Dag

[TJV]

Hello all.
I'm writing to ask a favour. I live in New Zealand and work long hours. By the time I've come home from work it's either too late or too early for me to call The States. My problem is that DAG won't return my many emails and they've had my summilux lens for repair for seven months. Don was initially very fast at replying to my emails when asking for an estimate on repairing a separated element and quick to reply to my query making sure he received the lens. He told me it would be a six week repair, tops, and that it would be about $100US. I've offered numerous times, including in writing taped to the lens itself, to wire him money to speed things along or prepay for parts. He replied to one email three months ago after about six from me, saying the lens was "on his bench and would be ready to send back in a week. Sorry for the delay." I'm really sick of waiting and wonder what the point is having an email address if he's not going to use it. It makes no business sense!

Is there anyone out there who lives near DAG, is perhaps going to ring him to chase up their own job, or can be brilliant and do me a massive favour, and ring him to see what the story is with my lens?
I'd really appreciate it.

I can pass on the details of my lens via PM if needed.

Thanks in advance.

Tim

 

[pfoto]

Giving this a bump.

 

[Bill Blackwell]

Tim: I trust everything has worked out?

 

[sockeyed]

DAG had my M6 for 2.5 months after a promised repair time of 3-4 weeks. A couple of phone calls seem to have helped move things along for my camera (email didn't work). Seven months sounds way too long, however. DAG seems to be totally swamped these days and unable to cope with the volume of repairs that have built up. He does do very good work at quite a reasonable price, however, so in my case it was worth the wait.

I hope that someone in the US can help you along with the phone call. Or is there a way that you can call from work?

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Call him in the middle of the night and he won't forget your lens. Better get it out of the way than risking another call like that! 😱

 

[TJV]

Hi Bill. Don got in contact with me, thanks. I can only trust his word and popular rep as one of the best but seeing as he's promised it many times before I'll try not to get my hopes up too high. Having said that, I genuinely think there is no dishonesty or malice on his part and that he's just overworked. Hopefully I'll have a good story to report soon.

Tim: I trust everything has worked out?

 

[Andrew Sowerby]

I genuinely think there is no dishonesty or malice on his part and that he's just overworked.

I think you're right, but it's very unprofessional for a repair person to take much longer than original indicated to fix something. Whatever his reasons, the result is the same.

 

[Bill Blackwell]

He's not the fastest gun in the west, but DAG is the only repair person who touches my Leica gear. The only reason I would even send anything to Leica would be for a warranty service or repair.

I think the reason you might not hear from him right away is because he wants to be able to tell you the item is done and ready to ship.

Fortunately for me (and Don), I am never in a hurry get my stuff back.