Bad Quark Chromosphere on arrival?

[astro_al]

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

Are Daystar aware of the bad press they receive on forums like this?

I don’t see how they can’t be. I also don’t understand why they don’t up the price of the Quarks to cover whatever is needed to ensure better QC. Even if they added 50% to the cost it would still be cheaper than other high resolution options. 

Edited January 16, 2021 by astro_al

[Minhlead]

1 minute ago, astro_al said:

I don’t see how they can’t be. I also don’t understand why they don’t up the price of the Quarks to cover whatever is needed to ensure better QC. Even if they added 50% to the cost it would still be cheaper than other high resolution options. 

They already increased the price once. I believe when it started the Quark is priced at 999$

[rcwinter]

Like Nigella says, Lunt / Bresser certainly support you, when I had my LS60 which was pressure tuned , they supplied  two sets of O rings and I was also concerned about the condition of the blocking filter ITF, they supplied both Free of Charge , no problem 

My Lunt performed great no doubt about that. 

Hopefully my Quantum will Last many years without trouble, by that time maybe DS will get there act together 

There are many happy owners of Quark filters, once going they do the job well, but it can be a lottery 

Rich

 

 

 

[Davey-T]

I have to say that Tiffany Messershmitt ( yes that's her real name and she looks as you would expect 😄 ) has always been very helpful in all my dealings with her over the phone 
I guess it's not her fault if there are a load of wombats working for the company.

My advice to anyone considering buying a Quark is to get a second hand one that you can see images taken with, this is what I resorted to eventually to be able to continue solar imaging while trying to get one fixed.

Dave

[Minhlead]

9 hours ago, Davey-T said:

I have to say that Tiffany Messershmitt ( yes that's her real name and she looks as you would expect 😄 ) has always been very helpful in all my dealings with her over the phone 
I guess it's not her fault if there are a load of wombats working for the company.

My advice to anyone considering buying a Quark is to get a second hand one that you can see images taken with, this is what I resorted to eventually to be able to continue solar imaging while trying to get one fixed.

Dave

Tiffany has been very helpful to me too, one of the reason that I decided to jump the gun on a Quark despite the bad reviews are Jen and Tiffany are very friendly and respond quickly when I try to reach out to them.

But it seems DS have some serious problems with their QC protocol. I think there should be a QC card that have every steps of the QC process documented, signed off by the person who performed it. That card or a copy of it must reach the final customer and people can know for a fact that what went wrong and who is responsible. So by feedback to the manufacturer, the customer also putting pressure into individual, not just the QC process as a whole.

You'd be surprised with the work ethic of some guys. They are very happy to pack a notworking product and ship it out as long as they reach their daily quota.

I used to run a manufacturing line for VNese manufacturer that used to have the same problem: quality varies greatly from unit to unit, dirty part, things not working on arrival, electronics have short lifespan etc... and since we streamlined our QC process with a feedback loop from customers we quickly weed out the problematic parts and improved customer experience vastly. It seems either Daystar is struggling with this or not willing to do so, which seems weird to me because paying for the return/servicing of defective product always outweight improving QC by a few order of magnitude. And bad QC is the most damaging thing that can be done to the company image. 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Minhlead

[Minhlead]

On 1/17/2021 at 00:07, Davey-T said:

I have to say that Tiffany Messershmitt ( yes that's her real name and she looks as you would expect 😄 ) has always been very helpful in all my dealings with her over the phone 
I guess it's not her fault if there are a load of wombats working for the company.

My advice to anyone considering buying a Quark is to get a second hand one that you can see images taken with, this is what I resorted to eventually to be able to continue solar imaging while trying to get one fixed.

Dave

The Quark has been delivered to Daystar on 20 Jan. Since then Tiffany told me to wait for the lab to "inspecting" my filter. But I have not gotten any update so far.

How long this check up process usually take,  Dave?

[Davey-T]

36 minutes ago, Minhlead said:

The Quark has been delivered to Daystar on 20 Jan. Since then Tiffany told me to wait for the lab to "inspecting" my filter. But I have not gotten any update so far.

How long this check up process usually take,  Dave?

Two or three weeks of silence usually before it reappeared without notice, tended to stay longer in UK customs while they tried to figure out what it was and if they could charge some duty on it 😄

Dave

[Minhlead]

5 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Two or three weeks of silence usually before it reappeared without notice, tended to stay longer in UK customs while they tried to figure out what it was and if they could charge some duty on it 😄

Dave

Have you ever have to pay duty on returned goods?

[Davey-T]

10 hours ago, Minhlead said:

Have you ever have to pay duty on returned goods?

No but the money grabbing customs department sometimes take a bit of convincing, at one time they wanted to see paperwork from when the Quark was originally imported into the UK, no idea where they thought I would get that from as it was purchased from  UK dealer.

Dave

[Minhlead]

7 hours ago, Davey-T said:

No but the money grabbing customs department sometimes take a bit of convincing, at one time they wanted to see paperwork from when the Quark was originally imported into the UK, no idea where they thought I would get that from as it was purchased from  UK dealer.

Dave

Okay so Daystar decided to f---- me off here. They unilaterally decided to issue a refund without prior consent from me.  Extremely disappointed with how daystar handle this. They're just literally giving their customer  a big F--- off. 

I paid over 200$ in international shipping/import tax and invested a lot of time into waiting for my filter. Also I could get into trouble with custom department here in VN since I declared the item as temporary export/re import later. And I the item does not get re import It can be flagged as tax evasion for not paying the export tax. 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Minhlead

[Craney]

Looking at this from afar.....
"Customer satisfaction is our utmost goal..." ----------  I'm not totally convinced of that. Making a profit tends to be the underlying principle of most businesses. (huh! cynical me )

"variety of levels of performance versus cost"   -------  so why don't they state in their advertisements that the Quark is a cheap entry level device with a significant probability that any two examples will not be the same and consequently will not deliver the same performance.   What they actually mean is,  "variety of performance at a fixed cost".  Surely, customers cannot be asked to stump up £1000 for what is essentially a lottery ticket.....errr.... it looks like it.

"allow customers to fish for professional class filters amongst our entry level products"  --------- is that not an admission that their output is variable in quality.

I feel for all people in this predicament.  

I hope things work out OK.

Sean.

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Craney

[Minhlead]

26 minutes ago, Craney said:

Looking at this from afar.....
"Customer satisfaction is our utmost goal..." ----------  I'm not totally convinced of that. Making a profit tends to be the underlying principle of most businesses. (huh! cynical me )

"variety of levels of performance versus cost"   -------  so why don't they state in their advertisements that the Quark is a cheap entry level device with a significant probability that any two examples will not be the same and consequently will not deliver the same performance.   What they actually mean is,  "variety of performance at a fixed cost".  Surely, customers cannot be asked to stump up £1000 for what is essentially a lottery ticket.....errr.... it looks like it.

"allow customers to fish for professional class filters amongst our entry level products"  --------- is that not an admission that their output is variable in quality.

I feel for all people in this predicament.  

I hope things work out OK.

Sean.

 

What I am angry the most is the fact that Daystar decided to refund without my consent although I asked specifically for an exchange of defective product. They could have reach out to me first and tell it to my face that they cannot ship out a non scratched, non defective equipment (I am 100% okay with the non uniformity of the etalon, I know that 1000$ is like peanut money to solar observing).

But no, they tricked me into sending the filter back on a promise that they would replace it only to refund the item without me knowing it. That's unacceptable and extremely unprofessional on their side.

[Sunshine]

I think by now the last thing  would want on earth is another quark, if they refunded your money for the item it might be a good idea to lick wounds and retreat on this one. Unless you're willing to

risk getting another bad one and, start from square one again, ship it off and such all over again.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Sunshine

[Minhlead]

4 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

I think by now the last thing  would want on earth is another quark, if they refunded your money for the item it might be a good idea to lick wounds and retreat on this one. Unless you're willing to

risk getting another bad one and, start from square one again, ship it off and such all over again.

My problem now is when I ship the filter out of my country I listed it as temporary export/re-import later. 

Without a reimport of the filter I could get into trouble since the custom department can deduct that I am trying to evade paying export tax when ship this out of the country in the first place. And VNese custom are not to be messed with. I may face fines of up to 20mil vnđ for this (about 800$) so one way or another I still have to get a Quark send back to me

[Rusted]

This company must be aware that their units are being discussed on the specialised astronomy forums.
About as focused a potential as you can get when it comes to word of mouth "advertising".
Which is the only advertising I am prepared to listen to in a trans-global sewer of [enter your derogotory term here.]
This company no longer cares about the specialist solar observer and imager. IMO.
It is happy to trash its reputation on sales to those who are far less likely to "do their homework" before purchase.
Any company willing to sell such expensive lottery tickets has even less respect for the poor retailer.
My advice is to concentrate the minds of those running this sideshow by the retailers dropping sales of this maker's products.

 

 

[Carbon Brush]

On 13/01/2021 at 19:15, Nigella Bryant said:

I went for a second hand Lunt after reading the bad QC of Daystar. Never looked back and my Lunt is a 2011 pressure tuned model. Hope you get sorted out.

I think 'snap' is the word!

A couple of years back I wondered which (wallet emptying) way to go beyond my standard PST.

There were a lot of 'gossips' about bad Quarks on here and in other places. Far too much stuff from genuine and experienced users for it to be 'end user finger' problems.
I found no mention from Daystar that they had found an issue and were putting it right.

Eventually a 2nd hand Lunt package came up locally and I went for it. No regrets.

A couple of months later, at a show, I spoke with a couple of dealers and a 'knowledgeable person' about the various Daystar offerings vs Lunt vs anything else.
I couldn't find anything to make me think I might have chosen badly.

To the OP. This is an awful experience.
 

Edit.

In the UK, the astronomy retailers will be getting the quality/failure problems firmly placed with them.
They know which manufacturers provide 'fit and forget' products, which provide 'OK for a year or two' and which provide 'oh no not again' products.
The retailers will (in the long term) only offer products that they can make a profit on, and make happy customers who will return for their next purchase.

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Carbon Brush
Additional comment

[Minhlead]

So it's final then. I would find a path to move on and hopefully my experience could be of indication to anyone who looking to buy a Quark: just don't. It maybe good quark out there but the way DS treat their customer are just horrible and they does not deserve your hard earned cash. I learned my lesson.

Daystar, as every other astronomy equipment manufacturer, are having a very good year due to covid 19. Maybe that emboldened them and make they feel they could just ignore some customer dissatisfaction and still can make some quick buck. But I will tell anyone who would listen to not waste your time and money on a Quark. 

Thank you guys for your moral support and kind words.

[Nigella Bryant]

3 minutes ago, Minhlead said:

So it's final then. I would find a path to move on and hopefully my experience could be of indication to anyone who looking to buy a Quark: just don't. It maybe good quark out there but the way DS treat their customer are just horrible and they does not deserve your hard earned cash. I learned my lesson.

Daystar, as every other astronomy equipment manufacturer, are having a very good year due to covid 19. Maybe that emboldened them and make they feel they could just ignore some customer dissatisfaction and still can make some quick buck. But I will tell anyone who would listen to not waste your time and money on a Quark. 

Thank you guys for your moral support and kind words.

It is a sad state of affairs. As I've said I personally didn't want to risk it and went for a Lunt after owning the Lunt 35mm I got hold of a Lunt 60mm and double stack filter.

[johninderby]

My next solar scope will be a Lunt. Once was enough with a Quark. 😬

OK if I could afford it would have a SolarScope but they are ££££

 

[Minhlead]

5 minutes ago, johninderby said:

My next solar scope will be a Lunt. Once was enough with a Quark. 😬

OK if I could afford it would have a SolarScope but they are ££££

 

Mine too. But I still have to figure out a way to deal with the re import. Vnese custom department are just not to be messed with. 

[Davey-T]

I wonder if Daystar have a PR company ? I know some big companies do, I once worked in ladies house and part of her job was doing internet and media searches everyday for Sainsburys to see what was being said about them.

Dave

[johninderby]

Just been looking at the SolarScope FS-100 filters. ££££££££££ 🙀🙀🙀🙀

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by johninderby

[david_taurus83]

1 minute ago, Minhlead said:

Mine too. But I still have to figure out a way to deal with the re import. Vnese custom department are just not to be messed with. 

Surely you can show them the correspondence with Daystar? You sent it back on the premise they were going to repair it but issued a refund instead?

[johninderby]

Customs & Logic.........

an interesting concept. 🤔 😁😁😁

[Minhlead]

4 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

Surely you can show them the correspondence with Daystar? You sent it back on the premise they were going to repair it but issued a refund instead?

If only they can be reasoned with. Custom department here in VN operate on an extremely rigid bureaucratic protocol. But there's no problem some bribing can not solve here in VN.