Vortex Warrantee Experience

Ganderite

Ganderite

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Farm south of North Bay
Dropped by their office in Guelph with a pair of pistol red dots that did not work properly. One suddenly started shooting a 4 foot group, and on the other the switch would not change brightness levels.

I met Darryl, the red dot expert there. He politely showed me that the Venom sight has an automatic brightness setting, and when engaged, the manual changes do not work. As the male of the species, I do not read owners manuals....

As for the sudden loss of accuracy, it turned out that the mounting screws I had used were too short, and the sight had been held on with half a rev of thread and some LokTite.

But, to sooth my angst, he gave me a brand new red dot kit and took my old sight to put on his demonstration pistol.

He also gave me 2 Vortex hats, two beer cozies and a Vortex pen.

I have a number of Vortex scopes and red dots. Love the service.

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They replaced my optic doubler for my red dot for free after I accidentally dropped it even though it wasn't covered by the warranty. I had the new doubler expedited to me in two days. Vortex is excellent for service.
 
They should have good service, because most people I know who has tried vortex optics have needed warranty work.
 
I picked up a used Crossfire 3-9X40 a few years back. The thing wouldn't hold zero and I contacted Vortex. I suspect the scope had been abused before I got it but that didn't matter to Vortex. No questions asked, they sent me a new one which functions perfectly and I still have and rely on to put meat on the table. They are fantastic as far as I'm concerned.
 
I can't help but ask myself who pays for all that? Is it possible that the up-front purchase price has covered a number of replacements?? Or do they get money for their warranty issues from somewhere else?? Probably I am old and grumpy, but I do not believe that corporations like Vortex do stuff like that for free???
 
Potashminer said:
I can't help but ask myself who pays for all that? Is it possible that the up-front purchase price has covered a number of replacements?? Or do they get money for their warranty issues from somewhere else?? Probably I am old and grumpy, but I do not believe that corporations like Vortex do stuff like that for free???
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They get customer retention, and they get free advertising from happy customers.
 
I have two Crossfire II's, a Diamondback HP, two Vipers, a Viper HS, a Venom, and a Strike Eagle as well as a pair of Diamondback HD binos and a few each of their Pro and Hunter rings and even though I'm not kind to my stuff in the field, nothing has ever broken or let me down. I'm not a fan boy, but I'm getting kind of close.
 
bunny said:
They should have good service, because most people I know who has tried vortex optics have needed warranty work.
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No experience yourself though apparently. I know some people that have needed it but overall everyone I know is happy and not experiencing any issues at all.
 
Potashminer said:
I can't help but ask myself who pays for all that? Is it possible that the up-front purchase price has covered a number of replacements?? Or do they get money for their warranty issues from somewhere else?? Probably I am old and grumpy, but I do not believe that corporations like Vortex do stuff like that for free???
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They don't, most of that comes out of their marketing budget. The swag is ordered in lots of 100 or more, so an individual cap you might pay $25+ for in a store costs like $6 in those quantities. The warranty stuff can be reconditioned/repaired or recycled to reduce the financial impact and the reputation gain far more than makes up for it.

It's like their Vortex Nation podcast. It's actually very rarely about anything they make or sell. It's just mostly good shooting/hunting/outdoors-related content. The fact that they're paying people to produce it to a very decent standard says a lot about how they approach the market.

I doubt there's any Porsches in the parking lot but they are definitely making a handy business in the sport optics market.
 
B said:
No experience yourself though apparently. I know some people that have needed it but overall everyone I know is happy and not experiencing any issues at all.
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I, too, have no experience with them - based on multiple postings, etc. noting their excellent warranty experience as prime thing going for them. We need to hear more like Post #8 - that they work - without issue, and not "babied" - is my experience with Leupold, from M8 to the recent Freedom series - why I go back to them - my experience is that they work well - I have used them since 1970's and still have not had to deal with any warranty issues ... If you are 15 miles from pavement - really does not matter about warranty - likely you want it to work - whether that is the truck to start, the tires to hold up, the rifle, scope or ammo to do what you paid for them to do.
 
Suther said:
They get customer retention, and they get free advertising from happy customers.
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Of course warranty returns are built into the price, that’s the way it always works. As for quality they are a mid range scope, not a high end for the most part, and relatively affordable as they are made in China.

Quality is good enough to receive the US military new optic which is the 1-10 LPVO with a ballistic calculator built in. I would love to try one of those.

I wonder if getting it made in China is a smart idea though for US optic?
 
mikeyb said:
They don't, most of that comes out of their marketing budget. The swag is ordered in lots of 100 or more, so an individual cap you might pay $25+ for in a store costs like $6 in those quantities. The warranty stuff can be reconditioned/repaired or recycled to reduce the financial impact and the reputation gain far more than makes up for it.

It's like their Vortex Nation podcast. It's actually very rarely about anything they make or sell. It's just mostly good shooting/hunting/outdoors-related content. The fact that they're paying people to produce it to a very decent standard says a lot about how they approach the market.

I doubt there's any Porsches in the parking lot but they are definitely making a handy business in the sport optics market.
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Is curious - where does a "budget" get its money from?? Except for gov't grants or other revenue source, I believe is ALWAYS the customer that pays for everything - no corporations that I ever worked for would cough up "their" money, except as dividends to shareholders ...
 
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Owned many Vortex products, they are a great company with prices that are equal to everyone else in the game. Nice to know that anything goes wrong they will fix it.

Smash a $3500 Razor (i know freak accident)....they give you a new one. Doubt S&B or Nightforce would do that for you.
 
Potashminer said:
Is curious - where does a "budget" get its money from?? I believe is ALWAYS the customer that pays for everything - no corporations that I ever worked for would cough up "their" money, except as dividends to shareholders ...
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The customer absolutely does pay, but it's a bit more nuanced as far as Vortex goes.

It's cyclical, like a product cycle. If you ever see a Vortex product get discontinued for "no apparent reason", it's because the profit margin has disappeared on that product line and the next cycle will include refinements and optimizations which can result in either a lower cost of production, a higher market demand (resulting in increased MSRP), or both. The reality is that there is a correlation with the number of dollars spent on marketing to product sold, it's on a PowerBI dashboard somewhere in the Vortex corporate office and they know exactly what they need to give in swag and what their warranty costs are in order to continue to turn a profit. The RAZOR AMG scopes were insane, but the costs to produce them were untenable. They weren't able to continue to make them while still offering the same warranty and parts availability.

It's the same thing Leupold did with the VX-Freedom, made a very good product line that is easier to manufacture than the VX1 and just as good as the VX2 (last part is my opinion).

It's a complicated, nuanced business - they get someone else to make their products for them (actually, 3 someone elses, one in China, one in Philippines, and one in Japan) but they are manufactured to their own design specifications. Which means their own intellectual property and a huge pile of patents (~50, I think) that they've developed over the years. When you see similar scopes with other manufacturer logos on them, those manufacturers are buying their product from the same optics companies and slapping their logos on them, but they are also licensing the patents from Vortex.

With their military contracts being obscenely lucrative, they have the margin float to be able to move things back and forth between the columns on their balance sheet and they are not publicly traded, nor is their parent holding company - all privately owned so none of those budgets or financial records are public beyond what they release of their own accord. They don't have to report earnings to Wall Street or anything, and they don't need anyone's permission to extend a line of credit to try something new or to buy up another companies IP. All of that means they can build product lines that sustain their business model and fund all of the functions they rely on while still being accessible to the market price-wise.

They've done a good job of that.
 
Some of the Vortex scopes are made in the Phillipines, just like a low end Burris. And in my experience, the low end Burris scopes hold up really well.
 
Cole said:
I have long said that Vortex has the best warrantee in te business, and you will definitely use it. That's why I use Leupold exclusively.
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Because Leupold never fails? You chose a brand and that's it. I do t currently own any Vortex but I have owned a lot of optics. When talking the same price point in the major brands they are effectively all the same.
 
Never had to send anything back but I had some scope cover break due to my own abuse. They shipped me new ones no questions asked. I think that’s pretty good service.
 
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