Optics warranties. Worth it or not?

[yotebuster]

I was reading cactusjacks post on his bushnell pistol scope and it got me thinking. I didn't want to hi jack his thread so I thought I'd start another. I definitely am impressed by the idea of vortex warranty or any no fault warranty for that matter, I have a few of their products and have used many more of them. My only beef with their warranty is that I feel like its at the expense of quality. When I was in college I worked for a sporting goods store in ND called scheels. It's the largest sporting goods store in the Midwest and growing extremely fast. They have an extremely good business plan and have put sportsmans and gander mountain out of business in most of the areas they are in. They have scheels branded stuff just like cabelas etc. Any scheels product has a no fault warranty on it like vortex. I was talking with the upper management that are in on the development of that stuff about how they can afford to do it. He said essentially you upsale a lower quality product to the same cost as a higher quality product. For instance. Our best scheels spinning rod was $199. It had a no questions asked warranty. I bought a couple while working there at cost. Our cost. $38. They can return one 5 times and still break even on it. Compare that rod to a $199 st. Croix and there's no comparison, but the warranty sold the scheels rod 9 times out of 10. Are most people fishing (in our case glassing) at a high enough level to notice a difference? Doubtful. For that person the warranty is worth the money. In my opinion you are getting a lesser product for the money without a doubt. I have a our of vortex for my neck Binos. I best the absolute sh!t out of them when crawling Etc. I know that I could've gotten better glass in a swaro bino if same money (not quite comparable because the swaros were more but you catch my drift) but I'm willing to give up quality in a neck bino for warranty. In my opinion I'm not hand holding a bino steady enough to know the difference and if (most likely "when") I wreck them I can send them in for a new pair! Whether or not thats a deal breaker is up to you. If you absolutely positively need the best fishing rod/15's etc money can buy then I think you need to go with the g loomis or the swaros. If you deal with paying slightly more for an 80% product knowing that you're covered if an accident happens then I think the warranty product is the way to go. What are your guys' thoughts?

[azelkhunter2]

My take.....I would like to think at almost 50 yrs old I have learned a few things over the yrs...I like most was living paycheck to paycheck in my younger yrs and bought what I could afford at the time. ( yellow front ) binos ect....As I made more money I started buying better quality products. Apx 20 yrs ago I started guiding for well know outfitter a few times a yr. Now I spend about 200 days a yr in the field and I can tell you without a doubt there is NO substitute for quality. If you factor in your time / gas / food ect and all the other things that go into a hunt...Time away from family/ holidays the list goes on and on why take a chance on the animal of your dreams with lesser quality gear. I have seen time and time again hunts go sideways because of a rifle scope / bino / gear failure. And it's not just optics it's all your gear... Only one time in over 20 yrs have I had a bino fail. I have clients every yr you suffer a problem with gear that has a no fault policy.....Bottom line....saving money is great till it does not work when it counts the most

[ThomC]

The price of things is the same on everything. The company that sells stuff is always making a profit. Whatever the traffic will bear. A Cadillac wheelbearing is the same bearing as the Chevy bearing but it will cost more if you get it at the Caddy dealer. Also you have to weigh in how you treat stuff. If you are a ham handed clutz then you would be better off with a good warranty although most warranties have a clause about abuse. If you are a loser ( you are always loosing your stuff) then a warranty wont do you any good. Also when you ask an opinion on the internet you will get many different answers. So, basically you have to get stuff that fits your situation. Part of the fun is buying more stuff and trying it all out. You can convince your wife that it is just like buying shoes and she will understand.

[sherman]

My take is simple I will loose a arm before I let my vx3 touch the ground. My wife knocks a scope every year and wants to use my stuff and of course I let her (she has never rock checked my scope/gun). But this year I loaned out a gun with a vx3 on it and the lady rolled down a mountain about 10 feet and didn't even leave a mark on the scope depends on the person

[cactusjack]

ThomC said price is the same on everything. Compared ball bearings. It can be true but it also is false. Materials used can look the same but hardness and purity and tolerances all effect the price and quality. My DDLES 9mm glock mag Ar15 was supposed to be milled out of 7075, well when I noticed galling where the bcg struck the mag catch I spoke with them. No answer. Fast forward a couple months. They closed. New owners. They threw away lots of partially milled lowers that the prior owner used 6061 to save $ on materials and machine time. Quality costs more money.

[yotebuster]

Interesting insight. I think we are all on the same page. It really sounds like we mostly have the same opinions on it. I plinko'd my 15 SLC's down through a rock pile last year on a NM elk hunt. It was my fault. Didn't tighten the pistol grip clamp screw. I sent them in and they replaced the lenses, $250. I think that's fair since I broke them. Would it have been free if they were kaibabs? Likely. Am I willing to go back to kaibabs in this stage of my life? Nope. My only compliant was they took 6 weeks. I was really frustrated with that.

[trphyhntr]

I buy stuff because it's good quality and not the warranty. I've never bought anything at all because of the warranty. I also don't expect a company to fix something I broke. Everyone wants stuff for free now. I saw someone on here the other day saying they bought vortex because the warranty was better than Swarovski. My sides still hurt from laughing

[oz31p]

My take.....I would like to think at almost 50 yrs old I have learned a few things over the yrs...I like most was living paycheck to paycheck in my younger yrs and bought what I could afford at the time. ( yellow front ) binos ect....As I made more money I started buying better quality products. Apx 20 yrs ago I started guiding for well know outfitter a few times a yr. Now I spend about 200 days a yr in the field and I can tell you without a doubt there is NO substitute for quality. If you factor in your time / gas / food ect and all the other things that go into a hunt...Time away from family/ holidays the list goes on and on why take a chance on the animal of your dreams with lesser quality gear. I have seen time and time again hunts go sideways because of a rifle scope / bino / gear failure. And it's not just optics it's all your gear... Only one time in over 20 yrs have I had a bino fail. I have clients every yr you suffer a problem with gear that has a no fault policy.....Bottom line....saving money is great till it does not work when it counts the most

Holy crap. I haven't hear of yellow front in 20 years

[cactusjack]

I don't only look at price or warranty. I want quality but nobody make a perfect anything. There are flaws that show up with use. I want products where the company that made them stands behind them. I own several leica products and love them. Their warranty isn't as big a factor because they are more of a botique producer. Smaller numbers. I have had things break not under warranty and gladly paid to get them fixed. The beauty of vortex's warranty in my opinion, is I can have my children use my optics and not be on edge, worried that they might break them. I loan my viper 15s to lots of people when they take their kids out. When the kids glass they become a hunter not just a shooter. I wouldn't loan out my non warranty stuff. Many of those people that have borrowed them, have since bought optics for their kids.

[firstcoueswas80]

The problem with the Vortex warranty is you are LIKELY going to use it. Where as you by Swaros/Leica/Zeiss etc you're not as likely to need it.

[azelkhunter2]

Not likely to use but Will use it over and over....

[firstcoueswas80]

Not likely to use but Will use it over and over....

Agreed, I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt.

[Antmo23]

I use and support G. Loomis and Zeiss. And Not because of the warranty.

[cactusjack]

I had more problems with my Nightforce stuff then I have had with Vortex. Not just me but I have had to send stuff back for customers. The problem dealing with them is it is never their fault. The times I have had problems, it was due to things being out of spec. Nightforce never has made something with problems, just ask them. I like their stuff, but hate dealing with them.

 

All brands of anything will have problems, how they deal with the problems is what Im interested in.

[creed_az_88]

There are the products with the both of both worlds like the cabelas euro hds. No questions asked warranty but you likely wont need to use it becasue meopta builds a quality European product that's stout. I recently dropped my 12x50 euro hds and they hit really really hard on the concrete. This happened right in the middle of my rifle hunt. I used them for the rest of my hunt and I could tell that there was the slightest bit of misalignment with them. It wasn't much but I could notice it when I took my eyes out of them and I went slightly cross-eyed. I let a few people look through them during the hunt and each time people commented on how awesome they were. They never even noticed the problem. I took them to cabelas the next week and they replaced them for me no questions asked, even though they themselves couldn't see any problem with them. I guarantee if the Chinese glass that I've owned In the past(vortex) was to hit the concrete as hard as my euro hds hit the concrete, they would have been useless for the rest of the hunt. I bought the euro hds for the quality of their glass, but the warranty that comes with them is just as good as anything else on the market and may be even better since you can stop by the store and do an exchange if necessary.