adamdewilde Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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rscheffler wrote:
Until something goes wrong. There must be some sort of sadistic German doctrine involved in Leica's product development... as if the joy one derives from the use of their products must be penalized, and is greatly enhanced because one knows that at any moment it could come to a crashing end, therefore savor it while it lasts.
Interesting to read all these experiences, some of which sound familiar from the M8/M9 thread.
I have to wonder... isn't Asia Leica's largest market? Shouldn't they have at least a regional service center there, like we have in the US? Isn't that what happens at the Leica Store in Ginza, Tokyo? I thought they do some servicing there.
I'll add to my Leica service experience from the first page... So far, everyone I've dealt with at Leica, be it Carm in NJ, Andrea Frankl in Solms, or the guys at the Leica Store in Munich, they've all been great in a one on one basis. (From my understanding, this isn't necessarily the case worldwide...) OK, service turnaround at NJ took too long (waiting for a part), but they did it under warranty despite the fact I was not the first owner. And I did pay the express service charge for 2-day turn around while I was in Germany (ends up being 4 days with shipping both ways). And when they muffed the 50 Lux ASPH infinity setting, they redid it, and my entire kit, while covering the shipping costs.
I've been a Canon user for decades, and the complaints I read about Leica here, sound very similar to the complaints about Canon Canada's CPS service in the early-mid 2000s. No loaners, too long turn around. multiple trips back to finally fix a problem. At least I was lucky to live only 45 minutes away. Imagine the cost of shipping in a $10K super tele from one of the coasts... During that time, I actually did spend 2x the cost of a 1D series camera because I couldn't count on their service to always be there, thus justifying a second identical body. Canon benefitted from the additional sale, but their service reputation was taking a serious dive among photographers. Then with their 1DIII camera, of which I also bought two, I had the most problems I ever had with any photographic equipment. But at the same time, it was a camera I loved when it worked right. Luckily by this point they were getting serious about reorganizing their service department to better serve CPS members and loaners were easy to get... now I dodn't care how long they take with my camera(s) because I always get one of theirs. Turnaround is usually less than a week, and very frequently they fix it the first time.
As Adam pointed out, the question is, for me: How serious is Leica really about catering to hardcore users, the very ones who greatly rely on their cameras?
For the time being, I agree about not sending anything to them unless absolutely necessary (a rule of thumb I also adhered to with Canon back during their 'dark age'). For me that means coping with what seems to be some RF drift... ...Show more →
+1 with all of what you typed. And I'm about to find out, as I'll be bringing my M240 to Tokyo with me, so we'll see if the service center there can realign my RF.
I also had the same issues with CPS Canada
However, though a series of failed CPS fix attempts I ended up with a new camera from my insurance policy's lemon law... And got to keep the old camera that finally got fixed after 6 trips to Canon Canada (a loaner was provided though, since I made a lot of noise).
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