Rifle Scopes Leupold customer service is over rated

[alee18]

Hello all,

I would like to keep this as short as possible, Leupold CS is below satisfactory in my book and they don't care to make things right!

I had a set of basic leupold STD bases and rings on my Savage 10, the rear base and ring got damaged under the 308 win recoil, poor quality IMH but for the price I guess thats what I get.

So I called leupold in mid February of 2013 speak with a very nice fellow named Trend Smith and he apologized for my exp. with the rings and tells me to send it in to him for replacement. When I explained to him that I was disappointed with the durability of these bases and rear ring mounting system he agreed to swap them for their dual dovetail rings front and rear. Also change the rings height from high to med at no cost. Im impressed and wowed by the customer service and tell to my self next time I buy a premium optics I will spend extra on the Leuopld glass!

I mail out the package for replacement, delivery tracking says it was delivered on Feb 20th. I wait patiently for about a month checking my mailbox every other day. One month later I call, and ask to be transferred to Trend Smith, a nice lady does so. Call goes to voice mail..
I leave a polite VM with my phone number and asking for him to return my call.
One week later, nothing.. I call back again leave another message asking him to call me back..
I call back in another week asking a nice lady to transfer me to a supervisor or manager on shift, she transferred me to guy name Allen I believe, I leave a VM asking to call me back.
Call back a week later, 2 MONTHS since the package was delivered to Leupold and ask to be transferred to a manager, goes to VM again.
I hang up and call back and spoke with the lady her name started with J don't remember exactly, I explained to her that I have been ignored after leaving multiple voice mails and Im not sure how to feel about your customer service, what going on?
She apologized and assured me that I will be taken care of, she was really nice and promised to talk with the manager call me back the next week and get it all sorted out.

Of course I don't hear back from none of them, I call back agian and said hello this is the guy that called last week and we spoke about ...... she pretends that she has no idea who I am and just transfers me to a tech named Mike where I spend about 20 mins on hold to finally find out that they don't have the bases for savage 10 in stock! Really?? That I can understand, but a simple call back telling me that would have been nice. I asked Mike to ship the rings first since they had them in stock who knows if I will ever see the bases.

Bottom line they dropped the ball in my eyes and I will not be buying their product in the future! I bet I'm the only one who had negative exp since everyone else always raves about their customer service.

Thanks

 

[VJJPunisher]

not saying that it's acceptable or you shouldnt be frustrated, just friendly advice, but you may have aided in the wait by leaving vm's and not talking directly with any tech. They are all on the same system and could've provided you with a status at any time when you called. Shitty situation though and a phonecall wouldve been nice.

 

[dtask]

Well, that is just plain shitty CS. Leupold better get their shit together and work it our for you or they will reap the whirlwind. When you get a "yes" man on the phone saying, "yes, we'll take care of it for you" you're justified in expecting a proper result. When a company states that it will provide a service, they better then make it happen — doesn't matter what company it is.

There is no such thing a company that is too big to fail. If you don't do a good job with your products and your customers, you earn the disdain you end up with.

 

[dtask]

not saying that it's acceptable or you shouldnt be frustrated, just friendly advice, but you may have aided in the wait by leaving vm's and not talking directly with any tech. They are all on the same system and could've provided you with a status at any time when you called. Shitty situation though and a phonecall wouldve been nice.

Give the guy a break. Leupold's accountability to their customer is paramount. It certainly doesn't matter that the OP left messages — regardless of the type because Leupold failed to act on any of it for him.

 

[jjrgr21]

i had a similar situation with a rangefinder. in the end they tried to replace a new RF with a rebuilt camo model. i went round and round with them, and finally a switched to a scope which i promptly sold. the exchange took 10 weeks to complete. i'm all done with leupold after this latest problem.

 

[hk dave]

I'd be pretty pissed myself at this situation. OP obviously tried repeatedly to contact them, and they gave him the run around over and over.

Thanks for the heads up...

 

[SomeOtherGuy]

Not terribly surprising to me. I sent an as-new Mk4 in for service because the (glass) reticle had enough lint to look like a cat had sat on it. Never mounted on a gun and only 4-5 years old, mind you. They cleaned it and sent it back to me, but put a big - like 3/16" - ding in the ocular while it was in the shop. Nice shiny bare aluminum, nothing subtle or hard to miss. I took that as my cue to do what I'd been planning anyway and sold it. IMHO Leupold products sell for almost double what they are worth, when compared to any other brand I've used including two other brands that do final assembly in the US.

 

[hk dave]

And here I was considering a Mk6 or Mk8.

 

[Fenix Mike]

And here I was considering a Mk6 or Mk8.

NF or Vortex The LEO sales dept at Leupold isnt much better, they used to have a guy that was GREAT, returned emails very quickly, spent hours helping me select a scope, and even gave honest recommendations on other brands of scopes based on price. Unfortunately hes gone, and the woman that replaced him doesnt know anything about the products she sells, time to get one, whats in stock, etc. After spending many days trying to give them my money for a Delta point to put on my S&W Core, and it seeming like they would rather just not sell anything to me, I got an RMR instead (at twice the price unfortunately) and decided I wont be using Leupold anymore. The people at NF and Vortex continually go above and beyond with their service, follow up with shipping/concerns, and genuinely want you to be 100% satisfied with their products... thats VERY rare these days, especially as margins on products shrink and they are literally just chasing a few bucks around for profits.

 

[jjrgr21]

haven't dealt with NF, but vortex CS is awesome.

 

[roggom]

Both NF and Vortex are top notch, you email with your phone number and they call you.

IMHO Leupold is prob experiencing some of the same degradation in service expertise as many other companies. What I mean is you have a company with an outstanding reputation, and branding is highly recognized worldwide. You cut staff and hire a bunch of young folks that: (1) do not have experience nor full understanding of the equipment they sell or service. (2) lack the pride in occupation nor have any type of work ethic.

I had similar issues with Leupold when I sent them a scope to have the CDS dial installed. Usually it is a 10 day turn around, after a month I called to see what was up. I spoke with an "expert", to whom I had to explain how their scope works, and that I would need a mil turret since I had a metric scope. Once I got ahold of a real expert, the ball was rolling pretty quickly and they overnighted my scope as soon as it was done.

Their online contact form is a joke, you submit and get a response in approx a week. It is best to just call and speak with someone.

I will still continue to buy because I like Leupold scopes and have been pretty satisfied with the quality of their gear. Just Loopy need to put some boots against some asses over there and get back on track.

 

[VJJPunisher]

Give the guy a break. Leupold's accountability to their customer is paramount. It certainly doesn't matter that the OP left messages — regardless of the type because Leupold failed to act on any of it for him.

I agree with this statement, I am not giving the OP a hard time. I was simply stating that in a customer service situation it's probably best to talk to a person as opposed to leaving voicemails.

I see you edited your original comment, I was worried your camo band on your tinfoil hat was too tight

 

[dtask]

Last night it was! I had some editing to do this morning in a couple posts once the Advil kicked in.

 

[rg1911]

Perhaps I was fortunate. The adjustments on my old and abused VX-III died. I emailed customer service and was told it was covered under warranty and to send it in for repair. (I even explained that it was old and abused, and they insisted that the warranty was a lifetime one.) I sent it in and a couple weeks later my completely refurbished scope arrived. They had even taken care of the rub marks.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[bzo]

That makes me nervous as after 2 months of research I finally settled on a Leupold MK6 1-6 for my AR and so far I am super happy with it but I hope I will never have to use CS if this is what they consider acceptable CS now...hopefully it was just an unfortunate anomaly.

 

[softcock]

There has never been any Optics product made in history that has given 100% customer satisfaction of product & customer service .
LOVE Leupold & the CS has been over-all great for me ( 95+ % ) on any dealing I have had with them over the years . In the years I been owned Leupold . I have only had to go back twice because of a problem Not being fixed properly . Of course I just drive 20-min. and drop-off on wil-call and then get a call in 4 to 8 days on average wait time, to come down and pickup my property . with the Longest wait 1-time almost 2 weeks, but that was only one time . & I think they only Really Pissed me off One time on CS . So over-all I consider that Not A Bad Customer Service record .
Don't think I have ever owned less than 4 or 5 Leu. optics @ any one time . The mk4's are the small block Chevy's of scopes & I even have 2 leu. products ( compact 25x spotter & porro prism bino's ) that have bounced around the truck & field pack for over 20+ years & still working great .
.

 

[CrazyDonkey]

All optics companies have tons of cases of shitty customer service out there, you just won't find the threads because people get bashed when they make a thread about shitty USO, NF, S&B, Premier, Vortex blah blah. Sucks, you had shitty customer service, don't buy from them again and move on.

Just a couple days ago a guy was getting jacked around by Opticsspecialists and he was getting bashed right and left in there when the company had more than ample opportunities to fix the problem.

If you don't want to buy from them again then don't. I have never had an issue with their CS because I've never had to use it for the 4 that I have owned from them.

 

[hrfunk]

I've had to deal with Leupold CS precisely once. I had one of their quick release rings break under the recoil of my T/C contender(I can't remember which barrel it was on, but I think it was the 44 Mag). Anyway, I called them up, explained the problem and had a replacement set within the week.

Too bad you didn't have a similar experience. It sounds like they were on the right path, and the veered off. You might want to give them one more call. Explain how absolutely unhappy you are with the situation and see if they will make it right.

 

[tsavo303]

I have had only excellent service from them.
have only broken 1 leupold, they fixed it quickly
small stuff like CDS dial (arrived in a week instead of the promised 4) and screws to replace lost ones were sent out quickly and free sent even when they didnt have to
I am going to get a mk6

 

[pawprint2]

Wow!! I've had the best CS from them over many years, but the part of this post that is Wild, is: When one guy posts about poor customer service from a vendor, he is attacked!! Yet, when an old Established scope maker, one with a million happy customers has something posted bad about them, Bang it must true! Bad service from vendor-must be a loooooney poster, bad CS from Leupold-must be true. Just saying.....

 

[JayMazee]

Wow!! I've had the best CS from them over many years, but the part of this post that is Wild, is: When one guy posts about poor customer service from a vendor, he is attacked!! Yet, when an old Established scope maker, one with a million happy customers has something posted bad about them, Bang it must true! Bad service from vendor-must be a loooooney poster, bad CS from Leupold-must be true. Just saying.....

Oh hai, are you new to the internet?

 

[pawprint2]

^^^^funneee! I guess when it comes to this sort of crap, I'll never get used to it. On this very board, one can find recent posts, where a poster had piss poor CS(the poster's opinion), and is jumped on because the poor CS was done by either a vendor, or a sponsor!
I guess it's like the 1/4MOA all day every day rifle, that so many post about, I 'm not saying it isn't true, not at all, everyone knows you can't put something on the net that isn't true, just saying.....

 

[alee18]

I knew very well that most of the customers are happy, that's why they have such a strong rep! Yes I understand in the current situation the stock might be low and what not.

However, if he could only mention that it would take months for me to get a replacement or even a call back keeping me posted would have been a right thing to do by any standards!

I did send few email as well that were never returned for what its worth, nor the phone calls...

 

[pawprint2]

^^^Try ordering a custom rifle from Rem custom shop! They'll call you everyday, send you a birthday card, and wash your car if you ask them. No really, Remington must suck big time, and everything they do or have done must suck because the custom shop will not call me right away or email me right away......just saying.
If you spent the time going through all the old posts (some not so old) on this very board, not to mention other "gun" boards, and listing all those companies that have made a misstep-an outright error, and decided not to do business with them based on that, you will have a very hard time buying a rifle, any ammo, or almost anything else. Everyone makes a mistake once in a while, you may be an exception, but for the rest of us, a mistake is not the end of the world. I've called Leupold, they answer the phone, a live human answers the phone maybe my experience with calling them is unique, but they do seem to have someone answering the phone some times. It appears when you called them the first time, they answered the phone, did you try that number again? You have indicated they did not return your further calls indicating you left a message and did not get to speak to a live human any other time you called.

 

[samnev]

Everything that was said by the many posters has validity. However there was no earthly reason the OP did not receive a single call back or email after so many attempts at getting his problem resolved. Leupold customer service in my case has been terrific.

 

[JL]

Sent "ask expert" message via Leupold pages 2 months ago. No reply yet.

 

[Tacsnipe73]

I have had 9 Leupold Scopes over the years, all of them clear and exceptionally durable. 2 years ago a young friend of mine was using my hunting rifle and he accidentally dropped it from a 20 ft tree stand onto an oak stump, bending the objective bell onto the barrel. I called up Leupold, and told them what happened, and they told me to send it in. Five days later a brand new VX-3 showed up on my doorstep, which has served me since.......

I don't know about you, but that's what I call customer support.

 

[KYpatriot]

I can understand the wait on their part, most every vendor is out of stock on most of the commonly ordered stuff. They should have returned your call and told you that so you knew it was going to be awhile though.

 

[tsavo303]

this sums up my experience also, although i have more than 9

I have had 9 Leupold Scopes over the years, all of them clear and exceptionally durable. 2 years ago a young friend of mine was using my hunting rifle and he accidentally dropped it from a 20 ft tree stand onto an oak stump, bending the objective bell onto the barrel. I called up Leupold, and told them what happened, and they told me to send it in. Five days later a brand new VX-3 showed up on my doorstep, which has served me since.......

I don't know about you, but that's what a call customer support.

 

[GreggNY]

Sorry to hear about the OP's issues, and seems like Leupold dropped the ball on that one. I've only used their CS once and was extremely impressed, but this was at least a few years ago. I bought a 6.5-20 vx3 used that showed up trashed. Elevation knob was grinding and wouldn't turn and the dot on the target dot reticle was floating off the crosshairs. Seller vanished so I called Leupold and told them exactly what happened and was expecting to at least pay for repairs if they would even fix it. Sent the scope in and was waiting for an estimate for how much I'd be losing on this deal. Was getting somewhat annoyed having not heard for about 2 weeks and then a package showed up with the scope completely fixed under warranty for free. They completely replaced both the elevation and windage adjustments, installed new glass, and cleaned everything up. I would've thought they sent a new replacement scope if I wasn't given a repair form with exactly what they found wrong and what they replaced. Not too shabby.