Quote:
Dear Fahim,
Thank you for your inquiry. Celestron has exclusive international distributors whom purchase product from Celestron and transport it to their countries at their expense, paying all freight, brokerage, duties and taxes. They then mark it up and resell the product to retailers in local currency, absorbing any currency fluctuations. In addition to this, the distributors are responsible for developing the Celestron brand through media advertising and special event participation. Finally, they provide warranty/repair service for the Celestron brand in their respective countries. All of this results in higher consumer purchase prices Internationally than in the U.S. We actually make less margin on international orders than domestic orders -- it's not about making more profit, it's about making the Celestron product available to the global market.
Our decision to forbid shipping of Celestron prduct overseas by domestic dealers is a policy in place not only to protect our international distributors but to protect the consumer as well. Consumers are not informed by the US dealer that their warranty becomes void and they will be unable to receive any warranty service from the distributor in their country since they have violated the terms of the Celestron product warranty.
Best Regards,
Celestron Marketing
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Fahim Shariff (fahimshariff@yahoo.com) Posted on: Jul 18 2009 07:02 PM
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Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to advise you of something I hope you are unaware of and can do something to fix. Recently after the anouncement of the EdgeHD scopes, Australian retailers like US based ones have put up indicative pricing for the scopes. However the Price diffrence between the two countries seems excesive bordering on the absurd. I dont think its the retailer, but the having one sole distributor which is the casue of this.
For example the a C14 is priced as $18999 AUD ~ $15000 USD, the same scope on Optcorp in the US is 5-6000usd. Three times the price.
The C8, C9.25 and C11 all have a discrepencey between 40-150% price diffrence. And this is not limited to the new EdgeHD. All Celestron gear in Australia seems to be sold at these inflated prices.
Meade telescopes on the other hand are much closer to there prices in the US. The reason is that the retailers directly procure from Meade.
I would like your mangement to explain why this pricing is the way it is. I own a C8 which i purchased used from the US, as local pricing (even used) is much higher. I would really like to get other Celestron gear but i feel the Astronomy community in Australia is being unfairly treated to inflated prices.
Thanks and Regards
Fahim
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My response,
I dont think i will be buying Celestron from local retailers any time soon. I will continue to buy used from US where possible. And or buy another brand locally. So in the end while Celestron might not be trying to profit from it, they will fail in delivering there products to the global market. Contrary to the goals you have stated.
If you cant control your distributors markup and margin then you place your product beyond the reach of most average users, and then how much of this global market will you reach.
For the same price as the C14 HD 18999AUD you can buy non mass produced high end optics. Like Planewave CDK 12.5" a TEC 160ED, Ritchey Criteons, Astrophysics APO's with lots of change to spare. We buy Celestron because of its affordability due to mass production. But now that is not possible anymore.
A SCT with Optec Reducer flatner and custom mirro locking would still be cheaper. Also you can do your own modifications to add ventelation.