Changes to Celestron distribution

[Earl]

Hi all,

A quick announcement to let you know that TSA (Tasco Sales Australia) is now the official Celestron distributor for Australia/NZ.

You shouldn’t see too many changes. The current dealer arrangements will remain place for the rest of 2019 at least and we already supply all existing Celestron dealers in Aus/NZ.

Firstly, to address price concerns, we are fully aware of the issues facing Australian astronomers. Many of us are long term Celestron users at TSA and know what it’s like to buy astro gear locally.

Our immediate plans are a local Celestron website, support systems and social media. We’ve just switched on the official local Celestron Facebook page with a group to follow shortly and look forward to any comments.

If you have any feedback, my inbox is always open.

Cheers,

[glend]

Not sure how I feel about this, businesses slipping in announcements in the last hour before a long weekend, when customers are probably focused elsewhere. But it seems to be standard marketing practice for bad news. So i have to assume it has some negatives.
From my viewpoint it seems like too much wholesale market control by TASCO, but maybe that's your idea; not a strategy that usually benefits customers in terms of cost effective purchases. However i realise Synta owns both Skywatcher and Celestron brands, and you have likely handled Celestron importation, whether that was exclusive i can't say, but perhaps it is now

Can you explain the role of previous Premium Celestron retailers like Bintel, who were authorised service agents for Celestron products? Will I still deal with Bintel for service and parts for my CGX, or is this now a TASCO function?

[Wavytone]

Earl, So... are you aiming to shaft the resellers and both sell and provide post-sales support to end-customers directly?

I bet Bintel won't be happy.

[LewisM]

It's Celestron - does anyone care...really?

Meh

:lol:

[Wavytone]

Don't laugh Lewis - at least the Celestron stuff is better than Meade's.
And they're also the distributor for Skywatcher who at least make some respectable mounts and passable refractors.
It's the electronics and mechanicals that will fail first and need support - not the optics.

Hence why virtually every LX200 has been either deforked, or trashed.

[Earl]

Hi Glen,

Appreciate your comments.

There's a lot of folks who know about this and we'd rather announce it ourselves rather than have someone post about and ask "Why didn't we get told about it....etc" :) We did toss up leaving until next week after the long weekend as the late announcement could be perceived as negative by some as you observe, but thought we'd get it out there and answer questions as they come up. It's actually the opposite sort of news.

As I mentioned, existing arrangements will stay in place and this especially is true for the great service that the premium long term Celestron dealers such as BINTEL provide. Keep dealing with them. Nothing will change.

We hope to add some extra support along the way in addition to the larger distribution and logistics we offer.

John's still very much with Celestron and some good news about that later on. In fact, the reason we're getting involved is to help out as Celestron continues to grows here.

Cheers,

- Earl

[h0ughy]

Just saying that please keep your comments civil, so with that in mind remember that IIS does have a TOS. It will be enforced. Enjoy your time off this Easter and enjoy the time you have on the third rock.

[Earl]

Hi Nick,

We already supply retailers like BINTEL and have for many years. Not going to change.

Cheers,

- Earl