Bintel and the Meade Series 4000 Eyepiece offer...

[Keltik]

I bought a LightBridge 16" in early November and part of the offer was a Meade Series 4000 eyepiece kit. I emailed Bintel on Saturday querying the delivery status of the kit, and received an email today saying that Meade have informed them that the kits won't now be available until February.
I'm not complaining, as I have other EP's to use with the scope, but if any other purchasers out there were wondering where their EP kits were, now you know....

[Mark_Heli]

Hi Trevor,

Meade had a similar offer last year when I bought my LX90 from Bintel. I had to wait ~4-6 weeks from memory while Meade shipped the eyepieces.

Looks like the wait is lightly longer this year.

Cheers,
Mark

[cjpops]

I am too waiting on the kit from Bintel Melb - also told around mid-feb.

I understood that I need to pick up the kit from the Bintel store once it's in - I don't think Meade directly send them to us..

[cjpops]

Anybody received their kit?

[Keltik]

still waiting...

[cjpops]

Still waiting.. :/

[Irish stargazer]

Waiting........

[Stu Ward]

Thats pretty poor tbh.
Was it clearly stated that the eyepiece set was via redemption ?

If not, you should not be expected to wait so long

[cjpops]

Fingers crossed we get a call from bintel this week...

[patsta]

have now been told it will be mid march !!!!!

[Keltik]

They're testing my customer loyalty with this one...

[cjpops]

mid march!? :eyepop:

Gosh.. I'll give them a ring this week to confirm...

[brian nordstrom]

:shrug: Typical Meade !! advertise a product when its not avaliable , like the new LX80 mount ?
Poor service again , I doubt its Bintel they are at meade's mercy like the rest of us , poor service ! I say again ! :confused2: I feel for you all.
Brian

[Keltik]

I wonder if it's a problem in China? I ordered a focuser and adaptor flange from a company in the US about three months back, and after a bit of a wait they ended up refunding me the money, saying that they had supply issues with the Chinese producer of the items. I have since ordered the same thing from Moonlite accessories in the US, who machine their own stuff, so should be good. But I'll be asking a few questions before I buy anything major at Bintel again.

[barx1963]

I would be sure the holdup will be at the Meade end rather than the Bintel end. I have always found the people at Bintel to be more than responsive and helpful to any queries or problems I may have from time to time

Malcolm

[Keltik]

Well it would have to be at the Meade end, unless Bintel are being deliberately annoying. I have to say that they weren't concise about the delay in delivering the eyepieces when I bought the LB16. The eyepiece offer was the critical factor that tipped me into buying the scope, and I have a feeling that Bintel knew they couldn't deliver within three months, but still wanted to snare sales like mine. They certainly didn't give me the impression that the EP's would take over 3 months to arrive. It smacks of cynicism, I have to say. If they know they can't offer an item from their own stock, they could at least stipulate a prospective timeline for delivery in the advertising, which they didn't do.
Behaviour like this is lethal in the web environment. If I have to wait four months for an Australian item, I might as well buy a better-made US version, as I have just done with a Moonlite Crayford refractor focusser and flange (http://www.focuser.com/cgi-bin/dman.cgi?page=productdetail&plugin=dstore.cgi&product=CF) from the US. I suppose I could have got a GSO-version focuser from Bintel ( they don't offer flanges though)....but why take a chance that they are not letting me know the item needs to be got in from OS anyway? Australian retailers are constantly complaining that the internet is harming their trade, but they're not really offering us anything more than a slightly-quicker delivery-time. If even this advantage is a mirage, then they aren't offering us much at all.

[cjpops]

It looks like its three weeks away. Apparently some hold up at Meade..

[cjpops]

*update.

Managed to contact Bintel, it's now a week after Easter sometime..