I think your story is common. Vortex has never made an optic at all. They are just a seller, and have companies make them for resell. They put out the specs. and it goes to the lowest bidder, they did use some Japanese companies, but now go to China, where the motto is "Just good enough". They don't repair anything, as they don't know how, they just replace with another piece of cheap China junk.
You mentioned Nikon, and they have been around for over 100 years now, they do sell optics made in Japan and also China, but they do know how to do things, and their customer service is very good.
This is false. They do repair some items. And they make the AMG completely in-house.
