What happened to Zeiss?
- Thread starter lwing
- Start date
I wont say who, but one of the biggest Zeiss dealers in Canada told me not to buy Zeiss because they are the very worst for warranty repair, even for known problems... and they sell Zeiss.
They are riding on pure arrogance, but dont care about you after the purchase.
You can expect warranty support to be slow and they will charge you for every extra.
This is clearly driven from the highest levels as my wife deals with Zeiss daily for cataract lenses and complains constantly about poorly managed execution and product support. Then they fired the one sales guy that jumped through hoops to resolve problems. Apparently the sales guy was having conflicts with the managers who create the problems.
My advise is to deal with some other company that understands customer support. They are plenty of other reputable brands... as I look over at my Kowa TSN-554 spotting scope that arrived today. Total awesomeness in a small package.
They are riding on pure arrogance, but dont care about you after the purchase.
You can expect warranty support to be slow and they will charge you for every extra.
This is clearly driven from the highest levels as my wife deals with Zeiss daily for cataract lenses and complains constantly about poorly managed execution and product support. Then they fired the one sales guy that jumped through hoops to resolve problems. Apparently the sales guy was having conflicts with the managers who create the problems.
My advise is to deal with some other company that understands customer support. They are plenty of other reputable brands... as I look over at my Kowa TSN-554 spotting scope that arrived today. Total awesomeness in a small package.
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Hand Skills
CGN Regular
- Location
- In the 'heartland', southern SK
What's interesting to me is the same thing happened to Swaro at one time. Didn't take long before they clued in. Then it was Leica. Not so long ago it was VERY difficult to get any kind of customer service from Leica. Sales suffered, and then all of a sudden Leica started taking customer service seriously again.
It's a changing landscape out there, buyer beware!
It's a changing landscape out there, buyer beware!
Agreed... YouTube is a great way for the little guy to influence a large corporation.
I posted a video that "inspired" Ruger to do a recall on the RPR over the bolt shroud problem. Without that video, they never would have done anything to fix it.
I own the victory RF 10x54 binos and victory V8 2.8-20x56 scope. No issues with them, quality is top notch. I use vortex on my 22's and own an ATACR as well, but the zeiss is my go-to scope of choice. Ill be branching out to a tangent theta, kahles or minox shortly, see how those are.
Zeiss Victory, Conquest, Diavari, Dialyt all great scopes no issues but I also own and like Schmidt Bender, Kahles and Swarovski, Bushnell
There are a lot of great scopes on the market but if you need service and cannot get it that changes everything.
Look at what Nikon did, talk about a royal screwing for their customers what do you do for service with a Nikon now that they no longer deal with riflescopes!
Personally I had great service from Leupold (clean and reseal) and S&B (reticle change), Zeiss (clean and reseal), Swarovski (clean and reseal) not so much from Bushnell but I still own a bunch of them.
BB
There are a lot of great scopes on the market but if you need service and cannot get it that changes everything.
Look at what Nikon did, talk about a royal screwing for their customers what do you do for service with a Nikon now that they no longer deal with riflescopes!
Personally I had great service from Leupold (clean and reseal) and S&B (reticle change), Zeiss (clean and reseal), Swarovski (clean and reseal) not so much from Bushnell but I still own a bunch of them.
BB
The Conquest line when first introduced, were German components, but were assembled in North America, at least for the scopes. I do not recall if this was the same for the binos.
Cannot say where this is today.
While Zeiss had an enviable reputation for a long time, I still believe that their higher end lines are still quality products. Their old 10 power binos were the ones that all others were judged against, and were great pieces of glass. A friend had a set for many years, until he upgraded to a RF binocular. Clear, bright, rugged and lightweight, I almost bought them for my wife, but she did not like how they adjusted for her eyes. I should have bought them for spares anyways...
As for warranty and customer service, I cannot say as I haven't owned any of the products over the years, and never had to use their warranty.
My one and only foray into one of their scopes (Conquest) was unimpressive to say the least. The scope wasn't clear, and the reticle was fuzzy at 100 yards, and I could not get it better through adjustments. And when I took the scope off the rifle and returned it for an exchange, the tube was crimped, even though it had been mounted and torqued to spec by the people where it was purchased and mounted on that 6.5x284 rifle. Not a great first impression and I have stayed clear of the Conquest line ever since.
I have typically gone with other scopes as they were usually lighter and shorter than the similar Zeiss scopes.
I really liked the features of the Duralyt line, but they were heavy scopes when compared to similar Leupolds and Swarovski models, so I never did acquire one.
I can say that those I know with the Diavari and Victory products do like their scopes.
I missed out on an older Diavari 1.5-6x42 scope last year that would have been nice to compare to the similar spec'd S&B and Kahles scopes I have on a couple of medium bore rifles.
Cannot say where this is today.
While Zeiss had an enviable reputation for a long time, I still believe that their higher end lines are still quality products. Their old 10 power binos were the ones that all others were judged against, and were great pieces of glass. A friend had a set for many years, until he upgraded to a RF binocular. Clear, bright, rugged and lightweight, I almost bought them for my wife, but she did not like how they adjusted for her eyes. I should have bought them for spares anyways...
As for warranty and customer service, I cannot say as I haven't owned any of the products over the years, and never had to use their warranty.
My one and only foray into one of their scopes (Conquest) was unimpressive to say the least. The scope wasn't clear, and the reticle was fuzzy at 100 yards, and I could not get it better through adjustments. And when I took the scope off the rifle and returned it for an exchange, the tube was crimped, even though it had been mounted and torqued to spec by the people where it was purchased and mounted on that 6.5x284 rifle. Not a great first impression and I have stayed clear of the Conquest line ever since.
I have typically gone with other scopes as they were usually lighter and shorter than the similar Zeiss scopes.
I really liked the features of the Duralyt line, but they were heavy scopes when compared to similar Leupolds and Swarovski models, so I never did acquire one.
I can say that those I know with the Diavari and Victory products do like their scopes.
I missed out on an older Diavari 1.5-6x42 scope last year that would have been nice to compare to the similar spec'd S&B and Kahles scopes I have on a couple of medium bore rifles.
waynewjw
CGN Regular
Purchased a Conquest z-600 about 15 years ago, was the most money at the time that I spent on a scope around $900 I think. Very clear glass, still have the scope on my go-to 270 Sako for hunting. Had a few Zeiss models once they went with the less expensive lines, don’t own any of them now.
