Folks,
I thought I'd post up my thoughts on my recent quest with SX and their customer support. I purchased a Lodestar from TS (Teleskop-express.de) simply because even after shipping, it came to be $100AUD cheaper than buying local. I chose UPS Express, and my god, are those guys efficient. 4 days from it being dispatched to arriving at my doorstep. I bought their TSOAG9 2 weeks later on a friday, and it came on the tuesday - again 4 days, even over the weekend! Very happy with this.
Anyways on receiving my lodestar, I noticed that there were hot pixels on the sensor. Not one, not two, atleast 20 to my count. I was very disappointed with this, having paid top $$$, I'd expect it to be damn well perfect. I took darks and it worked just fine with my RC8, but it still kept nagging me that spending so much money and I still got so many hot pixels. So I jumped onto SX's website on a sunday morning and explained to them what was going on and how I was disappointed with the product.
Sunday afternoon a representative (Terry, later I found out he is infact the Technical Director for SX) emailed me back, explaining that uncooled devices are expected to have a few warm/hot pixels and darks usually fix the problem. He said if I thought the images were badly affected, to email him some FITS file and go from there. So I sent him the FITS file and expected a response from him within the next few days.
That same evening Terry replied and pointed out something which made me very embarrassed - the hot pixels were infact actually not truly 'hot' (hitting 65535) but just warm pixels. He explained that Sony supply the chips as grade 1, and reject chips based on the saturated pixel count, not warm ones. Having a look on Maxim, it turned out he was right. They were just ~1200, barely above the background of ~700. On PHD and Maxim it just seemed so bright because of the screen stretch. I honestly felt like such an idiot, but yet Terry still replied professionally and also said that he will handpick a few lodestars with a low warm pixel count, and is happy to swap with my unit.
In the one day from me complaining, SX had assessed my problem, pointed out effectively that I was wrong in my thoughts, that the product was fine, yet they will still ship me a replacement unit free of charge half way across the world to keep me happy. Not once did he ask to see my proof of purchase either or where I bought it from. This is bearing in mind that SX is not obligated in anyway to replace my lodestar given that their product is functioning as described and spec'd. I am honestly blown away by this level of service, I really would not have expected any of it. In subsequent emails which followed, Terry would always reply within the space of a few hours, very courteously, and I really am very thankful for it.
My replacement Lodestar came today, and it functions alot better (As in very low warm pixel count). Wanting to try it out before I ship my old one back, Terry was more than happy for me to keep both over this coming weekend to try it out at a friend's dark sky site. Never have I experienced such customer support from any other company, manufacturer or supplier before - especially from one that is overseas. I know where my loyalty lies now, and I do believe you get what you pay for.
If only I had a few more $$$ to buy their items
Thanks for reading guys n gals, I hope you found this a good read
