Celestron Tech Support (long)
Kevin Pfeifle
I would like to share my experience with Celestron Tech Support. I
purchased a NexStar 5i from Anacortes. It arrived exactly when they
told me it would on Monday June 23. After unpacking the scope, I
noticed that the Computer Hand Control did not work. I was getting
weird characters on the screen. Since Celestron had already left for
the day at this point, I tried Anacortes. They were very helpful, and
suggested several things to try, unfortunately none of them worked.
The next day, I called Celestron, to see if they could help. I talked
to Dan, he asked if I had tried this and that (I had) and he said it
was a bad HC. He said "we have plenty in stock and the replacement
will go out as soon as we get yours back". I decided to send it back
FedEx, as I wanted to get the new one ASAP. They received it Thursday
morning the 27th. I called Tech Support on Friday, to see if it had
shipped. Ray called back an hour later, and said it had been shipped.
I asked him how, I heard him looking up something on a computer, and
he responded standard UPS. I thanked him and began to wait for my HC.
Imagine my surprise when I received an email on Tuesday afternoon
(July 1) saying my HC will ship out that day. I immediately responded
"I thought it had been shipped"! I called later that day, talked to
the very nice secretary, and asked her if she could confirm it was
shipped. She stated that the company was doing inventory all day, and
NO shipments were being sent, she said it would probably go out
Wednesday, and to call back then. So late yesterday I called back and
talked to the nice secretary , she stated it was NOT shipped, and she
did not know why. She put me back to Tech Support, where I left a
message. I received a response back late (just as they were leaving
the building) that day. There are no HC's in stock, they don't know
when they will be in stock, but they will ship one out when the get
it. All of this has left a really bad taste in my mouth. Either I've
been lied to, or I'm dealing with incompetents. Neither is a good
thing! Hope this will help someone in dealing (or purchasing from)
the "new" Celestron!
-----------------
Kevin
www.theperfectsky.com
Stephen Paul
news:00a8gv04brmljvcmd...@4ax.com...
> talked to the nice secretary , she stated it was NOT shipped, and she
> did not know why. She put me back to Tech Support, where I left a
> message. I received a response back late (just as they were leaving
> the building) that day. There are no HC's in stock, they don't know
> when they will be in stock, but they will ship one out when the get
> it. All of this has left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Shit happens. That doesn't make it a systemic problem, and I hope this is
resolved for you as quickly as possible.
I bought a StarGuide 4, which is a clone of the Celestron N4. Knowing that
Celestron had upgraded the hand controller for the N4, and Tasco didn't, I
bought a Celstron hand controller from Astronomics for (IIRC) $79. This
controller wasn't the upgraded version, but Celestron was upgrading them for
free. I sent it in, and had it back within 10 days (out, fixed, and back).
The only thing worse than being an employee during inventory time, is being
a customer. The employees know inventory time is coming, customers don't. I
often think that companies should tell customers up front that there might
be a delay.
You are probably dealing with several issues, all at the same time. I know
that's not helpful, but you might be jumping a little hard, a little fast.
FWIW, if there is one thing I've learned from buying mail order and online,
it's that you should never pay extra to expedite shipping. The shipping
company can get it to you in two days, or over night, but there is nothing
that says the shippee will get it out to the shipper any faster. You could
just be saving three days shipping time on a complete process that normally
takes ten or more.
Best wishes,
Stephen Paul
Phil Wheeler
> All of this has left a really bad taste in my mouth. Either I've
> been lied to, or I'm dealing with incompetents. Neither is a good
> thing! Hope this will help someone in dealing (or purchasing from)
> the "new" Celestron!
Perhaps a better title to the msg would be "Celestron Customer Support".
I recently had my C5+ recoated (the coatings were stained due to a
plumbing problem, alas) and re-collimated. The results are excellent.
Moreover, it was done in about two weeks -- to meet my needs for a trip
-- vs. the longer time originally quoted.
So my experience with Celestron "technical support" has been excellent.
Phil
Scribe2b
do him in???
jc
Mike Simmons
>
> This information is a bit dated and may not be applicable today, but
> Lance Lucero was the guy to speak to re: tech support at Celestron.
>
> His phone extension is/was 227.
>
> For larger issues, Rick Hedrick is/was the VP of engineering. His
> extensions is/was 223.
>
> My personal Celestron direct experiences were heavily influenced by
> just who I was interfacing with there. Lance was always reliable,
> honest and reasonably well-informed. What Lance related was inevitably
> accurate and his follow through was good.
>
> This information dates back to 2001 which was the last time I had
> occasion to deal with Celestron directly.
John,
Your information is still correct. Lance is the one to call, though.
He's in the department and while Rick will get involved in these things
if need be (which shouldn't be necessary if Lance is on it) he is busy
with other things and very hard to reach.
Mike Simmons
brp
>
> I would like to share my experience with Celestron Tech Support....
> -----------------
> Kevin
> www.theperfectsky.com
I believe that customer support is Celestron's Achilles heel. Meade's
got them beat hands down here, they provide a toll-free phone number
and they cover the shipping costs themselves. Based on my past
experience, Meade probably would not even have asked you to send the
old HC back, they would have just shipped you another immediately.
Celestron needs to upgrade their process to compete in this arena.
brp
Cass & Tony L'Hotellier
would expect the dealer to do whatever is necessary make things right (eg.-
take a controller from another in stock scope). We all know that the
manufacturers can be painful to deal with and a good dealer should be a
helpful intermediary. Otherwise you may as well buy from one of the crook
outfits out there at a cheaper price (see www.excelsis.com) . Anacortes is
reputed to be one of the good guys - I would have tried harder there
evin. - Tony
"Kevin Pfeifle" <kpfe...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:00a8gv04brmljvcmd...@4ax.com...
martyp
HC
Martin Poles
Zane
>Hello All:
>
>I would like to share my experience with Celestron Tech Support.
(snip)
Just to add to the anecdote base:
A friend, who is not an astronomer, recently had something come loose
internally in his C90, which is several years old (one of the originals).
He called Celestron for advice and they told him to send it in. (I winced
on hearing this, imagining a repair bill more than the small unit was
worth.) They did a complete refurb and returned it within a couple of
weeks -- no charge, even for shipping.
Zane
Eric
you and gotten you the HC right away. I'd have packed it all up and
sent it back by now if it had been me.
Kevin Pfeifle
<ca...@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>If I purchased a new scope from a dealer and had problems out of the box, I
>would expect the dealer to do whatever is necessary make things right (eg.-
>take a controller from another in stock scope). We all know that the
>manufacturers can be painful to deal with and a good dealer should be a
>helpful intermediary. Otherwise you may as well buy from one of the crook
>outfits out there at a cheaper price (see www.excelsis.com) . Anacortes is
>reputed to be one of the good guys - I would have tried harder there
>evin. - Tony
>
You know I thought of that...but the way I feel, Anacortes did exactly
what their part of the deal was. They supplied the scope on time for
the agreed price. I guess I feel that they should not be penalized
because the scope had a bad part.
Kevin
-----------------
Kevin
www.theperfectsky.com
Randy Rhine
I go along with that...except...it's the dealer's responsibility to see that the
customer gets a WORKING product on time and for the agreed price. If it fails
after being in use, it's a warrantee issue. If it doesn't work right out of the
box, it's up to the dealer to make it right.
rr