• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Sadly, Vortex quality control is all over the place (1 Viewer)

N

nacmancer

Well-known member
If you visit my vortex solo first impressions in the Vortex subsection, I talk about how I recently purchased an solo 8x25 model, and one of the occular eyepiece elements was rattling around in the eyepiece. I've returned it.

But since then I've purchases a Vortex vanquish on Amazon for my uncle, it received it yesterday, and it looks like the entire right barrel assembly was sloppily put together, with a optical large blur in the upper corner, and I'm kinda sure it's uncollimated with the eye strain I got from looking through it.

The out of the box quality of Vortex's entry level offerings are hit and miss right now (I got two misses total), and I'm hesitant right now to recommend them to anyone looking for affordable binoculars or getting into binoculars.

I'm going to attempt to see how their warranty service is.
 
Last edited:
I bought a Vanquish just a few weeks ago for my auto glove box and they seem great. Sorry to hear you're having issues. I think their warranty service is very good.
 
It's been a month now and there is no update on my Vortex Vanquish binocular I sent in for warranty, I sent it in March 7. I imagined it would of arrived at my front porch any time the last week, I've read the turn around time could sometimes take 3 weeks.
 
Ordered Vortex D200(old version of Dback 8X28) which was advertised as such, but received the replacement DB200. Dealer probably thought it was doing me a favor...not so...worst CA I've even seen.
All the way thru sweetspot to edges in every low to high contrast view.
Granted I haven't looked through hundreds of binos for comparison, but I can't believe this one was passed.
 
In the last couple of months my customer service experiences have convinced me that except for maybe one or two of the very top tier companies customer service and quality control is going to be a crapshoot everywhere. I finally decided not to stay mad about this and just consider this part of the process. I have a little theory about this that may or may not be true to some extent. There was a time in the past when people went into a profession based on an interest for what was being produced. That still happens of course but much more rarely. Most people just need to find a job and hopefully one that pays well. This over time creates an I don't give a s___ attitude based in boredom and possibly resentment. Why care if the customer is happy if you don't even care about what you sold them?
 
black crow said:
In the last couple of months my customer service experiences have convinced me that except for maybe one or two of the very top tier companies customer service and quality control is going to be a crapshoot everywhere. I finally decided not to stay mad about this and just consider this part of the process. I have a little theory about this that may or may not be true to some extent. There was a time in the past when people went into a profession based on an interest for what was being produced. That still happens of course but much more rarely. Most people just need to find a job and hopefully one that pays well. This over time creates an I don't give a s___ attitude based in boredom and possibly resentment. Why care if the customer is happy if you don't even care about what you sold them?
Click to expand...
Poor customer service is precisely why people pony up the cash for an alpah like a Swarovski. Over the years we sent an 8X32 SV and 8.5X42 SV in for service (minor but annoying problems) . Both came back in absolutely perfect condition and have proven to be reliable field optics. I'd hate to be on a 16-day vacation and have optics fail in any way, shape or form. When I'm a few thousand miles from home a lifetime, transferable, do-anything warranty is useless.
 
Agree with you on Swaro's outstanding warranty and customer service. After all, they modeled it after Leupold, who set the standard by which all others are judged to this day.
 
Pileatus said:
Poor customer service is precisely why people pony up the cash for an alpah like a Swarovski. Over the years we sent an 8X32 SV and 8.5X42 SV in for service (minor but annoying problems) . Both came back in absolutely perfect condition and have proven to be reliable field optics. I'd hate to be on a 16-day vacation and have optics fail in any way, shape or form. When I'm a few thousand miles from home a lifetime, transferable, do-anything warranty is useless.
Click to expand...

It's a sad thing when you have to pay extra so people will keep their promises.
 
Are we discussing the glasses which many claim are "almost a good as the alphas at a fraction of the price"?

It doesn't sound quite that way to me. I'll keep my Swarovskis under my jacket to avoid being called an optics snob and being told about all the money I "wasted" when I could have done "almost as well".

Horsepuckey!
 
Sometimes they are pretty close at a fraction of the price. I have several pair I think qualify and I have owned Swarovski's and Top of the line Kowa's so at least I can say i've compared them. One pair are Eagle Optics Rangers that were not expensive in the least. I've had them for years and no issues but I do remember hearing they could be trusted as far as customer service and repair goes.

If people are calling you a snob it's out of envy. Ignore that.
 
nacmancer said:
It's been a month now and there is no update on my Vortex Vanquish binocular I sent in for warranty, I sent it in March 7. I imagined it would of arrived at my front porch any time the last week, I've read the turn around time could sometimes take 3 weeks.
Click to expand...

Do you happen to have a phone? Perhaps a call to their CS line would answer more questions than Bird Forum. :t:
 
jgraider said:
That's the chance you take with Chinese optics.
Click to expand...

Pileatus said:
Poor customer service is precisely why people pony up the cash for an alpah like a Swarovski. Over the years we sent an 8X32 SV and 8.5X42 SV in for service (minor but annoying problems) . Both came back in absolutely perfect condition and have proven to be reliable field optics. I'd hate to be on a 16-day vacation and have optics fail in any way, shape or form. When I'm a few thousand miles from home a lifetime, transferable, do-anything warranty is useless.
Click to expand...

jgraider said:
Agree with you on Swaro's outstanding warranty and customer service. After all, they modeled it after Leupold, who set the standard by which all others are judged to this day.
Click to expand...

All true. Also nice that SONA can take care of most issues rather than having to be shipped overseas for 3, 4, 5 months for those of us in the US.
 
I'd recommend giving them a call. Their customer service is largely known as outstanding.

A few weeks ago I bought a discontinued Vortex Tripod in the Bargain Cave at Cabela's. It was missing the mounting plate which I later learned was a proprietary size. I gave Vortex a call to see if they stocked a spare to purchase and the parts guys said "give me your address and I'll drop one in the mail". I told him I bought it as a returned item and would gladly pay for the plate, but he insisted on giving me one. It was in my mailbox 2 days later.
 
Is anyone else still having QC issues with Vortex?

I bought a pair of Razor HD 10X42s about 5 months ago, and quickly put them through their paces with tropical forest birding and camping trips in Panama and the Colombian amazon. While I felt the optical quality was definitely competitive for the price, the construction just didn't stand up; within a few months of use the paint was flaking off the barrels, the diopter adjustment had gone out of calibration and I couldn't get a proper adjustment (my eyes are almost dead even so it shouldn't be hard), and the focus knob became very difficult to move and occasionally completely bound. The eye relief collars collected debris and grit quite quickly.

I sent them in for repairs with detailed descriptions of the problems and although I was pleased with the communication and the turnaround time, when they were returned the problems were not completely fixed. The focus knob is still problematic and the paint was touched up in a fairly sloppy manner instead of a proper re-paint job. The collars still have some crud in them.
Not sure whether to try sending them in again or to just cut my losses and sell them.

Interestingly, I have the opportunity right now to compare them with a new pair of identically priced Leica Trinovid 10X42s and I find the Leica build and optical quality superior.
My only other customer service experience was with Zeiss and although I love Zeiss' optics I was very disappointed with the 7 month turnaround time and lack of completeness in their work.
 
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, you think it would have made sense to just send a replacement and keep the defective pair for a QC investigation at the factory or something like that.
I'll see about sending them in again I guess.
 
Kurt N said:
Is anyone else still having QC issues with Vortex?

I bought a pair of Razor HD 10X42s about 5 months ago, and quickly put them through their paces with tropical forest birding and camping trips in Panama and the Colombian amazon. While I felt the optical quality was definitely competitive for the price, the construction just didn't stand up; within a few months of use the paint was flaking off the barrels, the diopter adjustment had gone out of calibration and I couldn't get a proper adjustment (my eyes are almost dead even so it shouldn't be hard), and the focus knob became very difficult to move and occasionally completely bound. The eye relief collars collected debris and grit quite quickly.

I sent them in for repairs with detailed descriptions of the problems and although I was pleased with the communication and the turnaround time, when they were returned the problems were not completely fixed. The focus knob is still problematic and the paint was touched up in a fairly sloppy manner instead of a proper re-paint job. The collars still have some crud in them.
Not sure whether to try sending them in again or to just cut my losses and sell them.

Interestingly, I have the opportunity right now to compare them with a new pair of identically priced Leica Trinovid 10X42s and I find the Leica build and optical quality superior.
My only other customer service experience was with Zeiss and although I love Zeiss' optics I was very disappointed with the 7 month turnaround time and lack of completeness in their work.
Click to expand...

From the sound of your description, agree that you should try exchanging for a new pair under the warranty.

Own a vortex diamondback and had similar issues as well, paint flaking off the central hinge, my rubber lens cover broke off, rubber caps for eyepieces fell out at least 3 times and I've had to repeatedly glue them back, focus knob loose and about to fall off (difficult to adjust), minor annoying specks in the glass that distract your vision. Although I use them very regularly and the optics are still mostly fine, the exterior of the bins has not held up at all. Recently went to exchange it under the warranty, hopefully the new pair holds up.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 5 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

K
Digiscoping with android phone vs with mirrorless DLSR- advice please?
Replies
6
Views
440
Mike Crawley
Mike Crawley
M
Rarity of technical binocular reviews
2
Replies
24
Views
3K
agus_m
A
Will K
Leica APO Televid 82 - first impressions
Replies
5
Views
2K
Will K
Will K
P
Vortex Razor HD 13-39 x 56 - first impressions
Replies
8
Views
4K
Steve Babbs
Steve Babbs
W
Optics quality expectations
Replies
16
Views
1K
tehri
tehri

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top