The Focus Scientific Advantage
Imagine opening your brand-new purchase to find broken glass, you see a double-image, or the electronics don't work properly.
Sad experiences such as these happen every day. Our customers are protected from these experiences with our Focus Quality Assurance.
Focus Quality Assurance
Over 4 decades of experience has taught us that product inspection and correction is valuable; something our customers deserve.
Every product sold by Focus Scientific is put through our quality assurance program so that you receive products free of defects.
Every product is
- Inspected
- Tested
- Adjusted
- Upgraded
We fully assemble most products before delivering to the customer to verify proper fit and function. Due to variations in manufacturing, corrective measures must be employed so parts fit together and align easily.
FREE Collimation With Scope Purchase
Collimation (optical alignment) is key to achieving peak performance of a telescope. Important, but rarely perfect out-of-the-box. Every scope we sell that can be collimated - gets collimated by our expert staff before reaching the customer. If we can't collimate it, you can't collimate it.
For our walk-in customers, we give one additional free future collimation. Simply bring your scope by the store for the free adjustment.
Investing this additional time greatly benefits the customer. Our reputation depends on it.
What Can Go Wrong?
Not every product has issues out of the box, but when they do it can be frustrating to deal with. Some customers may not recognize a problem until years later.
Much respect for our suppliers. Overall they do an amazing job of manufacturing precision equipment. It's not possible to catch 100% of issues/defects at the manufacturing level, or deliver equipment around the world without any sort of transport stress.
Problems found in brand-new factory-sealed boxes
- Broken glass
- Blurry or poorly-focusing views (poor optics or poor alignment)
- Optical distortion or out-of specification aberrations
- Double-image (binoculars in poor alignment)
- Eyepieces with lenses mounted incorrectly
- Out of date firmware (motor controllers, hand controller)
- Drives out of adjustment - too little or too much play/backlash
- Dirty optics including internal debris
- Missing parts (eyepiece, thumbscrew and other fasteners)
- Bent or broken parts
- Threads that don't mate correctly
- GPS receivers that provide incorrect time/date/lat/long coordinates
- Finderscopes that slip out of their attachment brackets too easily
- Issues with tripod legs and clamps
Recent Quality Assurance Successes
Here is a list of some of the defects found in brand-new factory sealed boxes, caught and corrected by our quality assurance testing. These are problems we found, and our customers didn't have to experience.
- Primary mirror: significant turned edge
- Finderscope: Red dot finder will not illuminate
- Finderscope: Finderscope bracket slips out of mounting base
- Optical: misalignment of telescope mirrors (collimation)
- Optical: misalignment of binocular prisms (collimation)
- Optical: prism misalignment leading to rotated images in left and right eyepieces (stereo microscope)
- Optical: eyepiece assembled incorrectly, lens flipped leading to poor image
- Optical: eyepiece artifact, possible optical occlusion, imperfect surface or coating non-uniformity
- Optical/Mechanical: anti-rotation/alignment pin not in correct position, optic was rotating freely
- Focusing: precision focuser out of adjustment, insufficient clutching force causing slippage
- Focusing: dead spot in fine focus mechanism, stops moving
- Focusing: locking mechanism non-functional
- Electronic: computerized hand controller won't accept a firmware update
- Electronic: power jack faulty, intermittent power, replacement required
- Electronic: power supply non-functional
- Electronic: RA motor running rough, replacement required
- Mechanical: cracked gear from axle
- Mechanical: faulty screw attaching a plastic cover, head poorly broached, cross-threaded into mount, replacement required
- Mounting hardware: poor thread, required re-tapping
- Mounting hardware: Nickel plating on brass bolts is too thick, preventing assembly
- Mounting hardware: Incorrect diameter bolts supplied
- Mount: too much gear backlash
- Tripod: leg poles not properly affixed to hips, clamps or ground tip, insufficient epoxy resin used
FREE Telescope Beginner's Guide
Every telescope includes our 19+ page Beginner's Guide To Using Telescopes, written by our staff.
FREE Technical Support
You can count on us to answer any questions, and address any problems you may experience. Please contact us anytime for assistance. One-on-one help is also available at our retail store.
Our cheerful, knowledgeable staff draw from a variety of interests and education, and take part in various product courses and training to deliver the best advice and care during the discovery and purchase phases, and best after-sales support.
Focus Scientific is an authorized dealer for every brand we sell.
