Don at DAG camera >>>2019

I've used Youxin Ye for a M4-2 CLA and DAG for an M6. DAG does meters; Youxin does not. DAG did a good job. But he gets so many email inquiries, email is a distraction he is less involved with. Definitely: CALL him. FWIW, I had shipped my camera to him in its case, and he kept thinking it was an empty case. This confused him, and he deferred and deferred the job thinking the case was empty. He wasn't happy with me 'cause it hurt his target turnaround - which I get. Packing this way DID assure a safe arrival, and he is the only one who had a problem with it. Yet it is a very safe way to ship and most repair guys have actually said a very secure way to go about it.

When we sorted through this, he expedited the repair and it was home and shooting VERY quickly. He does 1st class work. BUT CALL. We are too passive when we email and wait. The generation that repairs these things is NOT the email generation, and they get so many worthless, idle inquiries
 
Sheesh, if it takes 4 more months guess I'll have to live with the 28 on my M4 for awhile instead of the .58 M7 viewfinder… Oh well.

Maybe in my initial email to him on the M7 I shouldn't have reminded him that he had just done a CLA on my M4!
 
Update:

So I decided to try a call again just now after 2 weeks ago when I got a busy signal, and Don answered this time. He said he's been really busy and didn't realize he'd had my camera since Nov 27th. I said I understood and he said he'd go ahead and work on it now. Told him I appreciated the work he's done for me in the past and that it's been really great. He thanked me for that.

Looking forward to hopefully getting the M7 back in the next few weeks or sooner!
 
Update 2:

After talking to Don Wednesday morning, got an email from him earlier tonight saying the M7 is done! So he did the work today, and it's coming back home, I'm sure good as new!

.58 viewfinder, welcome back soon!
 
I've used Youxin Ye for a M4-2 CLA and DAG for an M6. DAG does meters; Youxin does not. DAG did a good job. But he gets so many email inquiries, email is a distraction he is less involved with. Definitely: CALL him. FWIW, I had shipped my camera to him in its case, and he kept thinking it was an empty case. This confused him, and he deferred and deferred the job thinking the case was empty. He wasn't happy with me 'cause it hurt his target turnaround - which I get. Packing this way DID assure a safe arrival, and he is the only one who had a problem with it. Yet it is a very safe way to ship and most repair guys have actually said a very secure way to go about it.

When we sorted through this, he expedited the repair and it was home and shooting VERY quickly. He does 1st class work. BUT CALL. We are too passive when we email and wait. The generation that repairs these things is NOT the email generation, and they get so many worthless, idle inquiries

Surprisingly, DAG was super cool in his emails with me (earlier this year, in the one job he did for me). We exchanged quite a few emails with just banter - he has a dry sense of humor. He even helped me debug a light leak over email before I sent the camera to him. Now don't go and start asking about his favorite food like I did, maybe I caught him in a quiet period...
 
Had a similar issue here in Turkey. As I am not in US, we have 1-2 repairman left known to work on Leica rangefinder cameras and only one who knows Contax G cameras. I sent my M6, Contax G2 and leica iiif to that repairman in Turkey on Nov 20th. And until the beginning of last week I didn't hear a thing from him. I was a bit stressed like the op as he also didn't reply on WhatsApp. Then I called And he said he is so busy that he still couldn't look at my cameras. Hopefully he will start with mines this week. First he needs to evaluate and find the problems and tell me the pricing.
 
The couple times I've emailed Don, he replied in a day or two. In September, I sent my M7 for a repair and 90/2 for 6bit coding - took about 6 weeks if I recall.
 
I have only been using Don in the past few years. His work is great and he answers his phone.
 
I have sent Don @ DAG my M2, M3, M6, IIIf +50 Summicron, 5 cm Summarit and s few other repairs over the last 6 years or so. He has always been easy to reach and a total gentleman. Really fine work.
 
I posted this somwehere else on the forum - I sent him a Leica CL for repair + modern battery adjustment. He was frustrating about answering emails and it took a bit of time but I got back a basically new CL in great shape and he was a straight shooter about cost. As I see it this type of technician is a disappearing breed doing a community service to a limited public, so give him some slack...
 
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