charliethecat

Here is my experience with Amscope. Short version: TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, MEDIOCRE PRODUCT, WILL LIE TO YOUR FACE AND OBFUSCATE FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS. As a former teacher, i had a small budget so i bought about 10 or so simple dissecting scopes for my students. They turned out to be good quality and I was happy with them. I stopped teaching and began doing research at a major research institution (recently rated the number 1 engineering school in the country). My supervisor wanted a microscope on our limited grant money budget so I suggest Amscope. We ordered a basic metallurgical microscope from them - payed about $4500 total, and it came with a 5mp camera. The camera, I have to say is a piece of junk, generally. However, what ensued after getting the microscope is the most absurd/ridiculous customer service story ever. The microscope was obviously flawed - the Kohler illumination system simply didn't work and we continually had bright spots and or just a bad image in general. So I sent it back, payed for shipping and expected for my microscope to be replaced immediately. In the following months i was given story after story and eventually when I would call, they knew my story and stonewalled - i could never talk to anyone that knew anything. All the people in the know were always busy or on vacation, or no longer worked there. Finally after 4 MONTHS with no movement on their end I learned that my microscope was no longer in production and to correct the problem a new part had to be machined in China and sent over. A month later (seriously) I learned my microscope was actually IN china. After about 5 MONTHS I got the university purchasing dept. involved and threatened a small claims lawsuit if they did not replace my microscope with one of equal or greater value asap. Another month went buy and after someone with some power at the university made some phone calls, things started to move and Amscope finally admitted that there was no way we could ever get back our microscope and that they would replace it, but that we would have to pay the $600 fee to upgrade to the next level microscope. I couldn't believe the gall these people had to demand that. I personally called and made them realize they needed to ship us one for free immediately (a miracle), which they are currently doing as I write this. We have lost a lot of money - we never had a microscope that worked, and during the intervening 7 MONTHS since i returned it, we have had to rent time to use the SEM on the university campus. Amscope's customer service is BEYOND TERRIBLE, beyond the pale, beyond me ever recommending buying a microscope from them. In fact, you are better off throwing your money down the toilet as it will save you a lot of time and hassle. I do believe they generally have a good product in terms of optics and build quality. However, for the problems they caused me, for the lies they told me (I was told at least 2 or 3 times - i have email documentation to back this up - that a microscope was being shipped to me the next day), and for my money lost, I would be happy if this company went out of business. They deserve to be sued into oblivion. No business like this should be allowed to survive, and I hope the market puts them out of business and similar, better companies take up the market share. STAY AWAY.