Good Service?

Photo by Charanjeet Dhiman on Unsplash

I mean that...what does good service mean?  At a time when social media is empowering buyers, what is fair for us to expect and what is not?  Let me give you the reason behind my question.

I have often purchased items on Ebay.  I have had a great deal of success and can honestly say that I have not really had a negative experience.  I have also had some average experiences but I have never felt taken advantage of.  I know there are risks involved but I am willing to take them.

Fast forward to my latest purchase....a wonderful Leica M4 that was CLA, painted and the advance lever replaced with that of a Leica M4.  I loved it.  Olive green, wonderful condition seemed like a good purchase...a bit expensive but allot of work went into it. The reviews were good so I took the plunge and bought the camera.  

It arrived FAST. Like in a week it was at my house.  I opened the box and there, staring at me, was a wonderful....olive green Leica M4 in perfect condition.  I pulled it out and it advanced smoothly, the shutter speeds moved fluidly and the camera was the gem I was expecting to get.

Then I pulled out a lens and it would not snap in place. In fact, it would no Leica, Zeiss, Voigtlander or other lenses that I had would latch on. I wrote the seller an email message and set the camera carefully back in the box.  A few hours later the seller reached out and explained that he had no idea what had happened as it was working perfectly.  He suggested I try a different lens and record the event to send to him.  I did so.  

He and I began looking into it and this is a known issue on a handful of M4 cameras. You need to remove the lens release button, and put in two shims. This lifts the button a bit and allows it to latch on to new lenses. And yes, I tried a 1950's lens and it did latch on...most of the time. 

The seller mailed to me the shims and a couple of screwdrivers.  I began to get to work and it would not work.  I was getting fed up as we were now almost a month from the purchase and I could not use the camera.  Without the lens latching you do not know if the focusing set up is right.  

Finally, the seller suggested a different fix, and sent a video of how to do it.  I attempted it and it worked perfectly.  So a month after the camera arrived, it was working as it should.  Now here is the thing...how do I rate the seller?  Was it an honest mistake?  Yes.  Would the camera have worked without the fix....no.  Do I pay for a working camera and does this establish my expectations?  Yes.  

I decided to give him a good review. I explained what had happened but must agree that he tried to resolve the issue and sent me the parts and tools to make the fix for free.  So I explained the story and gave him a full five stars because I would indeed buy from him again.  

On his part, he has decided to test each camera with different vintage lenses to avoid this in the future.  Good enough for me.

So I suppose good service is the lack of error, but once the error occurs good service is defined by how well the seller tries to make it right.