Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Nikon Updated Warranty Announcement

Just a heads up. We just received word from Nikon on their warranty policy update:

From Nikon:

We wanted to make you aware of a change that will take place regarding Nikon Inc.’s Sport Optics product warranty program. After review, we have decided to make some program adjustments that will require changes to in-store, online and other marketing materials.

PROGRAM CHANGE: Nikon Inc.’s product warranty is changing from the current product warranty to the following:
Lifetime limited warranty for the optical system of Binoculars, Fieldscopes and Riflescopes;
Seven-year limited warranty for non-optical system components of Binoculars, Fieldscopes and Riflescopes;
One-year limited warranty for electrical components of Binoculars, Fieldscopes and Riflescopes.

The Five-year limited warranty on all components for Rangefinder and Red Dot/Reflex sight products remains the same.

Please note that going forward we are ending our No-Fault Repair Policy. Therefore, the new warranty program will not apply to any SRO product that is subjected to misuse, alteration or accident or for damage caused from unauthorized replacement parts, will require consumer proof of purchase from an authorized dealer/reseller and will not be transferable from one consumer to another.

Leupold

Doug, thank you for passing on that information. Pretty significant changes that will change some buying patterns for sure.

Thanks Doug, good to know. Easy enough to buy another brand in the future.

Bad move with a flooded optics market.

Pretty much no Japanese made stuff anymore I must admit I don’t have much interest in Nikon because I seem to move to less but nicer stuff

Can't imagine this is going to help their sales.

That load bang you just heard.....




Is the crash of the Nikon Laserforces.

Not surprised. Nikon Sport Optics has never had a clue about what they're doing. They are the most clueless bunch of clowns in the business.

Well, I was considering some new 8x30/32 bino's.....Nikon is no longer in consideration.

Thanks for being considerate and passing that along Doug.

Nikon must not want to be in the sporting optics business any more.

Thank God I did not buy those Nikon Laserforce's I had in my hand. Moving forward, Nikon is a non-starter with me.
R

Nikon is even more dead to me, LOL.





Doug, you rock!

Agree with both of those statements!

Bye.

In the past, they have often just sent a new model if you sent in something for warranty. I assume they make the repairs and sell them as refurbs. I wonder if they will just start charging for the repairs that don't meet their warranty standards.

That just made my new rimfire scope decision easier.

The guy that engineered the reticle with all those circles on it must have been transferred to head up the warranty department.

Ive had great luck out of my Nikons. I have 8 of them. Never a problem but this will end my purchasing from them. They have gotten too heavy anyways.

so they can change the warranty on ones bought years ago?

Read sometime back that Nikon's hunting line was something of a red-headed stepchild. Maybe this is part of a slow sidle away from that business. B&L went the same way, finally dropping out altogether.

Maybe Beto called them.....

Sure, just like Apple can stop supporting their old stuff. My iPad, Mac Mini, and iPhone 4 all work fine, but are frozen in time. The iPhone 4 is now an 8GB iPod.

I appreciate the question's but as many of you know, I no longer work with Nikon and therefore do not have a definitive answer about older products and the new warranty. I do not believe the new warranty will affect products purchased prior to the announcement. That would not be good for their business for sure. I do not know this for sure but I am guessing that only products bought after a certain date will now be under the new warranty. I do suggest you take a photo of your receipt though so if you need it you can hopefully find it. Again, I am just making an assumption.

This is for sales from 9/9/19 onward. Prior sales will be covered but I am sure they will require a receipt to show proof of purchase

Nikon has been on the slide for a long time IMHO. I dont know why they were in the hunting/shooting business in the first place...im sure its not in their 10 year plan

Does this nix the warranty I got when I bought my last Nikon scope??

This refers to all Nikon sold from 9/9/19 onward

Who cares about a warranty if it doesn't break.
None of the Nikon products I own have ever given me problems. I've owned most for years and if they died right now I would toss it and buy another one.
I love Nikon products. Good quality at a good price.

The problem is nobody at Nikon CS has the first clue about much of anything. Case in point was the Laserforce warranty threads here, and the actual experience I had. Their website is very ambiguous as to the warrant on that product. I talked to them directly and got several different answers, and finally one lady told me the warranty covered the binocular and electronics under their lifetime No Fault plan. She even sent me an email and put it in writing. So I march down to Academy and check them out, open the box, and low and behold there's a pink warranty card in there stating a 2yr electronics warranty, lifetime on the rest. Bottom line is, are you going to believe what someone there tells you, or what their written warranty says?

This new warranth program is nothing more than a license to screw over any and every customer they can, including current owners. I can just imagine trying to get something warranted that was owned prior to this 9/19 date......."do you have an original receipt" kind of BS. Nikon Sport Optics has always been bush league, and this further proves it.

Good post.

You can say that again....

This makes sense to me from a business standpoint. Look at Natchez SS, the majority of scopes on there for sale are reconditioned if they are Nikon. That stopped me from buying any more Nikon's about 7 yeas ago. If you are able to sell 1,000's of scopes you recondition each year, you have a QA/AC problem. This is Nikon's way fo saying they aren't addressing the issue, it's now the customer's problem.

Nikon has a set price that dealers must follow.What better way to sell at a cheaper price than to call it reconditioned.I bought many reconditioned Nikons and never had any problems with them.

B&L riflescopes were bought out by Bushnell as I recall.

Nikon corporate seems to thoroughly despise anything related to firearms, so much so that Nikon camera dealers are not allowed to sell Nikon riflescopes, for example.

Why the keep the sport optics division open is a little bit of a mystery since it is the same OEM products as far as riflescopes go. With binoculars and spotters they do have some interesting things and some of those they have actually designed themselves.

I suppose Nikon fading name recognition is still sufficient to move some scopes.

ILya

I only have one Nikon 22 scope, there won’t be anymore.

Doug, do you know if they will charge for repairs going forward or will they refuse to repair anything not under warranty?

LOL!!!!

I am sure they'll offer repairs outside of warranty coverage.