Six weeks after first informing Leica of the broken support on my telescope, the scope was finally returned to me today, unrepaired, after I declined their 900+ Euro repair quote. I fixed the support back to the scope with superglue (cost 5 Euros), only to find that one of the lenses appears to have been dislodged in transit from Germany to France (the optics were fine when I took the scope to the French dealer in March), and the scope is now unusable. After ranting and raving at anyone that would listen, I decided to focus my anger by writing a letter of complaint to Leica. I've attached a copy of the email below, which it may interest you to read. I'll also keep you informed of any future correspondence I receive from Leica. In the mean time, I'll do my best to continue providing mediocre quality digiscoped shots with my ancient Kowa TS-611!
Posted by rjhall at May 9, 2006 10:30 PMSounds like an isolated incident, shame you're trying to tar Leica's name due to your own unfortunate experience
Posted by: Bowell at May 10, 2006 11:57 AMI assume it is an isolated incident, since many people are happy with their Leicas - indeed I was extremely happy with my scope until this recent episode. However, just because it is isolated doesn't make it acceptable, and I'm hoping that the spectre of bad publicity from people reading this might generate some action, where six weeks of phone calls have failed. I do not wish to tar Leica's name, I simply want my scope to work again.
Posted by: rjhall at May 10, 2006 12:54 PMThe whole point of buying a Leica in the first place -- given that in the stratosphere of super excellent optics the choices to be made are almost personal -- is that there is a LIFETIME GUARANTEE. When I was deciding whether to spend a lot of money on a good pair of binoculars, there were many factors, but the Leica guarantee was definitely one of them. It is a NO FAULT guarantee. We know that birders do terrible things to their optics all the time; Leica knows this too. But it's one of their big selling points.
I'm really sorry about your scope, Richard. I've been lucky enough to see some great birds through it... what a perfect biking scope.
Posted by: Alison at May 10, 2006 2:37 PM