Bought a Used M4-P from the Lady in the East, but...

[mpaniagua]

As in any business, it pay to be informed. Ask what the overhauls cover, warranty and warranty coverage. No trying to stand for the "lady in the east" but I understand her point. Example, what if you are a automotive mechanic and some one bring you a car for a tuneup. You change oil, fix any leak, break system, etc., th usual. After you delivery, the car is working alright. After a week, customer comes back, he says motor failed. If you check motor, its because of old age. I assume all of you will fix the motor for free um? Thats what you are saying and what you expect.

Im sure we all are aware that Film Leica's are vintage cameras, and as good as they are, they are old. And expensive to fix. They could fail due to wear and a lot of reasons.


Anyway, for my further Leica fix, Im sticking to DAG 😛


Regards.

Marcelo

 

[mpaniagua]

There's just too many of these stories about this tech's attitude to backing up work. It's really simple, don't send anything to them. I can't believe some are still backing this person. There are much better choices out there so vote with your wallet.

Yeah that too 🙂 vote with you wallet. The "Lady on the East" earns a living on this, if she doesnt get any business, and its her fault, things are bound to change. That, or she getting out of business.

Regards.

 

[peterm1]

I used to own an M4P which developed haze in the finder though no separation in the rangefinder itself. It did distress me at the time because I treated my camera like a baby and any fault was perceived by me to be like a wart on my own nose. My camera tech thought it was a spontaneous thing due to some compound used under the top cover (as with lube inside lenses which can do something similar). I think he had seen it before and his view was that the haze should be readily fixed by a CLA. I eventually sold it, so never followed through with the fix so cannot attest to what the outcome might have been.

 

[philosli]

Update: I sent my camera to Youxin for cleaning and the camera is back. Turn-around time is about a week. Youxin told me he not only cleaned the visible haze and the frame line mask but also the fungus on some prisms as much as he can. The problem was more serious than I thought.

Many people here have correctly guessed who the lady was.

 

[michaelwj]

Update: I sent my camera to Youxin for cleaning and the camera is back. Turn-around time is about a week. Youxin told me he not only cleaned the visible haze and the frame line mask but also the fungus on some prisms as much as he can. The problem was more serious than I thought.

Many people here have correctly guessed who the lady was.

I hope the lady in the East paid for this repair. Or else you just got sold a dud under false pretences and paid for it.

 

[zuiko85]

Youxin Ye sure seems to have a good rep. I sent a M4-2 with gummed up slow speed mechanism. He flushed and re-lubed it 3 years ago. Still works fine. This has been my one and only experience however with any Leica repair person.

 

[cqing]

I bought a 50mm Summicron about 2 years ago and sent it to Sherry for a CLA. Never replied my emails and I still haven't got my Summicron back. Now I only send my equipments to Kanto in Japan. They are honest and their service is excellent. I'm willing to pay a higher price for this.

 

[Chubberino]

Youxin does quality work. Steve Choi is also a con artist. Wouldn't go to anyone else after hearing how bad Sherry is and my experience with Choi's service being so bad. Choi lost out on $2,000 of work so far that I gladly paid Youxin Ye. Choi missed out on that cuz he decided to be a dirtbag.

 

[Huss]

Not sure what your issue with Steve Choi is, but he fixed my Rolleiflex 2.8GX that no-one else would touch. Not even Harry Fleenor. (I bought it 'new' and it had sat for a long time, with the shutter and aperture dials having become really tight)

 

[Chubberino]

$300 for a basic CLA on a Summilux is a ripoff. I was under-informed at the time. He's a scam artist.

 

[bayernfan]

I bought a 50mm Summicron about 2 years ago and sent it to Sherry for a CLA. Never replied my emails and I still haven't got my Summicron back. Now I only send my equipments to Kanto in Japan. They are honest and their service is excellent. I'm willing to pay a higher price for this.

please tell me you've tried calling her. a lot of old-school people hate e-mail. (not making an excuse on her behalf, just stating a fact).

 

[Huss]

$300 for a basic CLA on a Summilux is a ripoff. I was under-informed at the time. He's a scam artist.

He charged me $195 to fix my Rolleiflex. Best $195 I ever spent.

Guess the moral of the story is to find out how much things are before agreeing to the work. Now I'm not saying that $300 was not too much, just that it works out better finding out what the costs are before hand. Which of course you now know.
:angel:

 

[Chubberino]

He charged me $195 to fix my Rolleiflex. Best $195 I ever spent.

Guess the moral of the story is to find out how much things are before agreeing to the work. Now I'm not saying that $300 was not too much, just that it works out better finding out what the costs are before hand. Which of course you now know.
:angel:

Yes, and lesson learned, but that still doesn't excuse him being a garbage scam artist.

 

[asparis]

I bought a 50mm Summicron about 2 years ago and sent it to Sherry for a CLA. Never replied my emails and I still haven't got my Summicron back. Now I only send my equipments to Kanto in Japan. They are honest and their service is excellent. I'm willing to pay a higher price for this.

Sorry this is almost a year after your post, but if you haven't gotten your lens back, you need to have an attorney write her a letter demanding the return of, or payment for, your property.

The attorney will need the serial number, copies of any communication, and (hopefully you still have it) the UPS or Post Office proof of delivery.

At this point, if there's been no communication from her for 32 months, she has essentially stolen your lens.

 

[asparis]

Several years ago I sent the lady two Nikon F bodies for CLA. (Dumb me for putting both eggs in one basket.)

Both came back with black holes in the silvering of the prisms that had not been there before. There was no note, no "sorry but the old silvering is very fragile", no nothing. (Not that it matters, but these were the difficult to find and expensive, black non-metered prisms.)

The damage is not repairable and I couldn't prove that it hadn't existed before, so there was no point in complaining.

But I will never send her another piece of my equipment, and cannot recommend her.

 

[Huss]

Seeing that this thread has been brought back to life... DAG added the parts that Sherry forgot to put into my M5 when she replaced my delaminated RF. It is now flare free again.
Oh, and he also removed the 75mm frame lines so I now have the view I had originally.
Very happy.

(Her first service on it was excellent, the 2nd when I had the delamination issues - not so)

 

[m0n0]

Seeing that this thread has been brought back to life... DAG added the parts that Sherry forgot to put into my M5 when she replaced my delaminated RF. It is now flare free again.
Oh, and he also removed the 75mm frame lines so I now have the view I had originally.
Very happy.

(Her first service on it was excellent, the 2nd when I had the delamination issues - not so)

I sent her an M7 for a minor repair. Months later no acknowledgment of receipt and no response to repeated emails. I called, whereupon it became clear she had just located my camera and would see what it needed. I received no email , quotation for a repair. Again after months of waiting, during which emails went unanswered . I finally got her on a call and was told she was still waiting for parts. Months passed and again I had to call to discover that the job had been done. I requested and received a bill and, for the first time , a description of the problem and the work done. I had never received a quotation and had had to chase her each step of the way from a different time zone. The entire process had taken a year. The camera is fine , but I won't be going back.

Sent from my EVA-L29 using Tapatalk

 

[David Hughes]

From time to time over the last 50 years I have had a problem with almost every single repairer I have dealt with. One or two were one man businesses and one or two were major manufacturers.

I imagine that's it's very easy to get halfway through a job and then discover that an obscure part is broken and so the job has to be frozen half done whilst bits and pieces are tracked down and delivered and then you have to go back and finish the job and it could happen twice. And the phone has to be answered, stuff has to be packed, accounts have to be done, guard dogs walked and food eaten and so on. Easy when you have a large workshop and staff on reception and apprentices etc but difficult for a one man or one woman business.

Anyway, that's just my tu'penceworth and based on talking to people. The alternative to a one person firm is to send the camera back to the makers and wait months and get a huge bill.

And then the camera gets wrapped and sent back and the delivery people drop the package...

Regards, David

 

[BLKRCAT]

Glad to hear that your M5 is back in proper working order Huss. Enjoy that thing!

As for repairmen(and women) being inconsistent, I'm of the mind of David. Not everyone is perfect and things can happen. For me it's very much buyer beware when it comes to repairs.

 

[brennanphotoguy]

I've always heard horror stories from her and a friend of mine sent 1 camera to her 3 times and another 2 times because each time he got it back it had a different (major) issue and he finally got fed up with her and just sold them as-is. Each time he sent it back she tried to tell him it wasn't under warranty. I've used Youxin Ye for 5 different cameras and never had a single issue and same with many people I've sent his way. My M3 had some 60 year old cement come loose about 18 months after it was serviced and he still warrantied it for me.