Re: [Leica] Leica Quality Control

["dan states" <dstate1@hotmail.com>]

Too small, and too picky.  We are just like the people who buy a 
Mercedes or Lexus, and then have a coronary over a buzz or a squeek 
that only a dog can hear.  When you spen a S--- load of money on 
something you tend to expect too much.

Anyone who monitors the Contax G user group can verify that Leica 
cameras are still far more reliable and better designed than the vast 
majority of what else is out there. You think you have problems, try 
buying a camera that needs to go back to the factory for adjustments 
whenever you buy a 90mm lens!  

Nikon, Canon and the many other photo equipment mass marketers have 
the advantage of low price!  When one breaks you don't feel like a 
stooge for buying it cause hey, you only paid 400.00 for the whole 
damn thing.  If you stuck a 3000 price tag on an N90 you would hear a 
lot of bitchin about those things too.

Actually, cheap stuff really lowers your standards, probably in a good 
way!  I hardly notice the specks of crud in the poorly sealed 
pentaprism of my FE2, but put them in an R8 and they'll seem like 
boulders!  Any Sigma user can tell you they are thrilled when the lens 
doesnt fall off the camera, but we are miffed when the focus ring is 
not as nicely textured as the one from our 1936 screw mount!

Consumers have grown to expect zero maintenance products, and the 
price has been the souless electronic junk that is now a part of all 
of our lives.  Leica cameras are one of the few things left on earth 
that still seem to be built by humans, for humans.  The price to pay 
may be occasional preventative maintenance or adjustments.

I'll pay it.

Thanks for listening to my rant.  (Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my 
closeup)

Dan



>We seem to be expending a tremendous amount of energy discussing this
>topic.  Over the past four years, it seems this has been a constant 
10%
>posting topic.
>
>Folks, if you are unhappy with Leica quality, then you have two 
choices,
>and two choices only:
>
>a)  Buy LOTS of Leica stock.  Own the company, and then YOU can tell 
them
>what to do.
>
>b)  Sell all your Leica gear and invest in some other system.
>
>Simply bitching about it neither accomplishes much nor, frankly, 
makes the
>various bitchers sound very nice -- folks who are probably quite 
pleasant
>in person come across as negative, whingeing carpers without a virtue 
to
>their name.
>
>Leica has had quality control problems, as has EVERY manufacturing 
concern
>across history.  The management of Leica has a legal duty to maximize
>profits, so they are attempting their best to do so while still 
marketing a
>fine product.  Obviously, if the QC/QM situation gets out of hand, 
the
>reputation will suffer and so will sales, and management will have to 
adopt
>a different tack.  But, for right now, they seem to be doing just 
fine.
>
>The membership of the LUG is a minuscule percentage of Leica users -- 
there
>are, for instance, only TWO Lug members living in Western Virginia, 
though
>I know several dozen Leica users in the same geographic area.  Our
>experience is not necessarily that of the general public.  And we 
have
>many, many more lurkers than participants:  a proper survey would 
have to
>assess ALL of the membership.  
>
>(Suggestion to DonJ:  instead of carp, carp, carp, moan, piss, and 
bitch:
>do a WHO LEICA-USERS and WHO LEICA-USERS-DIGEST, get a complete list 
of our
>members, then survey ALL the membership by PRIVATE E-MAIL.  Ask every 
one
>whether they have purchased a new Leica item within the past five 
years.
>KEEP STATISTICS HERE:  evaluate how many respond (5%?  10%?  50%?).  
Then,
>ask this select number if they have had any quality complaints, and, 
again,
>evaluate in terms of response -- probably, 25% of the LUG will answer 
your
>first private query, and 50% of those will answer the second, giving 
a
>statistically meaningless sample group of some 100 folks or so.  But, 
then,
>give us these answers on the LUG, just to see.  You will find that 
those
>who are happy will probably not respond, those who are aggrieved will
>complain.)
>
>I have purchased a slew of new Leica gear in the past five years.  
None of
>it arrived in a defective condition.  One piece (a Televid eyepiece)
>developed a problem a year or more after I had purchased it, and it 
was
>immediately replaced by New Jersey without a question.  
>
>What I am trying to say is three things:
>
>-- Bitching to the LUG doesn't do a thing, and only adds a layer of 
stress
>and tension to a list which already is stressed and tense enough.
>
>-- Happy folks don't complain, and, hence, don't make it into the
>statistical sample group.
>
>-- The LUG, in any event, is just too small a sample from which to 
derive
>any concrete conclusions.
>
>Marc
>
>msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX: 

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