Scapegoat
Well-Known Member
I've always loved Meopta Optics. Superb quality and excellent value for money. I've got several of their scopes and a pair of binos.
A year or so ago one of my scopes had an issue with focus around the reticle. It looked like there were bubbles around the centre of the crosshairs, so I sent it to Viking Arms, who were the sole importer at the time, and they told me they'd send it to Meopta for assessment. Long story short, Viking took months to send it, and Meopta took months to repair and return it. The repair was great and not as expensive as I first thought it might be, but the time delay was extremely frustrating.
Recently I dropped my binos. Sod's law dictated that they landed on a stone and chipped the right ocular lens. I'd already scratched the coating on the front objective lens so it was time to have them sorted. Viking Arms no longer deal with Meopta, so I rang round a number of binocular repair places, all of whom told me that they could repair the binos but couldn't source the lenses required.
An email to Meopta and they told me to send them to them direct. I dug out the box and parcelled them up. Parcelforce costs to Czech Republic were reasonable, just over fifteen quid, but I always pay for insurance to full value and online prices for the binos are around £1000. The insurance was a whopping £32. So I swallowed hard and bought the service online. An hour or so later I was scratching my head looking up Meopta's VAT and EORI numbers for the Customs declaration, trying to find the export tariff code for used broken binoculars, answering emails from Parcelforce worried that I was trying to export an item valued at £1000, modifying a plastic bag to enclose the three different customs declarations plus the commercial invoices for this export experience.
The parcel was dropped off at the post office yesterday. Simple process? Yeah right. But we've got our blue passports back haven't we!
Thinking of running a sweepstake to see how long it all takes. I'm not holding my breath.
A year or so ago one of my scopes had an issue with focus around the reticle. It looked like there were bubbles around the centre of the crosshairs, so I sent it to Viking Arms, who were the sole importer at the time, and they told me they'd send it to Meopta for assessment. Long story short, Viking took months to send it, and Meopta took months to repair and return it. The repair was great and not as expensive as I first thought it might be, but the time delay was extremely frustrating.
Recently I dropped my binos. Sod's law dictated that they landed on a stone and chipped the right ocular lens. I'd already scratched the coating on the front objective lens so it was time to have them sorted. Viking Arms no longer deal with Meopta, so I rang round a number of binocular repair places, all of whom told me that they could repair the binos but couldn't source the lenses required.
An email to Meopta and they told me to send them to them direct. I dug out the box and parcelled them up. Parcelforce costs to Czech Republic were reasonable, just over fifteen quid, but I always pay for insurance to full value and online prices for the binos are around £1000. The insurance was a whopping £32. So I swallowed hard and bought the service online. An hour or so later I was scratching my head looking up Meopta's VAT and EORI numbers for the Customs declaration, trying to find the export tariff code for used broken binoculars, answering emails from Parcelforce worried that I was trying to export an item valued at £1000, modifying a plastic bag to enclose the three different customs declarations plus the commercial invoices for this export experience.
The parcel was dropped off at the post office yesterday. Simple process? Yeah right. But we've got our blue passports back haven't we!
Thinking of running a sweepstake to see how long it all takes. I'm not holding my breath.
