Probably the ultimate test of whether a dealer deserves my business is how they deal with complaints. Of course it's also nice to get good advice and attention when you're looking to buy stuff, but when you're not happy with a purchase and asking the dealer to do something about it at their expense; now that's a different kettle of fish alltogether.
I recently bought the 20x80 triplet binos from Andrews, and was rather disappointed with the way they performed (flare on bright targets, lots of false colour). I let Andrews know, and indicated I'd probably want a refund if they can't be collimated.
Then the next day as I was taking them out for another look, I was peeling off the lenscap and front half the dew shield snapped off and stayed on the lenscap.
Then inspecting the lens retaining ring and the plastic around it, I found that it was all cut into and scratched up. The fittings around the other objective looked fine.
I emailed Andrews with photos, explained myself as best I could, and asked for a refund. Now this didn't look good for me. One day I complain about the performance of the optics, and the next day I complain that it looks like someone used a kitchen knife to fit the objective lens; plus the dew shield is broken.
Long story short, I sent the binos back, got my refund cheque few days later, no questions asked. I also got something else exciting via email, which is going in another thread.
happy ending
