Thread: Schidmt and Bender warranty issues

I recently came into possession of a schidmt and bender PMii scope, FFP, quite nice. Its aged, probably 10 years?

All functions are good, except upon taking possession I noticed two piece of dust particles inside the lens, noticeable on max power (10). The zoom adjustment is a bit crunchy at points.

Emailed schidmt and bender about the issue, they told me to send the scope to their service department.

Spent 78 dollars on international shipping. They took possession of it about 3 weeks later. Took a few emails for them to finally get back to me.

I got sent an invoice this morning. Cost break down:
- 351 euros for the service
- 200 euros for shipping back to NZ
- 88 euros of VAT

What does everyone think? You spend 5 grand on a scope off the bat, and now the people who make it want 200 euros to send your scope back to you, on top of taxing you again and charging an extortionate amount to fix something that shouldn't have gone wrong in the first place.

Oh, estimated time of arrival, Feb 2021 😂😂

Shoulda bought a Leupold

Shouldn't be charging VAT in my opinion. That is a domestic tax.
Same when I buy reloading stuff from Oz, they take off their gst.

Years ago I challenged Tom Tom when I bought an updated map. Same argument, their VAT (Holland) is a domestic tax. Got a refund.

A lot of companies, including Oz just charge and get away with it. Whether it ends up in their governments' coffers who knows.

200 Euros for shipping (~NZ$340) is outrageous. The service cost seems high but no real idea on that. I presume that did a full clean and service?

Estimated time for arrival back here would be a big lottery. I am still waiting after 102 days for a small parcel from the States.

Still time to go out and buy a Leupold :-)

I wouldn’t have thought VAT was applicable, so I’d question that, though not every countries rules make sense.
The shipping is pretty steep, perhaps to cover insurance etc.
The service cost is what it is.
Schmidt and bender doesn’t offer a lifetime warranty, and the fact that it was 5k new is irrelevant when you buy it ten years later.


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For comparison,

I bought a second hand Nightforce a few months ago, would have to be 10+ years old too. I struggled to get the reticle to stay focused and clear, so I took it into Hardys and they sent it to Nightforce Australia.

It arrived back saying that they had given it a clean and a service but found nothing wrong with it. The reticle is now clear and focused.

I wasn't asked for a cent.

My new NX8 has just arrived and I'm going to pick it up shortly

I think they will play by the rules if you give them the information clearly without too much kiwi idiom in the wording.

At one time, the warranty was 10 yr for professional use and 25 yr for civilian. Try looking on their website to see what wording to use. If you can document when it was first purchased new they will likely play ball. Klaus Pommer was the agent in the past and he might be able to help if you ask politely (klaus pommer agencies).

When buying something in person over there, the tax is typically refundable when you leave the EU and there's a little paper work to do. If you make it clear you are a NZ tax resident and the scope will be used here, they may let you off it. Of course you could have to pay NZ GST !

There could be an export permit required to ship it which is time for them and possibly a fee. Herr Pommer told me it was extra if you had a "military" style reticle and not a hunting one. Try asking SuB politely whether an export fee is included in the shipping and whether that should apply to a scope originating in NZ.

Originally Posted by Rich007

For comparison,

I bought a second hand Nightforce a few months, would have to be 10+ years old too. I struggled to get the reticle to stay focused and clear, so I took it into Hardys and they sent it to Nightforce Australia.

It arrived back saying that they had given it a clean and a service but found nothing wrong with it. The reticle is now clear and focused.

I wasn't asked for a cent.

My new NX8 has just arrived and I'm going to pick it up shortly

With the old schmidt and bender agent, I had a fault with a 5-20 ultrashort, he replaced it with a brand new one on the spot.


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May I ask which service center did you contact?

I've heard PM2 series will have difficult entering and exiting German for service due to been recently deemed as millitary equipment.

Your S&B scenario is similar to my experience with Zeiss. I wanted the reticle changed in a 2.5-10x50 Zeiss (my aging eyes found the reticle too thin to see easily). The charge was about $500NZ for the reticle change and about $200 for postage/insurance. And it took about 5 months. I queried the postage/insurance cost and I was told that there was no mutual post agreement between NZ and Germany so the cost was much higher than it would have been. I had a H&R/Nickel 4-16x56 cleaned/regassed because the seals had leaked. I was charged about $700 even though it was a factory fault. So, your costs and absence of product support from a Euro company do not surprise me. I find Leupold so much more rewarding to deal with.

So essentially don't buy schidmt and bender. It just bewilders me how they plan on staying competitive when they're charging for a premium product with terrible customer service

I guess the question is: “How many people need to make use of the warranty ?”
And “Is the product better in some way than anything else available ?”

The lesson from your posting is that even an apparently minor problem in a second hand scope should be a $ 1000 discount. Unless youre totally happy to use it the way it is. For leupold the discount could be a lot less.

The proforma invoice for my Kahles was Euro 210. That was for correcting elevation mechanicals and cleaning reticle, sealing, gassing.

When they opened it up and looked inside, it ended being covered under their warranty incl postage from Austria.

It's a couple of years since I looked at S&B's website but seem to recall the 25 year guarantee was only that they would maintain parts for each model to enable repairs for 25 years. Not that they repair buckshee for 25 years. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong and I'm not about to visit their website to check.
And even making a guarantee to hold parts for 25 years is a bit unbelievable.

Overall they had one of the worst warranties around.

My fingers are crossed for you. I bought my Nightforce NXS second hand and it had been duracoated, I once met with the Australasian agent (son of the company's founder, too) and he warned me that being painted on the outside was one of the few ways to void the warranty, but as none was on the lenses they would still *probably* cover it. Hopefully I never have to find out.

funny my el cheapos just keep working never had one crap out