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

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

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...
>