I, too, had a less than glowing experience with Close Scientific to repair
a vintage pair of Bushnell binos. I was charged what I considered an
exorbitant price, and found the alignment very 'temporary,' even with
careful use. I was also treated rudely, and told that I must not be a
"serious" birder if I don't have such and such brand of binos ($400 and
up, offered by Close, of course.) To hell with them! I won't take
anything back to these people, and I will not give them any business EVER
again! Good luck.

Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA
******************************
On Mon, 25 Aug 1997 Dyannesh at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 97-08-25 04:47:19 EDT, Mari Penry wrote:
>
> << found Close Scientific Instruments >> to be an adequate source of
> binocular repair....
>
> I have had very mixed results and reviews of their work. I took a pair of
> faithful old Nikons in there last spring and had them "repaired". In the
> course of my next calm birding trip the oculars slipped out alignment and the
> binos were virtually unusable. When my partner dropped them off to have him
> fix them again, he was actually quite rude and would not agree to fix them as
> "they had clearly been dropped" and it was not his fault...I had to go in
> myself and insist, quite strongly, that indeed they had not been dropped and
> that he should be obligated to either realign them or let me know if they
> were unrepairable....
>
> One other person I know had a similar experience with him, yet another person
> I know had fine service from him....so, be prepared for some unexpected
> grumpiness and perhaps variable quality of work....(maybe..)
>
> Good luck. I don't have any other options for recommendations...
>