What a mess!

For me it's been several cell phone holders to take pictures at the EP.
I couldn't get any of them to work.

I stepped on them with a rather large boot to put them out of their misery, they weren't even worth donating.

 

That is just bizarre...

My worst purchase was from a 'high end' manufacturer/ retailer whom I will not name.
I purchased a 2" tele-extender, a 2" 35 mm 68° eyepiece and a 2" diagonal. Total cost with shipping was a bit over € 1000.
The diagonal mirror was so scratched it was unusable, the tele-extender was just bulky and unwieldy and the 35 mm eyepiece put up very nice views but if you tried to pan with it you would feel seasick, the barrel distortion was ridiculous.

I sent the diagonal back and it was returned with a note saying that it was within specifications... obviously no one had looked at or through it, the extender was my fault as I never really needed it anyways and I was shocked at the performance of the 35 mm which was supposed to be one of the 'best' available.

I eventually gave the extender and 35 mm away and I still use the diagonal as a dust plug.

 

As you can see the mirror was never polished properly before coatings.
All of the scratches are 0.5-1 mm apart and are over the entire surface.
Looking through it is a bit like looking into a kaleidoscope.
That was € 380 wasted.

For some reason it posted image 3 as a thumbnail...

 

It looks like you were having issues like I was when trying to post.

I think I would stop purchasing from Amazon if it was me.

 

Wow, that poor thing has had a rough life!
I hope they compensated you properly for that.

 

That seems to be quite common lately and just another example of why I do not purchase from Amazon.
In the past I have ordered twice from USA vendors (TeleVue and Losmandy) and both times the experience was poor.
Now when I buy, I go by the rule that I must be able to see it in person before purchasing.
I can honestly say I have not been disappointed again.

 

A friend had a poor online experience recently.
He ordered a new battery for his e-scooter from Ali-Express.
A 60v 45Ah LiPo battery, the one he received was labeled as a 60v 45Ah battery but was actually only 60v 20Ah.
The difference between those 2 batteries is about € 600.
If people think getting a return on Amazon is difficult, you should try Ali-Express.

 

€€ in hand + eyes on goods = no disappointment

I am not a 'tech' friendly person so being told to go online instead of talking to someone is very irritating to me. I even deliberately chose a cell phone that does not have online ability.

 

Unfortunately, with Covid things have gone to hell. The lack of customer care or pride in whatever the job is seems to be lacking everywhere. I have talked to manufacturers and vendors in other fields and they say they can't get quality raw materials. As for the help, it appears that the experienced machinists, etc, have all left for other jobs and the new crop appears not to give a damn about their job. The shortages of everything, from raw materials to delivery, don't help matters. It's sickening to see what has happened world-wide.

Lucky me, I haven't bought anything astro for a long time. On the contrary, I'm getting ready to sell off equipment I haven't used in a long time.

 

The plague definitely did nobody any favors.
Luckily I am at the point where any major purchases are really not needed. I re-located about 2 years ago and had a major purge of the astro gear before the move.
Other than needing the local mill shop to make a adapter or something small I am pretty much set now.