I would say your experience is certainly not typical. As for the dealer .... not sure any dealers are Swarovski authorized service centers. And there could be contractual agreeements between the dealers and the Swarovski distributor that preclude dealer replacements. I am not sure about any of that. I do know that the dealer I buy almost all of my hunting and fishing stuff from handles Swarovski. He does not do replacement of defective Swarovski gear or do any repairs of Swarovski gear. This dealer is among the highest volume of all US Swarovski outlets.
I have a set of SLC's that are several years old and have been through heck ..... hunting in 100+F in SE Alabama, dropped from 20', -20F up in Montana, hunting in driving rain, sleet, snow, temperature swings in a day from about 25F to 75F, submerged accidently when I fell while easing through a waite deep swamp, spotting for Redfish schools out in the Gulf of Mexico ... salt spray, etc. Not one iota of an issue except one eye-cup rubber pad came off. I had to order this from Swarovski.
As for Swarovski scopes .... I have three and am well satisfied with al 3. One sits upon my No.1 hunting rifle.
I agree with Sniper 151 though. Once you get well into the top of the line scopes or binos (Leupold, Swarovski, Lieca, Ziess, Schmitt-Bender, Doctor, etc.) there is often absolutely miniscule differences between makers. All premium optics should be exceptionally clear, crisp, with stunning contrast, edge to edge clarity, with excellent low light performance. And every one that I have had experience with certainly are
The trick is finding that $300 - $350 +/- value. There are a few out there that I have used that fit that bill ... Vortex, Bushnell Elite, Pentax, and Meopta to mention a few. These are clear, crisp, with good edge to edge imaging and reasonable low light performaning optics...... but not truly comparable to any of the top end stuff.