Works but has issues - PARD Optics FT34-LRF Thermal Rifle Scope

This is the first thermal optic I've purchased, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I am tech savvy and have a good understanding of traditional daytime optics. First and foremost, there are very few reviews online for this optic, but I chose it because it seemed to check all the boxes and included a laser rangefinder. After unboxing, I proceeded to read through the instruction booklet (not the most well written and informative) and install the unit as a clip on to my leupold mark 4 (50mm). The unit comes with a clamp on style quick connect that clamps onto the outside of your daytime scope objective. For adjustment, you use the included inserts to wrap around your daytime scope objective and then clamp the quick connect over top of those. The problem with this, is the clamps are too short fully wrap around a 50mm objective and the result is a gap in the insert shifts the unit in a direction (depending on where the gap is around the objective) away from the center of the glass (and your existing crosshair). After test firing to check zero, I realized I was about 4 feet off zero at 50 yards. I went back and used two inserts and did the best I could to minimize the gap by using a very thin insert to cover the gap and although it's not perfect I was able to line it up with my day optic reticle and atleast get on target. There is a screw to also adjust the tightness of the clamp and even with it adjusted as tightly as I feel comfortable with clamping onto my day scope there is still a very good bit of movement when touching the thermal optic,adjusting the focus lever(which is often), even just pressing the buttons on the panel will cause the crosshair of the thermal to become misaligned with your day optic by several moa. You can however gently "move it back" to line up prior to making a critical shot, but I think most would find this unacceptable. The most critical element to zero with your day optic is making the thermal perfectly straight and lined up straight with the center point of your day optic. This seems like like basic knowledge but it took me some trial and error to realize it wasn't mounted perfectly straight to mine, this is because one would assume that the clamp mount and inserts would have been designed to achieve a straight mount as a main priority but unfortunately that's not the case. I use the lowest power (4.5x) on the mark 4, and it seems to work ok, but I suppose an lpvo would provide the most desirable results and allow for less than 4.5x to view the entire screen on the thermal optic. After all, you are simply viewing the screen of the thermal through your day optic. Next, I tried out the Pard app on my phone to view the live feed from the thermal. Once set up and connected via wifi direct between my phone and the optic, I was greeted by a glitchy, sluggish,low quality, unusable video feed. The app itself as basic as it gets with little to no settings. I checked the faq section at the pardusa website and was amazed at the answers provided by Pard for the questions and not in a good way. Several questions were answered with "update the firmware.". So I proceeded to find the new firmware, and nowhere on the USA version of pards website is there any firmware available for download. After some time searching around, I went to the pard global website and I was able to find the firmware section, and in this section there is a box to enter the serial number of your unit to search for the firmware. I entered the number from my unit, and was provided a message to enter the SN or contact after sale support...there was chat box shown at the bottom of the page asking if I needed any help, I asked about firmware hit send and I had to download whatsapp in order to chat. They've not responded as of 4 hours. My advice is to steer clear of these Chinese knock offs, and check the website of the thermal optic brand you are considering prior to purchasing. Look through the faqs section, see what kind of responses they give, and make sure the literature on their site looks like it's been written by a solid company providing detailed information. Beyond the issues, the thermal aspect does work well, and I was able to see birds walking on the ground at 300 or 400 yards out, not clearly but it was able to pick up their heat and make visible. I went into this thinking there would be some concessions for an "all in one" thermal, but the lack of support and the failure to hold zero when used as a clip on are unacceptable.