Excelsis - Display Vote

APM

I have had some very poor experiences with Mr. Markus Ludes of APM which might be appropriate to relate here. I ordered a deluxe GR-2 altazimuth mount from ITE for use with my Astro-Physics Stowaway telescope. ITE gets these mounts from Markus in Germany. Only 15 minutes after I received the mount I noticed that the arm was very hard to turn in the up and down direction, so I wrote an eMail to Markus. His reply was that he had shipped out 15 of these mounts and they were all perfect and had no problems so therefore my mount was perfect. I wanted to exchange my mount for another one. Markus refused stating that all of his mounts were without any defects. ----- Luckily, I had bought the mount from Bill Burnett at ITE. When I called him up while he was on a trip to North Carolina he was very understanding, and stated that he would make it right even if Markus refused to stand behind his product. While I was on the phone with Bill Burnett, he suggested that I remove the arm to see what the problem was. We removed the two small allen screws, pulled out the arm and found out what the problem was. The inside of the main mount had 20-30 deep circular grooves and pits which were approx. 1/32" deep. These deep circular grooves were in the mount when I received it, and they were discovered by me during the first one-half hour after I had received the mount. These grooves and pits were causing the arm to bind up and not turn smoothly at all. ----- I then sent Markus another eMail about what we discovered thinking that when he knew the problem that he would be more understanding. Markus responded that since I had disassembled the mount, that there was no longer any warrenty or any guarantee. I stated that I removed the arm with Bill Burnett's (ITE) permission and while he was on the phone with me. He said that he didn't care. He stated that all of the grooves on the inside of the mount had been made by me! I replied that I just received the mount less than 30 minutes before, and that I had never even put the mount on a tripod, or even put my telescope on the mount! Markus responded that this was not he concern. ----- After talking to Bill Burnett at ITE Mr. Burnett stated that he would exchange my mount for a new one irregardless of Markus not willing to stand behind his own product. I was very fortunate that Bill Burnett of ITE was so honest and willing to stand behind the mount that he sold me. ----- I also bought two Baadar Moon and Sky-Glow filters from ITE and they are preforming wonderfully!! Especially in the polluted skys of Los Angeles. They greatly increase the contrast, and I recommend them highly. ----- Based upon this experience, I would never deal with Mr. Ludes again. He only appears to be interested in the money that he can make from selling products, and is very unwilling to stand behind his products -- even when there is a manufacturing defect. ----- Based upon my experienc, Mr. Bill Burnett of ITE does stand behind the products that he sells -- even if the manufacturer doesn't. Mr. Bill Burnett was a pleasure to deal with during this experience. I exxpect Mr. Burnett to follow through and send me a replacement mount soon as he agreed to, although I haven't received it yet. ---------- I hope that this information will be helpful to other amateur astronomers. Sincerely, Richard Lapides in California

Overall Rating: 0
Weight: 4 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 04/10/2001 09:38:55 am PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.250.89)
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=46094

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