We to often hear about one's megative experiences with scopes, scope manufacturers and their service when there is a problem.
I thought I'd relate three positive experiences and give kudoos where kudoos are due.
BURRIS: My Burris 3-9 Rimfire, after untold 1000's of rounds through my Ruger 10-22, developed a problem; the reticule began a clockwise journey. I stopped shooting after it had journeyed 45 degrees. This was on a Thursday morning. I went home, filled out a Burris Service Req online, and dropped the broken scope in the Thursday afternoon mail. On Monday morning, the UPS truck delvered a new replacement-no charge.
LEUPOLD: A guy sold me his broken VXIII 2.5-8 for a song, even after I told him Leupold would repair it at no charge. I called Leupold to verify, they said send it in, and less than two weeks later, I received a new VXIII 2.5-8, again at no charge.
MINOX: My new Minox ZA5 3-15 was out of focus at 300 yards. I emailed Minox, they said send it in, I did, and shortly received a new scope and note of apology.
Good experiences and a suggestion. When these companies do these often over-and-above things for us, wouldn't it be a good idea to make a generous contribution to the NRA-ILA; a contributiob of equal value to the good service received?
Just a thought.
Happy New Year to all.

The only scope I have ever had fail was a Cabelas fixed 6 power. They gave me my money back.

Swarovski . I had been on a cold weather hunt and a seal had failed . The scope worked fine during the hunt though.

I sent the scope to Swarovksi and the next day they called to say that the seal had failed and to find out the conditions etc. They said it would be a few days to repair it and check it all out and QC it.

But IF I needed it to leave and go on a hunt the next day or very very soon, they would send me one down to use and deliver it overnight . I didn't need it that fast. I believe mine showed up repaired and ready to go in that same week.

How darn good is that ?

+1 on Swarovski. Nothing but great CS with them.

I had a Burris pistol scope fail on a deer hunt. The next time I was in Greeley I dropped it off at the Burris repair center and had the repaired scope back 4 days later in the mail. The letter inside the box said a lens fell and was repaired. Kudos to Burris

I’ve heard countless terrific stories about Leupold customer service. Two instances stand out for me personally as being “above and beyond” for customer service.

One was for a pair of binoculars I bought around 20 years ago. I used them real hard while guiding full time for about 15 of those years. During that time Leupold rebuilt them for free a couple times, including one time after they had been lost by the side of a river for a couple weeks in the rain. Earlier this year I sent them in to see if they could tune them up again. They said they no longer made parts for that model and sent a brand new pair, retailing for the twice the price of the pair I had sent in, with no questions asked.

The other experience that stands out was absolutely amazing customer service. I was getting ready for a trip to WY with a friend for prairie dog shooting and headed to the range for one last sight-in before leaving a few days later. It was a Sunday afternoon when I checked the rifle. The elevation was fine, but the group was a couple inches to the left of center. No matter how much I moved the scope to the right the shots kept going through the same group to the left. Even after going to the stops in both directions the group didn’t move at all. A couple benchrest shooters happened to be at the range and when I told them what was happening they told me the scope must have broken the “windage erector spring”. Since I was leaving in a few days and didn’t have a spare scope I assumed that rifle would have to stay home. One of the benchrest guys said I should call Leupold and see what they could do.

I was very skeptical it could be returned in time for the trip, but I figured I needed to send it in anyway so I called on Monday morning. The nice person on the phone said “Send it overnight and we’ll get it back to you for your trip”. It went out over-night on Monday and, believe it or not, I had it back (repaired and tested) by Wednesday in time to resight it and leave on my trip early Thursday. That means they could have only had the scope at their repair center for a few hours on Tuesday in order to get it shipped back to me by Wednesday. They offered to do this as if it were no big deal. I’m still over-whelmed that they would pull this off like it’s just regular business.

That’s terrific service and it makes me trust Leupold products even more, but the most important thing is that they build their products well enough that you can use them hard and it’s pretty rare that they have an issue. But in the unusual case that one of their products has a problem you can rest assured that they’ll do whatever they can to take care of you.

Kyler

I had a pair of Wind River Leupold binos fail

Leupold sent me a brand new pair


I had my Nikon Monarch 800 rangfinder fail

Nikon asked for $120 to replace with a new Monarch 1200

I have had such good luck with Leupold that I use not other scope for the most part.

Had a horse roll and break my 2x7 in half, sent it to Leupold wondering since it broke at the adjustment threads that they might fix it. Told them what happened and didn't expect the warranty to fix it...They sent me a new one within a week..

Client got excited over a 36 inch buck and twisted the eyepiece off my binocs that I lent him, Sent them to Leupold, got a new pair in 10 days and the fixed ones in a month..called and told them about it. They said, don't mess up our bookeeping, happy birthday and Merry Christmas!

The guarentee is good to any scope owner, not just the original owner for the life time of the scope. How can you beat that.

For a company that wants to stay in business getting to repair the failures is important.
They get to examine the defect, check the serial number and determine if there is some design or materials issue.
When they update their designs to eliminate the defects their operating costs go down over the long run.

LEUPOLD: I had a rifle with a 1.75 X 6 Vari-X III mounted on it shipped to me. Whoever packed it nodded off in the middle, and the scope arrived with a definite lick in the top, to the point the tube was warped. Also, the vertical hair was broken where it transitioned from coarse to fine below the horizontal hair.

I called Leupold and asked if they could repair the scope. The man asked me to read him the serial number, which I did. When I told him about the broken hair he said "The crosshair is broken? That should never happen, under any circumstances."

I was told to send it back. When I offered my credit card, he told me if he needed it he would call me. Two weeks later I got the scope back repaired, with a note that it had been returned to factory as new, with all the applicable warranty as well.

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BURRIS: Years ago I bought a Burris 6X HBR second hand that wouldn't hold zero. I sent it to Burris for repair. I got a catalog in the mail about three weeks later, with a letter explaining that although the scope was still in warranty and could be repaired, it would be time consuming, and since the scope was over 13 years old, they wanted to offer me the option of taking it out of service and replacing it.

I was told to take 75% off the retail price of anything in the catalog except the 6 X 24 Black Titanium, if memory serves. That one was available for 60% off...

I got a $535 scope for somewhere around $140...

As a guy who sold scopes for a bit, Leupold was always straight up with their service. And they were always very nice to me when dealing with them.

Customers though, have been different. I had a guy bring back a Burris something or other that he had on a hunt and it got bumped or something and a seal broke and the thing fogged up, making his rifle unusable. He drafted an epistle to Burris that included a threat to call his attorney and a demand that they reimburse him for the cost of the hunt; no shit.

Ok, I'll say it. Leica took care of a scope that had a touch of Schmutz on the inside of a lens. It appeared a bit of annodization had fallen onto the inside of a lens.

It was returned to me in under three weeks after a round trip to Germany.

Yes, it was a warranty item. Still, there was no hassle at all and the service was prompt and courteous excluding full shipping communication at all times.