A fair bit has happened since my last post about OPT, but briefly:
OPT has attempted to compromise with Celestron in my case (offshore). Celestron are willing to let me ship the electronic pier (under a non warrany situation) rather than ship the whole mount to them, as Celestron are not 100% sure of my diagnosis of the problem. Well I had a hand in the diagnosis but it was with the help of certain parties on the CN forum that we got a definite answer to the problem.
I could have arranged this long ago with Celestron had I been in a position to do so or indeed WANTED TO. & not to mention the fact that I would have gone with the best solution post Celestron new policy: Get the board from the Australian distributor for $499 WITHOUT sending my pier in.
I will not compromise with Celestron in this fashion nor will I accept any terms dictated to me. It's the replacement board for the USD quoted price before the new policy came into effect, or nothing. I'll quite happily settle for nothing & continue to use the EQ6 that I purchased 18 months ago to replace this Celestron mount. Something was telling me (yes, 18 months ago) that something was going to go drastically wrong regarding this mount. I hate being right sometimes..
Anyway, thank you to the guys at OPT for doing what they could but unfortunately, given my position I will not be sending my pier anywhere, let alone to Celestron USA.
Asimov, might be worth giving Andrews a call to see if they can assist; AFAIK they are not associated with Celestron Australia and source their Celestron gear directly from overseas.
AFAIK they are not associated with Celestron America either yet they must have access to parts to cover their warranty obligations.
Definitely worth a call.
