Rifle Scopes Bushnell will not honor 30% off Elite Tactical scopes

[catalyst81]

It seems from this thread and the other than the people who talked to actual people got help and those who did tried online didn't get what they wanted. Yeah snail mail blows and talking to people can be long. But if that's what it takes...

I don't know...has anyone that sent in the rebate through mail actually been approved and received it back? A lot of people have been told to mail it in with the rebate form that didn't exclude the tactical line, but I haven't seen anyone who has for sure been approved yet. I'm hoping this will be the case.

 

[Sharpened Graphite]

The new form did say it explicitly. Knowing how businesses operate (banking on you not lawyering up), I sat on the sideline this time. Last time I was denied a $100 for a Savage due to the website glitch. Always go snail mail if there's the option IMO.

Regardless, Vista is really just begging for more drop in their stock price if they keep operating like this. I have an RCBS rebate being processed right now, we'll see what happens.

 

[AznTactical]

They should at least honor purchased made before they released the new rebate form. I ordered the first day of the rebate. I wouldn’t have bought this scope otherwise I would have just got another gen 2 razor. Vista/Bushnell refuse to take the scope as a return and give me my money back. The vendor I bought it from charges 20% because I put it in rings. It’s new and never been on a fired rifle otherwise. Pretty pissed

-I learned about this promotion in mid to late February.
-Downloaded the pdf that did not exclude "Elite Tacticals" a few days prior to March.
-I ordered my LRS around 6am from Opticsplanet on 3/1.
-3/1 afternoon went to Bushnell's website and saw that the exclusions list changed on Bushnell's website. Vista Outdoors did not exclude Elite Tacticals
-Talked to Bushnell rep who sent me to Vista Outdoors. Ashley confirmed the differences and told me rebate will be honored.
-3/2 now Vista Outdoors rebate changed to exclude Elite Tacticals.
-3/2 Facebooked Bushnell on this issue.
-3/3 Bushnell FB replied back it will be honored.
-3/6, received scope from Opticsplanet and immediately submitted online rebate. Also sent it in snail mail with upc.
-3/20, online rebate received and is processing.
-3/23, rebate approved, awaiting check.

 

[Dthomas3523]

This would be one thing where you could quite possibly have some recourse to either your credit card provider or to the FTC since in any case your purchase of the product was specifically tied to the promised rebate.
The FTC thing can take a long time to work out however, but they do tend to take a hard stance if enough people complain.

Except the fine print says they can change the deal at anytime.

I don’t agree with them not honoring it as it’s bad customer service....

But

You can’t say “well i have the paper that doesn’t exclusde it,” and ignore the part where it says they can change it at anytime.

 

[TimeWillTell]

-I learned about this promotion in mid to late February.
-Downloaded the pdf that did not exclude "Elite Tacticals" a few days prior to March.
-I ordered my LRS around 6am from Opticsplanet on 3/1.
-3/1 afternoon went to Bushnell's website and saw that the exclusions list changed on Bushnell's website. Vista Outdoors did not exclude Elite Tacticals
-Talked to Bushnell rep who sent me to Vista Outdoors. Ashley confirmed the differences and told me rebate will be honored.
-3/2 now Vista Outdoors rebate changed to exclude Elite Tacticals.
-3/2 Facebooked Bushnell on this issue.
-3/3 Bushnell FB replied back it will be honored.
-3/6, received scope from Opticsplanet and immediately submitted online rebate. Also sent it in snail mail with upc.
-3/20, online rebate received and is processing.
-3/23, rebate approved, awaiting check.

This is what I expect fully from my rebate despite mine being ordered a week later than yours.

I halfway don't blame Vista/Bushnell for telling people it won't be honored as that may dissuade some from sending it in. Bad business also but not as bad as rejecting legitimate claims with appropriate forms. Hell, as of yesterday I still saw a form that did not exclude the elite tactical on Midwayusa (form linked on the xrs2 product page).

 

[BurnOut]

Well, after having my rebate for my LRHSi denied because it shows as an Elite Tactical scope (per the Vista Outdoor CSR), I have sent off my paper work package, including a screen cap of the LRHSi product page. I highlighted everything on the product page showing that it's a hunting optic, and even included the URL to the product page (which includes the word "hunting", but not the word "tactical"). We'll see.

I sent it via FedEx, so there will be a tracking number in case they try to get cute with, "Gee, sorry, we never received it." This feels like I oughtta put on a tin foil hat, but the way that Vista Outdoor is conducting themselves leads me to conclude that the better I can protect myself, the more likely I am to actually receive the rebate.

 

[The Busby]

I ordered a DMR-IIi through a prominent retailer on March 1st. Sent in the rebate form via on-line...received a "THANK YOU and enjoy your rebate" from Bushnell/Vista. A week later I get an email saying my rebate request was denied due to the UPC being an in-eligible product. I then called Vista and spoke with someone that said "this is a common issue and we are going to honor the rebate for those customers who purchased Elite Tactical scopes". I then get a second email 4 days ago that says AGAIN..."your rebate request has been denied due to in-eligible UPC". So, I call AGAIN today and this guy says..."print out everything you have, cut the UPC off the box, send us a letter along with all documents, and we'll see if there's anything we can do. We cant promise anything."

At this point....the scope is un-used and going back to the retailer. Bushnell has lost my business !! If you F up...own it...don't screw the customer.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

I've been advising in favor of Bushnell products for awhile now. I may have to rethink that. Following this topic with considerable interest.

Greg

 

[catalyst81]

I live literally 5 minutes from Vista's corporate office. I'm half tempted to drop by and see if anyone will talk to me. They need to straighten this all out.

 

[ra2bach]

-I learned about this promotion in mid to late February.
-Downloaded the pdf that did not exclude "Elite Tacticals" a few days prior to March.
-I ordered my LRS around 6am from Opticsplanet on 3/1.
-3/1 afternoon went to Bushnell's website and saw that the exclusions list changed on Bushnell's website. Vista Outdoors did not exclude Elite Tacticals
-Talked to Bushnell rep who sent me to Vista Outdoors. Ashley confirmed the differences and told me rebate will be honored.
-3/2 now Vista Outdoors rebate changed to exclude Elite Tacticals.
-3/2 Facebooked Bushnell on this issue.
-3/3 Bushnell FB replied back it will be honored.
-3/6, received scope from Opticsplanet and immediately submitted online rebate. Also sent it in snail mail with upc.
-3/20, online rebate received and is processing.
-3/23, rebate approved, awaiting check.

when you sent it in with UPC did you cut it off the box or just send a photo copy? if I cut it off the box and they reject the claim I can't return the scope...

 

[AznTactical]

when you sent it in with UPC did you cut it off the box or just send a photo copy? if I cut it off the box and they reject the claim I can't return the scope...

When I snail mailed it in I was able to cut the UPC label and not the paper box because the UPC was printed on shiny metallic colored sticker. Both ends of my scope box had this sticker upc too. I think my paper submission was rejected last week and labeled "UPC Submitted was invalid for submission" which makes me nervous. It should of been rejected because I submitted the rebate online too.

 

[ra2bach]

When I snail mailed it in I was able to cut the UPC label and not the paper box because the UPC was printed on shiny metallic colored sticker. Both ends of my scope box had this sticker upc too. I think my paper submission was rejected last week and labeled "UPC Submitted was invalid for submission" which makes me nervous. It should of been rejected because I submitted the rebate online too.

thanks but still nervous. my scope doesn't arrive till Thursday.

does anyone have the name of who they spoke with or who replied positively to email inquiries at Vista?

 

[AznTactical]

thanks but still nervous. my scope doesn't arrive till Thursday.

does anyone have the name of who they spoke with or who replied positively to email inquiries at Vista?

1-800-998-8758 (Vista Outdoors), I spoke with Ashley employee ID 1737 on March 5th.

 

[ra2bach]

I live literally 5 minutes from Vista's corporate office. I'm half tempted to drop and and see if anyone will talk to me. They need to straighten this all out.

holy crap you would win the internet if you did that...

 

[alfmoonspace]

The way it’s going right now, I wouldn’t doubt that snail mail submissions will get rejected as well.

Then you can’t return the scope.

Bushnell is the new IOR

 

[catalyst81]

1-800-998-8758 (Vista Outdoors), I spoke with Ashley employee ID 1737 on March 5th.

Curious, have you spoken to them since its been rejected?

 

[whatsupdoc]

Lets see where this goes, Bushnell may perform Seppuku.

 

[Nathan11B]

If they seriously do not back this, I may just drop them from my scopes on both my rifles. This is beyond nuts and a cluster fuck.

 

[Aaron47pb]

Pray for me

 

[davsco]

Except the fine print says they can change the deal at anytime.

I don’t agree with them not honoring it as it’s bad customer service....

But

You can’t say “well i have the paper that doesn’t exclusde it,” and ignore the part where it says they can change it at anytime.

if they change the deal AFTER someone has bought the scope, that's too late. how would you like to be hired at $100k and your first paycheck was annualized at $75k? the contract was consummated when the purchase was made under the terms in effect at that time.

 

[Dthomas3523]

if they change the deal AFTER someone has bought the scope, that's too late. how would you like to be hired at $100k and your first paycheck was annualized at $75k? the contract was consummated when the purchase was made under the terms in effect at that time.

Like I said, it's not the right thing to do. However, in your example, if you agreed to a contract in which they stated in the contract they were able to change your salary at any time, you would have little recourse. You can't highlight one portion of a contract and ignore another part. This fine print protects the company from either a) oversights that were made (seems to be the case here) or b) when there are unexpected influxes in something that makes it detrimental to the company's bottom line.

So, in your example, in said contract, the employer would have included fine print which states they can change your salary if situations arise in which the situation is detrimental to the company.

You are correct the contract is consummated at the time of purchase, where you are wrong however, is in the fact that in the contract, it states they can change the terms of the deal. So, you consummated a contract which did not fully guarantee ANY of your purchases no matter which product it was.

Basically the contract said "we are excluding A, B, and C........but buyer beware, we made add X,Y, and Z later."

Again, Its not great customer service, but you have no case for recourse..........especially citing a contract that clearly states nothing is guaranteed.

Typically these types of fine print are for situations in where an employee either makes a big mistake, or willingly does something to harm a company.

Imagine if an employee was supposed to give a %10 discount and accidentally put %70 in writing. Well, they have that fine print to protect them from this detrimental error.

Basically, that is what is happening here. Someone made a mistake and they are utilizing their parachute per say to keep things from being too costly.

Obviously, if that's the case, they should release a statement stating such and apologizing.

 

[Dthomas3523]

if they change the deal AFTER someone has bought the scope, that's too late. how would you like to be hired at $100k and your first paycheck was annualized at $75k? the contract was consummated when the purchase was made under the terms in effect at that time.

Short answer is they didn't "change the deal." The deal was always they could change it. They buyer accepts this risk when they make the purchase and accept the "deal."

 

[spife7980]

Short answer is they didn't "change the deal." The deal was always they could change it. They buyer accepts this risk when they make the purchase and accept the "deal."

Yeah but it is still sort of bullshit.

 

[beretta_man11]

Short answer is they didn't "change the deal." The deal was always they could change it. They buyer accepts this risk when they make the purchase and accept the "deal."

The 'deal' was made for me when I received a written message from Bushnell that my rebate for an xrs2 would be valid.

 

[lte82]

Short answer is they didn't "change the deal." The deal was always they could change it. They buyer accepts this risk when they make the purchase and accept the "deal."

Or do like I did and just return the scope (XRS2) for full refund after they "changed the deal". For $2350 there are better options IMO. And full disclosure, I've spent over $10k with Bushnell on just optics over the last 5 years and still use 2 of their HDMR2's and have a few Elite 3200 10x's. At $1700 or less it's unbeatable, but if I'm paying nearly $2500 there are several other options that beat it in every category.

 

[Changed]

Here's my advise. IF you purchase, don't open the package an play with it (Unless you are willing to take the hit/purchase at full retail).

 

[BurnOut]

Here's my advise. IF you purchase, don't open the package an play with it (Unless you are willing to take the hit/purchase at full retail).

In some cases, that won't matter. For me, there's a 15% restocking fee regardless of whether or not I take it out of the package and finger-bang it.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Yeah but it is still sort of bullshit.

Agreed, its total bullshit.

 

[Dthomas3523]

The 'deal' was made for me when I received a written message from Bushnell that my rebate for an xrs2 would be valid.

Agreed, you have a written statement honoring yours. Hopefully you don't get the runaround.

 

[alfmoonspace]

Does Bushnell have a rep on hide anymore?

 

[davsco]

Like I said, it's not the right thing to do. However, in your example, if you agreed to a contract in which they stated in the contract they were able to change your salary at any time, you would have little recourse. You can't highlight one portion of a contract and ignore another part. This fine print protects the company from either a) oversights that were made (seems to be the case here) or b) when there are unexpected influxes in something that makes it detrimental to the company's bottom line.

So, in your example, in said contract, the employer would have included fine print which states they can change your salary if situations arise in which the situation is detrimental to the company.

You are correct the contract is consummated at the time of purchase, where you are wrong however, is in the fact that in the contract, it states they can change the terms of the deal. So, you consummated a contract which did not fully guarantee ANY of your purchases no matter which product it was.

Basically the contract said "we are excluding A, B, and C........but buyer beware, we made add X,Y, and Z later."

Again, Its not great customer service, but you have no case for recourse..........especially citing a contract that clearly states nothing is guaranteed.

no no no no no. if you went to work the first week and after that week your paycheck was not the agreed upon $100k annualized, that would not be right or legal. they offered (rate of pay), you accepted (did the work), that is a done deal with no going back absent fraud or the like. sure, a week or month later they can say your pay rate will change 'in the future' and at that point you can work or quit. but you can't work a week and then get a different paycheck than they agreed to. that is what seems to be happening here. they offered a rebate. folks here bought scopes taking into account that rebate. then AFTER they purchased, the company changed the deal. sure, they could have a carveout for omissions and mistakes but in that case they should take the scope back and refund the purchase price (and freight etc). prob here is folks mounted those scopes and cut out upc codes. it's been a long time since my b-law classes, but here we had offer (the rebate) and acceptance (the purchase) and that makes for a binding contract. changing or correcting a form doesn't obviate them from their liability prior to the date of change.

 

[Dthomas3523]

no no no no no. if you went to work the first week and after that week your paycheck was not the agreed upon $100k annualized, that would not be right or legal. they offered (rate of pay), you accepted (did the work), that is a done deal with no going back absent fraud or the like. sure, a week or month later they can say your pay rate will change 'in the future' and at that point you can work or quit. but you can't work a week and then get a different paycheck than they agreed to. that is what seems to be happening here. they offered a rebate. folks here bought scopes taking into account that rebate. then AFTER they purchased, the company changed the deal. sure, they could have a carveout for omissions and mistakes but in that case they should take the scope back and refund the purchase price (and freight etc). prob here is folks mounted those scopes and cut out upc codes. it's been a long time since my b-law classes, but here we had offer (the rebate) and acceptance (the purchase) and that makes for a binding contract. changing or correcting a form doesn't obviate them from their liability prior to the date of change.

That's not even remotely close to a proper comparison of this issue.

The contract clearly states they can change the terms of the rebate at "any" time. You are correct the purchase makes a binding contract. But, you agreed upon buying they could change the terms at any time. People who bought these optics took an agreed upon risk when they purchased them.

Again, that doesn't make it the correct moral decision, but it is legal and you will have little to no recourse to force them to honor the refund.

 

[Aaron47pb]

I just received this reply from a Bushnell CS rep:

Cooler heads will prevail. Shit happens in business and communicating effectively across large organizations is hard. It looks like Bushnell is going to own it and take care of us.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Good for them for advising you to put it out there for everyone.

 

[generalzip]

Well that’s great news. I sent mine in again with original UPC so we will see what happens

 

[BurnOut]

Cooler heads will prevail. Shit happens in business and communicating effectively across large organizations is hard. It looks like Bushnell is going to own it and take care of us.

Man, that's great news! Thanks so much for passing along that info!

UPDATE- as I was replying with my post above (thanking Aaron), I was on hold with the Vista Outdoors rebate center (a CSR named Catherine). The reason I had called in was because I needed a physical address to which FedEx could deliver my rebate submission package (they evidently cannot deliver to a PO box). Catherine declined to provide a physical address, but upon hearing my story (in regard to this rebate) so far (initial online submission using my UPC was denied, called and got a different UPC from Vista Outdoors CSR which was accepted online, followed by email citing that my claim was denied due to an ineligible UPC, followed by a call on 26MAR18 to another Vista Outdoors CSR who suggested that I submit via mail), she placed me on hold for a few minutes... then came back and asked me what I expected the value of the rebate to be. I told her that I paid a little over $1200 for the scope, so I was expecting $360-ish. She said that the actual value was $360.85, and that it's all taken care of... and that I should see my rebate here in about a month. I thanked her profusely, and we got off the phone. So... seeing is believing (I haven't received anything yet), but at this point, things are definitely looking up!

Cliff's Notes of the above - I called Vista Outdoor, spoke with a very helpful CSR named Catherine, and have verbal confirmation that the rebate for my LRHSi optic has been approved and I should receive it in about a month.

 

[patriot07]

That's great news! Good on them.

 

[slkzic]

If I knew that they would honor the rebate with a purchase from Euro Optic at an already discounted price through on of EO’s professional discounts I would order an XRSII H59 right now.

 

[ra2bach]

I just received this reply from a Bushnell CS rep:

View attachment 6888404

Cooler heads will prevail. Shit happens in business and communicating effectively across large organizations is hard. It looks like Bushnell is going to own it and take care of us.

oh Hell Yeah, that's how you do business. this other 'will they/won't they' thing was bad for business in a large way and it is to their benefit they came on the Hide and put issue to rest...

 

[alfmoonspace]

Before we celebrate victory, let’s wait until we actually get the refunds.

 

[1J04]

Fuck Bushnell. Fuck'm yesterday, today, and forever more. I hold them right up there with Barska, Tasco, and the like. I did the leg work for a buddy of mine on trying to get his Fusion 1600 Rangefinding Bino's repaired/replaced.

They literally fell apart. They were a piece of shit right off the get go. Told my buddy he was a fool for buying them. He now agrees. They refused to replace and wanted to charge him for repair and return. Told'm to keep'm and shove'm up their ass. Bushnell. lol I go outta my way to talk'm down for the shit show they are.

 

[motofrog]

Do they not do their bulletproof guarantee anymore, I remember if you didn’t like something they would give the option of replace or refund full purchase price.

 

[1J04]

Do they not do their bulletproof guarantee anymore, I remember if you didn’t like something they would give the option of replace or refund full purchase price.

I'm pretty certain it depends on what day you call being dependent upon your outcome. I'm thankful not to suffer from that.

 

[mws2000]

Did they doe this while the 2 year warranty was still in effect?

 

[Nittynate]

I just returned my xrs 2 and will be selling the rest of my bushnell scopes. Anybody that is interested in a dmr 2 not mounted or an hdmr IM me

 

[Nittynate]

I also am out about $80 from shipping fees. It’s better than spending $2350 on a scope from a company that is a lying sack of s*#t. Gotta wonder about their “bulletproof” warranty when everybody I talked to told me a different story and to cut the UPC off the box and void return. F**k Bushnell!!

 

[b6graham]

I also am out about $80 from shipping fees. It’s better than spending $2350 on a scope from a company that is a lying sack of s*#t. Gotta wonder about their “bulletproof” warranty when everybody I talked to told me a different story and to cut the UPC off the box and void return. F**k Bushnell!!

Who pissed in your cereal...

 

[Steel Rain]

Rebates piss me off just in general.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

From Bushnell.com. It is different than the one from the OP midway link.

 

[DisplacedTexan]

From Bushnell.com. It is different than the one from the OP midway link.

We are well aware...