Primary Arms Redemption!

[Atomic Donut]

I bought a primary arms red dot sight a little over a year ago. While i have had the product for about a year and 3 months it has sat in the safe and only seen about 200 rounds. Yesterday while adjusting the sight, the brightness/ power knob broke off making the sight unusable. I emailed PA but since they only have a 1yr warranty they said couldnt do anything. I was surprised how easily the sight broke and im thankfull it didnt break in a situation that i could have needed it. Now I know that it wasnt a $500 aimpoint but for over $100 i expected a better quality product than this. I used to be impressed by the solid feel of the product for the price but now I am deeply dissatisfied with the quality of the product and the lack of concern by the company for the products they put out. definatly would not recommend as a cheaper alternative.

Update: after talking directly with owner he made everything right ani must say i rerecommend his products to anyone looking for a good inexpensive RDS with a great owner. Thanks again Marshall

[m03]

What model?

Pics of the damage?

[RookieShooter]

Made in China. What do you expect? :-)

[PrimaryArms]

Have you tried sending through the Primary Arms thread?

[ejhc11]

My Eotech 517 only has a two year warranty, I know that after two years I'm expected to pay for any cost to repair if something fails. Things break with or without using it - thats a fact.

You can't blame a company for one bad product - PA products have satisfied a lot of Calgunners and their service has been top notch. I know, I had a bad PA M4 red dot but I returned it under my warranty period and upgraded to a PA microdot which worked perfectly. It is the owner's responsibility to stay on top of this.

If every company had to go out of their way to satisfy every customer they'd be out of business.

[PrimaryArms]

Not sure who you spoke with but I talked to Marshall and he said for you to email him. We always make things right.
Dimitri
Marshall@primaryarms.com

[marsh1]

As Dimitri said email me directly. The shaft material in the M3 and M4 style has been changed. They were cast before and that would mean that there were rare occasions where there was a void during the casting. Common and not a problem on a bigger part but not for a thin shaft. That sounds like what might have happened.

Marshall

[ExtremeX]

Sounds like bad luck and a lemon optic...

Personally it still wouldn't stop me from buying another PA RDS. They are a good company and a great vendor with lots of happy customers. I have 2 of them so far and all have been pretty well used with no babying. My friends use them with excellent luck and my brother has one as well and it failed, glass lens pooped out, and PA took care of it. The failure was also in the early stages of the optics life. When I get something new I use the hell out of it because if things are going to die from stress use its going to happen soon.

To be honest I have gotten a lot worse from other brands... It doesn't matter which sub $100 red dot or scope your purchase, all the quality and QD hit/miss issues are around the same and often times even worse than anything you would get from PA. Its just what you can expect to deal with in those price ranges. I almost feel like you were expecting an Aimpoint for $100.

On top of that, I only use budget optics on my "toy" guns, and really don't expect anything more than entertainment value... If you want to even remotely consider using a firearm for life saving defense use do yourself a favor and buy a legitimate military or law enforcement grade product if that aspect is important to you.

[Atomic Donut]

What model?

Pics of the damage?

it was the m4 model. It had 4 different reticles and 7 brightness settings. Seems the adhesive came off.

As Dimitri said email me directly. The shaft material in the M3 and M4 style has been changed. They were cast before and that would mean that there were rare occasions where there was a void during the casting. Common and not a problem on a bigger part but not for a thin shaft. That sounds like what might have happened.

Marshall

Emailed

Sounds like bad luck and a lemon optic...

Personally it still wouldn't stop me from buying another PA RDS. They are a good company and a great vendor with lots of happy customers. I have 2 of them so far and all have been pretty well used with no babying. My friends use them with excellent luck and my brother has one as well and it failed, glass lens pooped out, and PA took care of it. The failure was also in the early stages of the optics life. When I get something new I use the hell out of it because if things are going to die from stress use its going to happen soon.

To be honest I have gotten a lot worse from other brands... It doesn't matter which sub $100 red dot or scope your purchase, all the quality and QD hit/miss issues are around the same and often times even worse than anything you would get from PA. Its just what you can expect to deal with in those price ranges. I almost feel like you were expecting an Aimpoint for $100.

On top of that, I only use budget optics on my "toy" guns, and really don't expect anything more than entertainment value... If you want to even remotely consider using a firearm for life saving defense use do yourself a favor and buy a legitimate military or law enforcement grade product if that aspect is important to you.

To be honest if i could change the title to bad experience with PA instead of PA no good i would. I made the thread when i just found out i was SOL so i was a little too quick to title this. I know PA are good people, i may have just gotten a lemon. Whwn i bought it i didnt expect much but when it held zero and felt sturdy ill admit i did think it could have been on par with an aimpoint. I understand this is no $500 aimpoint, but i have seen many good experiences with the company and actually had experienced great results with the RDS before yesterday. For a full time student getting a authentic aimpoint is not possible, hence i cowitness BUIS just incase a malfunction happens. They do have PLENTY of happy customers which is why it sucks to be one of the few in this dilema. I emailed PA although i do not expect anything to happen since warrant is over by 3 months, but you never know. I agree that i need to start saving for an authentic aimpoint now, maybe a reason to get the micro.

[Atomic Donut]

After emailing marshall directly he is quick to respond and seems to care about his products. +1 so far.

[armygunsmith]

Good deal!

[Siberian23]

Just to give some good praise for Primary Arms, I have not had any issues. Same day shipping and easy to make a return to. Actually get people who answer the phones and know what they are talking about. I have only had good experiences.

[tanakasan]

I bought a primary arms red dot sight a little over a year ago. While i have had the product for about a year and 3 months it has sat in the safe and only seen about 200 rounds. Yesterday while adjusting the sight, the brightness/ power knob broke off making the sight unusable. I emailed PA but since they only have a 1yr warranty they said couldnt do anything. I was surprised how easily the sight broke and im thankfull it didnt break in a situation that i could have needed it. Now I know that it wasnt a $500 aimpoint but for over $100 i expected a better quality product than this. I used to be impressed by the solid feel of the product for the price but now I am deeply dissatisfied with the quality of the product and the lack of concern by the company for the products they put out. definatly would not recommend as a cheaper alternative.

Update: after talking directly with owner he made everything right ani must say i rerecommend his products to anyone looking for a good inexpensive RDS with a great owner. Thanks again Marshall

Yup, that's the PA experience! Top notch CS and great prices on very nice products! They have a lot of my $$!

Robert