Leica Service in the UK, huge waiting times?

[pf4eva]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

HI Folks,

The last time i sent stuff to Leica before Brexit and I had a contact in Germany directly in Leica. Unfortunately person left the Leica since. Now i need to adjust barrel on 24-90, i wrote to customer service and got reply from Leica Mayfair:

Thank you for contacting Leica Camera. 

The lens will have to be sent to our workshop in Germany to be repaired as this is not a service that we can carry out locally in the UK. To avoid any customs fees and disruption caused by Brexit, all repairs are currently being centralised in our Customer Care centre in Mayfair London, we will handle the shipping to the factory on your behalf.  The current repair times are approximately 5 months plus shipping and customs clearance. A £25.00 admin fee will be applied to all chargeable repairs.

You will need to send your lens to the following address: Leica Store Mayfair, Customer Care, 64-66 Duke Street, W1K 6JD London. Please make sure the lens is securely packed and that you remove all accessories from it as these are not accepted for repair and may not be returned.

 

Is it really takes that long now? This is just crazy! Did anyone sent stuff for repairs via them recently? Any good/bad experience?

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by pf4eva

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[FrozenInTime]

Brexit was a disaster on many fronts, but is not to blame for this one:

Leica’s repair workshop in Milton-Keynes closed in 2010; since then any non-trivial repair work has been done in Germany.

https://leicarumors.com/2010/08/03/leica-uk-all-major-repairs-will-now-be-sent-to-the-companys-head-office-in-solms-germany.aspx/

[LocalHero1953]

Five months? Sounds good. The last time I sent something it took six months. But that is not peculiar to the UK. All Leica servicing in Wetzlar is slow.

[jaapv]

Yes there is an enormous backlog in Wetzlar and some spare parts are on backorder. It does not appear that the problem will be resolved soon.

[IkarusJohn]

14 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Yes there is an enormous backlog in Wetzlar and some spare parts are on backorder. It does not appear that the problem will be resolved soon.

In your discussions with Customer Service, did they give any indication how much of that backlog is warranty repairs?

[jaapv]

No, we only discussed the general situation. I also asked why the express service had been discontinued. The answer was “ because everybody requested it “. 

[250swb]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

So Leica are either overwhelmed with complaints, or have sold so many that a small team can't keep up, or what? Is Bentley (a German company) taking six months to repair a far more complex a car? 

Edited September 22, 2023 by 250swb

[jaapv]

AFAIK Bentleys are still being built in Crewe. 

[jaapv]

29 minutes ago, 250swb said:

So Leica are either overwhelmed with complaints, or have sold so many that a small team can't keep up, or what? Is Bentley (a German company) taking six months to repair a far more complex a car? 

They are underwhelmed by staff…😉

[IkarusJohn]

33 minutes ago, jaapv said:

They are underwhelmed by staff…😉

For the number of repairs.  So which, lots of staff have retired or left (with no training or recruitment) or lots more repairs?

[Jeff S]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of repairs in Germany now include a significant number that might have formerly been sent by US customers to the New Jersey center, which has suffered frequently discussed problems of its own.  German staff have also reportedly been sent multiple times to NJ to help sort matters.  Of course, supply chain and staffing issues are pervasive in many industries since the pandemic.  I see it most everywhere I go.

Jeff

Edited September 22, 2023 by Jeff S

[LocalHero1953]

2 hours ago, jaapv said:

No, we only discussed the general situation. I also asked why the express service had been discontinued. The answer was “ because everybody requested it “. 

ROTFLMAO

This is the sort of surreal remark made about British industry in the 60s!

Edited September 22, 2023 by LocalHero1953

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, IkarusJohn said:

For the number of repairs.  So which, lots of staff have retired or left (with no training or recruitment) or lots more repairs?

Quite a few have indeed retired. The problem appears to be recruiting. 

[IkarusJohn]

35 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Quite a few have indeed retired. The problem appears to be recruiting. 

Or, could it possibly be more repairs?  Just maybe?

[jaapv]

Of course. I have the impression that the number of cameras sold has increased substantially and we have no idea which percentage of the sales need repairs.   

OTOH lens repairs seem to have the same extremely long turnarounds, indicating that the problem is not tied to a single product (Repairpersons tend to repair specific products)

Having said that, my 55-135 returned within a few weeks, but that was a replacement. It does prove that incoming repairs are taken in hand promptly and that the holdup is the execution of the repair.

[UliWer]

vor 10 Stunden schrieb IkarusJohn:

Or, could it possibly be more repairs?  Just maybe?

Even if camera sales wouldn‘t have increased and there were no problems with bricking M11s etc. the number of cameras - and lenses - in customers‘ hands is rising every day. We are now looking back on more than 15 years of digital M cameras with other models being introduced in the meantime and when you regard the increasing attractivity old models for film have had during the last couple of years (second hand prices indicate strong demand), the amount of potential repairs is huge.

Though I got the impression that turnaround for repairs improved during the last months: Fixing a vertical disalignment of my M10’s rangefinder took three months between sending my camera to Wetzlar and recieving it back (a rather simple repair though). I have read reports in the German part of this Forum that other more complicated repairs took less time recently.

Any way it seems obvious that the capacity for repairs at Wetzlar is insufficient. Customer Care has been a department which wasn‘t able to meet demands for a long time now. Production was seen as more important - with good reason if you look back at the times when long waiting lists for new products were published in this forum. So they have to recruit new staff and train them on the job. 

 

[andybarton]

14 hours ago, jaapv said:

AFAIK Bentleys are still being built in Crewe. 

They are still made in Crewe, but there are a lot of parts that get shipped in from Germany.

[jaapv]

27 minutes ago, UliWer said:

 

 So they have to recruit new staff and train them on the job. 

 

Especially staff turning screwdrivers - My interactions with both intake and shipping have been exemplary.

 

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[IkarusJohn]

7 hours ago, UliWer said:

Even if camera sales wouldn‘t have increased and there were no problems with bricking M11s etc. the number of cameras - and lenses - in customers‘ hands is rising every day. We are now looking back on more than 15 years of digital M cameras with other models being introduced in the meantime and when you regard the increasing attractivity old models for film have had during the last couple of years (second hand prices indicate strong demand), the amount of potential repairs is huge.

Though I got the impression that turnaround for repairs improved during the last months: Fixing a vertical disalignment of my M10’s rangefinder took three months between sending my camera to Wetzlar and recieving it back (a rather simple repair though). I have read reports in the German part of this Forum that other more complicated repairs took less time recently.

Any way it seems obvious that the capacity for repairs at Wetzlar is insufficient. Customer Care has been a department which wasn‘t able to meet demands for a long time now. Production was seen as more important - with good reason if you look back at the times when long waiting lists for new products were published in this forum. So they have to recruit new staff and train them on the job. 

 

I sent two cameras to Wetzlar in June.

The Monochrom just required rangefinder alignment, and they cleaned it, updated the software etc.  I got it back last week (so, about 12 weeks, including shipping); the M10-D requires new electronics (I assume the entire motherboard and sensor).  Time is ticking, but it would seem the issue for that camera is supply chain.  Nothing more than an assumption ..

Edited September 23, 2023 by IkarusJohn

[pf4eva]

On 9/22/2023 at 6:16 PM, FrozenInTime said:

Brexit was a disaster on many fronts, but is not to blame for this one:

Leica’s repair workshop in Milton-Keynes closed in 2010; since then any non-trivial repair work has been done in Germany.

https://leicarumors.com/2010/08/03/leica-uk-all-major-repairs-will-now-be-sent-to-the-companys-head-office-in-solms-germany.aspx/

Well, It was very easy to send stuff to Germany I had no issues, I've done it like 20 times, so yeah, brexit is to blame in this case.