Giving a review for a purchase?

My astronomy purchasing and subsequent returns with defective new accessories, mount or scope is still 100% intact. Seems everything I buy new has issues.

So the latest is a finderscope I just purchased. I took it out of the box and mounted on a tripod to test it and set focus.

First thing I noticed is every star was a + plus sign. The brighter the object the bigger the plus sign. When looking at Jupiter, it appeared as a big blob of a plus sign and the brightness threw a bright line across the entire field of view.

The finder has a helical focuser. I put a TAK illuminator on the supplied cross hair ep and when moving the finder around the focuser would flop out of focus from the weight. If you know TAK illuminators they are a little smaller and lighter than the standard illuminators sold by Celestron and others. There is no way of tightening the tension of the helical focuser.

I called the company and they gave me a RMA number and we're very nice to me. I'm sure they'll take care of it and I think it was a fluke, but I always get the flukes, probably the reason I can't win the Lotto.

The site I bought the finder from has emailed me a "you can review this item" form. I'm sure I can only review this item once and don't know if I can go back and update it after the RMA process and hopefully a finder that works.

So what would you folks do? Would you review it like I did above or would you be patient, return it and wait to see if the next one actually does better. I like to be nice if I can.

So your vote, do I be nice and wait or do I review it as received? Joe

I would say wait, and when you do the review, mention the initial bad one and the experience with getting the replacement as well as how you like the replacement. The company's service, to me, is as important as the finder itself.

Hi:

Give an honest review on the unit received. Period. If you want to then exchange it and say, "well, the replacement was right good," fine.

Also, allusions to "some company" and "some product" don't help the community NAME NAMES. You don't have to flame somebody; just tell the truth politely. ;-)

After some thought I decided to return it for a refund. It was a nice to have but not a need to have.

Thanks to all for the comments, especially Rod since I believe he's correct in informing the community. The manufacturer shipped it to me this way, they and the community should know.

Guess I'm tired of getting sold crap. Thanks folks. You made a great jury. Joe