Thread: Extravision/vortex warranty

I sent a vortex i bought somewhere, maybe even on here 2nd hand, it was crushed by someone overtightening the rings, and they sent me a new one in a week or 2.

This was to Broncos

I'd rather buy five Vortex scopes and take my chance, for the price of your one Nightforce @MSL!

Originally Posted by Flyblown

I'd rather buy five Vortex scopes and take my chance, for the price of your one Nightforce @MSL!

Was $1299 usd when our dollar was strong. I sold it for considerably more than I paid for it, which was considerably less than the nz retail.


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Originally Posted by Flyblown

I'd rather buy five Vortex scopes and take my chance, for the price of your one Nightforce @MSL!

You've got rocks in your head!
Buy once cry once
Nothing like having a failed scope when on a hunt of a lifetime.


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I bought a nightforce 2.5-10x32, after a year or so, a piece of debri started floating round on the reticle. I contacted eurooptics, who Id purchased it from, and sent it direct to them. Took a week to get there, they rang me to say they had recieved it and would be sending it for repair, which would take a number of weeks. I said no, I need a new replacement ASAP, 10 days later I had a new scope. Try that with an nz retailer.


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This is an age old issue with Vortex. I've posted on it before and argued with guys about it. If you don't have a receipt from an Aus / NZ retailer, you might well run into problems.

But then again, you might not. Who knows? is what it seems like, which isn't good enough.

Has always seemed to me that the whole "global VIP warranty" has been hit and miss from the get go. They recently changed the wording on the US website again, for like the eighth time, go look what it says. Seems pretty self explanatory to me, but it wasn't always so as when they kicked off it was "anywhere, for any reason" with several iterations of variation since then.

Now we have retailers sourcing product who knows how and apparently pissing off the regional distributor (not aimed at you 55Six but at Broncos, who I like and buy stuff from inc. Vortex). So that leaves a bit of a gap in my understanding of how this whole thing is supposed to work. All I know is that Broncos know me, and look after me, so I'm prepared to take what I see as a small risk that a warranty claim through them might go pear shaped. I guess they look at me and say "he buys rifles and stuff here, we'll just replace it like for like or as close as we can".

I wouldn't send it direct to the AKL warehouse though, ever, too many nasty stories unfortunately. That's where ExtraVision need to sort their shit out big time hey @CooeeBay.

Originally Posted by Beetroot

I can see why Vortex would be annoyed that grey imports are messing up their distribution system but it seems like a better approach would be to ask why grey imports are happening.

When I can pay full retail from a US store and have it landed here for 80% the price of a correctly imported one, why wouldn't I do that?
In this Global economy we no longer need to put up with this BS from NZ importers/suppliers.

Thankfully the likes of you guys at 55Six are trying to do something about it, hopefully Vortex and other companies will start to catch on.

The stories we could tell. We had an importer meet us instore recently to announce they were getting our supply of products cutoff. We recorded him and have passed on the evidence of his illegal anti competitive behaviour to the appropriate authority. We have another involved in the crossfire too. NZ retail is controlled by monopolies in various ways including price fixing.

Originally Posted by 55six

The stories we could tell. We had an importer meet us instore recently to announce they were getting our supply of products cutoff. We recorded him and have passed on the evidence of his illegal anti competitive behaviour to the appropriate authority. We have another involved in the crossfire too. NZ retail is controlled by monopolies in various ways including price fixing.

The reality is that some company's in nz have been appointed sole distribution rights.
With that they have the obligation of warranty claims done fairly and quickly and undertake all the advertising and paying for any sponsored products they have put up for prizes or raffles.
I don't have to much of an issue as long as the price is reflective of our small market share and everybody has to make a dollar.
Just put the shoe on the other foot if you were doing all the work as above and some speculator that has no infrastructure or extra costs is trying to cut your lunch when you have done the legitimate hard yards.
Just saying!

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Originally Posted by andyanimal31

The reality is that some company's in nz have been appointed sole distribution rights.
With that they have the obligation of warranty claims done fairly and quickly and undertake all the advertising and paying for any sponsored products they have put up for prizes or raffles.
I don't have to much of an issue as long as the price is reflective of our small market share and everybody has to make a dollar.
Just put the shoe on the other foot if you were doing all the work as above and some speculator that has no infrastructure or extra costs is trying to cut your lunch when you have done the legitimate hard yards.
Just saying!

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Parallel importing works when the parallel importer actually looks after the product they parallel import BUT in my experience what they actually do generally is sell the good cheaper ( and often on the back of advertising paid for by the appointed distributor) then when the thing breaks or needs service direct the customer to the local distributor which is where the issue starts as they get turned away, which is fair enough as if they didn't import it and sell it then they are not responsible for it.
Customer often has no idea their unit was a grey/parallel import and so cannot understand why they are being fobbed off..................and then get cross

Originally Posted by andyanimal31

The reality is that some company's in nz have been appointed sole distribution rights.
With that they have the obligation of warranty claims done fairly and quickly and undertake all the advertising and paying for any sponsored products they have put up for prizes or raffles.
I don't have to much of an issue as long as the price is reflective of our small market share and everybody has to make a dollar.
Just put the shoe on the other foot if you were doing all the work as above and some speculator that has no infrastructure or extra costs is trying to cut your lunch when you have done the legitimate hard yards.
Just saying!

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In theory I agree with you but I don't see thins being the case here.
I get that business need to make a profit but when I can go on Google and see how much products cost everywhere else in the world it's pretty clear we get screwed over in NZ more often than not.
Again it comes down to being a global economy, it's not like these are new cars that need servicing and huge infrastructure of spare parts, if a Vortex scope breaks they just send you a new one.

Again if I can pay full retail at a store in the US, pay $100 for shipping due to lack of bulk buying, pay GST and it still save 15-25% then there is something wrong.
If it really is such a small market and that is the cost of doing business here then it's obviously not a sustainable option.

The worst example of crazy NZ prices I've seen is in recent car part purchases, all genuine parts:
Needed to buy an oil pump for a Ford Territory, local price $700, price from Ford dealer in Australia $180.
Needed some suspension components, Local price $4000, 20kg parcel shipped from the UK $800.

If I can go online and import something as a one off for that much cheaper than a business that's apparently connected to a global supply of products and has the ability to bulk buy and bulk shipping then something is seriously screwed up.

Originally Posted by andyanimal31

The reality is that some company's in nz have been appointed sole distribution rights.
With that they have the obligation of warranty claims done fairly and quickly and undertake all the advertising and paying for any sponsored products they have put up for prizes or raffles.
I don't have to much of an issue as long as the price is reflective of our small market share and everybody has to make a dollar.
Just put the shoe on the other foot if you were doing all the work as above and some speculator that has no infrastructure or extra costs is trying to cut your lunch when you have done the legitimate hard yards.
Just saying!

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Back in 2019 The Ruger importers JPB Furley made a submission on the proposed changes to the Arms Act. Their submission from memory effectively asked the government to make it law that only an officially factory appointed importer was allowed to get import permits from the police.
The fact that this brazen attempt at subverting commerce anti competition law was attempted by an importer should raise the alarm bells about what a lack of competition would do to the NZ market.
The only way to get competitive pricing in NZ is via competition.
We have introduced new products to the NZ market, had them approved but we never announce we are the exclusive monopoly for those products. It goes against our mantra of serving the customer first.

I bought a Vortex PST years ago from Optic Zone before they even had anyone representing the brand in NZ. Fast forward 8 years or so, it started falling apart, so I enquired about getting it repaired under "VIP" warranty. All that I got was fobbed off by Vortex and referred to extravision who didn't want a bar of it. So IMO, their "VIP Warranty" is a load of shit and false advertising.

It’s amazing how many guys will try and sell Vortex gear into the secondhand market, and have no idea at all that the item is not covered by the NZ / Aus warranty because they have no proof of purchase.

You’ll get told in often quite an irritated manner (when you ask for proof of purchase) that you do not need a receipt because it says so on the Vortex website. I’ve had a couple of guys selling through this forum get pretty shitty with me about it. They finally go quiet when I point them to the Extravision website.

The “no receipt necessary” benefit is only applicable if you bought the product in the US…. But it does not explicitly say on the US website that you do need / do not need a receipt in any other countries. It’s ambiguous.

If you read the Extravision website it clearly says you need proof of purchase in Aus/NZ. But how many local customers know to go to the Extravision website to read their terms and conditions when it says clearly in the enclosed booklet and on the Vortex website that you don’t need a receipt!

The bottom line is that I think Vortex have been remiss with the marketing of the VIP Warranty, knowing full well that guys are going to remain completely ignorant of the local distributor requirements, until it’s too late. And that’s why we read the bad stories on here and elsewhere. Why they don’t tighten up on this I do not know because I’m convinced it just gives ammunition to the naysayers and turns people off the product range, which is fantastic bang for the buck, and hardy in the upper tiers of the range.

I say all this having had zero bad experiences with Vortex, i’ve owned binos / rangefinders / two scopes and a red dot and not had a single problem and used them over almost 10 years in a fairly brutal manner. I don’t worry about the warranty situation because all my products are bought in Aus and NZ.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

It’s amazing how many guys will try and sell Vortex gear into the secondhand market, and have no idea at all that the item is not covered by the NZ / Aus warranty because they have no proof of purchase.

You’ll get told in often quite an irritated manner (when you ask for proof of purchase) that you do not need a receipt because it says so on the Vortex website. I’ve had a couple of guys selling through this forum get pretty shitty with me about it. They finally go quiet when I point them to the Extravision website.

The “no receipt necessary” benefit is only applicable if you bought the product in the US…. But it does not explicitly say on the US website that you do need / do not need a receipt in any other countries. It’s ambiguous.

If you read the Extravision website it clearly says you need proof of purchase in Aus/NZ. But how many local customers know to go to the Extravision website to read their terms and conditions when it says clearly in the enclosed booklet and on the Vortex website that you don’t need a receipt!

The bottom line is that I think Vortex have been remiss with the marketing of the VIP Warranty, knowing full well that guys are going to remain completely ignorant of the local distributor requirements, until it’s too late. And that’s why we read the bad stories on here and elsewhere. Why they don’t tighten up on this I do not know because I’m convinced it just gives ammunition to the naysayers and turns people off the product range, which is fantastic bang for the buck, and hardy in the upper tiers of the range.

I say all this having had zero bad experiences with Vortex, i’ve owned binos / rangefinders / two scopes and a red dot and not had a single problem and used them over almost 10 years in a fairly brutal manner. I don’t worry about the warranty situation because all my products are bought in Aus and NZ.

My experience must be unusual.
I bought a Vortex Golden Eagle second hand.
I dropped my rifle and it fell onto the top (elevation) turret of the scope - ruining the scope.
I had no original receipt, no proof of purchase.
I received a replacement scope 2 weeks after couriering the broken scope to the Auckland agent.

Excellent service honouring a no fault guarantee.
Your experience may differ, my was unbeatable.

Similar experience with me I bought my binos off a Pawn shop and ended up fall over face first with binos hanging around my neck snapping them clean in half.