Will van Manen: great service !

[gliderbee]

If it's good, it has to be said, so here's the story:

The rangefinder of my Bessa R3A was off. I tried to adjust it myself, first through the opening under the hotshoe, without success. Then I wanted to take the top of, starting by unscrewing the film advance lever, first by pressure, when that did not help, with a few "less civilized" methods, without any luck.
Here's the result up till then (as a testimony to my skills as a mechanic) 🙄:

Then I send it to Will van Manen in the Netherlands (I'm in Belgium), asking to adjust the RF. He quoted me 90 euros + tva and shipping.

Yesterday, I got the camera back, perfectly adjusted and ("as part of the job" as he emailed me), since the top was off, some CLA: the camera works noticably more smoothly then it did, and I didn't use it a lot before: it was rather new when I sent it to him.

He didn't stop there: have a look:

On the bill, he didn't even mention the CLA and the repair of the advance lever: cost was 75 euro + shipping and tva, total 104 euro !

Now, THAT's what I would call great service !

 

[Phantomas]

Nice. I've heard nice things about the guy. About to send him my Hassie to fix the winding mechanism.
I'm about puzzled by the prices though... when I requested a quote I also asked for RF CLA cost just for future reference and was quoted twice that amount 😕

 

[Leica All Day]

that first picture is classic....thanks for sharing and cheers to Will van Manen...

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Good to hear it,

My Leica I needs a shutter overhaul, I was considering Will. Now I'll definitely get him to do it.

 

[gliderbee]

Nice. I've heard nice things about the guy. About to send him my Hassie to fix the winding mechanism.
I'm about puzzled by the prices though... when I requested a quote I also asked for RF CLA cost just for future reference and was quoted twice that amount 😕

I just asked for adjusting the RF, and that was what the quote of 90 euros was about. The "cla" was just "some" cleaning, adjusting and lubricating as the top was off anyway", so it was not a "full" cla.

For a full CLA of my M5, he quoted me 225 euro. Although it's working fine, I might send it to him: I didn't notice anything wrong with the Bessa either, but I did notice the difference when it came back !

 

[Phantomas]

^ Thanks for clarifying. No complaints about the pricing, was just wishing my quote was a mistake coz at eur 90 I'd send him cameras that don't even need a CLA at the moment 🙂

 

[Michiel Fokkema]

He is great, as his Cathy his partner in life and business.
They have done countless jobs for me. This week I'll bring them another three lenses for repair and CLA.

Cheers,

Michiel Fokkema