Leema Acoustics Antila II & Tucana II - under £1700 - should I?

[the record spot]

Perhaps because I don't think he's done anything massively wrong, or deserves what he's getting. I don't quite understand your enthusiasm to have a go at him either, other than that, I have no dog in this hunt.

 

[steve4232]

Many thanks to "the record spot" for your welcome and support in this thread. Needless to say I agree with everything you've said so far.

Just for the record I will state a few facts to correct "Plastic penguin" who has made several rash assumptions, all of them incorrect.

Firstly where I buy from and how much I pay is my business and is irrelevant to the the issue of a products reliability. However I will confirm that the Antila II was purchased NEW, not from an "auctions site" as you claim but from an authorised mainstream dealer. Yes, it came with 5 year warranty so after 2 years I was entitled to a free repair. However the dealer had since disappeared and the nearest local branch of the same company was quite a distance away from me so I elected to contact Leema direct. At this point Leema was very helpful and said that I could send it to them directly for repair without question. However, I was informed that I could upgrade to an Antila IIS Eco for a payment of £1200 if I wanted to. This followed MY question to Leema that asked if there were any available modifications that could be done at the same time as the repair so I didn't send the unit away just to get back what I had originally started with ie. let's grab this opportunity to get an upgrade if it's economically sensible to do so at the same time as it's returned to the manufacturer.

Leema stated that in effect I would get a brand new player as the Antila IIS Eco was a different beast altogether with different chassis design, power supply and DAC boards so it is actually impossible to upgrade an Antila to an Eco model without a completely new build. I opted to change from black to silver cabinet too. About 4 days after my "upgrade" payment and following the return of my original Antila II (which Leema retain as part of the package deal), I got a call from Leema to say my newly made Eco was ready to ship. I'm sorry if you didn't know that members of the public CAN buy direct from Leema via "upgrade paths", but the fact is that you can.

Leema have agreed to pay courier costs for the latest issue which has resulted from the last time it was in for repair. They did not know the display was faulty when they built the unit obviously. Why didn't I react sooner? Well, it seemed like such a trivial fault to begin with and I thought it might even be down to condensation in the unit when it was new (and delivered during a cold spell). It just wasn't enough of a problem and very much an intermittent issue for me to worry about initially. I kept it in mind and thought I would query it if it continued or got worse. It did so I emailed Leema and after a week looking into it they decided I needed to return it as they had not come across the issue before.

I hope this clarifies where I am with my problem.

 

[plastic penguin]

Many thanks to "the record spot" for your welcome and support in this thread. Needless to say I agree with everything you've said so far.

Just for the record I will state a few facts to correct "Plastic penguin" who has made several rash assumptions, all of them incorrect.

Firstly where I buy from and how much I pay is my business and is irrelevant to the the issue of a products reliability. However I will confirm that the Antila II was purchased NEW, not from an "auctions site" as you claim but from an authorised mainstream dealer. Yes, it came with 5 year warranty so after 2 years I was entitled to a free repair. However the dealer had since disappeared and the nearest local branch of the same company was quite a distance away from me so I elected to contact Leema direct. At this point Leema was very helpful and said that I could send it to them directly for repair without question. However, I was informed that I could upgrade to an Antila IIS Eco for a payment of £1200 if I wanted to. This followed MY question to Leema that asked if there were any available modifications that could be done at the same time as the repair so I didn't send the unit away just to get back what I had originally started with ie. let's grab this opportunity to get an upgrade if it's economically sensible to do so at the same time as it's returned to the manufacturer.

Leema stated that in effect I would get a brand new player as the Antila IIS Eco was a different beast altogether with different chassis design, power supply and DAC boards so it is actually impossible to upgrade an Antila to an Eco model without a completely new build. I opted to change from black to silver cabinet too. About 4 days after my "upgrade" payment and following the return of my original Antila II (which Leema retain as part of the package deal), I got a call from Leema to say my newly made Eco was ready to ship. I'm sorry if you didn't know that members of the public CAN buy direct from Leema via "upgrade paths", but the fact is that you can.

Leema have agreed to pay courier costs for the latest issue which has resulted from the last time it was in for repair. They did not know the display was faulty when they built the unit obviously. Why didn't I react sooner? Well, it seemed like such a trivial fault to begin with and I thought it might even be down to condensation in the unit when it was new (and delivered during a cold spell). It just wasn't enough of a problem and very much an intermittent issue for me to worry about initially. I kept it in mind and thought I would query it if it continued or got worse. It did so I emailed Leema and after a week looking into it they decided I needed to return it as they had not come across the issue before.

I hope this clarifies where I am with my problem.

Let me state further: Leema had no issues on two occasions when my amp's headphone section went Pete Tong. They collected, repaired and delivered back all FOC, and I only paid roughly half the retail price from a well-known dealer. Why did they agree mine but not yours?

If you want to send the Antila Eco to me I'll contact them and get it fixed FOC (fuss free).

 

[steve4232]

"Why did they agree mine but not yours?"

The reason they gave for not covering my carriage costs initially was due to the return being over 6 months after purchase from Leema. Apparently the company extends this "window" by their own discretion to 12 months. However, by the time I returned my unit directly to their company which had also supplied it to me directly as new, it was about 15 months after the purchase date. The law says that they are obligated to honour the warranty but carriage is down to the consumer.

Anyway, Leema are sorting this for me as we speak.

 

[the record spot]

Like I said Steve, welcome to the forum, and I'm glad to hear that Leema are stepping in after the demise of your dealer. I know the Sale of Goods Act covers you for up to six years in England (five in Scotland), but that's with the retailer. Either way, it sounds like Leema are on the case (as well as changing it!) .