About a month ago I ordered my EOTech 511 from SWFA.  I have made many orders with them by the way.  About 12 days (just under 2 weeks) after getting my EOTech in, it stopped working.  The damn thing would not come on, and yes I know how to use it.  I have not even had time to take it to the range yet so it had been sitting in my gun safe mounted onto my preban Colt Sporter.  I also had the neoprene cover on it to protect it.  Since it would not come on, I thought it was the batteries, although they were brand new too.  However, it was not the batteries.  I then contacted SWFA and they said they only do replacements on defected parts or products within the first 10 days.  I didn't think this was fair since I had my EOTech for less than 2 weeks.  SWFA then told me to contact EOTech which I did.  They were very polite at EOTech and told me to send it in.  I of course had to pay for the shipping/insurance costs.  Anyways, I am still waiting for it to be sent back to me from EOTech.  What is everyone elses input about this?

Well, I think getting in touch with EoTech was probably the best thing to do. I think Chris and SWFA do a good job of providing some of the best optics available at a very fair price. It's hard to hold SWFA responsible for a problem that is beyond their control. Maybe they could have taken the optic back and xchanged it for a new one, and then dealt with the broken unit themselves, but you are able to do that too. I think I would have told EoTech to send a call tag or something so I would not have had to pay for shipping, but thats a somewhat minor point. In the end, I wouldnt have held SWFA responsible for EoTechs problem.

I'd have to go with new-arguy on this one.

Many places and products won't take anything back at all - everything must go to the manufacturer.

Granted, some places trade out anything, but they tend to have standing deals with the manufacturers for returns.  I know we did at the bicycle shop with Schwinn - we didn't even have to return defective parts, they just would credit our account.

I doubt SWFA has the deals or the inventory to offer a "no-hassle" exchange beyond 10 days.  I'm surprised they offer that, really.

I have mixed feelings about this particular transaction, I can see both sides of the issue. Most walk-in retail stores will allow you to bring back defective merchandise and you can immediately go home with a new one that works. However, I am not sure that sending it back to EOTech is going to take any longer than it would to send it back to SWFA.

I have purchased a pretty fair amount of stuff from SWFA and got great service and very competitive pricing. There service was always fast and they were helpful on the phone. Chris has been a member of several on-line gun forums I have been a part of, and provided good solid factual information about optics when everyone else was talking out of their a** and speculating.
I had a good friend get mad at SWFA because they would not allow him to return a scope that he had mounted on a rifle. He felt that this was unfair and has never done business with them again. And, he wouldn't listen when I told him that this was a very common policy and no scope dealers that I know of will allow the return of a scope that has been mounted. He said there were no marks at all on the scope tube. I then told him that it was his fault that he mentioned to them that he had mounted it.

I'm not complaining about SWFA.  I will continue to do business with them in the future because they have very competitive prices.  However, I feel that 10 days isn't long enough.  I would have already had it back if SWFA would have swapped it out with a new one because I live in Texas and SWFA is located in Texas.  There is no telling when I will be getting my 511 back from EOTech but I'm hoping it will be pretty soon.  Thanks for everyone's input.

10 days is very generous, imo, if they tried to handle people who had bought from them 30 days ago, they wouldnt be able to keep enough stock to handle new orders. usually sending to the manufacturer is the best way to get these problems solved.