Hi All,
A little while ago I purchased a FS-78 Refractor from a reputable Astromarter in the US. The scope was to be delivered to Melbourne Australia but whilst in transit all six of the Lens Cell screws came loose with one actually fully coming completely loose and floating unrestrained around near the exposed front lens element possibly all the time during transit. I took a real close look at the condition of the front lens element for signs of damage and whilst appearing ok there was one questionable area. Anyway I decided for piece of mind to send the whole scope back to Takahashi for cleaning, inspection and re-collimation...my choice. I was going to wait until the scope got returned from Takahashi before I rate the member but I notice that opportunity has expired (the prompt has disappeared). The odd thing I noted was that the member whom sold me the FS-78 has made a consideration for trade for another FS-78 + Accessories in one of his other advertisements in the classifieds so soon after selling me the FS-78 he just sold me. Was there something wrong with the FS-78 he was selling me??? This seems a bit odd and maybe I am looking too much into this. Takahashi are adamant that it is rare for all or any of it's collimation screws to come loose during transit. The FS-78 sold to me was fairly well packed for the trip (although I would have chosen different internal packaging like loose peanut style foam) and showed no signs of external damage prior to opening the package but even my work mates were astounded when they saw this screw rolling around. How many of you other Astromarters would check things like the security of collimating screws prior to sending a scope off after just making a sale? And if you did purchase a scope that this occurred to would you hold the seller responsible or accept this as just a risk that we must all accept when dealing in second hand gear.
Cheers,
Hans
A little while ago I purchased a FS-78 Refractor from a reputable Astromarter in the US. The scope was to be delivered to Melbourne Australia but whilst in transit all six of the Lens Cell screws came loose with one actually fully coming completely loose and floating unrestrained around near the exposed front lens element possibly all the time during transit. I took a real close look at the condition of the front lens element for signs of damage and whilst appearing ok there was one questionable area. Anyway I decided for piece of mind to send the whole scope back to Takahashi for cleaning, inspection and re-collimation...my choice. I was going to wait until the scope got returned from Takahashi before I rate the member but I notice that opportunity has expired (the prompt has disappeared). The odd thing I noted was that the member whom sold me the FS-78 has made a consideration for trade for another FS-78 + Accessories in one of his other advertisements in the classifieds so soon after selling me the FS-78 he just sold me. Was there something wrong with the FS-78 he was selling me??? This seems a bit odd and maybe I am looking too much into this. Takahashi are adamant that it is rare for all or any of it's collimation screws to come loose during transit. The FS-78 sold to me was fairly well packed for the trip (although I would have chosen different internal packaging like loose peanut style foam) and showed no signs of external damage prior to opening the package but even my work mates were astounded when they saw this screw rolling around. How many of you other Astromarters would check things like the security of collimating screws prior to sending a scope off after just making a sale? And if you did purchase a scope that this occurred to would you hold the seller responsible or accept this as just a risk that we must all accept when dealing in second hand gear.
Cheers,
Hans