Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Optics warranty pile on

Think I'll join in.

Just read about Pentax pulling BS, then Zeiss. A comment in another thread reminded me about how Nikon decided they no longer wanted to be associated with greasy hunters so they quit making scopes, & how their so-called lifetime warranty is sure to fail. Damn all of them.

I'll add Bushnell. They tried to feed me 3 different loads of crap over a rangefinder I sent in. I told a newish coworker the story & he had had a similar experience, & maybe got fed more BS than I got.

Him & Bushnell? Never again. Me? I try to never say never, but I'd sure hesitate even if they came out with the best product ever.

Companies struggling more?? Or simply not caring about the customer??

I'm not in that business but, I suspect it's a "pendulum swing".

On one end of the swing you've got: "100% no fault we'll cover anything for any reason". Usually what that means is you're paying 5x + what something is worth up front so they can warrantee it for your 2x-3x before they change models and invalidate your warrantee. The resultant "minimal fee" to "upgrade" to the newest model is what I've always figured is pretty close to their actual production cost.

On the other end you've got: "What can the accountants push back onto the consumers without significant market-share loss?". Oft-times they'll have a "standard" warrantee service that is "free" but takes for friggin-ever, usually at least long enough to cost you a season worth of use. Then of course there's the "minimal fee" expedited service.

Somewhere closer to the middle is where consumers are happiest.

Bushnell is doing the warranty (?) on several brands. I really liked the cheaper Simmons Aetec scope, clear sharp optics, great mechanical adjustments with that beryllium erector tube etc. So, anyway, one of mine had adjustment issues, so I sent it in. They sent it back, "Main tube has been bent, unrepairable...but, we will sell you a Bushnell something-or-other for 180 ish dollars". I'm thinking...how the hell did I bend the tube? I'm very careful with ring alignment when mounting any scope. Pissed me off, so I set the scope up on my milling machine table in precision vee blocks, trammed the scope dead true to .001" in two axis'. It ain't bent. I don't think they wanted to fix it or don't have the parts. Never again.

Email today says my Leupold gloss rimfire 4x is on its way back. Brand new scope bought yrs ago, never used.

Bad from get go ( something loose inside ).

4th brand new Leupold faulty. Bought 20 of em new starting around 1978. Never had a problem w any used ones, about 20 of them too.

I will never buy Bushnell product again. I had a Holo sight that stopped working in less than a year. Sent in on warrantee. Got a letter from them claiming battery had leaked and ruined electonics, voiding warrantee. They said they would let me purchase another kind of red dot for a cheap price. I Always remove batteries from electronics when finished. The price on red dot was $25.00 more than Midway was selling them for. A real great deal. That ruined me on Bushnell forever.

I got the run around on a broken Bushnell rangefinder too. I bought a Leica and haven't looked back.

If you are referring to the Zeiss thread what exact BS did Zeiss Pull? The f...ling scope is at least 10 years old and they and everyone else have a limited warranty on electronics. Jeez , what a bunch of drama queens.

Interesting. The Bushnell Canada warranty people have gone above and beyond expectations for me more than once. I guess it just depends who you happen to have working service/warranty at a given location.

#leupoldorbust

Just a general observation of what I'm reading on the fire, 2-3 threads on scope warranties OVERALL, just questions, observations.

I have owned several rangefinders over the years Wild, Swarovski and even Leica. All of them are designed to range forward.........Don't think you could look back even with a Leica and be able to range anything

Leupold is a lot like Ruger. Great customer service because they get a lot of practice.

Ya might have a good point about them. But from some of the recent threads, some of the other mfrs. don't even bother to honor their warranties like Leupold & Ruger, but just find excuses to avoid the subject altogether. The subject not about problems from the start, but if the Mfr. will own up to it & at least try to rectify the problems.

Is there a difference?

I think so.

I sent in a Bushnell 6500 because it ran out of elevation at 100 yards, it was on two different custom rifles with different mounts/bases etc. They returned it saying it meets their specs. I haven't even messed with it again.

I bought a weaver Grand Slam a couple of years ago and the windage adjustment barely worked. i did manage to get it sighted in but was very erratic in the way it moved. Son hunted the rifle a few days and killed the deer he shot at. This year windage was off 3" at a100 yards wouldn't adjust. Went through the warranty return process and had to return to a bushnell repair center. They sent it back saying it was in spec after testing.
If a scope that has no windage adjustment capability is within spec I will never buy any optics products from them ever again.

Here in Canada, thee are only two warranty centers for scopes, Leupold and Bushnell. Sending anything in for warranty across the line is best avoided.The service from both has been good, but in different time frames,easily within three weeks for Leupold and barely within three months for Bushnell.

Have had stellar warranty services from Bushnell, twice. Both accounts on lower tier gear too. Been a few and several+ years ago though.

#leupoldandbust

#neveraRugerproblemeasyliving

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