Just my opinion, these days when you can purchase a Meopta Meopro for the same street price as a Vortex Viper HD & a Meopta MeoStar for the same street price as a Razor HD why would you consider a Vortex?
For that matter in a 15x56 you have, in the same price range, the Vortex Kaibab the Meopta MeoStar and the Steiner HX. Again, why would you opt for a Vortex when Steiner and Meopta are available in the same price range.
I get that companies like Meopta, Steiner and Kowa do not market their optics as well as Vortex, however, with the quality they offer they do not feel it a top priority to plaster their brand name everywhere.
Just my $.02
Nice to hear from someone way more experienced in optics.
In my case I have never considered vortex before this. With my business background I know how little is invested in their materials to meet margins and can assume how much money has to be budgeted every year just for warranty fulfillment. It’s a terrible model really. I think it was a large reason that other retailers like rei moved away from no fault lifetime guarantee.
However being in Canada the options here are seriously limited in terms of what retailers carry for hands on trials. Not a single retail store I have found carries meopta, cabelas doesn’t stock the euro series here and a very limited selection for other brands of optics. Our sole Kowa dealer in a city of 1.2 million recently closed their doors also.
While I’m a big proponent of online retail shipping and duties are heavy. There are also a lot of warranty restrictions and issues getting optics back and forth across borders for service and more than once I have had to argue customs fees on the value of repairs.
Add the brutal exchange on top of that and we end up paying a lot of extras that aren’t refundable if I order something online to try out and decide to send back.
These kinds of things make it increasingly difficult for us canucks. Further to the point there are unconfirmed rumours that soon sporting optics (binos and spotters) and will soon also be categorized under the new legislation that came into effect for rifle scopes recently.
Lastly - the only reason I picked up the vipers was that I was impressed with how well the 10x42 was on bang for the buck. My Dad has a pair of vultures that by all accounts aren’t horrible.
I never expected these things to compete with my swaro or Kowa glass. I knowingly purchased a lower quality optic in sacrifice for their warranty. In my case they met 0/2 of what they advertise. The optic is sub par for class - not nearly as good as the lower mag glass in the same model, I had issues with focus from the start and their saving grace of “the best warranty in the biz” was a gross let down. It’s embarrassing for an “optics” company to service their product in such a way that they are returned in worse shape.
I ended up with these as a last minute decision at the start of elk season last year because I wanted to try some 15x to see if the magnification is something I wanted to invest in to fill a gap between my 10’s and my spotters. Originally I was going to get a pair of SLC HD’s right out of the gate, but due to availability, import duties, exchange rate and sales taxes - my options were really limited on my timeline.
I made a choice I knew I wasn’t happy with and never intended these to be a forever purchase. The plan was try them out, sell them off or hand them down to one of my brothers and get a pair of real glass if I liked the performance of the higher magnification.
The whole experience hasn’t been a total loss and I’m sure they’ll do whatever they can to make it right. The warranty rep was very apologetic, understanding and friendly when I called in to report what happened. They sent me a prepaid shipping label within minutes and asked me to return the binos for inspection and told me they’d waive the cue when they arrive. They offered me a free t shirt and some stickers for my troubles.
My gripe is that this company failed to deliver on the 2 things they advertise...
1 - a premium product (I’m aware and state that I consider these entry level glass at best but those are their words verbatim)
2 - an exceptional warranty service. I think the pics speak for themselves. I’ve also had experience with other optics companies warranties and the have been nothing short of awesome.
I’m a very lucky person in that I have a lot of premium glass sitting around and realistically can buy whatever I want to.
That said, I know I’m not the majority and have spent 25 years of my hunting career upgrading my way from $20 tasco and bushnell Walmart specials to where I am today.
I see, not so much on Rokslide, but a lot of forums and the outdoor shops pushing this brand on people where their price point is maxed out at a certain level. For a lot of people something like this is a once in a lifetime purchase. It’s those people I want to help make aware that there are better options out there. If this was to happen to someone a few days before a 10k guided hunt it would be devastating and could ruin their hunt.
While I sympathize that every company, including my own, can have issues and isn’t 100% perfect, as that is impossible, I’m looking to share my personal experience where a company didn’t live up to its own standards on their key business objectives and that money is much better spent as you point out. I would rather have spent that money on something where more of the built in cost goes to higher quality materials, R&D and a better end product than an assembly company where I am subsidizing an otherwise unsustainable warranty program not only for my own purchase but for every product ever sold across their entire product line.
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