Weaver Scopes ... BUYER BEWARE

[RogerinGa]

I tried contacting Weaver's service dept. for 3 days. Finally after several phone calls and being on hold for over a total of 2 hours I got to speak to someone, by the way do not press 0 for the operator like the recorded message says because it only forwards you to a voice mail box that says it is full and not receiving any messages). I explained to the service person that I had a T 36 that I needed to return due to it being hazy. He suggested that it probably lost it's charge from a bump that I caused. Well that for sure was not the case but what the heck. When we finally got around to me getting a Return Authorization # he asked if I had the original sales receipt! I said no and he said they could not repair it under warranty without it! I asked why and he said that about a month ago a VP had changed the warranty policy and you now had to have the original sales receipt to get something worked on under warranty. I said that the warranty card did not state that but he said there was nothing he could do.
Fellas that is it. The last straw. I have at least 3 or 4 other Weavers and those will be the last ones I ever buy and eventually I will get rid of them!!! It appears to me that Weaver,Meade Optics) is trying everything they can to get out of providing warranty. When I asked to speak to the VP he of course "was a busy man" and was un-available. When I reminded the person that I was a CUSTOMER and not a piece of chopped liver and I also am a busy man he then informed me that the VP was in China! HMMMM I wonder what he is doing there? I don't know about you guys but that was the last straw. Please email Weaver and let them know what you think about the warranty issue, customer service and their web site. The web site appears to be fine on the surface until you actually try to really use it. Maybe that will help.
Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. There are plenty of other scopes out there in Weavers price range that DO HONOR THEIR WARRANTY unlike Weaver!

TKS
Roger in Ga

 

[RonRouse]

Roger, it seems as if the whole world is going in the same direction, with the exception of Leupold and Sightron.

 

[Spotcheck_Billy]

Thank you for the heads-up. I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I really used to like Weaver as a low cost alternative to scopes costing three times their price.

This is certainly not the first horror story that I've heard regarding poor customer service from Weaver since they were bought by Meade.

Unfortunately these things sometimes happen after a corporate takeover. Occasionally they get straightened out after a period of time but all too often it's an example of the attitude of the new corporate parent towards its customers.

I sincerely hope that Weaver/Meade gets back on track, but there's one thing for sure - I won't purchase any of their products unless I find that they have remedied this serious problem. Also, I'll reference this thread to my fellow shooters.

 

[mikecr]

Thanks for the heads up

 

[mmcauliffe]

Okay, provide us with a hyperlink to make things easy <G>. More will email if it's quick and painless.

I know, I know, no big deal, just Google Weaver and your there but a link makes it soooo darn easy it's hard to say no!

 

[robbor]

The 2 leupold items i bought both had to be returned brand new to be repaired, Spotter that changed focus as magnification is adjusted, and LR scope with crosshairs tilted. I cant say im happy with leupold either. They may fix it, but should not have been off to begin with. Neither time did leupold reimburse my shipping. And on the spotter they did not want to tell me what was wrong, they just said replaced parts and cleaned scope. How many people dont realized and dont know they have a faulty product???

 

[jb77]

Roger,I had exactly the opposite experience you had. I put a post down in the scopes thread several months ago about my experience with Meade which was very positive.

They replaced a scope that was acting up for me,no I did not have my original purchase receipt either).

I know it's not what you want to hear but there are going to be cases like yours with almost every company that make the stuff we use in our sport.

I would buy Weaver
products again based on my experiencewith Meade.

But I can understand your frustrations.

 

[RogerinGa]

Like I stated in the original post the Customer Rep said thet the VP changed the policy to requiring a sales receipt about a month ago. This was well AFTER I purchased the scope. How can they change the warranty on a product after it was purchased? The warranty card says nothing about a sales receipt. Try getting your scope repaired now and see what they tell you.

TKS
Roger

 

[mmcauliffe]

Thanks for the heads-up. I just bought 2 new Weaver scopes last week, one is at the shop waiting for my new rifle and one is on order. I'll make sure I hang onto the reciepts.

 

[tripcrow]

I sent a T36 back on July 9 that acted up at 2 previous matches. Didn’t bother to call for a RA#, just followed the instructions that came with the scope. I got it from Midway back in April and was able to print out a copy of my invoice. The instructions that came with mine said you needed the original receipt, $7 to cover shipping, & only the original owner is covered. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Haven’t heard a word from them yet.

jb77, I hope I don’t have to make a few calls and wait 6-7 weeks till they ship me a new one. Especially now in the middle of the bench season. All they had to do was look at yours and make a decision to send you a new one. If they don’t want to hire enough help they shouldn’t have gotten into the business. That kind of service isn’t acceptable in a market with Burris, Sightron, & Leupold.

 

[jb77]

Tripcrow I didn't think 6 or 7 weeks was that bad considering if your order a barrel and it takes 7 to 8 months to be delivered or your action is at the gunsmith waiting to be barreled for nearly a year.

I concede the point that if you are in the middle of your competition schedule and your scope flakes out that you wouldn't want to wait 6 weeks for a repair or replacement.But how fast would any other scope maker respond on a warranty issue? In my experience no faster.

The last time I checked I could purchase 2 of the Weavers for the price of 1 Leupolds or Burris scopes, zero experience with the sightrons. I personally have taken to buying Nikon scopes exclusively.

I don't see the issue of customer support getting better in the near future. Sad as that is.

 

[tripcrow]

The UPS man brought me a brand new Weaver 36T today. I was floored. Mailed it off to them on the 9th and had a new scope in hand 17 days later. Never even tried to contact them. Guess I'll be keeping my Weavers.

Maybe you just had the misfortune of dealing with them at the wrong time RogerinGA.

 

[jackieschmidt]

As many of you might,,or might not), know, I take T-36 Weavers apart in order to freeze the erector tube so it can be used with one of the External Adjustable Mounts that many of us in 100-200 yard Benchrest are now using.
It does not surprise me that shooters are having trouble. I have recently taken brand new Weavers, just out of the wrapper, apart and found erector tube Assembly's that were way too loose. On one,they had not even locked the erector tube gimble nut that pre-loads the gimble joint. Imagine if a shooter had placed that thing on top of a Benchrest Rifle.
Optics vary from being quite good to "brown tint". I have no explanation for this.
I may be wrong on this, but I have a gut feeling that the T-36 is now probably made in China. I based this on nothing more than the poor assembly procedures I have seen in some of the newer ones. If they are not, they need to check the Quality Control at where ever they are manufactured.
It also does not surprise me that when you send a Weaver off for a "fix", they just send you a new scope. These things area real "bear" to get apart. If you are working warranty work on a hourly rate,it is probably cheaper in the long run just to send the customer a new scope, which might, or might not, be ok.
As for the "clouding" I have taken multitudes of Weavers and Leupolds apart, and have never had any problems with any of the ones I have "frozen" cloud up. I personally do not think there is anything in there in the first place. For instance,on a Leupold 36x, the front lens are simply threaded into the objective assy, and held with a jam nut. This is not what you would call an "air tight" seal.
The Weaver's front lens assy is air tight, in that it has a o-ring that stabilizes the assy in the scope body. But the other end,where the eye piece screws on, has nothing, just threads.......jackie

 

[longhunter43071]

I have had one experience with Sightron and they were great and FAST.I now have Sightrons on six different rifles and would not go to anything else,but Nightforce.

 

[Clark]

I have ~25 Weavers and ~ 50 scopes total.

When a scope does not work, I thrown it on the bone pile.

If it is a Leupold, I take it to the post office and send it back.

So far, I have sent only one of my own Leupolds back.
They are pleasant to deal with.

 

[M700]

Clark - you sure have a lot of scopes!

Mine are all Leupolds. Got my first one back in 1974, and it's still in use today. I have had to send one 4.5-14x back a couple of times for problems with the windage & elevation adjustments but service has always been very fast, like about a week or 10 days at the most.

Some of these scopes are on very hard use rifles. Glad I've stuck with Leupold for over 30 years. They're not perfect, but they're good, and when service is needed, it's great.

FWIW, Guy

 

[rbt50]

I WAS GOING TO BUY ONE BUT WILL LOOK FOR SOMETHING ELSE NOW.

 

[lukehalee]

I had some parallax issues on a new Sightron. Sent it back, called them, had a new scope in about a week. Being in mfg, I understand everyone has some issues, but they will get my business again.