Vortex optics are a great company

[tmschuller]

Yes many of you know that but I really did not have a experience to share and now do. I got a Vortex crossfire II as a gift and put it on my AR. Had it for the machine gun shoot at UZI buttons compound and it was doing good.. then it would not stay clear and there were others there to confirm this .. then it stopped doing it. So I forgot about it and the other day I was shooting with my son and it did it again..
I got online and filled out the sheet, mailed it off last Friday and yesterday a new scope came.. WOW. They are awesome.. NOW I hope to upgrade my scope and it will be a Vortex scope.. another thread to follow elsewhere.

 

[Bfish]

Vortex is a good company, I appreciate them for how they stand behind their products. Thanks for sharing.

 

[stymie12000]

I'm glad you had a good experience. From what I've read, most people who use their customer service have good experience. Unfortunately with the first and last two vortex scopes i have owned. I've had less than desirable experience with both of them and their customer service. Which I find odd because everyone says they have good customer service. That is one reason I decided to go with vortex. To say the least, i was totally disappointed.

 

[42769vette]

I'm glad you had a good experience. From what I've read, most people who use their customer service have good experience. Unfortunately with the first and last two vortex scopes i have owned. I've had less than desirable experience with both of them and their customer service. Which I find odd because everyone says they have good customer service. That is one reason I decided to go with vortex. To say the least, i was totally disappointed.

Its very rare a customer comes around that Vortex can not please. I would love to hear this story. Please continue. Its just fact that some customers are completely unreasonable and cant be satisfied, I would be curious to know if you were un reasonable, or Vortex was un reasonable. A lot of times a customer will buy a hunting scope with 40moa travel, and get mad that the scope wont dial out to 1000 yds, and want Vortex to make it right. That obviously cant be done as they should have bought a scope designed for their purpose.

 

[tmschuller]

Sorry about the experience. I hope Alan can help. I wanting upgrade my scope but not sure where to go. I just started looking in scope threads and got some ideas. For me it's about being able to buy what I feel is a good value and what I see other shooters own. Big difference! I was ready to buy but now the ford needs some love and this takes precedence and won't be cheap... I'm not even opening the box the scope came in and going to work on my iron sights skills for now and look at some of the suggestions I have seen here on INGO Someday soon.

 

[stymie12000]

Its very rare a customer comes around that Vortex can not please. I would love to hear this story. Please continue. Its just fact that some customers are completely unreasonable and cant be satisfied, I would be curious to know if you were un reasonable, or Vortex was un reasonable. A lot of times a customer will buy a hunting scope with 40moa travel, and get mad that the scope wont dial out to 1000 yds, and want Vortex to make it right. That obviously cant be done as they should have bought a scope designed for their purpose.

Sure, I can elaborate. Just a little bit of background. These were not my first scopes. I have owned many over the years... Leupold, Sightron, Burris, even some cheap Simmons and Tasco for my .22's. I have used many other brands from shooting friends and family guns. So I am not an expert but do know my way around a scope. I also torque all of my scopes to manufacturer specs with the FAT torque wrench. I do know how to focus the reticle and set the parallax properly.

First experience with a Vortex was with a Diamondback HP. This was a new in the box scope that was on my .223. After 600 or so rounds the reticle turned inside of the scope. I did send it back. I will say Vortex made it easy to send in and there was a quick turnaround time. However I decided to go a different optic route with the .223. The scope sat in my safe for a while. Then I decided to put it on my .308 about 6 months after I got it back from Vortex. Upon the 3rd shot from my .308 the reticle turned again. So called up Vortex AGAIN. They wanted me to send it back to them on my dime. I ended up having to call them back and complain that I thought I shouldn't have to pay for shipping due to the circumstances. They finally did agree to float the bill for shipping. I never mounted the scope again upon return! I went with another Burris which works just fine

Second experience was with a Viper PST 4-16 SFP. I bought this scope from a big box retailer brand new in box. So I got it all mounted up. At range this scope had to have one of the worst clarity/glass that I have ever looked through. My cheap $80 Simmons .22 scope had way better clarity. So I called up Vortex. Back to Vortex it goes. The lady (I forgot her name) from Vortex was very nice and said something isn't right. So again quick turnaround and they floated the shipping. I got the scope back looked through it and didn't even mount it up. It was exactly the same. So called the same lady back. After talking to her for a few minutes she finally said "let me talk to a fellow employee (forgot his name) he knows all about these scopes". So I was on hold for a few minutes. The lady comes back and said that there is nothing that they can do and my best solution would be to try and return the scope to the store that I purchased it from. So that's I what I did. The funny thing, when I returned the scope I looked at all of the 4-16 PST that they had in stock. At short distances they all looked ok (which is how I looked through the scope before I purchased it). But once I finally looked out the window at some distance they all were horrible. Even the store employee agreed. I've never owned a scope that clarity was so bad even if my parallax is off.

I ended up getting another Sightron. This one was the SIII 3.5-10 MOA for about the same price as the Vortex but with way better glass! And I have been nothing but happy with both of my Sightrons.

I feel like there are too many quality scope options out there to be wasting my time with a product that in the past hasn't worked for me. Ok rant over!

Oh Yeah OP. Sorry to thread jack that was not my intention.

 

[Gabriel]

I have one of their Solo monoculars that I don't like. The focus ring has a hard spot in it right at the distance most animals are at on the other side of my pond, so I can't ever focus on them. The glass also has a weird imperfection on the upper left. I need to send it back, but set it aside and have really just forgotten about it.

To add an upside, I do like my PST 1-4.

 

[42769vette]

OK, first is a broken scope that they fixed, but I will agree it shouldnt have taken 2x to get it right.

2nd, is a glass quality issue which as Im sure you know, different types of glass look different to different people. Your particular eyes dont do well with that particular PST glass. There really is no fix to that outside of to take your scope back, try different coatings, grindings, designs, etc. What could they have done to make this situation right? Most shooters love the PST glass, some dont. Thats why glass quality comparisons on the internet are worthless because everyone who looks through the same scope sees something else. How would you like to have seen this handled?

Please dont take this as my jumping on you, or being an ass, this is me trying to educate about glass, and try and get you look at the other side of the coin as far as what could be done. You cant expect them to re design a extremely popular optic because it didnt react well to your eyes.

 

[stymie12000]

OK, first is a broken scope that they fixed, but I will agree it shouldnt have taken 2x to get it right.

2nd, is a glass quality issue which as Im sure you know, different types of glass look different to different people. Your particular eyes dont do well with that particular PST glass. There really is no fix to that outside of to take your scope back, try different coatings, grindings, designs, etc. What could they have done to make this situation right? Most shooters love the PST glass, some dont. Thats why glass quality comparisons on the internet are worthless because everyone who looks through the same scope sees something else. How would you like to have seen this handled?

Please dont take this as my jumping on you, or being an ass, this is me trying to educate about glass, and try and get you look at the other side of the coin as far as what could be done. You cant expect them to re design a extremely popular optic because it didnt react well to your eyes.

Sorry but I'm not buying that it didn't react well with my eyes. Out of all of the scopes that I have looked through why would just this one particular scope do that? Just doesn't add up. Plus why would the employee see the exact same thing with this scope? The thought that maybe its my eyes crossed my mind. Thats why I had the employee of the store look through it. I even looked through the 6-24 pst and it was clear and crisp and that was with my eyes. After the fact, I read that this was a known problem with that model. So my conclusion is that vortex tried to sell a sub par scope and then did not stand behind it. So I will spend my money elsewhere!

 

[42769vette]

Sorry but I'm not buying that it didn't react well with my eyes. Out of all of the scopes that I have looked through why would just this one particular scope do that? Just doesn't add up. Plus why would the employee see the exact same thing with this scope? The thought that maybe its my eyes crossed my mind. Thats why I had the employee of the store look through it. I even looked through the 6-24 pst and it was clear and crisp and that was with my eyes. After the fact, I read that this was a known problem with that model. So my conclusion is that vortex tried to sell a sub par scope and then did not stand behind it. So I will spend my money elsewhere!

You dont have to buy into anything I'm saying sir. Its an optical design fact. You can learn the facts, or you can assume you know better. It is a know fact that a small percentage of customers have eye sight that doesn't work well with the 4-16 PST. Vortex themselves know this, and its unfortunate that a small percentage of PST 4-16's= more scopes than a lot of optics companies sell in a year in every line they make which makes it sound like a bigger issue but keep in mind when you have the best selling scope in the world you have to play percentages, not "one guy is un happy, spend millions and redesign the scope". The guys who are un happy they make sure you get your money back, and move on.

A big box store employees who works the optics counter doesn't even figure into it. They literally watch a 5 minute optics education video and in most case's have never shot a gun, much less know what glass is ment to look like. I bet the big box store employee didn't know that the 6-24 PST, and 4-16 PST don't have interchangeable glass. Each scope has glass properties in it that make it operate better at different zooms.

How were they going to make this right? Did you want them to upgrade you to a Razor at no cost? Did you want them to re design the 4-16 PST glass? Did you want them to take your scope back and send you a new one (since all the 4-16's you looked through looked bad what are the chances a new one would have fixed the problem?). There was no fix to the problem than for you to get your money back (which sounded like it happened) and chalk it up as a lesson.

You should definitely spend your money elsewhere, no doubt about it, but spend your money elsewhere for the right reason IE, the 4-16 PST glass doesn't work with your eyes, not Vortex sucks and tried to screw me over with a sub par scope. If it is a sub par model why is it so popular? Why do so many people love that particular scope and own multiples? Why does most every review rave about them?

 

[Bybo]

I like my vortex optics. They seem clearer than my Leopold, at half the price

 

[rransford]

Vortex is by far one of the best companies out there to work with. Like many have said already, they have amazing customer service and stand behind their product 100% of the time. They are definitely doing something right.