment being sent via agents or distributors. I have had my M8 and Noctilux back in Solms twice in as many months as well as a lens coded and turnaround time is less than 3 weeks door to door. The delay in both cases is with the M8 it's self where they seem to want to update, clean, inspect & adjust even though it's gone though this process 3 times already. Go figure that one out !.

 

8 weeks seems a long time but perhaps due to collection and shipping in bulk across continents. But from my side not problems with delays,

[Mark Pope]

When I enquired about the time scale for getting some of my lenses coded, I was told up to 8 weeks for lenses that had to be sent to Solms. Anything done in the UK should take 10 days or so, assuming parts are available.

[Shootist]

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Is "buy a second body" really a good and rational response to potentially slow turn-around times for repairs?

 

We've *all* already agreed to their terms for price, design, etc. Why should we wait potentially for weeks and weeks to get something fixed?

 

Thanks,

Will

 

Well I like the M8 so much that a second body was the easy solution. With My Nikon D200 I thought about a second body but I was not really happy with the whole DSLR system.

[guy]

Leica should create a waiting list, a virtual repair appointment. And a week or so before the repair date, I'd send my material for repair. This way, I would not be without material during 8 weeks but only a couple of them.

Eric

 

I think that's a clever and elegant solution. It could be automated at Leica's end: they book the item in over the phone or via email; it's added to their database of "waiting repairs"; and when it's, say, a fortnight from a repair slot, the database sends out a reminder email to the client telling them to post off their item. As long as the postmark is within eg 3 days of the email, the repair should be guaranteed. Miss the sending deadline and fair enough, it may have to take longer.

 

I would have welcomed this when I sent mine back. I lost it for a total of four and half weeks over the summer.

[jaapv]

I had my M8's in Solms once each, one for the upgrade and one for engraving/T2 update. Turnaround between one and two weeks... Even the sensor replacement on my Digilux2 took less than a month. The only thing that took six weeks was a AF repair on my wifes C-Lux 1

[GMB]

I asked a dealer in Brussels who told me 6-8 weeks. I then called Leica customer service in Solms who said 10 days plus shiping (i.e., a bit over 2 weeks) if I send products directly instead of sending it via my dealer who ships to the Belgian importer who ships to Solms (and the same chain back). It appeares that the dealer and importer wait until they have enough product to ship which is normally only once a week.

 

The problem I have, however, is that the Belgian post does not insure shipments above a certain (way too low) value and that I do not want to ship an M8 + several lenses uninsured. I may end up shiping via a friendly dealer in Germany.

 

I would be interested to hear from others in Europe how they shipped to Solms directly. I checked FedEx and DHL but there it costs about 300 Euros including insurance.

[george +]

I love all my Leica gear. And generally get friendly - if not too fast service.

 

Now hear this. Now hear this.

 

To truly differentiate themselves from mass produced others - and to justify their prices, Leica should provide loaners for all equipment being repaired. This would practically stop all this justifiably adverse publicity and give Leica an incentive to fix their. QC.

 

They want to be better? Here is a way!

[robsteve]

Didn't Leica attempt this with the M8 recall, but people just sent in the cameras without a repair booking anyway?

[dante]

Leica would do well to set up multiple local independent repair shops (not just a single captive subsidiary in each country - or continent) with the equipment and know-how to do simple, annoyance-level warranty repairs like rangefinder alignment and ancillary paid work like 6-bit coding. This is simple work, and people often need to get RFs fixed in less than a 5 week timeframe (what do you do if it drifts off a week before your big trip)? In addition, the cost of shipping an M8 to Leica in New Jersey, when you factor in the insurance, is pretty expensive.

 

And since when is direct-to-Solms an option for U.S. residents? The U.S. Postal Service won't even insure packages going to Germany for anywhere near the value of an M8 (limit: $500), let alone that body with your Summilux 75. If you insure an M8 alone, the shipment cost is $163 to ship via DHL, a minimum of $186 via UPS, and $166 via Fedex. Any of those options is three times what it costs to actually pay for an independent repairperson to align a rangefinder. Way to cut warranty costs, Leica: give customers a choice between a long delay and paying a lot.

 

I think about it this way: I live fifteen minutes from a big regional repair shop (Midwest Camera Repair) that does authorized warranty repair service for nearly every manufacturer of professional camera. They even do all of Kodak's DSLR repair work now - including the really technical electronic repairs. And they do all of this in one or two business days if you really ask. I'm sure they could learn to handle aligning a rangefinder or collimating a lens after changing the mount to one with coding. And there are lots of shops like that all over the United States, if not the world.