Thought I would post this for those who may be looking at getting an EOTech in the near future. I purchased a 557 for use on my XCR in May and was using it with a LT Po Boy magnifier and mount. The sight has the ballistic reticle specific to the 223. I had no issues with the sight and liked it very much but I happened to run across a thread on AR15.com that talked about a defect some had found with their sight. I took a closer look at my sight and sure enough I had the defect as well. The defect shows up only in the lowest two brightness settings of daylight mode and in all settings for NV. The reticle in the dim settings is blurred. The circle appears hazy and the dots turn into dashes. If you increase the brightness you can see the reticle pop back into focus on any setting above the two lowest daylight options. I had not noticed that there was any issue because I had not used it with NV or in extreme low light.
I wont rehash what all was covered on AR15.com because it is lengthy. In short EOTech failed to handle things properly and there were several folks who had the defective sight that were POed about the way it was handled and how they were treated. You can read the thread for yourself but they were not able to come up with a fix for the problem and started replacing defective sights with a different model or refunding the customer. I called in at that time and because they were not getting the 557's fixed I requested either a refund or exchange for a tan 553. They had me return my sight and after looking at it for three weeks sent me a 553 in Tan just as requested. All was good... so I thought.
I decided to check my new sight thoroughly and you can guess what I found. A different model sight with a different reticle and the same exact problem. I called EOTech and upon getting the voicemail requested that some one return my call promptly. Marcus, from EOTech called me the next morning and after going over the details with him and expressing my CONCERN Marcus conceded that there was not actually a problem with the 557 specifically but rather a problem with the NV mode in general. Nice of them to tell me now. Nothing against Marcus as he was very professional. He assured me they were working on a fix and that it would be out this month. I agreed to wait a month for a fix and at that point if nothing could be done he assured me that I could get a refund. So... I will wait the month and if no progress then I will be getting a Aimpoint on LT mount.
I am not to confident in a resolution as the issue apparently has been known for quite some time. My original sight was manufactured in Jan08 and the replacement they sent me with the same issue was in an unopened package with a manufacture date of Sep08. I do not know how many sights have the defect. I imagine a lot of folks have it and wont know until they try to use it with NV. If everything worked the 553 would be a better sight, at least for me, but given my experience I am begining to feel like maybe I should have gone with the Aimpoint.
I wont rehash what all was covered on AR15.com because it is lengthy. In short EOTech failed to handle things properly and there were several folks who had the defective sight that were POed about the way it was handled and how they were treated. You can read the thread for yourself but they were not able to come up with a fix for the problem and started replacing defective sights with a different model or refunding the customer. I called in at that time and because they were not getting the 557's fixed I requested either a refund or exchange for a tan 553. They had me return my sight and after looking at it for three weeks sent me a 553 in Tan just as requested. All was good... so I thought.
I decided to check my new sight thoroughly and you can guess what I found. A different model sight with a different reticle and the same exact problem. I called EOTech and upon getting the voicemail requested that some one return my call promptly. Marcus, from EOTech called me the next morning and after going over the details with him and expressing my CONCERN Marcus conceded that there was not actually a problem with the 557 specifically but rather a problem with the NV mode in general. Nice of them to tell me now. Nothing against Marcus as he was very professional. He assured me they were working on a fix and that it would be out this month. I agreed to wait a month for a fix and at that point if nothing could be done he assured me that I could get a refund. So... I will wait the month and if no progress then I will be getting a Aimpoint on LT mount.
I am not to confident in a resolution as the issue apparently has been known for quite some time. My original sight was manufactured in Jan08 and the replacement they sent me with the same issue was in an unopened package with a manufacture date of Sep08. I do not know how many sights have the defect. I imagine a lot of folks have it and wont know until they try to use it with NV. If everything worked the 553 would be a better sight, at least for me, but given my experience I am begining to feel like maybe I should have gone with the Aimpoint.
