Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics My Leica customer service experience

Late last fall I had a chance to pick up some duovids for a very good price. They were advertised in the local classifieds and were used, but the price was right. I met the guy and looked the binos over for about 5 minutes before buying. The binos looked used, for sure. Some scratches on the rubber and some scuffs, but the lenses looked ok. I did some quick glassing of the trees nearby on each power, and found that they seemed to be fine. I made the deal, figuring if anything was wrong or I wanted them refurbished, I could pay Leica's fees and get them back in shape.

As the weeks passed and I glasses more with my duos, I noticed that the diopter would not stay focused when changing power, say from 8 to 12. It would lose the focus and have to be readjusted. I decided to send them in to get fixed. I was a little leery of Leica's customer service, as I had heard stories- but I figured it was worth it. I called Doug and asked him about it, and his response was, "believe 1/3 of what you hear, and 1/2 of what you see." With Doug's confidence behind me, I felt better about it.

That was mid December sometime. I received an invoice shortly thereafter with the details of the repair to be done. They were being sent to Germany.

I called a few times along the way to make sure things were going smoothly and there were no hangups, or to see if I owed them anything. Each time I was told of the status of the bino, and to hang tight.

Fast forward to today. I just got my duovids back from Leica- and they look great. Basically brand new. I'm delighted. I was never asked for a proof of purchase, or where I bought them, or quoted a repair price. They just came back fixed. Furthermore, on the return invoice, the evaluation of the binos pre-fix was impact damage. Apparently the guy before me had banged them hard somehow. To fix this, they replaced the window (whatever that is), replaced the control knob, adjusted the optics, replaced the bearing bushing, and the complete diopter knob.

All was done under warranty. Along with the binos, I got this letter:

Dear Leica customer,

Enclosed you will receive from repair your Leica Duovids which are now in good working condition.

Since October 1st 2008, we carry out these kind of repair works free of charge as a goodwill gesture to our customer -- regardless of the general guarantee terms.

We hope that everything was done to your satisfaction and we kindly ask you to give us feedback about your experience with Leica service (to a.m. email address) in order to help us to improve constantly our customer service.

We furthermore wish you impressive nature experiences with your Leica sport optic product and thank you for your confidence in Leica.

Best Regards,

Your Leica Customer Service

Thank you, Leica, for your stand up service. You will certainly have more of my business in the future, and I'll do my best to spread the word. A great experience like this one goes a looooong way. A+.

I use Leica's and it's good to hear first hand reports.

I've always been a Leica fan, but based on stories here and other places, it seemed their CS sucked compared to Swaro for instance. Then a year or so ago I heard there was a shake up in Leica management, and their CS was supposed to improve greatly. I'm glad to say it sounds like that is true based on your report. I feel a little better now. Not to take advantage of the system, but this should help re-sale with Lieca as well.

John

well well, it appears that it might indeed be possible for a leopard to change it's spots!

this bears watching....

I used Leica CS back in October, albeit rather trivial, (objective cover tore on my 7x U-vids)they sent me a replacement set in three days - NC. Saved me 40 smackers - I'm happy.

fwiw,
This is good to hear. It would appear a little pressure can yield positive change. Even with the Germans...(grin)

Regards, Matt Garrett

Enjoy



and I hope they help ya find critters to kill!

...i had a similar experience where leica refurbished the rubberized covering of a pair of ultravids (bought new) that had become discolored through use (around a two-week turnaround time)...in the photography sector, leica is one of the few companies that continues to support its discontinued film and digital cameras, in addition to current models...the service is likewise superb...