A Day at Leitz Park
by Valeria Breveglieri
Hi Steve!
I was in Wetzlar today for the opening of the new building at the Leitz Park and took part to the celebration.
I have thought you and maybe the readers might be interested in seeing what it was like, so here are some shots. The celebration was for the public, so nothing like Friday and Saturday with the camera announcements etc. However, it was very nice as there were quite a few exhibitions – out of which the huge “Augen auf!” (roughly “eyes open!”) which was stunning. The number of people who came for the day was very high, you can see from the pictures people were queuing to enter buildings. Leica had foreseen some activities as well, I took part to the action sports one (where I got to try the Leica S… wow I am so impressed, IQ is UNBELIEVABLE) which consisted in acrobatic bike and to the car shooting – you can see the design model of the Zagato, who inspired the new M10 edition announced on Friday.
Other than that the display of cameras in the “older” building is always very nice (I could not resist to take a picture of the SL with an SL :-)) as well as the display of the steps needed to make a lens and assemble a camera with windows opening on production.
What can I say, this is a special place :-).
Thanks a lot for all your work on your website – I thought for once I could bring you some news 🙂
Have a good Sunday evening!
Kind regards
Valeria
Customer service at Leica: my m9-p needed a sensor replacement, I made arrangements by email which was answered the following day. On arrival in Wetzlar, I was attended by a technician who took care of my camera. I was told the work will take a few days and was offered a new M to shoot with. After a week I went back , got my m9-p with new sensor, cleaned, leather cover replaced and Messucher adjusted. The entire service was for free. I could not be happier with their service in Wetzlar.
While the park is very nice it is a shame that Leica spends its money on things like this and not on making sure its customer service is adequate. In the USA, Leica has only one technician that works on M cameras – for the entire USA! My local repair shops have more technicians!
This is why warranty repairs take months and months here. The avg time is now about 6 months to get the defective sensor replaced in an M9. But it’s ok, they have a shiny Leica Park to show off..
😉
You now what ? It is the same in Germany and i guess any other Country in the world. Leica wants to do service and repair by themselves. That is a good thing, because it makes shure you get the job done in the way it is meant to be. As you may remember, most Leica cameras and lenses are handmade in Germany and so it is just natural that the service is done in the same manner. It is not a sign of poor costumer support.
When the United States, with population of 330,000,000, has only one Leica technician at Leica HQ in New Jersey, that is not bad service.
That is a joke.
Well, of those 330 Million, maybe 2500 need Leica service. Even so, they need a team of technicians as this is their main weak spot. Used to be Sonys as well but they fixed it. Leica needs to fix this as buying such an expensive camera, one should have confidence if their camera needs service it will not take 8 weeks to get it back.
What I have seen in Wetzlar is that Leica is massively hiring – they had copies of job offers to take home for those interested (top jobs as well). I admit I took a couple to remind me of my dream jobs… anyway they are definitely investing – I hope for you they will reconsider the needs of the US market.
Leica is a small company, soon to be owned by Chinese, and they cannot afford this. Even if they did, “customer service” is a phrase unknown to Germans.
hi Karim, not sure about this… I typically call them to get an appointment to service the camera. Last time it was a sensor cleaning only, I got an appointment within a week if I remember well. But for something more time consuming you should definitely ask them how long it will take. Phone number for service is on their website…
It seems like a friendly place. Perhaps I’ll be lucky enough to visit.
So, can you get your cameras serviced there within a reasonable amount of time?
I go there tomorrow to get my 75 Summicron serviced. Called them today (and there is always someone there to help and no computer that answers me) and they apologized that they could not make an appointment for the very same day but the next day. I cant say anything bad about the company nor their service.
Oh and yes, they will do many repairs in hours. Some even without a prior appointment (if it happens to be possible). I would still recommend you contact them by phone before going there. Then there is no waiting.