the ongoing saga of my miserable m8 purchase...

i have indeed sent a few messages to germany athena and i tend to agree. i do also see the wisdom in endustry's post however i'm not interested in going that route.
i do hope that leica responds favourably at this point as i am really at their mercy. i cannot return a camera with a totally different serial number and none of the accessories etc that came with the original purchase. that really pisses me off that i'm in this position as i foolishly believed leica's "don't worry we'll take care of it" meant they'd take care of it.
 
emraphoto said:
i have indeed sent a few messages to germany athena and i tend to agree. i do also see the wisdom in endustry's post however i'm not interested in going that route.
i do hope that leica responds favourably at this point as i am really at their mercy. i cannot return a camera with a totally different serial number and none of the accessories etc that came with the original purchase. that really pisses me off that i'm in this position as i foolishly believed leica's "don't worry we'll take care of it" meant they'd take care of it.
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Please send the camera back to us and I will assure you you will get a new camera come hell or high water. Yes with all the boxes and other goodies.

TR
 
tony, that's a mighty fine offer from you. the problem is when i returned the m8 to leica i sent everything. boxes, cd's, battery, charger, manual, strap etc. i had done a little research on the "vertical line issue" and came to the conclusion that it most likely would be a replacement affair. thus i sent everything. i noted on the weigh bill that it was the complete package. what i recieved in return was a body and someones sd card. that's it. i can't send the camera back to anyone but leica at this point as it is a totally different serial number than the one i purchased and i have nothing but a box with a body in it. nothing else at this point.
a very very fine offer indeed and i think the world of you for offering. at this point i think i must wait for leica to open on monday and start calling again.
 
i don't even know the status of the m8 body they sent as no warranty cards or anything were sent?!?!? i mean if i kept it would i even have a warranty?
 
This is exactly why I fear sending in my MP for adjustments. They are minor issues and the camera is well within its passport warranty. Should I spend $150 or send it in and hope for the best? The stories are just terrible.
 
I hope all this gets resolved for you. I had a similar experience with Leica repairs recently and I felt the same as you do. I'm sure you have the right people on your side.
 
Generally, my impression of the world wide Leica organisation is that they are enthusiastic, flexible and willing to help you out. Even if waranty time has been somewhat exceeded. My general impression of, say, the Canon organisation, is of a pritty arrogant flock that hardly admits any faults at all. (Re. the recent AF flaws on the 1D III)

No doubt, the launching of M8 must have been a strain on a trimmed-down organisation. When a camera comes in, it has to be checked, it has to be decided how serious the problem is, and what to do about it. If the customer is to be fully compensated with a new camera, someone higher up in the organisation, most likely at the Leica administration in Germany, has to be consulted and give his consent. These things take time.


Somebody here mentioned 'French bureaucracy'.

I had my lap top w/shoulder bag and all stolen in Paris. At the reception of Hotel Concord Lafayette. I had to report it stolen. So I went to Surte' - of inspector Clusau/Peter Sellers fame. - I have never been to a more efficient and impressive police station. Ever! What impressed me was the computerized system they had for 'lost/swapped luggage' including all major hotels in Paris, bus and railway stations and airports. Also impressive was 'the style'; clean and tidy everywhere, picture of the president on the wall, the Tricolour in the corner and a police officer with white gloves opening the door for you.

So, don't badmouth French bureaucracy.
 
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"Generally, my impression of the world wide Leica organisation is that they are enthusiastic, flexible and willing to help you out. Even if waranty time has been somewhat exceeded. My general impression of, say, the Canon organisation, is of a pritty arrogant flock that hardly admits any faults at all. (Re. the recent AF flaws on the 1D III)

No doubt, the launching of M8 must have been a strain on a trimmed-down organisation. When a camera comes in, it has to be checked, it has to be decided how serious the problem is, and what to do about it. If the customer is to be fully compensated with a new camera, someone higher up in the organisation, most likely at the Leica administration in Germany, has to be consulted and give his consent. These things take time."

well my friend, perhaps the leica shouldn't be making promises they cannot keep then. if they say "we'll have it back to you next week" then i understand that to mean "we'll have it back to you next week."
when they say "we'll ship it on monday" i understand that as "we'll ship it on monday".
let's not forget that i bought an m8 1.5 months ago and am yet to have it functioning in my hand. leica constantly badges the m8 as a "proffessional" camera... well in my opinion they better give their head a shake. that is completely unacceptable for a "proffessional" camera company.
leica's biggest problem in the future will be leica.
 
"Frankly NJ should have found another demo and sent it out, making sure it worked."
which is what i have been pleading, yes pleading for them to do. they finally sent a body with NOTHING ELSE this time?!?!? not even a battery.
well, i guess i am resigned to not having it for at least another week or two. it really has become so ridiculous that i just have to "let it go" as they say. hopefully, hopefully leica will somehow manage to get it right sometime in the near future and i'll get what i paid for... quite some time ago.
 
sitemistic said:
No. Leica's biggest problem in the future is that they keep raising prices in a rapidly shrinking market for the stuff they make. I'm sure they recognize their problem. But there is little they can do about it.
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i do believe that raising prices and new product releases without fixing the fundamental issues will indeed be a very deep hole to dig out of. again i feel foolish as i have been a staunch and often blind supporter of leica but i can't help but join the "the writings on the wall" crowd at this point.
 
Quite a few have had to return their M8 to Leica through dealers, - or direct. Quite a few have sent their lenses in for coding too. With the exception of 'long time', people seems to be fairly satisfied with how Leica has handled things. In your case, they seem to have messed up a few things too. Which is unfortunate.

Leica has not increased prices with more than 4% in local currency the last 12 months, - with the exception of a few rare items. Every increase beond this is 'compensation for currency fluctuations', which is outside the control of the Leica managment.
 
I hope that things will be resolved well here. Leica should give you a new [fully working and warranteed] M8, and then should throw in a new lens to show that what happened was a sad fluke event.

Stephen and Tony are good businessmen, and they should be applauded for trying to assist Leica to get their act together.

As long as RF [members] stick together and sell clean equipment with a return warranty, most of us will be "safe" from such sad events when it comes to buying a [used] camera.
 
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the best you can do, is to send your complain to germany in 3 ways:
by FAX Because it stays written in paper
By E-mail Because it is faster
and by Any legal way (ask your lawer) so that it can be taken as legal proff of your problem and complain.

The 3 ways are necesary, each of them will be of interest to diferent people, and they together will find out the way to solve your problem because each of the know the particual problems they could have been affording in case it is not solved.

Ernesto
 
1. Get a signed itemized receipt (not doing this cost me 3,000.00 USD last year.) 2. Get address and telephone of destination. 3. Shipping tracking number. I'm not a Leica fan (have owned many in the past) but don't get too upset with the equipment. I'ts the one or two don't give a crap employees that are causing you the problem....probably someones brother-in-law.
HOPE IT WORK OUT WELL, AND SOON
Sam
 
"Whatever the cause, Leica equipment has become very dear, indeed, and Leica should act like it understands that."
exactly
 
Hmmm

Hmmm

First let me say that I completely sympathize with your situation. I work at a small camera store that is also a Leica dealer and we have 100% backing from Leica to exchange any defective cameras and send them to Leica. We, the dealer handle the problem not our customers, so I do not understand why you didn't go to your dealer first to solve this issue. You do not say who your dealer is or that you tried to contact them first even though you say it was past the return period. Out of the half dozen M8's I've sold only one had a problem and it was debris on the sensor that I saw when the customer brought in some prints to show me. He wasn't even aware of it until I mentioned it and although it was past our return policy I gave him a new one off the shelf and sent his back to Leica. I hope your situation improves but I have to say that if you were dealing with a reputable dealer then this situation would have been done with a long time ago and it certainly isn't the norm nor a reason for others to stop buying Leica products.
 
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