Leica Nightmare pt. 2 (1 Viewer)

[mosschops]

A couple of years ago I had to send my 6 month old Ultravid HD's back for repair as there was a large black spec in one of the barrels. They came back with that barrel cleaned but with many specs in the other one and a mark on one of the objective lenses. You can imagine how annoyed I was so back they went and came back looking good. I have since realised that the diopter has slipped. When set with both eyes nice and sharp the diopter was on -4 so back they went for the third time. I was most unimpressed that I would have to do without my bins for another 3 or 4 weeks and the nice people at Leica offered the express service free of charge so back they went.
They are now back and you will never guess what - the diopter has been reset but one of the oculars has a patch where the coating has been scratched off!
I don't think they are the binoculars I sent back as the focus knob is a different style and they have marks in places where mine didn't.
I sent them a blunt email yesterday but annoyingly they haven't bothered to reply yet.
I don't know what to do next. Do i really have to send them in for the fourth time? Any suggestions?

 

[Hermann]

Are you absolutely sure that the coating has been srcatched off there? I've seen specks like that, and they were in almost all cases dirt, usually some type of grease. Try a microfibre cloth, if necessary with a bit of lens cleaning fluid.

It it is a scratch - send the bins back to Leica, preferably directly to Wetzlar.

Hermann

 

[jan van daalen]

Are you absolutely sure that the coating has been srcatched off there? I've seen specks like that, and they were in almost all cases dirt, usually some type of grease. Try a microfibre cloth, if necessary with a bit of lens cleaning fluid.

It it is a scratch - send the bins back to Leica, preferably directly to Wetzlar.

Hermann

First of all, to rule out a switch, you could check for the serialnumber.
I can't imagine anybody at Leica's CS would damage your bin intentionally.
The procedure, AFAIK it, is that the get your mail and look internally who handled your bin. This takes a day or two (your bin is not the only article over there) and they will get back to you. It would have been nice if they send you a mail right away with a receive confirmation.
Personally I would give it a few days and than send them a reply.

Let us know what the follow up is.

Jan

 

[mosschops]

Hi Hermann,
It is definitely a scratch. I have already tried to clean it off. Hi Jan, what they have done is taken off the strap lug that has the serial number on and have put it on another binocular so the serial number is the same. I am told that this is quite normal.

 

[jan van daalen]

Hi Hermann,
It is definitely a scratch. I have already tried to clean it off. Hi Jan, what they have done is taken off the strap lug that has the serial number on and have put it on another binocular so the serial number is the same. I am told that this is quite normal.

Jason,

If that is the case than it is registered at Leica CS and it is my experience (we have send dozens of Leica's to them in the past) they will do you justice. Just give them a few days to react.

Jan

 

[mosschops]

I ended up contacting Stephan Albrecht (head of sport optics )directly and he actually called me to apologise and has assured me that he will inspect the bins before they are despatched to me so here we go for a fourth time......
I don't know how much more of this I can take

 

[jan van daalen]

I ended up contacting Stephan Albrecht (head of sport optics )directly and he actually called me to apologise and has assured me that he will inspect the bins before they are despatched to me so here we go for a fourth time......
I don't know how much more of this I can take

Jason,

You don't know how much more you can take????????????????

I will end here.

Jan

 

[mosschops]

Today from Wetzlar I received a shiny new replacement pair of binoculars.
This whole episode has left a bit of a sour taste really but I'm sure that will go after a day in the field at the weekend.

Jason

 

[ronh]

That was an impressive string of goof ups by Leica repair service. Too bad, extremely annoying I'm sure. A whole new binocular is a great ending, but Leica is not getting ahead like this. I hope the new one's a good one. Thanks for sharing your story.

Ron

 

[number6]

Really hope the new Binocular fully meets with your expectations, glad to see that Leica have finally made things right!

Paul.

 

[Dialyt]

Today from Wetzlar I received a shiny new replacement pair of binoculars.
This whole episode has left a bit of a sour taste really but I'm sure that will go after a day in the field at the weekend.

Jason

So what was the explanation from LEICA about this problem? Are you happy with the new bins?

 

[mosschops]

Hi Dialyt,
Leica did explain how difficult it is, in a binocular so compact as the 8x32 to avoid black specs in the eyepieces. Apparently its due in part to the extremely short focal length of the binocular. They say that the specs are absolutely tiny and wouldn't be visible to the naked eye when inspecting the lenses before assembly. Apart from that all I got was an apology and an assurance that they are inspected meticulously so should never have got through the qc procedure - but they did on a number of occasions.
The new pair are ALMOST perfect but if I take my glasses off and hold the binoculars about an inch away from my eyes guess what I can see in one of the eyepieces - a black spec! This will partly be due to my high myopia which means I can focus on things almost at the end of my nose without my glasses. When in the field using the binoculars with my glasses on I can't see them so it's no an issue this time around.

 

[Dialyt]

Hi Dialyt,
Leica did explain how difficult it is, in a binocular so compact as the 8x32 to avoid black specs in the eyepieces. Apparently its due in part to the extremely short focal length of the binocular. They say that the specs are absolutely tiny and wouldn't be visible to the naked eye when inspecting the lenses before assembly. Apart from that all I got was an apology and an assurance that they are inspected meticulously so should never have got through the qc procedure - but they did on a number of occasions.
The new pair are ALMOST perfect but if I take my glasses off and hold the binoculars about an inch away from my eyes guess what I can see in one of the eyepieces - a black spec! This will partly be due to my high myopia which means I can focus on things almost at the end of my nose without my glasses. When in the field using the binoculars with my glasses on I can't see them so it's no an issue this time around.

I've had specks in a Trinovid 8x32BA a number of years ago. It makes me wonder why there are lots of black specks in their factory or service rooms. Surely they can use procedures to avoid that and also air blowers to remove it. I don't think their M lenses and cameras suffer from this problem.

Did they apologise for mixing your bins up with someone else's?