Quote:
Originally Posted by brian nordstrom
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Hope these rip offs read this .  .
Thats my spheel . happy now .  .
Brian. |
True that Brian, but the worst thing is that they are probably getting away with it!
And worse still, it is difficult to buy Celestron from overseas as they are restricting their distributors by not allowing them to despatch Celestron items to another country, so you are "forced" into paying local prices and dealing with the local distributor, who can charge what they like. So much for competition in a global marketplace.
Sheldon and Hammond (Australian Celestron distributors) may not be as bad as NZ, but they aren't that much better either, particularly compared to the US market. After the last debacle over a Celestron accessory, I will never buy Celestron in "Australia" again. I wanted a Celestron Astrometric eyepiece and simply couldn't get it in Australia. Bintel wasn't able to find out how long it would take to get it in either, as much as they wanted to help me. It was available from my supplier in the US, at about a third of the cost, including freight, but they couldn't send it to me. I ended up buying the Baader equivalent from Extravision in Brisbane (who had it in stock too) and thankfully it turned out to be a far better eyepiece anyway.
Other telescope manufacturers are beginning to follow suit, as Meade, among others, have the same arrangements with their distributors. If they all go that way we will be paying considerably more for our astro gear.
And, for the record, I mostly deal with Australian companies anyway, but I do like the convenience of being able to choose who I deal with and not be dictated to by manufacturers, particularly when there are vastly different prices between countries and particularly if there is no stock in Australia. I have no problem paying a little more in Australia, but two or three times, and more, is beyond a joke.
I will still get some Celestron accessories, but not until my US trip in May to attend the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. I was going to Stellafane but have changed my times to suit RTMC and this will allow me to be in New York in time for NEAF, I hope. I still don't have the dates for the RTMC next year, yet.
Cheers Peter