Come on man. I just spent three grand on the super new Leica Geovid HD-B and I must say I love them BUT.

THESE ARE THE FREAKING WORST OBJECTIVE COVERS I HAVE EVER SEEN.

Three grand and they just won't stay on. Even when they are sitting on the bench they just seem to open up on their own. Spending this kind of coin these should be as good as the binos they are protecting. I want my glass to stay clean and scratch free but its not going to happen with these covers. I have owned two pair of the old Geovids a pair of Ultravids and a pair of Duovids and NEVER have had a problem with any of these.

PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE.

same with me meopta meostars man. they wont stay on for 2 seconds and theyre flimsy as heck

http://www.butler-creek.com/products/scopes_flip_open.html

I think the Leica employee/specialist hauled azz from here after a couple of tough questions.

I don't think butler creeks will work on these. There iss not enough meat in front of the hinge for them to work.

it does seems like leica is disconnected with actual users in the US. they did release a video of the units when they first came out but you could tell it wasn't buy someone who really wrang out the units.

to me the geovids have a couple really bad flaws. and to me seemingly simple fixes. no angle compensation below 100 yards and no ballistic firing solution coupled with range in excess of 1000 yards. if they would have gotten input from real shooters and hunters these flaws would have been fixed.

joel, I would be highly interested in you writing a review on your unit and exactly what features they have, because I feel leica has done a poor job on what the real features are. joel if you manually reset the zero range in the G7 program to 0 yards would that give angle compensation below 100 yards also if the g7 program went beyond 1000 yards do you think the geovids would accomodate it as is??

Guys I will try to wring out this thing as soon as I get some more time to play with it. I am just getting back on my feet after my surgery and things are kinda behind at work so I need to catch up there first. Ill get a review up ASAP.

Find the Butler Creeks that fit the objective diameter - just the standard model, not those with the red press the button method. Had a talk with their CS many times and they could only
apologize. All decisions are made in Germany and they didn't seem that concerned with the poor quality. IIRC, the Duovids came with no objective covers.
Good luck.

I know the Duovids didn't come with them but I purchased a set from leica. Any way you could sense me a model # on the butler creeks that work. Thanks.

+1 on the covers, PLUS when I got mine, they were completely DEAD. I called Cameraland (whom I had ordered from) and was told to call Leica.

As it turned out, the Duracell battery that came with the Leicas, and dated 2021, was useless. I bought a new battery and that fixed the problem.

Neither of these issues were what I expected for my $3,000.

Just sayin', donsm70

I use Vortex objective lens covers on my Leica Geovids.
Cheap, work fairly well, and I keep a spare pair on hand, as I seem to break one or two every hunt season!

Just wait until you run into a REAL warranty problem.

I've had warranty work done on my older Geovids. It went pretty smooth.

I recall your story about butting heads with them, and that today you use another brand too.

Gunner

I guess this is why I buy Swarovski products. Not any better but the lens cap cover works great.

I have had warranty work with leica twice. both times it was a reasonable experience. both times was about a 3 week turn around. they did want to make sure my warranty was in effect for my demo units and I did have to prove that. in summary don't count on them to go above the warranty for anything just know the warranty is what it is no more no less.

I won my Geovids four years ago, sure the warranty is gone, hope I dont have any problems either, even if they were free.

Gunner

Leica might want to step up, the USA is a huge market for them.. HUGE

I just cruised by and saw this thread. It is a head scratcher, and I suppose the standard, but incomplete, answer is supply and demand. It's been the same with Leupold, and my Minox spotter. A cheap Chinese rifle scope that came with a used rifle I bought has great lens caps. Go figure.

Decent lens covers would cost pennies to produce, comparatively, as part of a high end optics package.

Paul

I totally agree with the OP. The lens covers on the new HD-B's are complete crap!
As far as angle compensation at under a 100 yards. I could Care less as I do not bow hunt and if I did bow hunt I would want a dedicated range finder for archery distances.

My experience with them basicly mirrors yours. I never registered mine and had to get cameraland to email me a copy of the sales receipt. That said, they did what they said they would do and it went smoothly.

I would buy Leica's again without any worry.

Yep

That's a shame too GW because your question was a very fair one, although a tough one. I was hoping this guy would step up to the plate and shed some light on Leica's decision making/marketing MO. It's also a shame because they have some great products.

I'm noticing a trend here with Leica...

Yea. If you are the original owner and purchased through a authorized dealer you don't have any worries/problems. But if you buy them second hand or through a non authorized dealer you are SOL. It is a shame because leica products are top notch.

If their customer service was anything like Swarovski, I wouldn't buy anything else. But it's not even close.

Hello gentlemen,

You're not rid of me yet! I just don't get on here that often. Many other irons in the fire. I actually took this project on as a labor of love, ironically. I'm going to go back and try to reply to each post directly rather than write one long response. Probably wont get to all of them tonight. By the way, if you don't hear from me in a reasonable amount of time, just pm me. It might not be as satisfying as flaming me here, but you'll get a quicker response! Best to everyone.

gosh after reading this i hope my leica crf1000-r doesnt screw up

I've come to the conclusion, as I get older, life is too short to put up with shoddy CS, support, etc if I can help it. Leica, with their policy of premium pricing and spotty (putting it nicely) CS and non transferrable warranty (pathetic), doesn't even enter the equation for me anymore when I consider buying glass. That's too bad because probably my favorite bino of all time was my Trinovid 10x42. I see fewer and fewer of them show up in our camps anymore, so it seems that the consensus agrees with me.

I hear you and am forwarding this thread to folks above my pay grade.

To Cumminscowboy, we hear you on the sub 100y issue. 1000y + plus is another issue altogether. Firstly, it is against the German version of ITAR to export an RF that calculates ballistics beyond 800m all internally. We got around that with the microSD card, but there are still limits to what kind of processor you can fit in the HD-B housing without the costs going through the roof. The program was limited to 1000y because of the inability to give an accurate correction beyond that distance without more variables and computing power. And, the HD-B calculator was designed by real shooters who are highly respected by members of this forum.

I understand the inclination to say that "for this price, it ought to do...", but look at it from this perspective, there is no binocular RF available for less than $15k that offers more. There is only one ballistic monocular RF that offers more computing power and it is $1500. There is only one monocular RF that will out range it for less than $5k. It costs $1900, gives 5x magnification, a distance reading and nothing else. Is the HD-B perfect? No, does it offer more than any other system on the market at a great price? Yes.

To Donsm70,

I'm sorry to hear about your battery. We'll be happy to send you a new one, just PM me. I doubt they can be tested prior to shipping without removing the plastic wrap that they have to be shipped in (that Duracell wraps them in). I don't know how we can be responsible for a doa battery other than to give you a new one soon as we know. Is there a Dear Duracell thread on here? : )

Just figured out the quote thing. Hope it makes my answers more clear. Gunner, you have a 5 year warranty against defects on the whole system, including electronics. On the electronics side, that's actually longer than most of our competitors.

WHAT HAPPENED TO LEICA'S SO-CALLED GOODWILL WARRANTY?

Hi GW,

Just spent the last 10min typing the answer only to have my iPad die. We still have Good-Will in effect. What happened in your case? Feel free to PM me, and I'll call you.

I've asked this one before and gotten no answer, so I'll try again.

What is the reasoning behind the non transferrable warranty? You guys are obviously the only alpha maker with that mindset. This in light of the fact that your prices are as expensive, or moreso, than any other premium maker.

All I can say at this point is that that decision is made elsewhere. I really wish I could tell you more and am workting to be able to do so.

Every time I talked to them at the SHOT, they complained constantly. "But we are just the little guys; we cannot do what the huge optics companies can."

Crap or get off the pot, Leica.

What is it and what does it cover?

I don't have a copy of the policy here at home. I will get specifics for you tomorrow.

With all due respect, most sportsmen believe that a "Good Will Policy" goes beyond what is written on paper. Good Will has to do about doing the right thing.

Good will is about treating the customers as YOU would like to be treated, going that extra mile and making sure that the customer is never left owning a useless piece of junk.

Also, the customer should not be whacked with an additional charge for something that should have been right to start with.

Trust me, NO company is too large or too famous to fail.

Is Terry Moore still with you? He was a really nice guy and he was sick about the support Leica gives both customers and dealers.

He has probably left by now.

Sent you a private message.

Exactly! And this is precisely why I will NEVER purchase another Leica product again. Sure, I bought my bino's second-hand. They were never intentionally abused to my knowledge and when sent in for servicing, Leica took the opportunity to "punish" me for purchasing their product from someone other than an authorized dealer. Swarovski will be my next purchase for sure....sounds like they understand how to treat past, present and future customers.

I guess I should chime in with my Leica experience. I bought a used pair of Geovids that would not range past a couple hundred. Called em up and they said to send them in. I had a brand new set in about a week. I'm not sure why it went so smooth after reading all the horror stories, but I'm thinking that living in a tiny town that their #1 product rep lives in didn't hurt.

That's a huge part of the problem, absolutely no consistency. One guy will be charged for repairs, while the next guy is offered a small credit toward a trade-in, and the next guy is sent a new product.

I had a similar problem with a set of Geovids this past January and was charged $100.00 for the repair and $35.00 return shipping.

Return shipping charge of $35? Rediculous! Clearly trying to profit on customer service end of the transaction. Definitely NOT the kind of company I want to do business with in the future!

Gentlemen, I'm still here, and if there is anything I can do for any of you, please PM me. We were so close to the weekend last week, I've not been able to get a copy of the Good Will Policy yet from the office. I will let you know exactly what it states as soon as I do. In regards to $35 for shipping DH5555, it is important to note that every optic we ship is sent 2nd DAY UPS, INSURED. I just sent a scope (personally) last week to a gentleman via GROUND service. The price with insurance? Over $60. You are certainly entitled to your opinion about what something should cost, but I guarantee you, we are not out to squeeze another few dollars out of anyone on shipping.

And DH5555, if you were being ironic about the $35 charge, and I didn't pick up on it (I'm a little slow sometimes : ) ), SORRY. There's so much angst coming out of some of these posts, I'm trying to make sure the correct info is out there in every case where I have the answer!

LeicaProductSpecialist,

Here's a little support for what he says about shipping cost. When I was shipping the Bushnells and Swarovskis at regular ground the cost was $26. He is talking about 2ND which was more than I was willing to pay.

I think the main point being, Swarovski doesn't charge a dime for return shipping.

LPS, I'd be curious as to the sales trends of Leica Sport Optics over the past 5 years.

I believe folks aren't pissed at the exact numerical value of shipping cost, so much as the fact that they were charged at all.

Exactly my friend!
Nor a penny to service/clean their product. Swarovski, McMillan, Midway and Leupold clearly understand and appreciate their customers...past, present and future. Leica either does not "get it" or has more business than they can handle. What Leica refuses to understand is that hunters, shooters and outdoorsman are a very tight knit group. We talk...a lot. Both on these Forums and during our everyday lives at work, church, shooting clubs, etc.

Funny you mention Swarovski, Mcmillan, Midway, and Leupold - because those are the exact companies that garner much of my business in their appropriate fields. Not in small part because of their excellent customer service.

Yep...pretty simple concept.

When my rangefinder dies, based on some of the post here, I will not replace my Leica with a Leica.

Agree, and you can add RCBS to the list....great service. It's pretty sad when a Chinese Zen Ray ($150+) has a better warranty than a $2000+ Leica.

sorry leica. i was set on saving up for a pair of 8x42 ultravids but when that time comes im going with swarovski

Yep, RCBS is great. Last year about this time, we lost power for a week due to fires burning down 20ish miles of power poles up-grid of us. Initially hooked up the generator incorrectly and it toasted several of the transformers/plug ins in the house, including that of my RCBS Chargemaster. A call to RCBS had a new one on it's way....for free, despite my relating the story to the phone rep of how the issue was entirely my fault due to being the worst electrician in history.

I will purchase from RCBS in the future.

Just a little anecdote for Leica to keep in mind.

Since we are singing praises I will join right in there. After owning an RCBS for about thirty years my son-in-law was loading and managed to break the handle out of the threaded attachment. I figured since I now have another I would send it in and if I had to pay no big deal; after all it gave good service for years. After a few weeks it arrived with no charges what so ever. Even for shipping!

I dropped my Alpen Wings 8X20 which I carry in a pouch on my belt almost all the time. One day I dropped them and called the company to see what they would charge to repair the out or whack toy. The lady told me they have a LIFE TIME no fault warranty and I should just send them in. I reiterated that I didn't mind paying since I dropped them on the concrete. She again told me there would be no charge. They sent me a new binocular and didn't even charge for mailing.

I like their stuff, but agree 100%. My next Leica will probably be a Swaro...

DF

My next Leica was a Vortex Ranger 1000. So far, so good.

I've owned Trinovids and Geovids. The Trinovids are built like a tank and never have needed any service. The Geovids I bought used and I haven't had any problems yet, and don't expect to. I have bought Leica in the past and will continue to do so. Optics just don't get any better IMO.

Yep, same here, sent in my previously owned Leica's (bought from an authorized dealer) for a cleaning, a new battery cover (it was scratched up) and to have a small area (1") re-glued by the ocular lens and $138.00 later including shipping I had them back. Like it has been said previously, when you spend thousands of dollars on Bino's you would think the customer service is better. I guess like many others, I have just grown accustomed to Swarovski's customer service.

leica dude, first of all thanks for showing up!!!!!!! I know some heat has been applied here, but I am here to thank you for at least standing up and saying here I am lets deal with things. I think you can agree that leica hasn't been out front in dealing with issues. if you want to see a company handle issues take a page out of vortex optics book. ask for feedback about them and it will be glowing, WHY. because they have a very active and proactive group that is savy to internet forums and responds to questions and comments. I could email vortex right now about a product suggestion and they would email me back within one day. vortex products aren't perfect they are built by other companies and private labeled by vortex so there have been ALOT more issues I would wager with vortex products than leica. but its how you respond to a problem that makes the difference.

my suggestion is leica needs a team of people that coordinate PR and warranty issues. also someone like yourself needs to have a full time job responding to emails, reading web forums etc. this would help leica stay out front of issues and also possibly steer the product line in certain areas, ie the geovids not doing angle compensation below 100 yards. my further suggestion is and people will not like this charge a tad more for product to cover these costs. most of the people buying your product aren't worried if it was 50 bucks more. thats a business suggestion and there will likely be people on here that disagree with it. but the last thing a guy wants to have in his mind when they spend 3 grand and have talked their wife into letting them spend the money is there could be a lack of support in the event of a problem.

I would also look at better ways to speed up the current warranty process. look at using emails to send the invoices out and let customers pay that way. the current situation is they look at the units determine a price and mail an invoice. then your supposed to mail payment back. thats probably 5 days wasted right there. a site could be created so people could monitor the repair process, ie when you guys get it, etc. this could easily get turn around time under 2 weeks. add to this come good will and just fixing things and you have turned your situation around.

I own 2 sets of Geovids; the 8X56 HD's and 15X56's

Both have great glass and the rangefinders work well. Just read a post about finding out exactly where the beam is in relation to the red box for accurate ranging and tried it at our last match on Sunday. Have to use the upper left corner of the box to get an accurate reading.

I've set both Geovids right on top of a Vectronix or Terrapin that were mounted on a tripod. The Geovid's ranging was just as accurate. I regularly use them hunting and in competition and have no complaints about function whatsoever.

I would like to see Leica step up and guarantee and warranty their product for life regardless of the owner or age as well. When you spend 2800.00 on some 15X and 2300.00 on the 8X, I don't see that as unreasonable. Leupold warrantees their product for life and backs it up; even their cheapest offerings.

The MAJOR PROBLEM I have had is with the stupid objective lens covers. Why can't you guys solve the problem of the rubber connector breaking? I have to poke holes in the cover and tie a piece of string through them and around the ring part that attaches to the bell! Everyone I know who owns Geovids has the same problem and all have some kind of self-repair to have a lens cover. One of my buddies uses Butler Creek flip ups!


.

Just by adopting the Vortex warranty policy across the board would help Leica a lot. If they don't do something along those lines, they are toast in the American market. I think as it stands, they ARE toast in this market right now, and just don't realize it.

+1 sharpsguy. As it stands now, who needs them?

in regards to the geovid lense covers I have been sent 2 pairs free of charge. they usually last a couple years and then they break. so lets keep it real there. are they ideal NO however they work and if the company sends out free ones to replace them I think that is all we can expect.

just adopting the vortex warranty. lets look at this from a business point of view. vortex and leica operate in a totally different manner. vortex manufactures nothing, they are basically a marketing company. Leica is the opposite they make everything themselves to my knowledge and it appears they probably aren't that great at marketing they also offer products that have technology that no one else has. meaning some factory in china can't just make what they are selling. what leica needs is a tweak, I outlined it in an above post. keeping in mind leica needs to operate as a business that make money.

Aside from the new RF bino, what does Leica do/have that someone else doesn't have? The jury is still out, and will be out on the new Geovid for a while. I can't possibly see one reason to buy a Leica product over a Swaro, Zeiss, EDG, etc nowadays, especially a used one.

Leica Sport Optics was nearly broke once, and unless something changes it doesn't look good for them right now IMO. They have some simply ridiculous policies in place.