Leica Q3 Waitlist/Stock/Shipment

[Numba1si]

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15 hours ago, futogfr said:

Adorama has updated their estimated shipping time to 09/2023. Don't lose hope everyone

I have yet to hear from anyone who has received their Q3 order from Adorama.  

[rayansb]

20 hours ago, Miltz said:

I called B&H today to get an update. They have zero updates at this time. Leica hasn’t given them any correspondence. I’m going to cancel my order. If they said we get 1-3 cameras a week, some kind of info I would be okay with that, or when they are getting a shipment and how far along I am on this list. But they have zero info. And the fact that Leica.com is selling cameras on their website weekly while people like me who ordered in launch day can’t even get any kind of estimate… clearly Leica is prioritizing smaller retailers and their own site. How can they release cameras on their website for sale when people who ordered on May 25th can’t get a camera. It makes zero sense. They are clearly not filling orders first come first serve. 

Just a week ago, B&H told me I shouldn't expect it in 2023. They said ETA jan-feb of 2024! Apparently they're just telling different people different things. I randomly check Leica's website and once found the add to cart option available but within seconds it disappeared. You're right, why sell it to someone when you have lots of pre-orders? it's kinda disrespectful actually! I'd be offended!

[Miltz]

20 hours ago, futogfr said:

Adorama has updated their estimated shipping time to 09/2023. Don't lose hope everyone

This is a marketing tactic. Who’s going to place an order from them when it says Jan 2024 (that was it was before they changed it to sept 2023) Also how are new orders going to be filled in 1.5 months when people like me who ordered on launch day don’t have a camera or any eta? Makes zero sense.

[leica5]

I know waiting for camera is tough but inevitable for new camera releases; it pays to establish a continued bussiness relationship with local camera shops/dealers to get ahead of game.

A friend of mine and I decided to purchase leica Q3, he placed his name on multiple waiting list and still no words after 2 months.I called my local  camera shop and asked for one,I was  told there is waiting list but they will make it happen for me soon. 30 min later received  a call camera is ready to be shipped. happy ending.

I have been a sucker for waiting list game over the years.

[Tjazz]

I just received a call from Leica Miami. My Q3 has arrived and will be shipped to me Monday for a Wednesday delivery. I had pre-ordered on May 25 at 9:20am. For all my whining over the past six weeks, this was a good exercise in patience and perspective, which I could always use more of.

[jwhitehead]

Thanks to all who are cancelling their B&H orders. I highly recommend that all others do the same.  😁

[69xchange]

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B&H is the worst for pre-order, special order or back ordered items. Earlier this year, I have established that I will never order anything that is not in stock from them again.

[CalStanford]

I agree. I regret having ordered with them. I ordered internationally which is even worse as I've prepaid for the item and get either no or wrong information on availability ("your ETA is middle of the month"). 

[SrMi]

6 hours ago, 69xchange said:

B&H is the worst for pre-order, special order or back ordered items. Earlier this year, I have established that I will never order anything that is not in stock from them again.

That is my experience as well. Maybe that is because many more people order from them and they do not receive proportionally more cameras than other merchants.

Edited July 16, 2023 by SrMi

[azuled]

One of the things I’ve noticed in this thread that correlates to another “hard to get” camera: the Ricoh GR3. For some reason, all the online stores would sell preorders and take forever to ship, but if you were patient and looked every day you could snag a “direct to consumer” sale form the manufacturer much faster. I think that’s indicative. The majority of people on this thread seem to have gotten their cameras direct rather than through B&H or Adorama, or even the Leica stores. 

The manufacturers simply aren’t burdened by back orders, because they don’t take them.

[brickftl]

Mine arrived today. Just a reminder per my last post for those looking to snag one from LeicaUSA online sales as I did: set up a profile now and include your credit card info as well as billing/shipping addresses so that if one happens to pop up as available when you periodically check the website (and you'll know that it's available because it will have a button for "add to cart") you'll be able to quickly complete the transaction as I did. Until the camera sales, multiple people can "add to cart", but the first one to complete the purchase will then lock out all the others who added to cart. It's definitely a crap shoot. I kept the order page on the home screen of my phone so that I could check it regularly throughout the day.

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[Miltz]

5 hours ago, azuled said:

One of the things I’ve noticed in this thread that correlates to another “hard to get” camera: the Ricoh GR3. For some reason, all the online stores would sell preorders and take forever to ship, but if you were patient and looked every day you could snag a “direct to consumer” sale form the manufacturer much faster. I think that’s indicative. The majority of people on this thread seem to have gotten their cameras direct rather than through B&H or Adorama, or even the Leica stores. 

The manufacturers simply aren’t burdened by back orders, because they don’t take them.

I’m going to add to this… Leica obviously makes more money selling direct to consumers, it’s why not put itself first and make more money? Clearly the priority for them is $$$, because if it wasn’t they would be giving whatever stock they have to stores were people ordered months ago, but that isn’t the case. Bottom line it’s business first customer second. 

[Numba1si]

25 minutes ago, Miltz said:

I’m going to add to this… Leica obviously makes more money selling direct to consumers, it’s why not put itself first and make more money? Clearly the priority for them is $$$, because if it wasn’t they would be giving whatever stock they have to stores were people ordered months ago, but that isn’t the case. Bottom line it’s business first customer second. 

Greedy capitalist!!!

[1945 Mouton]

28 minutes ago, Miltz said:

I’m going to add to this… Leica obviously makes more money selling direct to consumers, it’s why not put itself first and make more money? Clearly the priority for them is $$$, because if it wasn’t they would be giving whatever stock they have to stores were people ordered months ago, but that isn’t the case. Bottom line it’s business first customer second. 

That's a little simplistic.  If that's purely the case, why bother selling via retail then?  I suspect the leica.com site gets an allocation just like other retail outlets.  Problem with big stores such as B&H is that they might well have over 1,000 pre-orders for a hot product such as the Q3.  So even though they might get a larger than average allocation, say 50 a month, the waitlist is still longer than smaller stores.  A lot of people go to B&H because of their Payboo card, which refunds the sales tax to you.  If you pay off the card of its full balance each month, you basically get the products tax-free from them.

[Miltz]

2 hours ago, 1945 Mouton said:

That's a little simplistic.  If that's purely the case, why bother selling via retail then?  I suspect the leica.com site gets an allocation just like other retail outlets.  Problem with big stores such as B&H is that they might well have over 1,000 pre-orders for a hot product such as the Q3.  So even though they might get a larger than average allocation, say 50 a month, the waitlist is still longer than smaller stores.  A lot of people go to B&H because of their Payboo card, which refunds the sales tax to you.  If you pay off the card of its full balance each month, you basically get the products tax-free from them.

Selling retail gives them access to an exponential amount of customers than direct. Look at Apple, the started selling on Amazon and lose money on each sale, but they are gaining customers they would have never had before, so it makes up for the difference they lose per unit. The impression Leica is giving is direct customers are more important than other retail outlets. I get it, but they gotta get called out on it. 
side note: Leica makes more direct and changes 15% restocking fees yet other retailers make less and don’t. That cements it. 
If someone spends $6,000 on a camera they should love it, and be allowed to return it without punishment. 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Miltz

[SrMi]

2 hours ago, Miltz said:

Selling retail gives them access to an exponential amount of customers than direct. Look at Apple, the started selling on Amazon and lose money on each sale, but they are gaining customers they would have never had before, so it makes up for the difference they lose per unit. The impression Leica is giving is direct customers are more important than other retail outlets. I get it, but they gotta get called out on it. 
side note: Leica makes more direct and changes 15% restocking fees yet other retailers make less and don’t. That cements it. 
If someone spends $6,000 on a camera they should love it, and be allowed to return it without punishment. 

Leica wants to send more early shipments to the dealers that will continue to promote and sell Leica cameras after the initial high demand is over.

[beewee]

3 hours ago, Miltz said:

Look at Apple, the started selling on Amazon and lose money on each sale, but they are gaining customers they would have never had before, so it makes up for the difference they lose per unit.

Do you actually have a source for this info that Apple loses money on every sale on Amazon? Pretty sure the people that know the margins will not and cannot talk about this and the people that do talk about this do not know the real numbers.

I know their employee discounts are not that big. Pretty sure that Apple will not be more generous to Amazon then their own employees.

Edited July 18, 2023 by beewee

[Kb217]

I ordered from B&H about a week ago. I hope to get it this year. 

[petereprice]

Well one thing is clear.  The Leica Q3 is an extremely hard camera to get right now.  Leica is a small company that doesn't have the manufacturing scale that Sony, Nikon and Canon have, as those three manufacture more conventionally through Asian mass production.  Where as Leica hand builds these things, which take time.  In fact the demand has upticked so high, that we're now seeing QC issues in some of the newer cameras from time to time, no doubt because the company is not used to such high demand.  It's unfortunate because we can't blame Leica for wanting to sell more cameras, which is good for them and good for us users of Leica, as they can keep making great and new cameras, but I think it's going to take a lot of time before this initial surge in orders gets completely filled.  

I've tried my best to refresh that order page when I have a free minute, but it's starting to get obsessive, and at some point, I have to stop and accept that the wait for this camera is going to be long.  I've put pre-orders in with B&H, Adorama, Leica Store Soho, Leica Store Miami and a small local camera store in my city.  Between the small batches coming in, and probably a bunch of people beginning to cancel their orders by the fall, I'm hoping/expecting to see maybe a word from one of the five shops coming in this fall/winter.  But I think I'm gonna quit trying to catch an order on the Leica website.  Cause I haven't had any luck, there doesn't seem to be a consistently scheduled time that I've experienced, and I'm not building any scripts to monitor the page.  I'd rather spend that time shooting with my other Leica cameras!  

Lok forward to receiving my Leica Q3 in late 2023 or early 2024.. 😁

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[Miltz]

3 hours ago, beewee said:

Do you actually have a source for this info that Apple loses money on every sale on Amazon? Pretty sure the people that know the margins will not and cannot talk about this and the people that do talk about this do not know the real numbers.

I know their employee discounts are not that big. Pretty sure that Apple will not be more generous to Amazon then their own employees.

It’s common sense. Apple sells pod pros for $249 on their website direct to customer. Amazon sells them between $189-$229. They were just $199 2 days ago. Apple obviously sells to Amazon in bulk and Amazon always discounts them. Clearly apple makes more per unit direct to customer than Amazon. But Amazon makes up for the much lower margin in volume. This is pretty basic stuff. You don’t need to work for Apple or Amazon to know this.