I recently bought a Vortex Razor-AMG-UH1, a holographic red-dot optic for Academy Sports and Outdoors last weekend.
The store had them in stock, it was brand new, never been used, had all of the original packaging and instructions with it. I bought it for $400. After taking it home, I turned it on and went through the settings. It is supposed to have 15 brightness level settings, the one I had, only had 6. It would turn on, I would click through the settings, it would go blank after 6 clicks. I knew from watching videos and reading the instruction guide, it was not supposed to operate like this. So, I contacted Vortex, explained to them what was going on, they thought it sounded suspicious. I sent them pictures of the optic, they confirmed it was a counterfeit.
I immediately returned it back to Academy, spoke with the manager and informed them that it was a counterfeit. I had to explain to them what was wrong with the product, and I had defend my position. I brought the transcript of the conversation I had with Vortex with me to the store to back up my claim. Academy confirmed it with Vortex, and immediately pulled the inventory.
They told me there would be a further internal investigation as to how this happened. They think it might be going on at the distribution center, where they are switching them out of the box.
Vortex has been extremely helpful in this whole ordeal, even though they had nothing to do with it. They reached out to me, gave me 50% off the real optic. It is on their website for $679. I was shocked to find out this was a counterfeit, especially purchasing it from a reputable sporting goods store.
