I sent it in for repair, after being told by ML that they would cover it under wtty, then they changed their mind.
It's amazing how short-sighted companies can be, and this is a fine illustration. When, not if they lose a mere one or two sales as a result of this anecdote, the $1500 that they pocketed will be gone. Not to mention that they lost the original customer.
And, of course, it works the other way around. I worked for decades in the Thoroughbred racing industry, and used high-end, expensive binoculars. My brand of choice for the final ~25 years of my career were Swarovski. I paid around $1800 for a pair at the time. They were knocked off of a ledge a couple of years after I bought them, and the alignment of the lenses was affected. I sent them to Swarovski for repair, fully expecting to pay a stiff price, as I had under similar circumstances with a previous pair of Leica. A couple of weeks later, though, I received a call, and was told that they were on their way back to me via FedEx. They didn't charge me a penny, and replaced the rubber eye-cups to top it off.
Needless to say, I was a loyal customer from that time on, and helped them to sell a number of other pairs through word-of-mouth advertising.
Two sides of the same coin.