Who's Australian Telescopes?

[cybereye (Mario)]

OK, I pride myself in the fact that I think I know of just about every seller of astronomy gear in Australia, both on and off line. Just ask my wife, I'm sure she'll back me up!!

Anyway, yesterday I came across a company called "Australian Telescopes" which I've never heard of before. According to their website, they are based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth and have phone numbers for those cities, except for Perth. However when I tried the Brisbane number, to see if they had a physical store in Brisbane, it came back as busy.

Does anyone know of this company?

Cheers,
Mario

[MortonH]

I've emailed them a few times with enquiries and they've responded quickly. Never bought anything though.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

There isn't a great deal of info on them outside of one astronomyforum in particular.
It seems to be more advertising than anything though there, not a bad thing mind you.
Can't seem to find much independent review of them though. I think they are a year or so old.

[Varangian (John)]

It's an online store, I purchased a set of Ba'ader eyepieces and a neutral density filter from them during a recent sale (may still be on). Bit of a wait on the products (certainly under a week though) and reasonably responsive replies to emails. Safe trade.

[Kunama]

I tried all their phone numbers without luck, then sent them an email about a planned purchase, the email response took a week by which time I had decided to spend my $2K at myastroshop.

I hope others have more luck.

[fauxpas (Tony)]

I bought my beginner dob from them... Everything was good...

Comparing them with the other online sellers I find some products are listed cheaper and some more expensive...

When I upgrade to a 12" dob I'll be buying from bintel purely due to price...

Australian Telescopes had the cheapest 4" tabletop at the time I bought it...

[Sarge (Rod)]

Bought a Baader Hyperion eyepiece earlier this year from them. Cheapest price in Aus and it was delivered within a week. No issues at all.

Clear skies

Rod

[gaf.flash (George)]

Boy o' bay. More and more bad news online about this mob.
I ordered 4 weeks ago and have not had a response to multiple phones calls to all advertised numbers, or email.
Dispute has been lodged.
Never again with this lot. Here's a little more:
The website and business is owned by:

Domain Name australiatelescopes.com.au
Registrant GIANNOULAKIS, DIONISIA
Registrant ID ABN 81 837 848 243
Eligibility Type Sole Trader
Registrant Contact Email dionisia.giannoulakis@utoronto.ca

The Brisbane phone number belongs to:

Hanceys Turf
Address: Beerwah-Kilcoy Road Woodford 4514 QLD
Phone: 07 3102 9790 Other Phone: 1800 133 064 Mobile: 0439 306 616 Fax: (07) 5493 4352
Contact: Nathan Hancey
Website:www.hanceysturf.com.au
email enquiries@hanceysturf.com.au

[deanm (Dean)]

George: has money been exchanged?

If so, you likely have reasonable grounds to "lodge a dispute".

If not, the basis of your complaint is only a profound lack of communication on their part.

Dean

(And Mods may choose to delete some of these posts......[including this one!])

[gaf.flash (George)]

[QUOTE=deanm;938320]George: has money been exchanged?


Money was exchanged alright. My credit card was charged the day I ordered.

[stryqx (Chris)]

ASIC Connect returned this:

Name:81
Registration number: B1688133C
State of registration: Victoria
Status: Business Names - Removed
Type: Business Names
Principal place of business:
Regulator: Office of Fair Trading & Business Affairs,Victoria

and abr.business.gov.au was updated on 20th November to change the Main Business Location from postcode 2065 to postcode 0000.
I've not had any of my correspondence via e-mail or messages left on any of their phone numbers returned, so I'll also be lodging a dispute.
AVOID!

[Suzy]

I got my 4" table top dob off them a few months ago- good price too at only $99 plus $30 shipping. I was surprised that even has a glass mirror!
After a week an a half of waiting, I tried to ring them to no avail. But then they responded quickly to my email. Seems my order got forgotten , they didn't say it in such words but saying, oh we'll make sure we ship it tomorrow kind of is the same thing . And then I got it within 2 days.
I don't think they're a very organised bunch, but they responded and dealt with it asap, so all was good.

Btw, it makes a good solar scope. Hubby cut a hole in the dustcap and I have a filter on there permanently. When I want to observe at night, I just take the cap off as I normally would. It's great as there's no setting up for it so it makes a quickie session easy!

[Linacake (Jacqueline)]

I too have had a bad experience with australiantelescopes.com.au - the site was recommended by the site owner of a certain astronomy forum in a post so I thought it would be legit (incidentally I was permanently banned from the aforementioned astronomy forum for daring to say I'd had a bad experience at this online store!). After phone calls and messages to australiantelescopes.com.au I had to reverse the payment through PayPal, though I haven't seen my money back yet. I would definitely not recommend buying from this store.

[gaf.flash (George)]

Same here. OMG. I bet I know what forum it was.
As soon as I posted that I had not received my goods from Aust Telescopes, I was banned - permanently!!
Not to worry, this forum is way better.
I have heard that at ACCC has shut Aust telescopes down as the business is not Austalian - although this I'm yet to confirmed.