Beware of Herb York

[dhumpie]

Hey people,

Just had to vent. As the header says above beware of Herb York of Astromart. Make sure you don't put the words selling on behalf of someone else or he will suspend and delete your account at Astromart without even finding out who was really at fault. Sheesh because of this "incident" I have lost all my good feedback......man I am really pissed.....

Darren

[ving]

that sux man! :(

[Robby]

Ditto to that...
He changed my account to OEM when he found out I was making star-mates!! No amount of arguing helped. I wasn't intending to sell star-mates on Astromart. All I use it for was buying stuff and reading the forums!
Now if I want to do that I have to pay OEM fee of US$105 per 3months!!!
I told him where to go..
The ironic thing was at the same time I was having discussions with Ray York about ATWB becoming my American distributor of star-mate!! Yeah right...
I have boycotted Astromart ever since... Well, actually they boycotted me, cause I can't use it if I wanted too anyway!!!
They do tend to shoot themselves in the foot. I have had many Astromart stories around the camp fire!
Cheers

[ballaratdragons]

Just as long as no-one confuses the names of York from Astromart with York Optical of Sydney and Melbourne.

I wouldn't like this site to be responsible for any damage done to York Optical through a mis-understaning of names.

Thought I better throw that in!

[Robby]

Being a Kiwi myself I have never heard of York optical, but I agree...
This thread as absolutely nothing to do with York optical in Australia!!

[ballaratdragons]

Robby,

This is York Optical: http://www.yorkoptical.com.au/

[dhumpie]

Hi Robby,

Apparently he pissed off Michael Tom's of Gecko optical as well. Don't know the exact story but apparently he banned Mike from registering all because he was running another buy and sell site. Sheesh this guy has got to be taken off his pedestal! Astromart is an assett to the astro community and it should not be run by an astro nazi! I e mailed him and explained my position and that I was not aware that you could not sell on behalf of someone else and he just wouldn't listen. In the beginning I was just banned. This morning I got an e mail from him saying that my account had been deleted.....sheesh!!!!

Darren

[Exfso]

This guy sounds like a meglomaniac, think thats how it is spelt. I used to be married to one..LOL

[asimov]

I nearly signed up for an account the other night. I won't bother after hearing this.

[rowena]

Thats ok. Astromart has denied my application for an account twice without explanation. Stuff them I say, would rather find sellers in the Aussie sites.

[elusiver]

Astromarts funny like that.. i applied for an account using my home email address.. denied.. i applied the next day using my work email address.. success! all other details the same.. maybe cause my home email address was a word they didn't understand.. 'wharnau'(maori for family).. and my work email address is simply alex. beats me.. all the good bargains there are snapped up by the time we wake up anyway.. cause of the time difference. Ahh well.

el :)

[dhumpie]

Actually Astromart itself is a great resource for us astronomers...its just the person running it that needs to be taken out ;) Any snipers among us......ha!

Darren

[asimov]

Surely there's someone to complain to about this guy? Enough complaints in the right ear work's wonders. Stastictic's will eventually prove he's not up to the task of running astro-mart anyway....Just a matter of time?

[Robby]

Should be spelt whanau.

[iceman]

Ah, see there you go Darren.. that's why he banned you :P

[elusiver]

:rofl:

i'm not maori.. so there's my excuse.. :)

i'm not even kiwi.. thank god.. :P :D :)


el :)

p.s. lucky the mrs doesn't read these forums :D

[dhumpie]

Maybe we could post a warning on Talking Telescopes. But knowing the moderators there (they are an overzealous lot) the post would probably never make it...

Darren

[geckooptical]

I had a bad experience in the days Herb York kick me off. So I developed an optical classifieds www.geckooptical.com (http://www.geckooptical.com/) to post FOR SALE of used telescope and optical equipment free. Those amongst ice in space are most welcome to post free ads there.

Michael Toms owner geckooptical.com
Western Australia

[dhumpie]

Yup we should support local. Only problem we have right now is that the used community here is too small :) Come on people buy and sell more...

Darren

[[1ponders]]

Don't worry Darren. The way Dave47tuc and Tony are going the market will soon be flooded :thumbsup:

[p medcraft]

I need to respond to these comments. I am and have been a user of Astromart for at least a couple of years and have found it to be an excellent service unmatched by anything in Australia. I have bought and sold with confidence because of the rules established at Astro. Those rules are there because they have had bad experiences especially with overseas bidders. One Aussie lost several thousand dollars because of a fraudalent user. Given this, any discomfort or difficulty in getting in to Astromart is a good thing because it means they are trying to be safe, they are trying to ensure that the users know exactly who they are dealing with. This is something you cannot say in Australia. I nearly sold an item recently using the advert system on the ASV website only to discover that the respondent was not a member ( I only worked it out because they asked for address details up front), there would have been considerable danger in this.

Regarding the difficulty some people who also have businesses have had including Gecko. I noted with interest that I received an email from Gecko via Ice in Space advertising his service and linking me to his site.
Did I ask for this?
Was I informed that third parties would be promoting services to me because I joined Ice in Space?
Was it not promoting a service I already get from Ice in Space?
How do I know that my email address is not now being onsold to others?
When Gecko is advertised on the Ice in Space web page it is advertising, when they email me unsolicited it is spam.
I wonder why everyone is shocked that Astromart said no
When you have a couple of hundred members you can afford to be a little casual, when you have thousands world wide (many of whom pay for the priviledge) and are providing a buy and sell service on over a thousand goods at any one time you need to be a little more careful.
Paul Medcraft

[p medcraft]

On the subject of selling on behalf of someone else as quoted below:
Make sure you don't put the words selling on behalf of someone else or he will suspend and delete your account at Astromart
The biggest frauds done on Astro occur exactly that way. Poeople who are already banned because of their actions get a mate to register and sell goods which are then shipped from a third party location (if you are lucky). One big loss for a lot of Astro users was when that third party didn't ship and left the ringin high and dry. Astro users quite literally drove to the poor dupes house to confront him where they found that he wasn't even in posession of the goods. Once again I would prefer to hear someone had problems registering than be reading a thread about someone who had lost money.

[iceman]

Paul, I've sent you a PM. Please get back to me ASAP.

[Argonavis]

[QUOTE=Robby]Ditto to that...
He changed my account to OEM when he found out I was making star-mates!!

What is a star-mate?

sounds like an internet dating service for stargazers

[[1ponders]]

A great little gizzmo Robby makes for cordless control of certain feature of some eq mounts, like slewing, changing slew rates, camera exposure control, electric focus control.

[Robby]

Thanks Paul.
See www.star-mate.com/starmate.htm for details.

[geckooptical]

No email address are given to third parties amongst geckooptical.
Just want to make that clear. I now have my Galaxy Novae observing log listed on my ebay for anyone that is interested I can email the link.

Thanks for your note Paul.

Michael geckooptical.com

[geckooptical]

I do not SPAM people neither. My Email to fellow Western Australia Paul Medcraft was to say something exist in WA of an Optical Classifieds here is Australia. He sent a thank you email for letting him know.

Michael
Gecko Observatory

[atalas]

You know If we want to grow the last thing we want to do is close our selfs off in our little group! Astromart has been an excellent site for me and many other Australians and New Zealanders . A lot of the things I have bought off Astromart have ended up passing on to other Australians at bargain prices. So a big :thumbsup: from me for Astromart.


Louie :)

[cventer]

I have bought and sold heaps of stuff on Astromart. It hasw a HUGE market even though most of my stuff has been bought by Ozzies. I have bought a fair bit from OS without nay trouble.


I also find it entertaining to watch how often some of the septics turn over realy expensive gear that has been sed a few times. Wish I lived in the USA. That AP1200 mount would have been mine by now.

Yes my precious, mine, mine mine,,,,,:P

Regards
Chris V

[geckooptical]

There is a person willing to loan a Paramount GEM to someone who has a desire to do Galaxy NOVAE searching in Australia. Would you be interested Chris? It needs to be set up in a dark location, internet access and CCD required. One is now located in South Africa. I missed out as Gecko Observatory has no internet access, but a great dark location.

Michael