Stylus skipping at beginning of record

Even zero AS ought not to cause your problem although I’ve never used your particular tonearm. One has to wonder why your “technician” left you with zero AS, however. Usually zero AS causes noticeable distortion especially in the R channel. I adjust AS up from zero until that distortion is ameliorated. There’s no such thing as a perfect AS setting because the skating force is constantly changing across the surface of the LP. I favor the “raised lip” hypothesis, and to cure that I would just mute the output until the cartridge visibly hits the outermost groove of an LP. Finally, I repeat what I said before and others have said too, it’s unwise to exceed the recommended VTF.

When you do get help, maybe ask the guy to teach you how to set VTF, antiskate, VTA, etc, using your tonearm. As to VTF, most makers publish a range of acceptable values for each cartridge. Look that up. If you’re within the recommended range, I doubt VTF is the problem but if you’re in the low end of acceptable then maybe tweak it but don’t exceed the recommended range. This is assuming you are able to measure VTF.