Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Poor Zeiss Warranty Experience...

I've been fan of Zeiss equipment for a while. My spotting scope is a 15-45x65 angled Diascope. I bought it used because the warranty said it was Lifetime and transferable and I've heard great stories about their service from friends and relatives. And I also owned a zeiss rangefinder before and really liked it. I've recommended Zeiss products to friends throughout the years some of which ended up purchasing Zeiss products.

The spotting scope worked flawlessly for the last 6 years often very in harsh conditions. During my recent elk hunt, however, the focusing knob stopped working. The timing was unfortunate but I wasn't worried. I sent it in to get fixed thinking that for sure it would be covered by the warranty.

It wasn't.

They said that the main tube had been tampered with and that I'd have to pay $595 to have it fixed. I have not tampered with the main tube and since it's been working fine for the last 6 years I doubt that the person I bought it from had either.

Once I was emailed the notice that I had to pay for the repair, I called customer service. Carrie was the person I initially spoke with at Zeiss. She was really nice. She said maybe I can talk to the manager to see if there was anything he could do.

His name is Everett Shurman. He wasn't as nice. The conversation started out cordially then eventually devolved. My point was that if they weren't going to honor the stated "lifetime warranty" then they shouldn't offer the warranty which misleads people. I definitely wouldn't have bought it if it were not for the stated lifetime transferrable warranty.

At one point he stated that if I wanted an iron clad warranty then purchase a Vortex. Then he added some other no so nice statements about Vortex. I have nothing against Vortex so I won't share them. After I told him I'd share my experience online and that particular statement about Vortex's warranty, the conversation got even more animated.

After some back and forth, that's really how it ended. They won't repair it and I'll never buy another Zeiss product.

If you are considering buying anything Zeiss please take my experience into account.

If posts like this arn't allowed, please let me know and I'll remove it.

Exact same situation was reported over on Rokslide, the flat brim brigade a couple of months ago. That guy had much the same result as you have reported. Zeiss needs to either take out the word "lifetime" from their warranty policy, add some asterisks, or something instead of letting honest customers find out the hard way they are getting screwed.

I wrote off Zeiss a long time ago when we had an 85T FL spotter's focus mechanism break, spinning freely. They finally agreed to fix it in spite of fighting against their own written "lifetime warranty". They finally returned it fixed over 7 months later. Screw a bunch of Zeiss.....they must have been reading the old Leica CS playbook.

Seems odd.

Odd because of the similarity or odd because they are breaking down and Zeiss isn't standing by their warranty?

What was the alleged tampering?

Sounds like business as usual in Zeiss-land. An 8x56 Victory binocular debacle is still painful. -Al

plumbum.... they didn't say actually.

You can always tell a German, but you can't tell them much.

Well if you feel like it, ask them what the exact tampering was and their evidence for it, and do so in writing. Ask for a response in writing, because you will need that when you sue them in small claims court.

If they refuse, have a repair shop fix it, state that there was no "tampering", and sue Zeiss for the bill. Hard to imagine a court not granting you relief.

a shame to hear this. Zeiss has been nothing but super for us. Paid very little to have lenses replaced in a pair of worn out binoculars. It did take about a year to get it done but we plan ahead.

They have replaced 2 worn out scopes over the years. Both times they did not have the exact scope on hand so upgraded a bit with the replacement.

Its a real shame to hear of bad customer service from anyone. I've not ever had a rude conversation with them either.

We work our gear hard and they have been responsive.

I had s similar experience about five years ago with Zeiss. None of their products exist in this home after that experience! Look on the bright side. Others make as good or better products, and honor their warranty. Their products are easily sold, P.T. was correct!

Just when I was thinking about getting my first Zeiss scope. Looks like I'll continue with Leupold.

My dad was just like that, except with a Texas accent.

Contact Barton Dobbs. Nuff said.

Fredericksburg area?

Well ….

I love zeiss but it’s hard not to appreciate the vortex warranty. I dropped a pair of diamondback binoculars out of my climber 25 feet up. Needless to say, they were busted up. I had a new pair 5days later , no questions asked!

Sounds odd to me. 2 yrs. ago I had a 25 yr old Zeiss Conquest MC 3x9 that quit holding a zero. Sent it in to them, and within a week they message me that the scope was not repairable and out of production so they were sending me a new Conquest V4 4x12 to replace it. Received the scope in about 6 days. Zeiss is AOK and #1 here!

That's been their practice from what I've seen. I even almost bought an older Diavari 3-9 for $250.00 because it has clouded glass. Knowing if I send it in, they would send me a $750 V4 3-12x44. It seemed dishonest, so I still have not bought that old Diavari.

I will say that I sent in an older, like new, Conquest 4.5-14x44 that had a blemish on the inside of the lens, and it took way longer to get my replacement scope, than it should have. I was dealing with the technician that actually inspected the scope. He said they did not have any V4's with the #20 reticle, but they would send me a different scope with a different reticle. I chose the #94 reticle, and it took 6 months for them to send the new scope to me. That may be part of the reason I don't buy the old Diavari as well. This was last year, so my experience was not stellar. I'm wondering if they are going downhill fast?

I Call BULLSHÏT.

Maybe Pstimacberg sounded like a less than favorable German name.

Thats unfortunate. I will stay clear of zeiss. Ill continue with swaros. Seems they need to honor their word and not turn into an insurance company denying claims.