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More appalling service from Leica (1 Viewer)

C

Chris Turner

Member
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
 
Alternatively...

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.
 
Jos Stratford said:
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.
Click to expand...


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

You well Jos?

Chris
 
Chris Turner said:
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
Click to expand...

a friend of mine has "dropt" his leica 12x50 and was repaired for free, maybe your local dealer is not a good dealer ??
 
pimpelmees said:
a friend of mine has "dropt" his leica 12x50 and was repaired for free, maybe your local dealer is not a good dealer ??
Click to expand...

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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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!
 
garymh said:
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.
Click to expand...

My scope was repaired in Germany though, after I contacted them direct following being fobbed off by Leica UK.
 
garymh said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Clive A said:
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?
Click to expand...
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 said:
Unfortunately it is not specific to the Televid 77 !!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

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
 
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.
 
garymh said:
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.
Click to expand...

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