"Michael A. Covington"
wrote in :

Tasco products *used* to work well. Maybe now they're having them
made to the same designs by people who no longer understand how to
tell whether they work?

I disagree. Ever since I can remember (the early 1960s) they have used
cheap, undersized mounts made of pot metal. Badly fit, and they tried to
take up the slop with nylon shims and grease with the consistency of STP.
Even the Tasco altazimuth was almost unusable brand new out of the box.
Almost impossible to find anything, and when you did find it, try to make
it stay put long enough to view it. Back then, the tube and optics were
usually OK but the focuser was always cheap and sloppy. Cheap Japanese size
oculars, etc.

You get what you pay for, and Tasco has always been the department store
loss leader.