Your experience could happen with any optics manufacturer. Check out some of the increasing issues with new Leupold, Weaver, Bushnell optics on the larger forums.
It is too bad that some of you will accept less from companies like Leupold, Weaver, etc and consider it an aberration, but a company that you have never dealt with before gets one chance. To each their own I guess. As stated I really do not think that the majority of Vortex owners are stupid or brainwashed, but that is your choice as to what to believe

I will not spend a dime with Weaver or Leupold until they improve their offerings. I have had enough issues with canted reticles, specks floating on the interior of the scopes that attach themselves to the lens at the worst possible moments, etc. The new M5 will hopefully change this trend for Leupold, but I have already been reading about the same old issues still being present. What was once greatness has let their market slip away from them due to arrogance and the unwillingness to listen to what people want and expect in today's optics.
Oh and Kapac, are you saying that Vortex refunded your money? Strange........ I would have thought that they would have either repaired or replaced this defective optic as this is their SOP. Never heard of a manufacturer giving an end user money when the product was purchased thru a retail operation?