Website review: EuroOptic

[dogmush]

I thought I'd share this, especially because someone linked Optics Planet on here not to long ago, and I hate those aholes.


One of my range buddies mentioned EuroOptic as a good source for Optics a while back and I've since ordered from them a couple times.  Pretty great service, with no issues.  Their "Red 2 day" shipping is often free and indeed 2 day, and they have a good selection of stuff.

But for me, the real winner is their Demo/Used section.  I have bought two Demo/Display items from them and both were perfect.  My Leupold NV Compatible DeltaPoint Pro was in the case with all the stuff, and the battery was still sealed in the bag.  It looked like it had sat in a display case.  It was listed as "showroom" $379.99.  I just got a Vortex Viper PST Gen II 5-25x50 that was "demo" and it was still sealed in the plastic in it's box with desiccant. $649.99. Brand spanking new. 

Recommend them as a vendor. They have some neat stuff. Mrs. Mush is shopping their Garmin watches as I type.

www.eurooptic.com

[RoadKingLarry]

Good to see another  vendor option. Will definitely add them to my shopping resources.

As to Opticsplanet, what's the beef with them? I've ordered from them 3-4 times for various stuff and have so far never had a negative experience. More than willing to hate on them if it's warranted.

[Ben]

Good to see another  vendor option. Will definitely add them to my shopping resources.

As to Opticsplanet, what's the beef with them? I've ordered from them 3-4 times for various stuff and have so far never had a negative experience. More than willing to hate on them if it's warranted.

Besides the fact that they tried to put Monkeyleg out of business, they're a bunch of liars. I ordered an "in stock" stock for the Sig MCX I'm SBRing. Shipping in 5-7 business days. That was in January. Then up until last month, when I cancelled the order, they would every week send me an email stating that the item would ship the following week. A bit of gazoogling showed me it's a standard practice with them. If something is out of stock, just say that.

I've also found much better pricing and service at places like Primary Weapons, and I'll definitely check out EuroOptic.

[dogmush]

They *expletive deleted*ed me on a return like 8 years ago and ended up keeping a couple hundred bucks.  Gave me the automated response email deal long enough that I gave up.  And the MonkeyLeg thing Ben mentioned.  They did him real dirty.

I think they are pretty notorious on gun sites for playing fast and loose with the term "In Stock".  https://www.google.com/search?q=Optics+Planet+sucks


As my own counterpoint, they did manage to ship me an "in stock" Safariland holster when I needed one this winter.  It only took 3 weeks.

[HankB]

I've only bought a few items from Optics Planet and had no issues.

I've browsed the EuroOptic web page and if/when I buy a red dot pistol sight (my next anticipated optic purchase) I'll absolutely be considering them.

[bedlamite]

Ordered from Europtic a few times, no issues. Usually decent deals on closeout/demo stuff.

[WLJ]

Besides the fact that they tried to put Monkeyleg out of business,

What's the story on OP and Monkeyleg?

[Nick1911]

Figure they do like many others anymore - just drop-shipping middlemen.  I've run into it frequently.

No warehouse, no actual inventory, just some computer code on a server somewhere that accepts and order and passes it on to one of their wholesalers for shipment.  Put a smallish markup over wholesale, and let the automation run.  Customer complaint?  Let it fall through an automated decision tree.

Where the model falls apart is that they either a) can't get inventory stock information from their distributors, or b) deliberately just mark everything in stock to catch orders.  If the item happens to ship before the customer gets angry and cancels, great, it's a sale.  If not, they aren't out anything.

As I understand it, Monkeyleg as doing the same drop-shipping middlemen thing, but without as much automation and much more customer service to get customers products from the companies that actually physically had them.

[Ben]

As I understand it, Monkeyleg as doing the same drop-shipping middlemen thing, but without as much automation and much more customer service to get customers products from the companies that actually physically had them.

Yup, and IIRC they ratted him out for advertising and selling below MSRP (which they regularly do themselves). There's probably old threads about it all in the APS archives.

[dogmush]

I think it was Minimum Advertised Price.  They are big enough they could blow off manufacturers MAP, Trijicon especially, but they would troll the net and narc on smaller retailers not complying with MAP, while they themselves weren't.

This led to the smaller folks having to put their prices behind stupid "add to cart" shenanigan's and being unable to put prices where Googles search crawlers could find them.  So if you googled "XYZ Optic"  Optics planet would be on the top of the first page advertising a "low" price, because they had forced their competitors to not show a price.  This led to steep declines in traffic for competitors sites.

[WLJ]

How do we know they were the ones "ratting" on other retailers?
Curious as to how it was found out

[Ben]

I think it was Minimum Advertised Price.  They are big enough they could blow off manufacturers MAP, Trijicon especially, but they would troll the net and narc on smaller retailers not complying with MAP, while they themselves weren't.

Yup, you're right - MAP, not MSRP.