[matt green]

Just been reading through various recent posts/discussions etc and noticed how long some folk have had to wait for binoculars from various makes (all except Swarovski!!) to be repaired and returned, one person in particular had to wait six months for a pair of Ziess bins to be fixed and returned

I find it insane that someone who has spent over £1000+ on any pair of bins should have to wait so long, considering the fact that many of the faults/defects etc should have been picked up via quality control in the first place makes me question how these companies justify currently inflated retail prices.

So far I've only ever had to have two pairs of bins fixed, a Leica trinovid 8x32 BA which needed a full overhaul/cleaning and new armour. They were serviced under garuntee free of charge and returned within one month, also one pair of Opticron TGA porro's with a wobbly bridge, fixed and returned within two weeks free of charge!!

Is it really unreasonable to expect a premium item such as top end binocular to be fixed within one calender month?

Matt

[NoSpringChicken]

My leaky Trinovids were turned around under warranty within two weeks, which I thought was excellent. I have heard that it is possible to talk to the Opticron repair specialist on the phone to discuss the problem. I find that very appealing.

I am interested to see how the newer, up-and-coming brands such as Hawke and Vortex will fare with their repair services. Their warranties look excellent but time will tell how good they are in practice. The comments I have seen so far look very promising.

Ron

[John P]

I had my Swifts defogged under warranty at about five years old, they were back in about three weeks.

I also discovered at another time that my Zeiss scope eyepiece was fogged after a particularly stormy seawatch, this was two days before a birding holiday in Norfolk.A phone call to Zeiss enabled me to make arrangements to deliver my eyepiece to them en-route to Norfolk and a replacement was lent to me until mine was retuned about three months later, - it had gone back (somewhere foreign ) for repair.

I have to say that Zeiss were very helpful with this matter, the guy even offered to stay on late on the Friday evening if I'd got held up in traffic.

Just a note re the scope eyepiece, they are only waterproof when attached to the scope, I suspect mine may have become loosened slightly during frantic zooming wearing gloves in a wet gale.

[Sancho]

I´ve had stuff repaired by Swarovski, Opticron and Nikon. There are no servicing facilities for these in Ireland, so all had to go to the UK and/or Austria. I never had to wait more than two weeks. Top-class service by all three.

Edit: Just got a pair of Opticron Taigas back from Opticron´s service facility in Luton, England (mentioned it on the Opticron thread). The turnaround time was....six days! (That´s from Ireland to England, repaired, and back again. Beat that!)