I seem to recall reading a thread on here about Korth Canada not doing warranty work on leupolds purchased at Bass Pro. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Please don't flame me too hard, I did use the search function, but found nothing. My search skills are weak, powerful weak.
Leupolds at Bass Pro
- Thread starter Gillshot
- Start date
The "word" from Korth:
Leupold & Stevens Inc. in conjunction with Korth Group Ltd. of Okotoks, AB would like to advise all prospective purchasers of Leupold & Stevens Inc. product that effective immediately the only products covered by our warranty in Canada will be products purchased through authorized Leupold dealers and supplied by our authorized importer, Korth Group Ltd. A list of authorized dealers is available at the Korth Group website at www.korthgroup.com. Any products not purchased through authorized dealers will have the product warranty voided. If Korth Group Ltd. agrees to perform the functions of warranty or service then appropriate service charges will apply.
Bottom line is, if Korth is not supplying Bass Pro Canada then you are not going to get warranty work through them. You may end up with either 1) having to go back and deal with Bass Pro or 2) getting your scope back across the border, both ways, to get warranty work from the US.
So while Leupold's warranty is as stated, Korth wants to know where you got it from before THEY provide the warranty work/replacement.
And while Korth lists the SAIL stores and most Canadian Tires as "authorized dealers", Bass Pro is nowhere to be found on their list.
And "how could they tell" if they handled the scope or not? One look at the serial number, compared to their "import list files" and they will know if it came through them or not.
Leupold & Stevens Inc. in conjunction with Korth Group Ltd. of Okotoks, AB would like to advise all prospective purchasers of Leupold & Stevens Inc. product that effective immediately the only products covered by our warranty in Canada will be products purchased through authorized Leupold dealers and supplied by our authorized importer, Korth Group Ltd. A list of authorized dealers is available at the Korth Group website at www.korthgroup.com. Any products not purchased through authorized dealers will have the product warranty voided. If Korth Group Ltd. agrees to perform the functions of warranty or service then appropriate service charges will apply.
Bottom line is, if Korth is not supplying Bass Pro Canada then you are not going to get warranty work through them. You may end up with either 1) having to go back and deal with Bass Pro or 2) getting your scope back across the border, both ways, to get warranty work from the US.
So while Leupold's warranty is as stated, Korth wants to know where you got it from before THEY provide the warranty work/replacement.
And while Korth lists the SAIL stores and most Canadian Tires as "authorized dealers", Bass Pro is nowhere to be found on their list.
And "how could they tell" if they handled the scope or not? One look at the serial number, compared to their "import list files" and they will know if it came through them or not.
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Old ones are no problem. The cut off was somewhere around 2010 (IIRC) when it was announced that from that point forward if you bought a grey market scope that bypassed the Canadian distributor (Korth) who is also the warranty center you were on your own. Well, not exactly on your own because Leupold would still fix it if you sent it stateside. That is going to take permits or dealer support.
For those shopping for used scopes, or wondering if they are affected a call to Korth with the serial# will answer that. It is a sure way to find out if it is a counterfeit as well.
The "vast" majority of used Leupold scopes in Canada are covered by Canadian warranty. Only the newer models brought by BassPro sine 2010 are of a concern and to be honest those don't amount to that many units (inside source at Leupold). If it's a Vari X or VX III then your covered. Also since Leupold optics rarely fail this is not that big of a concern. Phil.
That was me who started that thread, and yes you are correct: Korth does not support things bought from Bass Pro, because they don't recognize Bass Pro as an authorized dealer.
I spoke with Korth on the phone and they told me to send it to them, but when I did that, someone else returned it to me and told me about their policy, saying that the person on the phone made a mistake.
I escalated it up to their management, and they were kind enough to pay for more than my shipping costs, but I had to take it back to Bass Pro.
I spoke with Korth on the phone and they told me to send it to them, but when I did that, someone else returned it to me and told me about their policy, saying that the person on the phone made a mistake.
I escalated it up to their management, and they were kind enough to pay for more than my shipping costs, but I had to take it back to Bass Pro.
nomad 68
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
This is my only real gripe with Leupold, the greasy deal they made with Korth. For this to be any way close to fair for the consumer, Canadian prices should differ from US pricing by nothing other than the the exchange rates. If you compare the two, this is far from reality. I am a Leupold owner btw.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Sure glad you posted this. It's important to get the 100% wrong sunray-esque answer out of the way early on. If your scope wasn't imported through Korth, you're not getting your warranty work done in Canada which, for all intents and purposes (thanks to the difficulty in importing and exporting scopes) means you have no warranty.
happened to me with a redfield that was bought at bass pro in vaughn, they repaired it at korth but I received a heafty repair bill after the scope was repaired and if I would have known I would have just gone out and bought a new one and it would have cost me about the same as the repair bill did............ haven't bought a scope at bass pro since.
It makes no sense to me. If Leupold offers a lifetime, no-questions-asked warranty, then that's what you should get. Doesn't matter where, when, how you came about ownership - if it's broken, they fix it. It means that either Korth is not being refunded for the specific warranty work they perform for Leupold (they a get a lump sum or percentage of their imports), or they are deciding to punish Canadian owners of non-Canadian imported but otherwise Leupold-warranted optics for not buying through them. Either case is a black eye for Leupold.
I think it's more of a case of:
Leupold has taken the time and expense to get the correct permits etc to export their product from the US, meeting all the ITAR regulations etc.
They chose Korth, for whatever reason, to be their importer/distributor in Canada.
They are "punishing" owners who have bought their scopes through the "grey market", most probably at a lower price because they didn't pay for the correct export permits etc.
And yes, having to go through a single source importer/distributor does help jack up the price further.
I deal with Korth and you have the "list price" in US dollars, which "no doubt" has Korth's mark-up included. And while I don't know what that is, somewhere between 10 and 20% is probably "in the ballpark" (to pay the import fees, shipping to them etc - should be no duties due to NAFTA and "their cut"). Then there is the "currency surcharge" to convert the US price to Canuck bucks.
Then their is the shipping to the seller and the retail mark-up.
Leupold just want's to make sure that 1) their scopes were "legally" imported and 2) that everyone in the "food chain" got paid.
There is not a great deal of profit to be made at the store level on Leupold scopes - because of cost by the time it gets to the store if they were marked up at the same percentage as just about every other brand, nobody would buy them.
So it really sounds like Leupold is protecting the market by not letting "Bob" smuggle in a couple of cases of scopes from the US and drive the price down to the point where the "legal sellers" can not afford to sell the product.
And obviously Bass Pro is not sourcing from Korth but instead just "sending them up" with the rest of the crap they send up to the Canadian stores. And because of that Leupold is making BP deal with any warranty liability since they must be pocketing significantly more from the sale of a Leupold than any "legal" Canadian retailer can.
(edited to correct information - Cabela's DOES source from Korth, Bass Pro does not)
Leupold has taken the time and expense to get the correct permits etc to export their product from the US, meeting all the ITAR regulations etc.
They chose Korth, for whatever reason, to be their importer/distributor in Canada.
They are "punishing" owners who have bought their scopes through the "grey market", most probably at a lower price because they didn't pay for the correct export permits etc.
And yes, having to go through a single source importer/distributor does help jack up the price further.
I deal with Korth and you have the "list price" in US dollars, which "no doubt" has Korth's mark-up included. And while I don't know what that is, somewhere between 10 and 20% is probably "in the ballpark" (to pay the import fees, shipping to them etc - should be no duties due to NAFTA and "their cut"). Then there is the "currency surcharge" to convert the US price to Canuck bucks.
Then their is the shipping to the seller and the retail mark-up.
Leupold just want's to make sure that 1) their scopes were "legally" imported and 2) that everyone in the "food chain" got paid.
There is not a great deal of profit to be made at the store level on Leupold scopes - because of cost by the time it gets to the store if they were marked up at the same percentage as just about every other brand, nobody would buy them.
So it really sounds like Leupold is protecting the market by not letting "Bob" smuggle in a couple of cases of scopes from the US and drive the price down to the point where the "legal sellers" can not afford to sell the product.
And obviously Bass Pro is not sourcing from Korth but instead just "sending them up" with the rest of the crap they send up to the Canadian stores. And because of that Leupold is making BP deal with any warranty liability since they must be pocketing significantly more from the sale of a Leupold than any "legal" Canadian retailer can.
(edited to correct information - Cabela's DOES source from Korth, Bass Pro does not)
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Sorry, my bad.
At least Cabela's in Barrie Ontario is listed as an authorized dealer.
If in doubt anyone can go to the Korth site and look up authorized Leupold dealers. You put your postal code in and it lists all the authorized dealers within 100 kms (or whatever).
At least Cabela's in Barrie Ontario is listed as an authorized dealer.
If in doubt anyone can go to the Korth site and look up authorized Leupold dealers. You put your postal code in and it lists all the authorized dealers within 100 kms (or whatever).
The way it's being presented, it sounds much more of a Korth decision and not that of Leupold. That's mind-boggling from a brand reputation point of view - they've handed over their image to Korth. And, to be clear, I hold nothing against Korth - Leupold has clearly either allowed or forced them into this position. Does the average scope purchaser even know who Korth is? It's a reactionary attempt to address what is essentially a supply-chain problem. It's just a dumb move.
