But if you have an aversion to dealing with Vortex as a company, to the point that you don't want to deal with their CS department, it's likely not a great idea to buy one of their products in the first place.
Yep.
Because if you buy Vortex, you're going to deal with customer service. Awfully high rate of failure.
But yes, Cameraland should have taken the scope back, no questions asked. Not "send it to the factory".
Would you rather have Cameraland send you another demo scope (assuming they have one in stock) to replace the broken one, or talk/deal with Vortex with a high probability Vortex will send you a new scope? Consider the options in light of the experience with the demo.
