Thread: Extravision/vortex warranty

Originally Posted by Flyblown

It is VITAL that whenever sending expensive items back to retailer / distributor that a signed receipt is a prerequisite, for provable delivery confirmation. That said, couriers being what they are...

I didn't ship them to Auckland (smarter than that) I dropped them at the local store I brought them off. Gave some Lee way as it was just pre Covid which in hindsight was a fuck up and since then the local retailer has just said that they are waiting on a response/extravision to send a replacement which was taking time likely due to stock but never really checked out but I've had great service on other warranty claims with them so trusted them as have also heard about extravision. But having called today something is up for sure.

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.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Which retailer @Stocky?

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Which retailer @Stocky?

Not till I find out where the issue lies as it could genuinely be a lost shipment etc. But have somewhat be fobbed off a few times so we will see.

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.


Sent from my SM-A025F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by 55six

We actually got appointed as an importer for vortex a longtime ago. But then had it taken from us by an Aus company before we even got to land a shipment. Since then that aus company lost the dealership to extavision.

We went back to vortex again around 6 months ago offering to look after kiwis locally. The first question they came back with was where are you sourcing vortex from now. We cutoff comms at that point knowing that kiwis would get shafted again. Vortex have recently sent us an email via their lawyer instructing us to remove their products from our website.

So unfortunately, unless you buy from us, you can kiss good bye NZ warranty as Aus controls the NZ retail scene. We’ve had similar discussions with nightforce and Sig Sauer too.

At the end of the day the buck should stop with the retailer.

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.

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!

Sent from my SM-A025F using Tapatalk

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!

Sent from my SM-A025F using Tapatalk

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

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 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!

Sent from my SM-A025F using Tapatalk

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!

Sent from my SM-A025F using Tapatalk

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.

An update from extravision on my case is that they found my record (i dropped them off even longer ago than I thought) they apparently sent a replacement pair a week after. They have sent another pair today apparently not sure what the story is on The local retailer part except they will call me when they arrive so potentially all due to a lost shipment no real way to know but my set of binos is being replaced. I will be sure to get a receipt of replacement from the retailer.

Well surprising yesterday I got a photo from my mother picturing a brand new set of binos that extravision sent out,I guess it was a stock thing.The last email I received for them they said they were waiting for stock and that was 4 weeks ago they also said they would receive the stock hopefully within 2 weeks which sounds about right being that the address was incorrect meaning it probably got sent back and sent out again.Thanks to everyone that helpes out cheers.