Alpha brand binoculars: What's the worst customer service you got under warranty? (1 Viewer)

Leica, Swaro, Zeiss - I have owned them all, have had to get repairs done by two of them, and will soon send a pair of binos in to the third to deal with a small problem that I have noticed.

One of these manufacturers has been leading me a merry dance since March 2016 - I had a pair of alphas repaired but they came back our of alignment. They have now been sent to the manufacturer's workshop six times and on five occasions have come back out of alignment (despite the workshop insisting that they are working "as expected"), I am still awaiting the result of the 6th visit...

gandytron said:

Leica, Swaro, Zeiss...

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I've dealt w/all three several times.

Best has been Swarovski -- they correctly diagnose the problem, actually tell me what they found was wrong (nice hand-written notes), do a clean fix job, and fix it so it stays fixed.

Second: Zeiss. They do clean work, or else replace the bin, but they haven't figured out the problem w/one of my bins and they don't say anything about what they find, try, or make of the problem. Very generous with paying shipping charges to Zeiss for new bins with problems.

Leica: Generally very clean work but not always perfect in that regard, but they charge a fee for repairs, even under passport warranty in USA.

--AP

usually don't have trouble with any of the big 3.....until this last time.....sent in one of the terra 8x25 bins for loose hinges....they said they would be replacing them instead of repairing, but that they were out of stock..contacted them after 3 months....still none in stock.. now its been six months.....I sent them another E-Mail 3 days ago but have not heard back yet.....

Alexis Powell said:

Second: Zeiss. They do clean work, or else replace the bin, but they haven't figured out the problem w/one of my bins and they don't say anything about what they find, try, or make of the problem. Very generous with paying shipping charges to Zeiss for new bins with problems.

--AP

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Alex I am surprised by your account above as my understanding from folks in Europe is that they get a detailed account of the findings of an inspection of the returned bino from Zeiss, with a list of the proposed work required and the cost involved and how warranty covers the costs or not. This was my experience too when I sent a bino back earlier this year. It was a very formal and thorough and well documented process.

Lee

Troubador said:

Alex I am surprised by your account above as my understanding from folks in Europe is that they get a detailed account of the findings of an inspection of the returned bino from Zeiss, with a list of the proposed work required and the cost involved and how warranty covers the costs or not. This was my experience too when I sent a bino back earlier this year. It was a very formal and thorough and well documented process.

Lee

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All of my problems w/Zeiss bins have been covered under USA lifetime warranty. I presume that because such service cost me no more than shipping the bins to Zeiss (and sometimes not even that), they saw no need to provide those details. In particular, my Zeiss 7x42 BGATP focus gets stiff in hot weather, and I have to mess with the diopter a lot for different temperatures, as if the ocular lens yoke changes shape (like a thermocouple type physical switch). I don't know what they tried - re-lube? maybe replace o-rings or other seals?

--AP