Re: [Leica] LEICAUSA: That ain't no customer, that's....

[Bill Satterfield <cwsat@cyberhighway.net>]

Just curious, has anyone sent anything to Leica in Solms? Do they do warranty
work on USA goods? How are their repairs, turnaround time ?. What about Kinderman
in Canada? Same questions.

John Collier wrote:

> Many of us on this list do not realise how products are distributed and
> warranty repairs done. The national distributor buys product at a fixed
> price. Out of the mark-up they add on, comes all the distribution, sales,
> advertising, etc expenses of the company(oops...and profit!). Warranty is
> not "free" to the national distributor. They are required to provide a
> repair facility, staff, tools and parts for warranty and off-warranty
> repairs. They are required to maintain a sufficient supply of spare parts to
> be able to perform all reasonably foreseeable repairs and then some. They
> pay for repair staff training and upgrading. When product comes back for
> warranty, they perform the repair, supply the parts, ship the product and
> then apply for reimbursement from the product manufacturer. The product
> manufacturer will insist on: paying labour at a reduced rate, because of the
> "special" relationship (distributor has no choice if they want to carry the
> product); special warranty repair times will apply which are provided by the
> product manufacturer and derived from the fastest time the manufacturer was
> able to extract from someone who practised and prepared just to perform that
> one task; NO TIME IS ALLOWED FOR DIAGNOSIS(!!!!), only time to perform an
> actual repair is reimbursed; and finally, reimbursement for parts is often
> on a replacement basis. If, under all this pressure, a mistake (in diagnosis
> or repair) is made, all subsequent work is out of the national distributor's
> pocket. The national distributor is required to buy a certain minimum amount
> of product (or else) and any overstock of product is the distributor's
> problem (i.e. if it has to be discounted, it comes out of the national
> distributor's pocket).
>
> Whew!
>
> Now somebody, in God knows where and only Leica knows how, buys a ton of
> product, imports it to your country and sells through unofficial channels.
> No repair staff, no parts, no distribution, no paper work......of course it
> is cheaper!!! Now how would you, as national distributor, feel if you had
> people expecting you to bust your butt and lose money to repair the product
> they never sold you in the first place!!! I imagine they ship it to Germany
> for repair, by the cheapest method they know, as they will not get
> reimbursed. And, after having worked under such conditions, I do not blame
> them! You get what you pay for.
>
> John Collier
>
> Sorry if the above is strongly stated. It is meant to be explanatory not
> accusatory in tone. I have suffered.....
>
> This also explains why independent repair people are able to charge less (no
> overhead) and not be a good choice for the latest product.
>
> > From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
> >
> > I take back anything nice I said - That is a truly outrageous tale - no way
> > to treat anyone, let alone a customer...
> >