RE: [Leica] Leica initial quality story

[Austin Franklin <austin@darkroom.com>]

> Given Jim's story, this may be a good moment to revisit the arguments for
> buying Leica equipment from your friendly local dealer rather than from 
the
> mail-order places.

If this is the 'quality' I am to expect from Leica, I assure you, I will 
not be buying Leica from now on.  Fortunately, all my 6 major pieces of 
Leica gear I have does not have any problem I have noticed.  Your proposal 
is 'solving' the symptom, not the problem, and I rarely like solutions like 
that.

Either way, it is a waste of my time to drive back and forth to a dealer 
almost one hour away to return defective merchandise that should not be 
defective in the first place if they had real Quality Control.  It actually 
is less time for me to put the item in a box and go to the post office. 
 This really isn't the point, anyway.  The point is, for the kind of money 
we pay for this gear, it should arrive flawless, period.

Also, if the camera can't take the shipping, it ain't gonna take the use I 
give it...

I would suggest people write to the factory and Leica US when ANY quality 
problems like this arise.  If they (Leica) don't know about the problem, 
they (Leica) can't fix the problem.  I don't know what the dealer is going 
to do with the other two cameras, perhaps just put them back on the shelf, 
or (I would hope) return them to Leica for new ones.