All my scopes are Leupolds except one Zeiss and one Weaver Grand Slam.

Bought a used VxIII 1.5-5x, and had some problems with the windage turret being very hard to adjust. Mailed the scope to the local Leupold service centre (20miles away) and received it back with new turrets, new front lens, pressure tested and internals readjusted. And all for free. WOW!!

I am a Leupold man for life now.

Ian

Unlike most of you I have talked to Weaver customer service & she tried to talk to me but since I did not speek or understand Eboli neither of us understood anything other then $25.00 service charge. Maybe they will move their customer service to India from south Georgia where we can understand the rest of the we just screwed you message. This was on a brand new v10 that would not focus. I have several "T" series that are great.

I currently own three Leupolds and have no complaints with them.....that said there's one thing about them that does bother me.....if they're so darn good why are so many reporting having had to have them repaired? I've also owned a lot of (dirt cheap) Tascos and have never had to send one back for repairs ever!!!!!.....Same for Bushnell!

The 2 day air shipment was promised but it ended up being a ground shipment. Due to arrive on the 4th. I was called and told of the error so I did not have to chase anyone down this time and I also have a tracking number so something from Meade is headed my way.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
I currently own three Leupolds and have no complaints with them.....that said there's one thing about them that does bother me.....if they're so darn good why are so many reporting having had to have them repaired?

You beat me to it, Vapo!! I keep seeing all these testimonials as to the rapidity and lack of cost of Leupold customer service. Presumably every one of those folk testifying to that has had to send a scope back to Beaverton for repair.

I still use Leupolds for some of my hunting rifles, but I long ago quit using them for competition. Got tired of having to send them in every year to get the elevation mechanisms repaired. The repairs were free and quick, but how much can a competitor trust a scope that has been repaired 3 or more times by the maker? In competition you have to make frequent adjustments as conditions change, so you need relible, sturdy, adjustment systems. MY Leupolds didn't have such.

(Will say at this point that I have never had to have a Leupold repaired that was only used for hunting....Without frequent elevation changes they seem to hold zero forever.)

The only other scope I have ever had to send in for repair was an old bottom-of-the-line Simmons with a broken crosshair that I got for free. Warranty repair cost me $10, so I didn't feel too badly done by.

Well, my experience has been, sending one to them that I bought already broken.. which I knew, and felt giving $40.00 for it was a fair price...

The others have consisted of reticle changes...

oh, and one 1955 made Leupold Alaskan 4 power.. just to have them check it out to make sure it was in good shape.. which they did, and said it was fine...

sorry to be in the minority but four people in my group have had trouble with leupold.six different scopes that wandered,one scope i had was a 12X target model that i night hunted coyotes with. while riding up aganist the seat of my truck would not hold zero,the truck did bounce a little but not bad we stayed on good dirt roads.when i called them they said it was not designed for that abuse.no help

Well,
It sounds to me like most of the problems with Leupold scope stories are user inflicted. My story starts with a 2.5x Leupy I had on a CZ 458. I was working on the stock and had the scoped barreled action out of it. I knocked it off on the floor and of course the only way it could land was on the ocular bell of the scope. Well, it bent the bell at the threads. I boxed it up and sent it off to Leupold. Nine days later I had it back fixed at no charge. Thats the reason you have to send them back to be fixed. Out of the millions sold there are a few instances/problems here that people mention. From what I can tell they are almost all from negligenct abuse. I have a pair of Zeiss binoculars that I want to send back and to be cleaned have the rubber armor replaced. I asked them how much it would be and they said to send them and they would give me an estimate. I wonder what that will run????? If they were Leupold, it would cost me shipping one way!

well this is not scopes, but taurus' customer service sucks. they may or may not fix it, and the reply is always "send it in and we will look at it." for those of us without an FFL, that is a $50 wager each time, and they will not discuss the gun with you while the have it. fool me once, shame on you, they ain't fooling me twice. their guns amy or may not be good - my PT99 has a lot of rounds through it - but their warranty sucks.

on the other hand, S&W's warranty service is fast, polite, and effective, and they sent a call tag without me asking for one.

FWIW.

quote:

Originally posted by Magnum Hunter1:
It sounds to me like most of the problems with Leupold scope stories are user inflicted. ...

I feel sure the few I sent back for a Repair were probably due to some "strange" impact. Let the old style Sling Swivels do their Magic Auto-Disconnect as you are way up a tree and the rifles(with the scopes still hanging on) do head down. Leupold fixed them at no charge years ago.

Sent a good many back to have the Reticles changed to the HEAVY Duplex and I'd often notice they replaced a bunch of stuff in the scope while it was there. Maybe they had gotten some strange impacts too, but they were working when they went in.

My only real Leupold complaint is they decided against offering the Illuminated Reticle as an Upgrade. For those of us with a whole bunch of scopes, it sure would have been nice if they would have done that. Even if they had charged $100-$150 for the Upgrade, I would have had a few done.

I do hear they have changed their Warranty Policy a couple of times. Apparently they will now charge you if you send one back to have them Check it out and they find nothing wrong with it. Hasn't happened to me, but a call I made to them a few years ago left me with that impression.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
I currently own three Leupolds and have no complaints with them.....that said there's one thing about them that does bother me.....if they're so darn good why are so many reporting having had to have them repaired? I've also owned a lot of (dirt cheap) Tascos and have never had to send one back for repairs ever!!!!!.....Same for Bushnell!

Vapo,

I read very few posts, maybe two in the last 5 years, by guys having factory warranty issues with Leupolds where they must return them for warranty service.
But there a number of guys posting about damage done to Leupolds through having horses fall on them, dropping rifles off cliffs crushing the scope, and other owner caused damage. These guys get new scopes in return, no money required by the owners.
The major number of posters sending scopes back, are guys like me sending Leupold scopes in to their Custom Shop for reticle changes, parallax changes, and Turret installation. And, the guys post about the GREAT service they have received in the deal; like everything I have sent in for changes has been back at my house two weeks after sending it in. That's all the way from Beverton, Oregon to the boondocks in Michigan.
And, I have sent back 9 scopes for the services I mention above, reticle changes, parallax adjustments and turrets.
I know of no other scope maker that provides all of these services. Leupold does these services with alacrity too; none of this stuff like I read about other scope makers taking a year to make a scope fix.
Also, it's because of Leupold's lifeftime warranty, that other scope makers have gotten on borad with similar lifetime warranties.
But, none of the other scope makers provide the aftermarket services that Leupold does; reticles, parallax changes, Turret Installation, custom scope colors, and scope personalization with owners initials put on the scope.

Don

DMB thats pretty much what I was trying to say. If I had a Tasco go south, I'd just trash it. I had a Tasco rubber armored spotting scope give up the ghost. I tossed it in the trash can. To be honest I really did not want a "repaired" Tasco after I saw what went bad (three microscopic screws in the power adjustment system). It was junk to start with and ended up the same.

This whole subject is kind of like arguing religion. "True Believers" of any opinion can't be influenced by facts or logic. That's why it is called a 'belief".

Anyway, Leupold is still in business after about 50 or 60 years, maybe more, so that should make everyone happy, I guess.

It IS worthwhle to note that to stay in business, one has to at least break even in the income/outgo area. That leads me to suspect that the Leupold customer service is NOT free. It is just added to everyone's initial price, whether they end up needing/using it or not. It is, in effect, like buying insurance without getting kissed by the salesperson first. (I wonder how much less Leupolds would cost if the "service insurance" was optional?)

The scope finally arrived after a long wait. It was the correct model also. They received it July 16 and it should not have taken this long to ship another one to me but I would not have been very upset if they would have just returned a call from all the messages that I had left on the voice mail system that always included the RGA number and my name and phone number. They fact that I was intentionally ignored is what got me steamed the most. I got it mounted and hope to shoot this weekend to make sure the adjustments work as they should for a target scope or for any scope really. It should move 10 clicks and back and be right on zero again.

I had a very bad experience with Meade Optics as well. About 15 years ago I bought a Simmons scope for one of my rifles (this was before Simmons became a part of Meade). It was a 6-18x40 model manufactured in the Phillippines, which I think were better quality than the current Chinese junk. Last year I noticed the plug on the power adjustment ring had fallen out, which caused the nitrogen gas to leak. Otherwise the scope was in perfect working order.
I decided to send the scope in, thinking it would be a simple fix. Replace a few O-rings, recharge with gas, and return it. Wrong...About a week after I sent it in I got a post card in the mail saying they would repair or replace it within two weeks. Over a month passed by and I finally got tired of waiting so I called them. After waiting on hold for over half an hour I spoke to a representative who told me my scope was "broken" and they would send a replacement which was conveniently on back order at the time. I waited for another month, then called them again. After another half hour wait on hold I demanded a substitute replacement, which they said was in stock and they would ship immediately. Over two months passed and still nothing. They had also cashed my check for return postage several months prior to this, so I was getting pretty upset by this time. I called them again, and now they said the substitute was on back order but the original replacement was in stock...
This whole fiasco started in late December of last year and I FINALLY received my replacement scope this past July, which I wasted no time in selling. Over seven months of waiting is inexcuseable. I've upgraded most of my scopes to Nikon and I have one Leupold. I simply want nothing more to do with Meade Optics or any of their product lines.

i would venture to say that the majority of broken scopes get that way because people who dont know what they are doing when mounting them.

When I was 12 years old I bought a 1963 Shooter's Bible.

In it are 4X Leupold for $60

They are worth ~$120 now.

% compounded interest = year root [new price/ old price] = 44 year root [$120/$60] = 1.6%

Most guns in that book have also appreciated but at ~ 3%, with Colt 1873s faster and bolt action shotguns slower.

The other brand scopes have not done as well as Leupold: Bushnell, Weaver, Redfield, Mossberg, Lyman, and Stoeger.

Unertl and Kahles have done as well as Leupold.


But money is not the important thing that cheap Asian scopes waste, it is the time and enthusiasm they waste.

This is my last Weaver for sure. Way too much trouble with Meade and time missed at the range.