Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Leupold vs. Burris

Wondering if any of you have sent your Leupold scopes back to have them loosen the power dial and objective rings?

That really is a great scope!

I've heard several reports of Burris dealing positively with their CS woes. Seems to me that they have mostly been fixed lately.

All,

My experience with Burris has been less than ideal. But then, I've only owned one ... and that was enough for me.

I bought a Burris rifle scope with my own money (rare for a gun writer) and it died most sincrely dead on it's first trip to the rifle range. Perhaps it was the hard-recoiling .223 Remington that did it in

Anyway, I shipped it back to Burris Customer Service with the receipt and warranty. They contacted me and wanted a little over fifty dollars to service the scope. I called and asked if that was an error; I was told, "Nope, that's the way it is."

I waited for a couple of days and called back again, just in case I accidently got a grumpy person on my first contact. Again, I was told that the charge to repair my scope that had seen the recoil of perhaps ten .223 rounds would be over fifty dollars. When asked for clarity, the person said, "Hey, we're busy here; if you want your scope fixed, send the money."

I wrote Burris and advised them that if they were that hard-up for money, they could keep my new scope with my compliments. They must have believed me because that's the last I heard of it ... I never received any reply.

So, Burris got my money, lost a customer and, even worse, I was an active gun writer at the time. I swore NEVER to mention a Burris product, even though the magazine had them as an advertiser and it would have been PC to have raved about Burris optics.

Frankly, I never wanted any of my readers exposed to such customer "service" treatment. I tend to me non-confrontational, so my reaction was to simply ignore the whole affair.

Deep down, I was, and still, offended by Burris Optics' approach to business. By being greedy and short-sighted, a CS agent lost my business and that of some of my readers ... forever.

Maybe I should have given the idiots at Burris another chance to screw me. Naw, I'm not quite THAT stupid.

Steve

PS. For the record, I have owned literally hundreds of Leupold products, most of which I paid for myself (again, RARE for a gun writer). I have never had a single Leupold rifle scope, pistol scope, binocular or spotting scope fail on me. Frankly, I know Leupold's Customer Service is excellent, because folks rave about it ... I, however, have never had a failure, so I've never had to deal with Leupolds CS.

PSS. That dealing with Burris still pisses me off. You could prolly tell!!!

Amen Dogzapper.....sounds like you and I had the same customer service manager, although I was a little more forceful with my replies to them. I would have given anything to have seen their face when they received my second letter along with the Leupold repair invoice.

That company can rot and burn down for all I care.

Friend Steve -

I too have had such bad service from Burris, I'll never do it again.

I killed one of their scopes, twice. Took less than one box of factory 300WM.

I can't like them at all and probably will NEVER purchase from them again.

When I moved to Colorado several years ago, I thought it would be "neat" to support a CO company and bought several Burris scopes. That idea last about a year before I had sold, traded or given every one of them away. The handgun scopes on Contenders, in particular, gave me fits along with the short eye relief on a 338-06 Mauser. I recall visiting their shop in Greeley a few times, asking about the status on repairs, and being underwhelmed as well.

I tested an illuminated EuroDiamond model about two years ago with the thought that I might use it on a bear hunt. It died on the first trip to the range -- and no, it wasn't the battery. On the plus side of the ledger, I have one Fullfield II riding atop a 300 WSM with Burris' version of the LR reticle. That one has performed as it should. The vast majority of my scopes, however, are Leupolds.

It is settled. There is no "Vs" to it. It is a no contest in favor of Leupold.

JW

Personally I've never had anything bad from Burris.

However owning a Leupold has never been a bad descision. Something is just satisfying knowing that you have a good piece of glass that is backed by an amazing warrenty and customer service.

Any product, any company, is no better than it's weakest link. Customer service is the one place NOT to have the weak link. If you piss off the customer, the customer who has already spent money with you, he will never be back.

My daddy, with whom I never had a good relationship, was right about one simple business axiom:

You can give a guy a lot of haircuts ... but you can only SCALP HIM ONCE."

Speaking as a humble citizen and a retired writer who will never write again, Burris SUCKS, JUST SUCKS in the extreme. It will be a very pleasant day in Purgatory before I will spend one more penny on a Burris product.

Burris can kiss my butt.

The only worse CS I've received was on a Pentex camera. I bought it for like $300 and the camera failed on the first hunting trip to Alberta (worse, I killed my biggest whitetail ... 178 B&C ... and was forced to record the kill on a throw-away Red Chinese camera). So I got back in the States and had it repaired by Pentex Service ... you guessed it, $200 bill.

And the same camera failed the following year in Alberta and I did not get a photo of my second-largest whitetail.

I put the Pentex camera on a fence post and gave it a .280 Ackley enema. Blew it all to Hell with a single 120 Ballistic Tip.

Pentex can kiss my ass, as well.

Steve

I dont like Burrises upgrade tactics."we dont make that model anymore therefore we dont have parts for it, but for a certain amount of $ we will upgrade you to the new model"


If a product has a lifetime warrenty you shouldnt have to pay extra money to get the new model if the dont stock parts for service!

i have/had maybe 50 of each. a leupold 6x42 and the leupold 3-9x50 made very favorable impressions on me for clarity and brightness, and i like the 2.5-8x's for there eye relief...in the variable compacts i prefer the burris for eye relief..IMO the 3-9x fullfield II is more crisp and brighter then the vari-x II in the 40mm, and in the 3(.5)-10 range, the signature has better light transmission then the vari x 111...i like the size and weight better of the 4.5-14 vari-x III better then the signature 4-16x, but i like its optics better and extra magnification... i have never had the misfortune of having to use either companies service department for scopes, but have sent 3 leupold bino's back over the years for collmination issues which were corrected at no charge to me, with exceptional turn around time...when it comes to politics, i sit in a camp, but not scopes !!

Scott, I agree with you that Burris has some fine optics. But when it comes to customer service they have completely dropped the ball. I called last week over a problem with binos and was told by two different people I would get a call right back. I didnt get a call from either so I called back a few days latter.
Tired of the old song and dance "we dont make that model anymore" when you buy a product that cost over $700 (with a lifetime or 30 warrenty)and they wont fix a minor issue, I'm done with them!

I have no beef with Burris customer service and like a previous poster said: Look through them both and make your decision there. I have 4 FFII's and have no complaints, although all of my "first string" rifles wear Leupolds.

With so many opinions on this thread, I just have no alternative but to add that I have nothing to say about this terribly, terribly weighty matter.

Carry on!

That's gotta be a first..

Not really, RD.

John B and others will tell you, unless you are on the masthead of a prominent hunting/gun rag, Leupold is pretty stingy with opening up a writer accounts even for LOANER scopes let alone "freebies".

Even then, they don't send product out like popcorn-

They have always been much harder to get a writer account with than say Bushnell, Redfield, or Burris.

Actually, I found that firms like Zeiss and Swarovksi were much more willing to send test samples than Leupold.

That sure was the case 15-20 years ago. It may have changed, but I doubt it.

I've got Pentax, Bushnell, Weaver, Burris, and Leupold on my rifles.

Burris earned my respect a few years ago. I was just back from a hunting trip and cleaning my rifle. My son, who was pretty young at the time, was "helping" me. He flipped the gun vise and the rifle flipped onto the concrete floor FFII-side down.

I sent the scope back with an explaination of what had happened. I noted that I'm a bit of a rifle junkie and that I had no brand loyalty. It wasn't a warranty issue so I'd not have held a grudge if they'd have done nothing or charged me for what they did do (although I'd likely have switched to Leupold at that point). A tech called me from the service dept a couple of weeks later and said that the tube was bent, and asked if I'd like him to replace with a used tube. I asked how much for labor and parts he said nothing. I asked how much for shipping he said nothing.

They sent it back as promised and the scope has been working great ever since. Certainly earned my respect and I'm going to buy another couple sometime soon. That having been said, I do like Leupold and trust them for my big hunting trips and put them on my best rifles.

I love the Burris Ballistic Plex though...

I have several Burris scopes on some hard kicking Big Bores, and have never had a problem with one of them. Excellent eye relief to boot. Can't comment on their service as I've never needed it.

Have only owned one Leupold and the eye relief wasn't great, which for me is an important factor. My second son has a VXII,3-9 X40 on his .338 Win Mag and has experienced magnum eyebrow more than once.

A good friend has recently switched from Leupold to Burris. His comment was that Burris offers a better product for the money and more recent Leupolds were shaking loose, especially the adjustments.

Perhaps both companies have changed their products somewhat, maybe Leupold is not as good as in the past and Burris is better... I dunno, But I have no complaints about Burris and I sure like the eye relief of 5" on my fixed 4X's.

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

I like both brands about equally as well, but Leupold has them beat hands down in the customer service department. Had a bad experience with Burris on a scope repair once, hopefully it was an isolated experience.