hmmm . . sounds like some common problems people have:
Daylight Savings settings
Lat/Long
wrong hemisphere settings
etc
Have a read through the link Dave provided above
But most of all, don't feel beaten.
They are all common mistakes when people first start with EQ's.
AS for mounting the scope on the mount. There's nothing that can go wrong here. The scope mounts on top usually by a dovetail rail. Hard to get this part wrong.