Review on Presidium Electronic Refractive Index Meter by Nick Narvasa

I have reviewed it before and gave it 4 stars. I had only had it for a few months at the time. Here it is at the 10 month mark and I am really dissatisfied with this product. Evil is the best word. I wasted 100 hours before I knew it needed recalibrating. For six or seven months it worked quite well. But then the problems started. For example, the digital reading may be (RI) equal to 1.597. However, if checked manually, the correct value would be 1.619. This is a crazy mistake. The machine couldn't even get the first decimal place right, let alone the second and third. Now it has to be sent to Singapore for calibration. First he has to go to California. They only ship once a month and that towards the end of the month. And then it takes "seven weeks" to calibrate it in Singapore. I had to pay for shipping to California. It's under guarantee, so I just have to pay. By the time I send it back the warranty has expired though! If I had to pay for the calibration it would cost about $50, take about 3 months (depending on when it ships to California) and pay about $25 in postage. If I had known this beforehand, I would never have bought this product. Correct work for about 6 months did NOT cost $280!