[Chris Turner]

Like many others i have had problems with my Televid 77 objective lens coating disintegrating.

Local dealer sent it back to Leica. Waited 5 months to hear back. Leica want £700 for the repair! I declined. Leica want £40 to send it back!

My advise is not to touch leica with a barge pole. Stick with the brands who understand customer care. It is not like it was cheap.

Should have gone to Swiro!

Hope they go bust!

Chris

[Jos Stratford]

Had the same pair of Leica bins for over 15 years now, bounced them all round the world in temperatures up to 50 C and down to minus 35 C, had them mauled by a dog and generally abused and misused them near daily since purchase.

Super things, crisp and perfect to this day.

I too would not wish to batter them with a barge pole, that aside I would say it is an excellent brand.

[Chris Turner]

Originally Posted by Jos Stratford

Had the same pair of Leica bins for over 15 years now, bounced them all round the world in temperatures up to 50 C and down to minus 35 C, had them mauled by a dog and generally abused and misused them near daily since purchase.

Super things, crisp and perfect to this day.

I too would not wish to batter them with a barge pole, that aside I would say it is an excellent brand.

... an excellent brand - with little idea of customer service.

You well Jos?

Chris

[pimpelmees]

Originally Posted by Chris Turner

Like many others i have had problems with my Televid 77 objective lens coating disintegrating.

Local dealer sent it back to Leica. Waited 5 months to hear back. Leica want £700 for the repair! I declined. Leica want £40 to send it back!

My advise is not to touch leica with a barge pole. Stick with the brands who understand customer care. It is not like it was cheap.

Should have gone to Swiro!

Hope they go bust!

Chris

a friend of mine has "dropt" his leica 12x50 and was repaired for free, maybe your local dealer is not a good dealer ??

[postcardcv]

Originally Posted by pimpelmees

a friend of mine has "dropt" his leica 12x50 and was repaired for free, maybe your local dealer is not a good dealer ??

This won't be to do with the local dealer as the scope will have gone to Leica in Germany for a quote/repair (unfortunately Lleica no longer have a repair/service facility in the UK). It's not the first time I have heard of such a quote for sorting this known issue with the OG coating.

[Clive A]

Why is it that there are so many different stories re Leica service? I broke my scope a few years ago and had a free repair?

[garymh]

Clive,

unfortunately just under a year ago Leica closed down their workshop in the UK.

As you are probably aware I was the Sport Optic engineer and myself and my colleagues tried to be as helpful as possible - often doing repairs free when they should have been chargeable.

All repairs now have to be sent to Germany and there is no-one left at Leica UK who really understands the concept of customer service.

[Fozzybear]

That doesn't sound good at all! I doubt I'll ever get to the point where I buy something of that price but if I do then I think I will be avoiding leica. No point paying out huge amounts for kit like that if the service is really poor!

[Clive A]

Originally Posted by garymh

Clive,

unfortunately just under a year ago Leica closed down their workshop in the UK.

As you are probably aware I was the Sport Optic engineer and myself and my colleagues tried to be as helpful as possible - often doing repairs free when they should have been chargeable.

All repairs now have to be sent to Germany and there is no-one left at Leica UK who really understands the concept of customer service.

My scope was repaired in Germany though, after I contacted them direct following being fobbed off by Leica UK.

[Robin Edwards]

Originally Posted by garymh

Clive,

unfortunately just under a year ago Leica closed down their workshop in the UK.

As you are probably aware I was the Sport Optic engineer and myself and my colleagues tried to be as helpful as possible - often doing repairs free when they should have been chargeable.

All repairs now have to be sent to Germany and there is no-one left at Leica UK who really understands the concept of customer service.

The Leica repair service in Milton Keynes that I used a few years back was second to none and certainily compared with my tripod supplier Manfrotto, in my opinion . I hope Leica in Germany view BF because it sounds as though their service warranty standards have taken a steep decline and their brand must be at risk of some damage if they are not careful. A Leica scope is top-end retail price so I would expect high level of warranty service to overlay.

[Jos Stratford]

Originally Posted by Chris Turner

You well Jos?

Yup

[andrew_s]

Originally Posted by Clive A

Why is it that there are so many different stories re Leica service? I broke my scope a few years ago and had a free repair?

I would suspect that poor service is specific to the Televid 77 OG.
If the only practical repair is to replace the OG, and they didn't allow for the poor coating adhesion when they built up stocks of spares prior to closing down the production of the Televid 77, they could have run out by now.

[garymh]

Unfortunately it is not specific to the Televid 77 !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hermann]

Originally Posted by garymh

Unfortunately it is not specific to the Televid 77 !!!!!!!!!!!!

I was actually quite surprised to hear there's a problem with the Televid 77 as well. I thought it was only the Apo-Televid 77 that had this problem because the front element of the objective lens was of a glass type that was "difficult". At least that's what I heard from one of the Leica people.

Hermann

[garymh]

I think that when the posters on this thread mention the Televid they are actally refering to the APO Televid (either 62 or 77 - both have the same problem).

There is a difficulty with the coating bonding to the glass on APO's.

[tittletattler]

Originally Posted by garymh

I think that when the posters on this thread mention the Televid they are actally refering to the APO Televid (either 62 or 77 - both have the same problem).

There is a difficulty with the coating bonding to the glass on APO's.

Yeah, the coating came off of my APO Leica 62mm.

[Clive A]

Originally Posted by tittletattler

Yeah, the coating came off of my APO Leica 62mm.

Mine is the APO 62mm , and the coating is ok (at the moment) but I know of two friends who lost the coating off their 62's.

[apbarr]

Makes me glad I sold my APO 62 and bought a Swaro 65 HD. Might also explain why I had a problem selling the scope

[shoshone]

Originally Posted by apbarr

Makes me glad I sold my APO 62 and bought a Swaro 65 HD. Might also explain why I had a problem selling the scope

Hmm, that makes me the mug then for buying it eh ;-)

jamie

[KorHaan]

Coating came off the left ocular lens of my 1999 Trinovid 10x32's in the first year.
Never, ever had that before with even the simplest and cheapest of binoculars.
Did I send it in for repair? Nope. Sold it for a fraction of the price I had paid, to a birding mate who probably did send it in for repair. All's well that ends well.
I also had a non-APO Televid 77 at the same time, that didn't have the coating problem. Strange that it did occur in the Trinovid 10x32 binoculars. Frankly, it made me shy to buy another Leica again, so I haven't up to this day.

Best regards,

Ronald

[Rob Smallwood]

3 times my APO 77 coatings have gone, the first 2 times were repaired by Leica UK in double quick time. This last time I daren't send back because I don't want the battle and will probably sell.

Shame, because I love the scope....

[pimpelmees]

Originally Posted by Rob Smallwood

3 times my APO 77 coatings have gone, the first 2 times were repaired by Leica UK in double quick time. This last time I daren't send back because I don't want the battle and will probably sell.

Shame, because I love the scope....

is this problem also on the newer televids 65mm and 82 mm scopes ??

[Rob Smallwood]

Not that I've heard.

[garymh]

I'll vouch for that. I think I repaired it for you Rob !!!!!!!!!.

[Newton Stringer]

Hi All

I have in the last 15 years owned 2 leica scopes (televid 77 and APO televid 62), and 1 pair of leica 8x32BA’s that I still use to this day.

Like many on here I have had problems with leica over the years, my bins have been back 3 times (stiff focussing), my televid 77 went back once (lumpy and stiff focussing), and my APO 62 has been back 2 times in 5 years for new objective lens coating !

I have to be honest, in the early days when I dealt with leica I found them to be rather officious and unhelpful. More recently (the last 5 years or so) the tone of conversations I’ve had with them have been a little more helpful and things have been collected, repaired and delivered for free, although on a couple of occasions it has taken months !!

Most recently, the 2nd time my APO 62 came back with a new objective lens fitted I was concerned about the coating problem so I fitted a filter to cut down on the amount I would need to clean it.

Imagine my annoyance when for the 3rd time the coating on this APO 62 scope started coming off again this summer (despite fitting the filter and reduced cleaning).

Now this is where this tale takes an unexpected turn......

I wrote a polite but firm e-mail to leica uk saying that I was very disappointed with this re-occurring problem and that I considered the equipment was not fit for purpose. Expecting an e-mail back to tell me about a waiting list for repairs, resulting in no scope for part of the autumn etc... I was gobsmacked to get a phone call from their office in London with a quick solution to the problem, they offered me an “ex demo” leica APO 65 from their showroom as a direct swap for my failing 62 !

Before agreeing to this I needed a quick field test with the 65 to see how it compared to my 62 (in particular how my camera would work with it for digiscoping). I did this over the following few weeks, and it seemed fine, so I called them back and agreed to the swap.

After a couple of further e-mails to negotiate a stay on case as part of the swap (as I have one on my 62), I came into work this morning to find a brand new 65 APO, eyepiece and leica stay on case sat on my desk !!

Having dealt with leica for years I never thought I would say this, but.......In this particular instance, I am very impressed with their customer care. They’ve swapped and upgraded my scope and case for free. The apparently “ex demo” scope and case supplied appear to be absolutely mint in unopened factory packaging. You really can’t fault that can you !!

So, while I agree with much of what has been said, my recent positive experience has slightly changed my view of leica. Not sure if they have new management or something ?

I really hope for everyone who owns these expensive leica optics that this is the start of the better customer service that we all deserve.