Vortex PSA / Need to vent

[Napperm4]

Like most of the members on here I’m a self admitted gear junkie. I like to try different things out. Glass is one of the main things I love to play with.

Not shockingly I tend to end up keeping he alpha glass and pass along the savings on items I wasn’t thrilled with to my family and friends or it gets put in the classifieds and eBay.

My Dad and Brother are die hard vortex fans. I’ve never had anything against the company personally, we all agree that my Swarovski, Zeiss, Kowa and Leupold are superior optics but require a lot more investment.

A couple years ago my brother and a hunting partner bought some of vortex’s binos. One is 15x56 vultures and the other is 10x42 vipers. Prior experience was a few rifle scopes and some spotters.

We compared a few things around camp, backcountry and front country and everything seemed pretty decent for the money except the razor spotter. (Picked up a Vanguard for my old man last season and we all agree it edged out the razor for less than half the price).

My brother had some trouble with rifle scopes right from the factory and as per their reputation, the vip warranty took care of him though he did miss out on using 2 rifles that season as they were scope less.

Let’s just say that should have been a red flag.

I’ve recently been playing around with the 15x vultures and decided I liked the magnification. I played around with the 10x vipers and was surprised / impressed with how decent they really were.

Cue my decision to throw some 15’s on the tripod and see if I want to invest a few thousand more into some glass to get between my 10’s and spotters.

Naturally with the performance of the vipers and a higher price point logic would dictate that other than light gathering these should be a step above the entry level vultures.

Not so much. From day 1 I had some issues with them that I chalked up to switching between my swaros and the vipers which are not even in the same county let alone ball park. I don’t down play my roll of not trying before buying but none of our local retailers carry the viper 15’s.

Things culminated through the elk and deer seasons where I let my fiancé (who can’t tell the difference between HDTV and normal) as well as anyone else I hunted with try out the vortex and they all agreed something was off. No one was able to get both barrels to be clear and I ran out of diopter adjustment.

No problem - they have the vip warranty. Sent the binos in and they adjusted the focus rods, repaired the alignment and performed a “general clean”. Service was timely, roughy a month.

Today I eagerly get them delivered to my door, open the box thinking finally I’ll be happy or I can sell these things off to someone with different eyes and what do I find???

Yeah. Both objectives look like they were cleaned using sandpaper. The coatings are destroyed but some of the scratching is deep enough that it’s into the glass itself.

So what happened here?? They were not like that when they left my house. Surely they would’ve noticed that when I sent them in for the focus issue? Especially cleaning them one would think. Does VIP not include a look at the lenses when a complaint of image quality comes in?

Granted their warranty department is taking care of it, sent me prepaid label to send them back in for another examination. Even offered me a free tshirt for my troubles.

I have 0 complaints about the warranty policy don’t get me wrong.

It does prove to be difficult though to spot or shoot anything when your optics are in a shop somewhere waiting for an exam, repair and re exam. Roughly 1 week each way in the mail on top of that.


Sorry for the rant, I’m sure I’ll hear from the Vortex fans out there. No offence intended. Just sharing my experience in the hopes of saving someone else out there the trouble and grief of an overall disappointing purchase.


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[LightFoot]

Thats sucks. I have used, and use, Vortex scopes. I have had a good experience, but... I plan to stick with Leica, Swaro, or Zeiss.

I hope the next iteration works out.

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[mfllood3800]

The problem with Vortex isn't the warranty, its that when things break, is usually when you're out in the field. I have yet to have any optics break in the off season while sitting in the storage area.

I have made it a point to eliminate all my bino, spotters and main scopes from carrying the Vortex name. My other rifles (3) have the glass on top still, but I will rarely use these in a hunt. Other than my Muzzle Loader, man I hope I don't get bi in the butt with this.

My wife uses the Razor 10x42 and loves them, heck I loved them, but they crapped out on me, when I was hunting out of state. I was bino-less for the remainder of that trip.

It is a decent product, but not good in my opinion. When ever you use cheaper cost and their warranty as the main selling point, that should set off signals.

Vortex did a great job marketing a very sub par product.

 

[Back Country Hunter 2]

This year during my 4th season hunt here in CO, I woke up to 1 degree temperatures and that day all three of my vortex optics had mishaps that day. 1st my viper hd 10 x 42's were foggy and I couldn't see that well out of them. Was able to see 4 bulls that morning from roughly 800 yards away though. Keep in mind I woke up to about 6 inches of fresh snow. 2nd my spotter, razor hd 11 - 33 x 50, stuck on zoom 33 and I couldn't move it. I still can't without taking the eye piece out and readjusting it every time I use it. This is the second time this has happened. 3rd I cut the distance on those bulls roughly in half and my Ranger 1000 didn't give me a reading. The wind switched and they were gone. For my shooting abilities there is a big difference in 300 - 500 yards. I later checked the distances on google earth. Let's just say it was a very frustrating morning.

 

[J8tnub]

The rangefinder most likely quit because of the temperature. The CR2 battery will start to have issues around 0 degrees. Low teens if your battery is on the way out. You can combat this by keeping the unit or a spare battery closer to your body heat.

 

[Scoony]

I had a pair of Leupold binos and traded them out for Vortex binos due to the eye cup design. Seems the Vortex eye cups are the only ones (that I have tried) that allow me to see a full view while wearing glasses.

 

[2five7]

I think this fits here

 

[Napperm4]

The problem with Vortex isn't the warranty, its that when things break, is usually when you're out in the field. I have yet to have any optics break in the off season while sitting in the storage area.

I have made it a point to eliminate all my bino, spotters and main scopes from carrying the Vortex name. My other rifles (3) have the glass on top still, but I will rarely use these in a hunt. Other than my Muzzle Loader, man I hope I don't get bi in the butt with this.

My wife uses the Razor 10x42 and loves them, heck I loved them, but they crapped out on me, when I was hunting out of state. I was bino-less for the remainder of that trip.

It is a decent product, but not good in my opinion. When ever you use cheaper cost and their warranty as the main selling point, that should set off signals.

Vortex did a great job marketing a very sub par product.

I don’t disagree with you at all. Ironically though with all the exception of 1 bushnell scope we’ve never yet had optics fail in the field.

The last spotter that I broke was at home and all the sudden the lens fell out. My brother had 2 rifle scopes fail right out of the box.

As for marketing the warranty I hear that constantly as an argument against my gold ring rifle scopes that I run exclusively. However I can easily say their warranty service is vastly different.

One rifle scope was repaired and returned in 3 days. The spotter I killed was a 25+ year old Leupold 20x50. Loved it but it died. Emailed the warranty team and had a brand new 15-30 x 50 spotter on my doorstep before I had a chance to send the broken one in. That’s a premium warranty and I have a pretty decent loaner spotter.

Lol. Did you by chance steal “ It is a decent product, but not good in my opinion. When ever you use cheaper cost and their warranty as the main selling point, that should set off signals.” from one of my other posts???

That is verbatim what I tell people when they ask my opinion on vortex.

I really should’ve known better but I bought these things cause I couldn’t get the 15 SLCs in time for elk opener and wanted to try a light, entry level pair between my 10’s and spotter.


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[Napperm4]

This year during my 4th season hunt here in CO, I woke up to 1 degree temperatures and that day all three of my vortex optics had mishaps that day. 1st my viper hd 10 x 42's were foggy and I couldn't see that well out of them. Was able to see 4 bulls that morning from roughly 800 yards away though. Keep in mind I woke up to about 6 inches of fresh snow. 2nd my spotter, razor hd 11 - 33 x 50, stuck on zoom 33 and I couldn't move it. I still can't without taking the eye piece out and readjusting it every time I use it. This is the second time this has happened. 3rd I cut the distance on those bulls roughly in half and my Ranger 1000 didn't give me a reading. The wind switched and they were gone. For my shooting abilities there is a big difference in 300 - 500 yards. I later checked the distances on google earth. Let's just say it was a very frustrating morning.

Well that’s what their warranty is for. I’d send everything in. They really are great to deal with and stand behind their products.

In my experience you may want to skip the “general cleaning” part unless you like fuzzy images. You could just grab some 40 grit sandpaper and do it yourself to their standards.

In seriousness they immediately sent me a prepaid shipping label and offered up some graft. However the point I’m going for isn’t that I spent money. It’s that I expect a company to live up to what they sell and obviously they made a mistake. Even more frustrating is that it took about 4 weeks between sending and getting them back. Now it’ll be another few weeks to get a replacement set or have these repaired.

A tshirt and some stickers for a brand I don’t believe in aren’t going to be very useful scoping out the winter range this weekend. And I want to sell these things before I order the new set to get some of my funds back into the toy account.





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[Napperm4]

I had a pair of Leupold binos and traded them out for Vortex binos due to the eye cup design. Seems the Vortex eye cups are the only ones (that I have tried) that allow me to see a full view while wearing glasses.

Eye relief is decent and they do make an ok product. But I feel I could have done better for $1000 CAD and still had binos to glass with at the end of late rifle season and winter scouting.


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[dotman]

The best warranty is the one you don’t have to use.

 

[mfllood3800]

I don’t disagree with you at all. Ironically though with all the exception of 1 bushnell scope we’ve never yet had optics fail in the field.

The last spotter that I broke was at home and all the sudden the lens fell out. My brother had 2 rifle scopes fail right out of the box.

As for marketing the warranty I hear that constantly as an argument against my gold ring rifle scopes that I run exclusively. However I can easily say their warranty service is vastly different.

One rifle scope was repaired and returned in 3 days. The spotter I killed was a 25+ year old Leupold 20x50. Loved it but it died. Emailed the warranty team and had a brand new 15-30 x 50 spotter on my doorstep before I had a chance to send the broken one in. That’s a premium warranty and I have a pretty decent loaner spotter.

Lol. Did you by chance steal “ It is a decent product, but not good in my opinion. When ever you use cheaper cost and their warranty as the main selling point, that should set off signals.” from one of my other posts???

That is verbatim what I tell people when they ask my opinion on vortex.

I really should’ve known better but I bought these things cause I couldn’t get the 15 SLCs in time for elk opener and wanted to try a light, entry level pair between my 10’s and spotter.


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No stealing - I promise

My post defined: when your product is so sub par, that you have to go beyond the normal of pushing your "warranty" as the main selling point, something is off.
All good companies boast of their warranty, but Vortex uses it as do their loyal fans, in almost every thread, ad, or media of any kind as a selling point that gets shouted out way more than the quality of their product.

I have 3 vortex scopes still. I think they are ok products, but have had to much failure on their stuff to fully trust them in the field.


NAP.....
FYI, sounds like you guys need to quit dropping all your scopes
buwhahahaha

 

[Napperm4]

NAP.....
FYI, sounds like you guys need to quit dropping all your scopes
buwhahahaha[/QUOTE]

Surprisingly none of them were drop incidents.

The bushnell scope I had go was incredibly old and just a cheaply banner. Technically none of us owned it. Was mounted on a 7mag I was testing out and bought. But a spring let go at the range and the shots just kept creeping.

One brother literally took a scope from the box, put it on his .270 and it walked everywhere. Sent it in, got a brand new replacement and the image wasn’t clear. 3rd time seems to be the charm but that gun hasn’t seen anything other than range time yet. Crazy bugger bought yet another one for a .338... hasn’t been fired yet and I have bets going on how it’ll handle the recoil.

My spotter I don’t even know what happened. I had used it for years, it was siting on the desk in my gear room, I picked it up to put away and poof. The ocular just fell apart.


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[Napperm4]

No stealing - I promise

My post defined: when your product is so sub par, that you have to go beyond the normal of pushing your "warranty" as the main selling point, something is off.
All good companies boast of their warranty, but Vortex uses it as do their loyal fans, in almost every thread, ad, or media of any kind as a selling point that gets shouted out way more than the quality of their product.

Now you’re just sounding creepy hahahaha. You been spending a lot of time hanging just outside hunting camps eavesdropping for excellent quotable material in Southern Alberta?



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[Bear_Bryan]

Glad to see that a guy with the top quality glass likes the vipers. I'm still waiting on a pair of Viper HD 8x42's to come in. I picked them up for the eastern deer woods based on reviews by guys with much better glass that were suprised with how good they were.

 

[Napperm4]

I think this fits here

Yeah. And I’m feeling like this guy today....

Pretty sure my tombstone will read “Beware the company that pushes warranty above product quality, chances are you’ll need it and need it a lot” as I say it so often.

In fact for all intents and purposes of this conversation - let’s say that’s what my Tat says.

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[Napperm4]

I honestly was quite impressed with the 10x42. No one I hunt with uses 8’s but honestly great binos for the money and I would say money well spent. Clarity and low light performance was there for the price point. The biggest thing I noticed compared to my swaros was some colour fringing around dark objects when we were hunting in snow. Nothing major though.

I’m not going to lie and say they are identical in image to the alphas but I recognize not everyone in the world has my budget for hunting toys. My approach to my gear has always been realistic and I try to stay impartial. I share my honest experience and am upfront with my expectations. So yes in short - if vipers were the best in my budget I don’t feel like I missed anything in the lower magnifications. They aren’t a big 3 but I didn’t expect them to be and wouldn’t make that comparison.

The 15’s were a disappointment but that’s unclear so far if it’s due to the focus rods and alignments they looked at since I literally couldn’t see through them today. Based on my experience - I’d get the vultures if I was to do it all over again.

Hahaha. The only word of caution I can give you is that if you send them in for anything you may want to avoid the cleaning lol


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[Bear_Bryan]

I honestly was quite impressed with the 10x42. No one I hunt with uses 8’s but honestly great binos for the money and I would say money well spent. Clarity and low light performance was there for the price point. The biggest thing I noticed compared to my swaros was some colour fringing around dark objects when we were hunting in snow. Nothing major though.

I’m not going to lie and say they are identical in image to the alphas but I recognize not everyone in the world has my budget for hunting toys. My approach to my gear has always been realistic and I try to stay impartial. I share my honest experience and am upfront with my expectations. So yes in short - if vipers were the best in my budget I don’t feel like I missed anything in the lower magnifications. They aren’t a big 3 but I didn’t expect them to be and wouldn’t make that comparison.

The 15’s were a disappointment but that’s unclear so far if it’s due to the focus rods and alignments they looked at since I literally couldn’t see through them today. Based on my experience - I’d get the vultures if I was to do it all over again.

Hahaha. The only word of caution I can give you is that if you send them in for anything you may want to avoid the cleaning lol


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Lol, Roger, avoid the cleaning. Yeah I live in the mid-range optic world. All of my glass is leupold, vortex, and trijicon. Everyone around me thinks I have premium optics and I'm just like, you have no idea.

 

[Back Country Hunter 2]

Well that’s what their warranty is for. I’d send everything in. They really are great to deal with and stand behind their products.

In my experience you may want to skip the “general cleaning” part unless you like fuzzy images. You could just grab some 40 grit sandpaper and do it yourself to their standards.

In seriousness they immediately sent me a prepaid shipping label and offered up some graft. However the point I’m going for isn’t that I spent money. It’s that I expect a company to live up to what they sell and obviously they made a mistake. Even more frustrating is that it took about 4 weeks between sending and getting them back. Now it’ll be another few weeks to get a replacement set or have these repaired.

A tshirt and some stickers for a brand I don’t believe in aren’t going to be very useful scoping out the winter range this weekend. And I want to sell these things before I order the new set to get some of my funds back into the toy account.

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I did send them in last year after the first mishap with my spotter, and it isn't exactly cheap to ship them all with insurance in case they got lost. I got three stickers out of the whole deal. I believe mine took 3 weeks to get them back, but I get itchy if I don't look through my binos in a couple of weeks. It's not like I've got a decent back up just sitting at home. They are the Bushnell XLT Trophy. They are not decent IMO.

 

[Trial153]

I will pay more for products were warranty work is the exception not the norm. Vortex makes it hard on themselves trying to be all things for all people. For a company that doesn’t manufacture their own products to maintain a product line the size of what they do you going to have holes in your QC, no way you can be on top of that many manufacturers for that line.