Opt

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

I'm not wanting this thread to turn into a vendor bashing but.... anyone had any issues with receiving goods from OPT?

Specifically, how was communication prior to payment for goods and then after? And then how prompt was delivery?

[astroturf (Bryan)]

OPT seemed OK although a bit expensive on the frieght

Try also ,http://www.seansastronomyshop.com/ he's pretty good on the communication side of things,& very reasonable with freight costs, some prices are a lot cheaper too!

Cheers
Bryan

[Dennis]

I have had very good service from OPT. They chased up Takahashi for me and remonstrated with them due to a delay caused by Tak on their adapters, so they seem to show interest in overseas customers. I have purchased from them around 6 or 7 times and had good experiences with each transaction.

They seem to have the ability to recommend the particular specialized adapters that I required for my Mewlon, so it seems they can access technical support for uncommon items.

Cheers

Dennis

[Louwai (Bryan)]

+1 Dennis,
I've also dealt with OPT a number of times & found them faultless.
Even with general emails asking questions not related to sales, I've always had good prompt service & replies.

Bryan

[Ric]

I bought a few through OPT and have found them very good to deal with.

I had plenty of emails from them letting me know what stage it up to and I felt that the delivery from the USA was quite prompt, about 4-5 days.

Cheers

[citivolus (Ric)]

I've had generally good service from OPT, especially with ordering products which were in stock at the time, and while I will continue to deal with them for personal purchases, they do have one stumbling block which keeps me from blindly recommending them to others, and that is their ordering system. What follows is not a bash, but a critique to help others work around the issues that I have encountered.

OPT does not have good transparency in their ordering system. It can be a challenge to find out from them when they anticipate a back-ordered product to be in stock. I've got one order that is over 2 months along now, with no updates issued since it was a week or so on, when they said it would be in stock in about 2 weeks. I can understand issues with them getting bad dates from their supplier, but updates to the order status definitely wouldn't be unwelcome. I've had a similar experience with order status from lots of astro shops selling online, so OPT are definitely are not alone here.

Additionally, changes made to an order by their sales team will not be reflected in the online order status pages, so you can not confirm that they have actually made the change to the order without confirming it with their sales staff. I suspect that this is an integration issue between their online and offline ordering systems.

A related problem I had was with an order that was delayed in shipping due to a part being on back-order. I cancelled a set of tube rings from the order, and they acknowledged the cancellation. When the order shipped two months later, the rings were included and I had indeed been billed for them. I'm sure this comes from what I said above, where their system does not handle order changes well. Whoever filled the order probably didn't see whatever note was attached by the sales person, and filled the original request instead. Anyone need some Vixen R200SS rings?

Regards,
Eric

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Similar experiences to Eric over the last couple of years. Thanks for putting it so succinctly Eric.

[spearo (Frank)]

Hi
I've had no problem with OPT, good service before and after payment
frank

[matt]

All my experiences have been good.

They stuffed up one order...but bent over backwards to make up for it.

I have bought numerous items from them since.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

I have only bought a couple of things from OPT because I would prefer to support the local vendors (within reason.....sometimes the price difference is too great to ignore). On both occasions OPT were fantastic....responded promptly and professionally to my enquiries, and shipped the goods far more efficiently than I had expected.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

Well, feeling a little better now.

After making a reasonably substantial order and paying for it, I didnt hear a thing via email which had worked fine during the ordering process. More than two weeks after the date the item was mean to be shipped I hadnt heard anything, and all emails were going unanswered.

In the end I emailed just about every address on their contact page and got the owner (I think) who relayed my email to the sales people and suggested they had been trying to email me but hadn't got through..I get the feeling that they sold my item and were going to let me wait to get it...the good news however, is that it now apparently set to be shipped first thing next week.
I may stick with seansastronomy next time