re: Celestron support (good story)

[dpastern]

Hi everyone,

Just giving my honest 2.2c inc. GST worth. Had a faulty PowerTank 17 (had been mucking up since day 1 to be honest). I bought it from York Optical, who told me a big porky that it only had a 3 month warranty. Turns out, it has a 2 year warranty. Celestron directed me to the Australian distributors, Sheldon & Hammond. I conversed with a lovely chap (John) who asked me to send the unit back to them in Sydney. They have reply paid postage, so it didn't cost me a cent, which is great, cos it's not a small or light item.

Well, within a week my unit had been tested and found to be faulty, and a replacement unit was waiting for me on Friday after I got home from work. Less than a week turn around time.

Thank you Celestron for such excellent post sale support. That's *how* you win customers.

Dave

[mozzie]

well done dave
theres been discussions here on certain brands of scopes and if one should buy online or local,and it all comes back to warranties and dealers help.luckily you were put in the right direction and celestrons customer service was outstanding well done celestron!!!!!

[troypiggo]

That is a good story, Dave. Should be more of them.

[asimov]

Glad you got some good service from Celestron, Dave. You only usually hear the 'hard done by/not happy Jan' stories, & I have plenty, but I'd love to be able to tell a good story too one day.

Celestron have 'seen the light' lately, & just as well I'd say.

[AstralTraveller]

I think the score is

+1 for Celestron
-5 for York

[Ric]

Always good to hear stories like that.

10/10 to the distributors.

[deanm]

I agree completely.

I've had nothing but outstanding service delivery from the good folks at Sheldon & Hammond - John and Victoria handle Celestron issues.

They are speedily communicative and seem to have a genuine desire to resolve problems.

In the past, I've sent them a bottle of wine as a vote of thanks for their efforts - I can't think of any other company where I've done similar!

Dean

[dpastern]

Thanks guys. I'm usually quick to criticise, but I'm usually quick to praise too. I believe in merit - if you do a bad job, you get a kick up the you know what. If you do a good job, you get a thank you. I guess I'm kinda old fashioned.

John also uses the Celestron products - he took home a Celestron 8" SCT last weekend, but it was ruined by rain. That says a lot.

I've only bought a few things off York, with the last time not impressing me one iota. The guys in the shop knew less than me! But - that's not their fault, but their employers. Employers are responsible for training, not staff.

These days, I ONLY buy from Bintel as a rule - they know their stuff, they use their products, their prices are good, top notch support, both pre sales, pre technical sales and post sales. I'm not saying other shops in Australia aren't good, I'm simply saying I'm VERY happy with Bintel as well.

Dave

[RickS]

Is York Optical still a going concern? Last time I walked past the Brisbane shop it looked abandoned and the web site says:

"We regret that the York Optical website is currently unavailable. Please return in a week for a situation update."

It has said that for a while now...

[asimov]

York Optical has been voluntarily liquidated. The Melbourne and Brisbane stores are shut. The Sydney shop has changed it's name from York Optical to 'U-Shop' (under the same ownership) and continues to trade despite 'York Optical' being bankrupt.

[dpastern]

Sheldon & Hammond advised me that York Optical was bankrupt too. I would have thought that simply changing the trading name was not enough to keep trading when bankrupt? Doing a search on asic.gov.au's website shows quite a few York Opticals...the one that's not deregistered is http://www2.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=100_338_092&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1. u-shop has these details: http://www2.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=109_859_145&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1. How did u-shop get the assets (i.e. goods of sales)? If York went into voluntary liquidation, they just can't sell their assets to anyone, they have to pay the largest list of creditors first, or, at least, that's my understanding...anyways, I've digressed.

A big cheer to Sheldon & Hammond & Celestron for top notch support say I.

Dave