new compass

I'm not sure I'm following the argument here but if you look at the first pic I posted and click on it to enlarge you will see the totem pole off Timber Cove. The compass reading is SE, meaning I am NW of TC which is the actual and correct location. Are you saying that the compasses you returned would read the reverse of the one on my post?

Not quite sure of your relative position, but these compasses read the opposite direction as my Suunto compass that I successfully use for geocaching and hiking, and used for this comparison.  So, when I faced N (according to my Suunto & my local knowledge), the dial noted S.  This is a frame of reference issue, so it may have been "right" in one context, but for normal navigation, that doesn't cut it.

Everyone has been trying to tell you why it reads differently than the Suunto.  You aren't wanting to hear it though.  It is a direct read dial.  It isn't meant to be read in the same way as your orienteering compass.  It isn't backward.  It isn't a southern hemisphere compass.  That isn't how most compasses work anyway - it won't read 180 degrees off - a southern hemisphere compass wouldn't work at all because it would be weighted improperly.  To be fair, it wouldn't work properly if the lizard people had flipped the magnetic poles either.

You didn't understand how to read the compasses.  They weren't defective.  They weren't intended for use elsewhere.  That's it.

Krusty is right.  These type of compass are not read from bird's eye view. 

Thanks guys.  They're long gone now.