O.K., I’m a long time loyal Leupold customer. I’ve lost count of how many of their scopes I have. Their customer support and service is the gold standard. But I read about the supperior clarity and low light capabiliy of the high end European scopes. That has me considering the purchase of some upscale European glass with illuminated reticles.

How is the customer support from Zeiss, Swarovski, Leica, and Schmidt & Bender. Which of these has world class customer support to go along with their world class prices and which may make good glass but take your money and run with poor after sale service. Who of these is the best in this regard and who is the worst?

Brazos_Jack

Stick with Leupold.

I wouldn't know, I have never had to send a Swaro or S&B back to the makers....

I hear stories of people sending 25 year old Swaro bins back for service. The bins are returned within a matter of weeks, looking like brand new and no charge is made.

quote:

Originally posted by Claret_Dabbler:
I wouldn't know, I have never had to send a Swaro or S&B back to the makers....

I hear stories of people sending 25 year old Swaro bins back for service. The bins are returned within a matter of weeks, looking like brand new and no charge is made.

Thanks Brian,

I knew my problem with asking about customer service for such high quality products is that they seldom need it. But I still want to know how I'll be treated if I do have a problem.

Several have reported great service from Swaro. Only one individual reported having experience with Zeiss and S&B and he had unsatisfactory experience with both. I haven't heard anything about Leica.

Swaro may become my go to high end scope company. Unfortunately, I am currently interested in a pair of binoculars with built in range finder and only Zeiss and Leica make one.

Brazos_Jack

I had one problem with a Zeiss scope. I returned it for repair and received a phone call from a department manager offering to send me a new scope to use till mine was repaired. Could not have been happier with the service. I have lots of European scopes but none of the others have ever needed repair. By the way the Zeiss was damaged in a fall. Till then it was flawless.

i had a set of leica binos that went goofy & they wouldn't honor any warranty, had a S&B telescope that the front lens fell out of and eventually they made it good, but it was along drawn out process. swaro on the otherhand has been more than excellent

I've experienced both Swaro and Leupold customer service. Swaro service is even superior to Leupolds and hopefully it won't be needed as often :0 .......................DJ

I have a bunch of European glass most of it is 25 years old or older because back then nobody came close to there stuff.

My old European stuff should all be worn out by now but it keeps on going.

I did wear out the rubber eye cups on a pair of Zeiss bino's once they sold me replacements over the phone. Had a problem with my 3-12x56 Swarovski scope a couple of years ago. They completly replaced and up dated the adjustment dials and the only thing it cost me was shipping to get it to them. That scope was 20 years old then.

I have half dozen Zeiss scopes, 3 Zeiss Bino's, a S&B scope, A Kahles scope, 2 Swaroveski scopes, A swarovski spotting scope, all have given zero problems.

I have had excellent customer service from Leupold, but also from Swarovski and Leica as well. No complaints with any of them.

Swarovski's customer service headquarters is in Rhode Island and Leica's is in New Jersey.

Sometimes (in my case, with a Swarovski binocular), they will need to send the article back to the factory in Europe to fix it, but I found that the turn around time was reasonable.

No problems yet with my Schmidt & Bender and Zeiss optics, so I don't know about their customer service. I hope it stays that way!

...my experience with leica's service department has been extremely positive...they replaced the rubber on my 10x42 ultravids within a week or so...and are tops in the camera industry in terms of supporting not only their current models (digital and film), but past (discontinued) models as well...

I have no beef w. Leupy -- I dont buy from them as they offer no LE discount and Zeiss and Swaro offer damn good discounts.

I have found Swaro (Rhode Island office) and Zeiss (Virginia office) to be beyond helpful. I've gotten to the point w. my Zeiss rep that we regulary converse via e-mail about shooting over the weekend.

While I do not own Leupy I have friends that do and have shot via some of their top glass. Good stuff for sure but I feel the Conquest is cripser on the edges (not sure of lowlight w. the Leupy) and the Swaro Z6 line is even better.

IMHO cant go wrong w. either of the 3. There certainly is a hell of a price difference between most Leupys and the Swaro Z6. Most of my scopes are Conquests. I feel best bang for the buck.

My apologies for getting off point.....Yep, I'm that ass tonite......

Leupold service is great. Swaro is better.
Zeiss, at least here in sweden, can be a little picky. Couldnt tell you about Kahles or SoB, I never had to use them.

As said, Swaro rules in, not just optics, but also in service.