I think you should go PM with Brman940 and make arrangements to forward copies of your emails to him so he can forward/show them to his contact. If I was the President of a company, I would darn sure want to know about something like this and have the opportunity to square it away. A good company values its' reputation with customers and strives to furnish quality customer service, especially under warranty. The replacement binos and lifetime binos for you are dirt cheap compared to the value of you bragging about Nikon's awesome customer service for the rest of your life and your son/daughter continuing to brag after you pass and will the binos to them. Besides, as you get older, your budget for toys tends to grow and they really, really, really want to keep you as a customer then.