Hi Del,

Bummer... I feel your angst!

I'm curious though... does TV tout this hard-shell case as meeting ATA-300
Cat 1 specs for shipping or merely as a "transport case" (ie: from the house
to the car to the park to the car and back to the house again)?

Paul

--- http://www.astro-nut.com/ ---

----- Original Message -----
From: "Del Johnson"
Newsgroups: sci.astro.amateur
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 2:34 PM
Subject: Tele Vue's customer support policy


I purchased a new Tele Vue Genesis SDF refractor several years ago for my
father to use in Africa while serving as a Peace Core volunteer. This
required that the telescope be air shipped using the Tele Vue hard case,
and
during use it was subjected to the elements. I thought that the Genesis
would be a hardy telescope and that Tele Vue would support my purchase if
I
ever needed to service the telescope. My mistake on both accounts.

It turns out the main optical element cell (the black main aperture
assembly) is basically a friction fit with a set of minimal set screws and
is easily knocked out of alignment. This is compounded by the fact that
the
optical design is super-sensitive to misalignment. The visible symptom is
that stars flare to one side like comets and general performance is poor.
The telescope has now been knocked out of alignment for the second time
during airline shipping in the original hard case. I paid Tele Vue $150
plus air freight to have it realigned the first time. Now they want $175
plus shipping to do it again. The futility of this is that UPS will
probably knock it out of alignment while shipping it back to my house. My
only real recourse is to learn how to do this myself as this is going to
happen every time the telescope travels.

The second problem is that the outer surface of the main objective was
tarnished during use in the harsh conditions. No problem, I thought.
I'll
just have Tele Vue recondition or replace the optical element. Wrong! I
called the Tele Vue office and was told that Tele Vue will not recoat or
replace Genesis refractor optics. They only do this for eyepieces and do
not stock any optical elements for their refractors. Basically, if the
any
refractor optical surfaces are damaged you get to buy a new telescope!

Needless to say, this has been quite a disappointment and the rest of you
should consider Tele Vue's policies before spending your money for one of
their expensive refractors.

Del Johnson