I was raised that loyalty is worth the effort.
In previous articles I wrote thank you letters to Armalite and Trijicon for taking care of me. You can read about how well Armalite treated me here and Trijicon did here With that in mind I stayed loyal to EOTech when they went through a hard time.
In November 2015 EOTech was sued for known faulty holographic sights. Temperatures below freezing shifted the site and the point of impact. You can read more about it here.
In response they made settlement offers to all owners of EOTech Holographic weapons sights. Claims were not due until 2017.
I don’t remember their exact offers, and it seems all websites with that information have been pulled or let expire. If memory serves you could ask for a full refund if you had your receipt or get a refund of an amount they selected if you did not have your receipt. I was told their offer without a receipt was fair. They also would pay freight to them ($15) and sent a voucher for $22.50.
Another option was you could keep your sight(s) and get a voucher for a discount off any EOTech product. I also believe the lawyers were guaranteed a minimum of $10,000,000. That’s ten million dollars for those of you that went to public school.
Instead of asking for a full refund, I thought a discount off another Holographic sight would be the way to go, after all, I have a family of AR’s and really like the EOTech products.
Being a loyal EOTech follower, I was wanting to get an XPS3 series and figured I would find a deal online and use the voucher there.
After months of waiting, I received my letter and voucher. It was for $100 off any EOTech product and was only good for their web site.
I decided to jump on the web and see what I could get. It turns out, at the time, website products were all $100 and more than the everyday prices I could get online from places like Brownells, Optics Planet and Natchez Shooter Supply.
For example, I purchased an EOTech XPS2-0 for 300 Blackout from LAPolicegear.com for $432.65 on 12/1/2016. It is $449.99 everyday price as of 12/31/2018. At EOTechGear.com they want $567.00.
I also purchased an EOTech 512 from OpticsPlanet.com for $369.00 in Sept 2013. Though in my opinion obsolete, today they are $399.00 at Amazon. Meanwhile at EoTechgear.com they want $479.
There is no way that Optics Planet, Amazon or LA Police gear are not making some profit.
As I mentioned earlier, I planned on waiting for a sale at one of the dealers, I figured I would wait for a sale at EOTech. Every couple of months I would visit their web site, yet I never found a sale that could not be beat by over $100 elsewhere.
Time rolled on and the voucher had an expiration date. “In the event that the vouchers are not used within one year of issuance, they will expire and cannot be used, and have no cash value”. It expired before I could use it to save money.
Because of the offer and expiration, I feel betrayed by EOTech. I choose to stick with them instead of getting my money back and purchasing another brands product.
I feel that the voucher is most certainly a betrayal of those who were most loyal to EOTech. The settlement was a way lawyers possibly made millions and a way EOTech did not have to reimburse the consumer one dime. If the loyal customer didn’t overpay for a product (thus allowing L3 / EOTech to make a profit) for the defective unit, within a year, they lose out again.
Before you run out and find where I could have saved $20 off the everyday price from a web or retail store, remember, I was looking for a sale, a deal. I avoid paying retail as much as humanly possible. I watched for a sale on EOTech’s site and never found one where I could get any of their optics for less than online retailers, so I did not use my voucher.
This time it turned out that loyalty to a company bit me, and probably thousands of other loyal followers in the back side. Maybe brand loyalty is not worth the effort.
Until we meet again, keep your booger hook off the bang switch until on target and ready to fire.