Warning............ Arken Optics gone south

[Mountainman]

Arken optics appears to be having some sort of shipping/stocking/receiving problem that they are turning over to their customers with no explanation whatsoever. I ordered an EP-5 on December 7th. At that time I was told there was a 2 week lead time. Two weeks ago I tried to call them to get an update on the status. Phone call goes straight to voicemail and instructs you to send an email. Email got no response for a week then was told my item had shipped. That was on December 19th. Still no item (tracking number still says label created) and I get two day delivery from Houston. Now I get absolutely no response to email. My wife got on facebook and the complaints about the same are far and wide. This is supposed to be a veteran run company. Never in my life have I been treated this way by a veteran. The hands down worst customer service I have ever seen. It's too bad because they seem to have a popular quality product. I see they are now advertising 25% off. BEWARE. Come Monday I will be reporting this to my credit card company and contacting the AG.

 

[BFD]

Here is my take on Arken.

When Arken came out on scene they had a number of people/shills pretending to be unassociated with the company and flooded the gun forums with high praise of Arken optics. This didn't set well with me.
Arken developed the business strategy of risk vs reward with their warranty. They accept the notion their scopes are cheap, because they are cheap in construction, and thus peddle a cheap product in hopes most won't bother with the warranty. They rely on the volume of sales to offset the warranty costs.
It's of no surprise to hear of the current customer service problem. It's lately a rampant complaint standard across the board. I don't see a lifetime warranty to be helpful when the company goes out of business.
I've demoed a few Arken scopes and you do get what you pay for. If they work, they appear as a value item. I just don't trust they will work for the long haul.

 

[Muddyboots]

The two glaring issues I see from discussions is 1) don't charge CC until you ship, taking money for months without product is not acceptable in my book. These are not back orders, they are in stock items. 2) communication will either save or sink a company. They are taking on water fast. How difficult is it to call UPS we have a pickup? Smoke = fire IMO.

 

[aratliff]

Please know I am not trying to derail this thread.
As a veteran and former small business owner, I do not expect anything from a business owner (or person in general) just because they are veterans.

In fact, it is suspicious (at least to me) when one of the biggest “feathers in one’s cap” is that they are vets.

Hopefully, I am the only cynical one and y’all can tell me to think better of people.

No issues with my EP5, but I also do not intend to buy another.