In my experience the warranty for Leica binoculars is not worth the paper it is written on. I bought my Leica Trinovid 10×42 BA from Birds Australia in 1999 for a little under 2 grand. They came with a 35 year warranty. A while back the focusing mechanism jammed. Adeal, the Australian agents/importers of Leica, directed me to the Camera Clinic in Collingwood, the new authorised repairers, so I sent my bins there in August 2010. Camera clinic claimed the warranty was void because the screws were rusted and and quoted me about $200 for repair. In November they said they needed more parts and bumped the quote up to over $300. In January I wrote a complaint letter and made some phone calls. Camera Clinic said the parts were on order through Adeal. Adeal said they had the parts in stock. Adeal agreed to honour the warranty. Everyone apologised for the delay. A couple of weeks later Camera Clinic told me they were sending the binoculars to Germany for repair. In Feb, 6 months after it began I wrote another complaint letter. Adeal then advised me that Leica in Germany had deemed the bins unrepairable: elements need replacing, outer case needs replacing, focusing mechanism needs replacing. Seems to me that they were destroyed by the repairers. The warranty is not being honoured. They have implied that I misled them about the condition of the binoculars. Adeal and Leica Germany have offered to sell me a new pair for the ‘generous’ discount of A$1,750. This is not over yet, but needless to say I won’t be purchasing anything from Leica again. A well engineered product is completely unreliable when the after-sales service is appalling.
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