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

My black girlfriend wants to know who does your corn rows.

Surprised to hear the Ruger bashing. I've owned a lot of Rugers and no problems. And honestly don't remember reading anything about bad Rugers. Now kimber on the other hand...

Kimber kicked Black Shart to the custodian shack and QC went up sharply. LMAO

About 5 years ago I sent in a bushnell for a repair of focus adjustment, about a month later I get an email stating it cant be fixed but for $79 plus shipping they could send me one of their cheapest model rimfire scope. I looked the scope up on midway and that was their price also. I paid around $350 for the scope I sent in several years earlier and was now discontinued. I just had them send it back, took off the caps for a backup and trashed the scope. Haven't bought a new bushnell since.

Ruger QC is horrible.

Handguns?

Bicycles?

Ruger might be no. 1 for return labels with UPS.

UPS, USPS, & FedeX bid for the shipping on Ruger returns.

Amazon eyeballing them too.

But.... I've never known Ruger to tell you that you that you've dropped your product off a 10 story building or simply mistreated it in everyway possible.

My bud's rangefinder was within the warranty period, but he was told the unit was subjected to extreme cold temps,,,, what a crock.

That's my point, warranty it or nor not. Just don't insult with lame brain excuses for the failure. Either the unit is warranted or not. Not some BS.

Just counting quickly on my fingers, without checking for more, I came up with 17 Ruger firearms I have, including pistols, revolvers, rifles and one shotgun. Some I have had and have used for over fifty years. I've never had a problem with any of them. Using the same, count on my fingers, methodology, I come up with 16 Leupold scopes. That includes two fixed power handgun scopes that go on magnum revolvers and one fixed 16X, but mostly variables, a couple of them on hard kicking, light rifles. I've only had one Leupold that, new, wouldn't work for me. It was a brand new, VX-III, 2 1/2 - 8. I put it in the mail to them on a Thursday afternoon and put it back on the rifle the following Tuesday evening, no more problems.

Similar to the odor of your QWEEF?

My experience with Ruger customer service was positive enough that it made me not care about the QC.

I've had terrible luck with Leupold scopes I've sent back no less than six of them. Most recently, a $3400 scope made three trips to them over the course of a year for wandering zero and inability to track. Once they told me it was fine and sent it back without doing anything but opening it up and cleaning the glass. Second trip back they told me they "fixed" the problem and replaced a few parts. Upon receipt, it was obviously not fixed and continued to have a wandering zero and failed to track.. The third time, I was a bit irate. I demanded a replacement scope. The guy on the phone told me I didn't know what I was talking about and it was a rifle problem or a shooter problem. I informed him that I had tried the scope on four rifles with the same result, meanwhile my S&Bs didn't have a problem on those rifles. I also stated that the shooting awards I possess and satisfied students I instruct would suggest that it is neither problem he suggested. He stated he would personally shoot it and if the problems exist, he would replace it with a brand new scope.

It took him three months to "test it" due to snow on their range, go figure? Finally he called and stated I was indeed right, the scope wouldn't track and the zero wandered. He also admitted that the two previous times the scope was only "visually inspected" according to the records. He said they would replace the erector system and have it back in three days. I reminded him that he promised to replace it if it was found to be defective...at this point I'd spent $100 in shipping it to them three times and I'd been chasing my tail with hundreds of dollars worth of ammunition only to have Leupold tell me there was nothing wrong with the scope and it was me. He then stated they didn't have any product to replace it with and I'd have to wait another three months for my $3000+ dollar paperweight to finally be useable. I stated that I wanted a new scope and wanted it fast.

Three days later the same scope came back to my door with a fresh set of ring marks down through the anodizing. To his credit, it did work...finally. I do not recommend Leupold optics anymore. Its a crap-shoot and you may, or may not get customer service. You may get called a liar and belittled for questioning whether or not they could have possibly made a lemon.

Bushnell is now owned by Vista Outdoors...same folks that own RCBS and who now don't honor the famous RCBS no-nonsense lifetime warranty.

In Canada there are only two factory service centers.Leupold and Bushnell. I got sucked on a used Bushnell Scopechief. Scopechief at the time was Bushnell top line, comparable to Leupold's VariX-III. Looking back on it, I paid twice as much as should have. My bench technique is very consistent, so if a scope doesn't hold zero, and wanders, I know it. It's confirmed by scope swapping. This early 80s scope had issues so off it went, three month later I get it back. After some more range time, the wanderlust came back. Off it went again. This time it came back saying it was too old, they didn't have the parts, and sent me another scope as well.. I glanced at it, the caps had that Bushnell logo that you find on the cheap Banner series.I was hoping for something better. It became a spare. The canoe rifle went for a swim, no problem to that veteran of two world wars but the cross hairs of the rebuilt Weaver K4 60B lay on the floor. I dried the rifle and put the spare on. This year my curiosity got the better of me ,so I checked what scope was on the canoe rifle, turns out they sent me a Scopechief 4x from the early '70s. I can't complain, that scope is considerably better than any fixed power Leupold of that era.It's comparable to the much new FX series. I take it they had reconditioned it. However Bushnell is saying lifetime is 30 years now.

In Canada Leupold service is handled by the distributor, and I have never heard or read a bad word about them. Quick and excellent. But Leupold cost more in Canada than in the States. Twice as much as comparable models of other brands.

Everything is terrible and challenging.....

So far I've never experienced what you guys are talking about. Most of my scopes have held up to my use of them.

Last dealings I've had with Bushnell, I had bought a 2 x 7 Engage and it has issues, that didnt focus well whatsoever.
I posted an evaluation on it negatively... I got a PM from someone at Bushnell asking me to contact them.. so I did.

They offered to take it back and offer me another version, any one I picked... straight up trade..
So I picked a 2.5 x 10.... that worked out well. I gave them a good review on the campfire on that one.. I also asked about purchasing one in 4 x16, and the 6 x 24... they let me purchase both of those at a very low dealer price, which I did... I love them and have had no issues whatsoever.

Since Bushnell now owns the Tasco name, I had a 4 x 16 on a rimfire that went south. I pulled it from the rifle at the range before heading home.
Was having a bug up my ass kind of day, I actually tossed it out the window heading down I 5 doing 70 mph.... I then felt guilty about "littering" and went back and picked it up after looking for it for 15 minutes. It set on a shelf banged to hell and back for 6 months... one day cleaning, I figured why not send it back to Bushnell anyway, what have I got to loose? Its junk anyway. Just sent it in, and within a week got a package back from them. I figured they just sent my scope back, after laughing their asses off.... it sat back on the shelf unopened for another 6 months. I opened it to just throw it out, and to my surprise they had sent me a Rebuilt Scope of the same model. I mounted it back on another rim fire and it is still giving me fine service. That was 7 or 8 years ago.. Never saw a bill for it. And the scope was from Tasco before Bushnell took them over.

Bought a broken 3 x Leupold late 60s vintage, from a guy at our local Bi Mart. He was trying to trade it in for a 4 power Simmons, that cost $40. So I asked him what he wanted for it, and he tells me $40. SO I took it and gave him $40, he bought a rimfire 4 power Simmons to put on his 7 Mag. Probably told all of his doper friends, About screwing over some dumbass at Bi Mart by selling him a broken Scope. I got it home and sent it up to Portland to Leupold. They call me in 3 days and tell me they don't have parts for it, so they suggest trading it for a 4 power.. I counter with how much would it cost me to upgrade to a 6 power. I was asked to hold for a second, she came back on, that she had a new 6 power with a dot reticle sent in, that had a reticle change and they had put the wrong reticle in it. So if I'd take the 6 x with a dot reticle...even swap. Still have that doing service 20 years later on top of a 243.

Maybe I am living right, who knows.

The way the world is going tho nowadays, I figure a lifetime warranty is open to interpretation any more. Times certainly are NOT what they use to be.
I think we hunters got spoiled. scope companies have finally figured out that other industries are getting away with crappy service. Last frig I bought my wife that she just had to have at Home Depot, the sales lady told me that to expect a service life of anything on their floor, to be just 3 to 5 years.. regardless of price of the Frig.
Even the independent guys who delivered it told me the same thing...Told me I had a good one... this one ought to last 5 years or so...
The real expensive ones have a shorter service life, due to all the extra features...

its the world we live in, because they can get away with it.

DWT2:

Just making sure I read it right: Bushnell sent you a replacement scope for an old scope they couldn't repair?

The various times I've had to use Leupold CS, they've been great. Just wish I didn't have to send new scopes in for tracking and rtz problems. Have an old 1-4 gloss that just lost zero to send in. Worried that I'll get a new replacement that won't look as nice on a gloss/walnut 336.

I haven't had to use Bushnell CS. Currently running a few older Japan made gloss models on levers and "woods" rigs, a couple elites, and a couple LRHS.

I have two Leupolds that need to go back for service. I am too lazy to do it right now.

I've had a number of Leupolds break but they always took care of it. I had a Hawke break. They overnighted me a new one- still going strong.

Had some incredibly bad experiences with Bushnell in the 90s .I gave them a rest. Eventually night an Elite 6500, it broke on a deer hunt and ruined it. They made it right. I've had a number of other scopes crap out and had no issues with customer service from any of these other makers. Never had a Schmidt or Leica break so can't comment on the bad experiences folks have had

On their American rifles?

Golly gee.

A $400 gun. May have some rough machine marks.

It’ll shoot lights out.

I’m happy with the couple I’ve got.

I have sent in 2 Leupolds that had failed and they were sent back fixed for no charge within a month. Years ago sent in 2 redfields and had to send the second one back they left a greasy finger print on the inside of the glass. But they treated me right and fixed them both. I will not even look at another Vista owned product. I would rather cuss the lousy adjustment on a Leupold and have a real warranty if it does fail.

Yeah, I had a bit of chuckle when I realized what they had done. The scope they gave me was maybe a decade older. Scopechief. ,a straight 4x for unrepairable 3x9. This was the Canadian service center., just outside Toronto. I have sent a 1.5x6 4200 in, it came back fixed. I bought it used, it had been on a 375H&H. Good service but slow.

I was talking tools with a mechanic many years ago. I said Craftsman had a great warranty. He replied what good is that if the tool breaks when you are using it. That is many more times true for scopes.