Celestron product QC seems abysmal, anyone privy to the facts?

Reading the Yahoo Celestron mailing lists, I get the idea that
Celestron is today shipping product of such low quality that if the
customer community wasn't a bunch of zealot/nerds they'd be out of
business.

Is anyone in the know (e.g. a Celestron insider willing to comment
with product-return facts) able to step up with numbers to refute
those strong claims?

I think I'm speaking mostly of their new (?) relatively low-cost line
of products similar to the C8-SGT. I've got one of them on order, and
am thinking about canceling the order because of all the chatter.

Celestron offers a limited warranty, of course, but requires the
customer to pay shipping both ways to correct their problems, has
(reportedly) hard-to-reach support, and there are a number of reports
of the replacement being worse than the original. At $150 RT for
shipping (perhaps less if you don't have to return the whole mess)
that can get pretty old right away.

A lot of problems are pita issues like missing parts, alignment
indicaters way off, important screws loose, etc. that can be replaced
or repaired by a technically savvy and willing customer. But there's
plenty of chatter about serious problems, especially with the
electronics.

I note that no one complains about the optical quality, but that may
simply be more difficult to assess. If Celestron's lack of concern in
the other areas is being correctly described, it would be hard to
imagine they were doing a better job with the OTA.

The mailing-list zealot team has at least a few very verbal defenders
who excuse all this mess as perfectly acceptable for such a product.
Personally, I think it's completely inexcusable. But I'd really be
thrilled if the outcome of this posting is some hard facts...