Hello, i have sent my leica total station to Leica local dealer for yearly calibration and asked me a huge amount 700$, i was wondering why not to send it to another company like topcon or trimble i took an offer from them and they said 150-200$ ?
Why Leica charges that amounts? Someone had told me that Leica use an electronic collimator and special software for calibration is that true?
My experience of sending a robotic TS to calibration at a non OEM shop, after them assuring they could do it, was a couple of week's silence, then: "we can't do it, but we can give you a trade in deal on one of our new instruments".
All Leica instruments are designed to be field calibrated. You can easily calibrate the instrument quickly with a stable backsight around 300ft away. Definitely not rocket science.
$700 sounds like much more than just a field calibration. This could be a complete "incoming" and certification of the instrument. Leica has many different levels of certificates available. A incoming test could take a tech 2-3hr to test all the boards and build a report on the instrument.?ÿ
So my question to the dealer would be what are you doing for $700. If it's just a "field calibration" that should only take about 20-30 minutes depending on the temperature of the instrument and outside. Then I would definitely question the cost.?ÿ
I would want to know if they are sending it away to have it calibrated. Some "service" shops have not invested in the equipment to actually perform full service. They may be sending it to someone else and passing on the cost to you, as well as shipping costs which can be substantial. The competitor shops may simply have the right equipment for the job and can do it on site.
Speaking of shipping, if your gear is shipped out for calibration it would behoove you to check, check, and triple check it when it comes back. Considering how most shippers treat their packages I would always be skeptical of the instrument actually being within calibration when it comes back.
It sounds like you already service your instrument every year, but if for whatever reason it has not been calibrated for a long time, the process to bring it back in tolerance can be a bit more involved.