Worried about possible delays caused by Britain’s exit from the European Union free-trade area on December 31, Leica is suspending service of cameras that require sending to Germany or Portugal.
Compacts, including the Q models, are not affected since most repairs can be handled by the team in London. For M and SL models and, I suspect, CL and TL2s, no repairs are being accepted after December 3. This is a temporary situation, I hope, and should be resolved once we learn how trading arrangements will continue after the end of the year.
Following a tip-off from readers, Leica Forum moderator Andy Barton got on the case late last week. He received confirmation from Leica UK that the company is taking precautions to avoid customers’ cameras being stuck in Germany or Portugal and facing possible duties on return to the UK. Apparently, an Australia colleague is advising Leica UK on the situation when repairs are sent from outside the EU. As Andy says, he hopes that tariffs talked about for Australian repairs don’t happen in the UK.
Leica UK has now issued an official statement on the situation:
Important information on the handling of repairs during the Brexit transition
There is much uncertainty on the likely impact that the Brexit transition period will have on shipments to EU. To avoid a situation where products needing repair are delayed, or held in transit, we have decided to pause sending any items for repair to our workshops in Germany and Portugal from December 3rd until further notice. This will also apply to any products received in our company stores that need to be sent on for repair.
If you own a Leica compact or a Q/2 you’re in luck. Leica is still handling repairs in London. In this picture, Leica’s technician David Slater, left, demonstrate how to strip down a Q for the benefit of Leica Society members, including Nobby Clarke (centra) and Peter Anderson (right)
All items already in repair in Germany and Portugal will be completed and returned prior to December 31st. If your item is currently in at either location for repair and awaiting customer approval, you will need to give this prior to December 10th to ensure the repairs can be completed and returned by December 31st. If your approval is not received in time your product will be sent back unrepaired.
Local repairs will continue in our Mayfair store when it reopens on December 3rd.
Thank you for your understanding during this uncertain time and we hope that any delay will be minimal. We will update this page as and when we have more information.
Another fantastic by-product (comment redacted)
We do not welcome abusive or political comments on this site.
Our customer care teams are still available to service your repair needs locally. For any products that need to be repaired in Germany, we have taken the decision to temporarily pause this service until we have further clarification from the UK government. As the Brexit transition period is coming to an end, we are monitoring the latest government advice and hope to resume full customer care services in the coming weeks. For any further queries, please contact pr.uk@leica-camera.com
– Leica Camera UK
I expect businesses in EU countries are spitting tacks over the authorities inability to ensure that “treasure island” remains open.
I thought it was supposed to be there to ensure trade runs smoothly, but clearly not when superannuated politicians are in charge.
The sending back to Wetzlar thing has been going on since the 1920s. I believe this is just a measure by Leica AG and Leica UK to avoid expensive items going missing during any transition period. It does not help that negotiations are still going on, but there are far bigger issues at stake than the repair of Leica cameras. I would be fairly certain that something will be worked out to allow items to go backwards and forwards for repair. Any additional duty on such items would be recovered at the time of first importation into the UK, so any subsequent transits would be in respect of goods in respect of which full duty had been paid. Leica/Leitz UK had to handle such matters up to 1973, of course.
I find the Australian comment hard to follow, but that would not be the norm in most parts of the world.
William