Re: [Leica] R8 winder problems (Grey market service)

["Robert G. Stevens" <robsteve@istar.ca>]

Alistair:

I think your problem may be either your distributor or that you bought your
camera and winder on the grey market in Hong Kong.  I sent my R8 in to get
the static fix, and along with it I sent my month old winder that had a
very small bit of paint peeling.  After testing another area of the paint
and finding I could scrape it off with my fingernail, I sent the winder in
and asked them to repaint or replace.  A week later I got a new winder back
and the R8 had the static fix installed.  All at no charge.  Kindermann
Canada is a great Leica distributor to deal with and from the speed of this
replacement, I assume the distributor makes the decision as to replacing or
repairing an item.  Since your camera was not imported by your Australian
distributor, he is not going to give you a lot of help on it.  It is sort
of like buying your new car at the cheapest dealer, over 100km away and
then expecting your local dealer to give you the same level of service that
he gives customers that bought the vehicles from him.

Regards,

Robert

At 09:00 PM 2/7/99 -0800, you wrote:
>David,
>
>R8 winder problems, tell me about it. My R8 and winder are in Germany for
>the second visit, with a note from the distributor begging them to replace
>the unit. My problems seem to lie in the camera [or so Leica tell me] and
>are different to yours. My camera winder would occasionally go berzerk and
>shoot off umpteen shots without warning. Camera repaired, with new switch
>and shutter control, same problem, back again.
>
>I have to agree with Harrison that the problems are too common. Sad to say
>that the winder/motor problems which affect the R8 will damage the company,
>and could just kill it. I wish I'd gone Contax at the moment, though as
>I've said before, Leica have lent me an R8 both times the camera has gone
>in for repairs, so its not toooooo bad. No winder though ;-)
>
>Cheers
>
>Alastair Firkin,
>
>http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html
>
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