WARNING: Long Winded Post!
I'm posting this thread not to bash or attack anybody, but I do think it's important to educate people when situations arise. Everybody knows how Vortex handles warranty claims, and they're often referred to as the "gold standard" with warranty work. Typically they'll pay shipping both ways and they have great turn around. We read/hear all the time about how people were treated like kings when needing their old discontinued spotter to be fixed, or how they tell the guy to go to the nearest big box store and swap the gun counter guys straight across for a new one. But it doesn't seem there are as many stories out there about some of the other companies and their warranties. Some will argue that it's because the big boys have a better built product, but whatever the reason, sometimes "chit" happens, and sometimes you need to use a company's warranty. My hope in sharing this ongoing experience is to shed some light, good or bad, on how SONA (Swarovski Optik North America) handles warranty claims, since we just don't hear as much about them first hand.
Full disclosure, I work for Sportsman's Warehouse part time. I can get some products for a pretty steep discount, some for free through redemption programs. This warranty claim is for such a product, a Kahles RF-M 7x25 2200 yard rangefinder. They're not super common in the US, but a couple of other guys at the store use them and really like them and have been very impressed with them. So, I decided to give them a shot. Below is a timeline and descriptions of what occured.
4/6/2021: I placed a "prostaff" order with Swarovski for the rangefinder. I used some of the points I had garnered through working at Sportsman's are selling/learning about/talking about their products for several months, so I didn't pay a dime out of pocket. I placed my order and patiently waited for shipping confirmation.
4/7/2021: Shipping confirmation received, unfortunately it was through Fedex. Locally, Fedex is a JOKE, so I was just praying it eventually would show up.
4/14/2021: Delivery confirmation, rangefinder shows up to the store where I work. I get off at my 7-5 and go and pick up the Kahles. First impressions were that it was built extremely well. It filled my hand well and the rubber armor offered great traction. Came with a really nice magnetic close case and a lanyard. That's where my positive experience ended. After "reading" the instructions (no words, only poorly drawn pictures) on how to change it to angle modified yardage and turning the brightness all the way up, I started to play with it. I was originally using it inside, and my first thought was that the display seemed a bit dim, but I didn't think anything of it. The response time was FAST, even compared to my Sig Kilo, so that made me excited. I then took it outside and ranged a building that was about 400 yards away. This was at about 5:30 in the afternoon, so it was starting to get darker outside. Not totally dark, but not mid-day by any means. The brightness was all the way up, and I couldn't see the display AT ALL. If I ranged the building and then hurried and pointed the display at a dark tree I could BARELY make out the numbers. It was odd to me, I decided to call Swaro the next day and see if they could help me troubleshoot.
4/15/2021: Call SONA and end up on the phone with a customer service rep. I told him what was going on, and asked him if there were different modes that I was missing, like night mode vs. day mode or something weird. He told me no, that I just needed to turn the brightness all the way up. He walked me through it over the phone, and sure enough, I had the brightness all the way up, it was just so flippin dim it didn't matter. He then said he was going to ask a service tech and asked if he could put me on hold. I sat on hold for about 5 minutes, then he comes back on and tells me he has everything figured out and he knows what's going on. I got excited, thinking I would be able to use my new toy right away. He then proceeds to tell me that the Kahles rangefinder is primarily designed for hunters, who usually only hunt when it's almost dark, so it's not designed to work in full daylight. He said if I wanted to use it during the day, I had to use either my hat or my hand to shade the display from the direct sunlight. I was dumbfounded. This is a +/-$700 rangefinder, and the premier optics authority in the world is telling me I can't use it in the middle of the day. I told him that sounded weird, and asked if he was being serious. He told me he was dead serious, and that hunters really don't need a rangefinder during the day since they don't kill animals during the day really.
I got a bit hot, and pressed him a bit. I told him that what he was telling me sounded like a bandaid fix and not a permanent, long term solution. I told him immediately that I was a hunter, and that I've killed the vast majority of animals during the middle of the day, and essentially told him his analysis was dead wrong. He then basically told me that he didn't know what to tell me, that their optical engineers know what they're doing, and that they were the top of the market for a reason and that he wasn't going to question what their company builds. I finally got mad and told him that the Vortex and Sig rangefinders I had worked just fine in the middle of the day, and that I expected more from the "premier optics authority," since they're so quick to point out how much better they are than everyone else on the market. He responded with "well, our stuff should be better than Sig and Vortex." I told him I agreed that it should be, but it isn't.
He sat in silence for a few seconds and then says "well do I need to fix it then? If you think it's broken, I guess I can pay to ship it back to us and I'll fix it." I told him that I either want it fixed or I would just return it and they could reimburse my "points" and I would use them to save for some EL's or something. He said he didn't wanna do that, so he would overnight them to Rhode Island so he could have them worked on. He immediately emailed me a shipping label and told me to get it sent in.
Before I go on, a few caveat's. I was perfectly willing to pay to ship to their facilities. I acknowledge that all companies can have a "lemon" squeak through from time to time. What bothered me and made me mad was the lack of willingness to even acknowledge that maybe they had put out a single faulty unit. Also, I felt like I was just getting told a BS solution in an effort to get off his phone so he could help someone else instead. No personal touch, no "I'm sorry, that sucks," no nothing. It wasn't until I told him that my Vortex and Sig rangefinders worked better that he finally backpedaled and offered up their warranty services. Now, back to the saga...
4/16/2021: Wife drops the rangefinder off at a Fedex pickup location.
4/20/2021: Rangefinder arrives in Rhode Island (verified using Fedex tracking), received automated "we got your stuff" email from SONA.
4/21/2021: Local Swaro rep confirms with SONA that they have received the rangefinder and that rather than fixing it, they've shipped it back to Austria to be torn down and analyzed before they determine how to continue.
5/4/2021: Left a voicemail and a callback number with SONA to get an update on shipping to Austria, since I wasn't even directly notified that that's what they were going to do. No response or call back yet.
Again, my goal is to share a first hand experience with a company whose warranty typically isn't used a commonly as other brands. I fully expect the situation to be properly remedied, but it didn't start off as smoothly as Vortex or Leupold have in the past for me. As soon as I have more feedback, my plan is to continually provide updates to this thread.
Thanks for following along everyone, have a great day!
EDIT: I should add that my brother decided to get the same rangefinder as a "graduation present" to himself. If mine comes back functioning the same way as his, it'll definitely become my #1 rangefinder and easily unseat my others. Easy to use, fast response time, no glare from the display, easily ranged on sagebrush to about 1200 yards. Very impressive and great glass!
I'm posting this thread not to bash or attack anybody, but I do think it's important to educate people when situations arise. Everybody knows how Vortex handles warranty claims, and they're often referred to as the "gold standard" with warranty work. Typically they'll pay shipping both ways and they have great turn around. We read/hear all the time about how people were treated like kings when needing their old discontinued spotter to be fixed, or how they tell the guy to go to the nearest big box store and swap the gun counter guys straight across for a new one. But it doesn't seem there are as many stories out there about some of the other companies and their warranties. Some will argue that it's because the big boys have a better built product, but whatever the reason, sometimes "chit" happens, and sometimes you need to use a company's warranty. My hope in sharing this ongoing experience is to shed some light, good or bad, on how SONA (Swarovski Optik North America) handles warranty claims, since we just don't hear as much about them first hand.
Full disclosure, I work for Sportsman's Warehouse part time. I can get some products for a pretty steep discount, some for free through redemption programs. This warranty claim is for such a product, a Kahles RF-M 7x25 2200 yard rangefinder. They're not super common in the US, but a couple of other guys at the store use them and really like them and have been very impressed with them. So, I decided to give them a shot. Below is a timeline and descriptions of what occured.
4/6/2021: I placed a "prostaff" order with Swarovski for the rangefinder. I used some of the points I had garnered through working at Sportsman's are selling/learning about/talking about their products for several months, so I didn't pay a dime out of pocket. I placed my order and patiently waited for shipping confirmation.
4/7/2021: Shipping confirmation received, unfortunately it was through Fedex. Locally, Fedex is a JOKE, so I was just praying it eventually would show up.
4/14/2021: Delivery confirmation, rangefinder shows up to the store where I work. I get off at my 7-5 and go and pick up the Kahles. First impressions were that it was built extremely well. It filled my hand well and the rubber armor offered great traction. Came with a really nice magnetic close case and a lanyard. That's where my positive experience ended. After "reading" the instructions (no words, only poorly drawn pictures) on how to change it to angle modified yardage and turning the brightness all the way up, I started to play with it. I was originally using it inside, and my first thought was that the display seemed a bit dim, but I didn't think anything of it. The response time was FAST, even compared to my Sig Kilo, so that made me excited. I then took it outside and ranged a building that was about 400 yards away. This was at about 5:30 in the afternoon, so it was starting to get darker outside. Not totally dark, but not mid-day by any means. The brightness was all the way up, and I couldn't see the display AT ALL. If I ranged the building and then hurried and pointed the display at a dark tree I could BARELY make out the numbers. It was odd to me, I decided to call Swaro the next day and see if they could help me troubleshoot.
4/15/2021: Call SONA and end up on the phone with a customer service rep. I told him what was going on, and asked him if there were different modes that I was missing, like night mode vs. day mode or something weird. He told me no, that I just needed to turn the brightness all the way up. He walked me through it over the phone, and sure enough, I had the brightness all the way up, it was just so flippin dim it didn't matter. He then said he was going to ask a service tech and asked if he could put me on hold. I sat on hold for about 5 minutes, then he comes back on and tells me he has everything figured out and he knows what's going on. I got excited, thinking I would be able to use my new toy right away. He then proceeds to tell me that the Kahles rangefinder is primarily designed for hunters, who usually only hunt when it's almost dark, so it's not designed to work in full daylight. He said if I wanted to use it during the day, I had to use either my hat or my hand to shade the display from the direct sunlight. I was dumbfounded. This is a +/-$700 rangefinder, and the premier optics authority in the world is telling me I can't use it in the middle of the day. I told him that sounded weird, and asked if he was being serious. He told me he was dead serious, and that hunters really don't need a rangefinder during the day since they don't kill animals during the day really.
I got a bit hot, and pressed him a bit. I told him that what he was telling me sounded like a bandaid fix and not a permanent, long term solution. I told him immediately that I was a hunter, and that I've killed the vast majority of animals during the middle of the day, and essentially told him his analysis was dead wrong. He then basically told me that he didn't know what to tell me, that their optical engineers know what they're doing, and that they were the top of the market for a reason and that he wasn't going to question what their company builds. I finally got mad and told him that the Vortex and Sig rangefinders I had worked just fine in the middle of the day, and that I expected more from the "premier optics authority," since they're so quick to point out how much better they are than everyone else on the market. He responded with "well, our stuff should be better than Sig and Vortex." I told him I agreed that it should be, but it isn't.
He sat in silence for a few seconds and then says "well do I need to fix it then? If you think it's broken, I guess I can pay to ship it back to us and I'll fix it." I told him that I either want it fixed or I would just return it and they could reimburse my "points" and I would use them to save for some EL's or something. He said he didn't wanna do that, so he would overnight them to Rhode Island so he could have them worked on. He immediately emailed me a shipping label and told me to get it sent in.
Before I go on, a few caveat's. I was perfectly willing to pay to ship to their facilities. I acknowledge that all companies can have a "lemon" squeak through from time to time. What bothered me and made me mad was the lack of willingness to even acknowledge that maybe they had put out a single faulty unit. Also, I felt like I was just getting told a BS solution in an effort to get off his phone so he could help someone else instead. No personal touch, no "I'm sorry, that sucks," no nothing. It wasn't until I told him that my Vortex and Sig rangefinders worked better that he finally backpedaled and offered up their warranty services. Now, back to the saga...
4/16/2021: Wife drops the rangefinder off at a Fedex pickup location.
4/20/2021: Rangefinder arrives in Rhode Island (verified using Fedex tracking), received automated "we got your stuff" email from SONA.
4/21/2021: Local Swaro rep confirms with SONA that they have received the rangefinder and that rather than fixing it, they've shipped it back to Austria to be torn down and analyzed before they determine how to continue.
5/4/2021: Left a voicemail and a callback number with SONA to get an update on shipping to Austria, since I wasn't even directly notified that that's what they were going to do. No response or call back yet.
Again, my goal is to share a first hand experience with a company whose warranty typically isn't used a commonly as other brands. I fully expect the situation to be properly remedied, but it didn't start off as smoothly as Vortex or Leupold have in the past for me. As soon as I have more feedback, my plan is to continually provide updates to this thread.
Thanks for following along everyone, have a great day!
EDIT: I should add that my brother decided to get the same rangefinder as a "graduation present" to himself. If mine comes back functioning the same way as his, it'll definitely become my #1 rangefinder and easily unseat my others. Easy to use, fast response time, no glare from the display, easily ranged on sagebrush to about 1200 yards. Very impressive and great glass!
Last edited:
