consumer advice required - andrews communications

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Sad , but I would personally still buy a celestron off Andrews and save $100's if not $1000's , licenced celestron dealers have to sell their product at the prices dictated by Celestron and we all know its a rip off here when you look what other ( USA ) countries pay for their gear !!! .

On the warrenty thingy Celestron aint the best to deal with anyway as they don't want to know us down here below the equator at the best they wont answer any corrispondence from us anyway .

All we get is the old chestnut ,,," Send it back " you try sending say a CGE14 back to the USA from here or NZ , almost cheeper to buy a new one , I know this personally as my old club in NZ ( Northland astro society ) had no end of problems with a brand new GGE14's mount and they refused to allow us to send only the mount back , send the WHOLE!!! scope back to the USA or we wont deal with it .....
,,, In the end it was cheaper for us to buy a brand new 'Losmandy Titan' from Bintel for the OTA ,,, YEA ??? great after sales service alright after spending over 10K from a licenced Celestron dealer .
ps. that dog of the mount is now sitting in a store room gathering dust !

You GO!! Andrews , I am and will continue to be a loyal customer , ( same with Bintel ) .
Brian.
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[manny]

No problems with Andrews

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

I've returned one item to Andrews under warranty. They shipped it to Brisbane to be fixed and it came back better than new.

If companies like Celestron didn't fix dealer prices in Oz/NZ well above US prices we wouldn't need grey market importers.

[Rastas]

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You should has started your post with the disclaimer " As a supplier/retailer....." which would explain most of your post.
As a consumer I have purchased a few scopes from Andrewscom and never had a problem with their service or honesty. One scope that I purchased had astigmatism and a turned out edge which was replaced within a week at their expense with all shipping. They stood by their product.
They may not test each product but if the is a fault, they replace - no question asked.

[glend (Glen)]

I have had no problems with Andrews at all, and have bought two scopes from them in the last year and had one warranty claim. Don't get me started on The Astro Shop, who I won't ever buy from again.

[OzStarGazer]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

If companies like Celestron didn't fix dealer prices in Oz/NZ well above US prices we wouldn't need grey market importers.

I just bought a Celestron product from a US authorized dealer the other day. It was about 1/3 of the "discounted" price here.

Why do prices go up so much here??? I mean, it is not a difference of 20%. It is a difference of about 300%.

PS: The gave me a 30-day "personal" warranty. If you buy a Celestron item from the US, the warranty is void because it is only valid in the USA and in Canada, but it is just a filter, so if it is fine when it arrives and I handle it with care I hope it will be fine also in the future.

[OICURMT]

Originally Posted by OzStarGazer

I just bought a Celestron product from a US authorized dealer the other day. It was about 1/3 of the "discounted" price here.

Why do prices go up so much here??? I mean, it is not a difference of 20%. It is a difference of about 300%.

This has been discussed many many times... on various threads... and has been analyzed to death, with no one agreeing on what is the appropriate margin for each stage of delivering products and services into Australia.

Your analysis in searching for your own answer to Australian pricing dilema starts here

OIC!

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Andrews have always treated me well whether buying radios or telescopes.

[linstar88 (Linda and Guy)]

Hi all
I called Andrews just before xmas to confirm if they had an item I needed in store and also to confirm that they would be open till their stated closing time. The answer to both questions was "yes". After driving for over 1 hour to get there in sweltering heat, not to mention the ridicules traffic to contend with, I arrived at least 25mins before their stated closing time. Low and behold they had closed early . I wont be giving them any business in the future as this really "ticked me off".
My apologies for posting a negative reply, but I think it's only fair to warm others who may be travelling over an hours distance to get there, even if your early, they might be closed earlier.
Heads up Guy.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

merry Christmas to you as well Mr Schrudge , I think the boys deserved an early Knock off to miss the traffixckx.,
Did you get what you were aftewr ? for Christmas ? mm Hope so. m from a distance ....
Brian.

Originally Posted by linstar88

Hi all
I called Andrews just before xmas to confirm if they had an item I needed in store and also to confirm that they would be open till their stated closing time. The answer to both questions was "yes". After driving for over 1 hour to get there in sweltering heat, not to mention the ridicules traffic to contend with, I arrived at least 25mins before their stated closing time. Low and behold they had closed early . I wont be giving them any business in the future as this really "ticked me off".
My apologies for posting a negative reply, but I think it's only fair to warm others who may be travelling over an hours distance to get there, even if your early, they might be closed earlier.
Heads up Guy.

[linstar88 (Linda and Guy)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

merry Christmas to you as well Mr Schrudge , I think the boys deserved an early Knock off to miss the traffixckx.,
Did you get what you were aftewr ? for Christmas ? mm Hope so. m from a distance ....
Brian.

Ho Ho Ho, how did I end up stooping so low....
Well perhaps the boys at Andrews deserved an early knock off, and I can't fault anyone trying to beat the traffic (God knows I would have liked to as well). Yet that info would have been far more beneficial and all to easy for the woman I spoke with to relay over the phone when I asked just less than 2 hours before heading there.
So what I got for xmas from Andrews;
- $20 fuel bill.
-pamphlet for anger management classes from innocent bystanders (I should probably use that already ).
- attitude that equates to waiting till Hell freezes over before heading back to Greystanes from the Northern beaches again.
I guess some may consider this priceless, but in reality it's rather costly. I finally got my much needed laser collimator from Astro Optics Supplies at Artarmon (great service and very helpful advice), after xmas!. Then spent well over $1000 at Bintel (top shelf store, service and advice) on accessories to play with, which at this point appears to be an ongoing exercise lasting for eternity . All this equals huge wads of hard earned money Andrews will never see .
If I seem harsh here it's because I know after running a small family business for almost 20 years, had I even once told a customer one thing, then turned around and did the complete opposite (especially within the space of only a few hours), regardless of what day of the year it was, I'd expect to loose income on a grand scale.
The golden rule of running a successful small business is understanding everyone is a potential customer. More often than not the seemingly most unlikely people are the ones that spend up big.
back standing on the shoulders of giants.
Cheers Guy

ps; no hard feelings, just business.

[ianB (Ian)]

Like some I find the telescope - astronomy web site difficult to navigate, does my head in.
But the guy seems very helpful and knows what he is talking about, I had a chat to him the other week, I was going to buy a certain ep then he talked about the ones he makes and they sound good, so I purchased one ( 6.5mm ) and said I will try it out and see if it is as good as he says, if it isnI will buy more, it should arrive Tue or Wed.

I just went to the web site to look at the ep again butmI can not find the section I want, it can be very confusing.

[DJT (David)]

My first scope was from Andrews, a gift from my wife. My second scope and mount was also from Andrews and they really looked after me. no issue with customer service.
What irked me though was when they stopped opening at the weekend. Sometimes you really just need to talk to someone about "stuff", having that conversation, are you buying the right thing, etc

I can't get to greystanes during the week so my business moved to Bintel. I know most of us buy online, take advice from forums etc, but sometimes...

Am a local, am sure you wil be fine online (to the op) Andrews was excellent..they just need to reconsider weekends for local custom.

[Harb]

I am the same.....Sat trading and 5.30 closing time means a lot to me as well.........I recon I spend more money in the 5 to 5.30 gap that anytime else other than Sat mornings.