• 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.

Habicht warranty in the US? (1 Viewer)

Saturninus

Active member
Reading the unboxing report below has inspired me to buy an 8x30 Habicht. Unfortunately, they are not available in the US, so I would have to buy them abroad. If I were to buy one and bring them back, would Swarovski honor the warranty? I know that "Grey" market items are not eligible, but I have no choice but to buy them abroad since they decided to stop distributing them in the US. This would be my first Swarovski and I like the idea of owning one for life, but if there is no warranty, some of that appeal fades
 
Reading the unboxing report below has inspired me to buy an 8x30 Habicht. Unfortunately, they are not available in the US, so I would have to buy them abroad. If I were to buy one and bring them back, would Swarovski honor the warranty? I know that "Grey" market items are not eligible, but I have no choice but to buy them abroad since they decided to stop distributing them in the US. This would be my first Swarovski and I like the idea of owning one for life, but if there is no warranty, some of that appeal fades

Just PM to ProudPapa and it's yours!

Jan
 
Saturninus - As mentioned by Jan, Proud Papa is a forum member. He and his wife have an optics/eye glasses store in Pennsylvania, USA. He is an authorized Swarovski dealer and in addition to stocking an selling from their store, he also sells via the internet with an ebay store and an Amazon store. He made a comment a while back that he always tries to keep a Habicht 8X30 in stock.

Here is his ebay listing for that model.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Swarovski-B...018?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb3650642

Send him a PM or contact him through ebay mail and I am sure he can give you the details on warranty coverage for that model in the US. I believe he gets it through Swarovski USA, so that makes me think it will be covered by them. No special order needed, you can have one in a couple of days!
 
Ah thanks for the guidance! Now I'll just have to save up a little.

This got me curious, however. What if someone went on a trip to Austria, and decided to buy a pair of Swarovskis there as a souvenir. Seems like a reasonable thing for a tourist to do.

Would this person then have to send their binoculars back to Europe for any service issues?
 
Ah thanks for the guidance! Now I'll just have to save up a little.

This got me curious, however. What if someone went on a trip to Austria, and decided to buy a pair of Swarovskis there as a souvenir. Seems like a reasonable thing for a tourist to do.

Would this person then have to send their binoculars back to Europe for any service issues?

Saturnius,

This is the question you have to ask SONA.
Please let us know their answer!

Jan
 
You can send them to SONA, and then they will send them to Austria. SONA does not work on any of these- whether they are purchased in US or not. They just send them on to Austria for service; because they told me they are not set up with their tech equipment to service them. I found this out recently when I talked to them about a 50 year old 10x40 Habicht that I recently purchased.
 
That makes sense on the Habicht if they don't even sell them here anymore. But what about a Swarovision? Would they insist that a customer send them to Austria for service if that is where he or she purchased them?

I sent them an e-mail asking them this question - I'll post their reply here if I get one.
 
Well, here was the reply - short and to the point. This was in response to a question I posed - "if I were to buy a Swarovski in Austria on a trip to Europe, would I be able to get warranty service here in the US or would I have to send back to Europe?"

I crossed out the rep's name in case he doesn't want his contact info plastered all over an internet forum.



Hello Noel,

Thank you for your request at Swarovski Optik. There will be no problem with getting warranty work here in the US.

SWAROVSKI OPTIK NA LTD
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Regional Service Coordinator
2 Slater Road
Cranston, RI 02920
 
Warranty

Here's the U.S. version. I do believe it's considered a living, breathing document that has plenty of room for flexibility.
 

Attachments

  • SONA+Limited+Lifetime+Warranty.pdf
    30.9 KB · Views: 157
Reading the unboxing report below has inspired me to buy an 8x30 Habicht. Unfortunately, they are not available in the US, so I would have to buy them abroad. If I were to buy one and bring them back, would Swarovski honor the warranty? I know that "Grey" market items are not eligible, but I have no choice but to buy them abroad since they decided to stop distributing them in the US. This would be my first Swarovski and I like the idea of owning one for life, but if there is no warranty, some of that appeal fades

Did you end up buying it? I'm thinking about getting a pair in July as a promotion present to myself. Talked to Proudpapa on the phone for a while and he seems a stand up guy. I wish he could match the prices I could get from Germany ($750 on eBay) but I think his prices are set by corporate hq. When buying from him I do get the awesome US warranty that I wouldn't get with units sold directly from Germany. After all the glowing praise associated with Swarovski, I think I'd like to go the authorized retailer route.
 
You will never have to worry about getting screwed by Swaro USA. One big reason why they are kicking asss and taking names here.
 
That is as big reason too. I know I could get a Nikon EII for around $400 new from Japan, but no warranty and no weather proofing and I do travel in many disparate climates.
 
Ok, how's this for rationalizing? If the Habicht 8x30s are roughly $300 more in the U.S. due to the current "strong" dollar, then over a 20 year period, your cost average would be about 4 cents a day more.
That line of thought always seems to work better in my head than my wife's.
 
Ok, how's this for rationalizing? If the Habicht 8x30s are roughly $300 more in the U.S. due to the current "strong" dollar, then over a 20 year period, your cost average would be about 4 cents a day more.
That line of thought always seems to work better in my head than my wife's.

Ridiculous as it sounds, the fact the Habicht looks better would probably sway me that way over the Nikon. The EII is great, but lacks that European finish I like.
 
The cost of the warranty is factored into the sale price.

Have you tried one?

Most of the complaints about them seem to be about their small, hard eye cups and their short eye relief. Others didn't like the stiffness of the focus wheel.

Camera Land sells them as a special order item for $1079.00 which seems to be a reasonable price for a high quality, water proof Porro prism binocular made by Swarovski.

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/swarovski.pl?page=swarovskihabicht8x30

Swarovski's special edition 8x30 CL Companion "Africa", a Roof prism, costs $170.00 more. Their standard versions cost $999.00.

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/swarovski.pl?page=swarovski_cl_companion_8x30_africa



Bob
 
Last edited:
Ok, how's this for rationalizing? If the Habicht 8x30s are roughly $300 more in the U.S. due to the current "strong" dollar, then over a 20 year period, your cost average would be about 4 cents a day more.
That line of thought always seems to work better in my head than my wife's.

The cost of the warranty is factored into the sale price.

Have you tried one?

Most of the complaints about them seem to be about their small, hard eye cups and their short eye relief. Others didn't like the stiffness of the focus wheel.

Camera Land sells them as a special order item for $1079.00 which seems to be a reasonable price for a high quality, water proof Porro prism binocular made by Swarovski.

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/swarovski.pl?page=swarovskihabicht8x30

Bob
I have not tried one. Nowhere local in CA to try them and they are rare enough here in the U.S. anyway. I am concerned about eye relief, but worst case I could return it. I'd be out the shipping and insurance, but proudpapa will accept returns and he didn't mention a restocking fee. I don't expect him to take a loss in shipping costs if I change my mind since that would be my decision and he shouldn't lose money because of that. His price over the phone is also $80 cheaper than Cameraland and he has them in stock.
 
A good dealer makes or breaks a purchase.
It took me some time to come to terms with my Habicht, ergonomy-wise, but now I dont want to miss it.
 
That is as big reason too. I know I could get a Nikon EII for around $400 new from Japan, but no warranty and no weather proofing and I do travel in many disparate climates.

Brin Best has written an excellent review of "Centre Focus 8x30 Porro Prism Binoculars."

Here it is:

http://www.brinbest.com/id38.html

Some of them are no longer available. Practically speaking, most of them are no longer available, except the EII and Habicht and they are not easy to get.

Bob
 
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 9 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.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top