My new paperweight - Samson RAM-3XM-SMAG 3.5x Magnifier 3.5x35mm Obj Black

I wish I could give this magnifier 0 stars. It is a non functioning unit. My original intent was to buy the Holosun magnifier, but I feel guilty buying Chinese products (even though I did buy the Holosun red dot - and love it), so I bought this Samson magnifier because it is made in USA. Bought in December 2019, right around Christmas. Because of holiday commotion and travel, I received this magnifier and put it away in my closet and frankly, forgot I bought it. A couple weeks ago I got it out and mounted it. It is huge and bulky, IMO. So initially I was not super pumped. It’s rubber coated, which I generally like, but the rubber on this is a “sticky”(for lack of a better word), and it shows fingerprints and handling marks, and is hard to wipe that stuff off of it. Any dirt or oils on your hands will leave a lot of visible smudges. It comes with a flip-mount that has a low and high mount ( one mount with a shim). Neither of these lined up well to the Holosun. I went with the taller height, as it was closest. After aligning the two as good as possible. I started flipping the magnifier to the side and back again to get a feel for its operation. After flipping, and then pushing it back into place, I realized the dot had moved almost completely to the left side. Not good. I realigned the dot in the center and tried again, same thing. The adjustments on the magnifier seem loose and turn very freely, don’t know if these loose adjustment knobs are the source of the problem, or the mount. After messing with it for a while, I came to the conclusion that it is a non-functioning unit. It simply will not hold zero after flipping to the side. Dot moves to the farthest edge of the glass every freakin’ time. So frustrating. I tried contacting Optics Planet through their website using their form, but had terrible problems getting it to load and after spending probably 20 minutes filling out, and re-filling out the form, finally got it filled out and hit send...only to have it lock up. Never heard anything back from them, and I assume the form just never went through because their customer service is always great in my experience At this point it’s been more than a month since purchase... so unless I contact Samson about it, this thing is a paperweight. Very disappointing purchase, and now will be a pain in the rear to have to spend time dealing with it. Lesson I learned, check out new equipment right away in case it does now work. That’s all on me, but does not change the fact that this piece of equipment does not work at all. I will be reviewing this broken unit on YouTube soon. Hopefully that will help others who are in the market for a good magnifier. Find me on IG @milsurprifles.