KY Cygni

I am the customer mentioned above re court action.

I cancelled my order with HOUK in June. Since then they will not even reply to emails.

• I served a letter before action in early July
• I proceeded to court action against Gareth, he has ignored this and missed the deadline to respond to the claim.
• I have requested a default judgment CCJ
• Should he also ignore this I will move on to debt recovery.

I know that he is aware of this situation as he has moved onto jobs that were due after mine while retaining my deposit payment.

I built my own observatory which took a couple of weeks and am up running, I will add a post about this soon.

Steve

Just to reiterate, based on earlier posts they are contactable for new orders and are quoting timelines that they can’t possibly deliver on.

Honest?

Andrew 

Yes I sent it to the Roundham address but I also emailed it over in case he is incapable of opening letters as well.

I think the time for sympathy is well past, enough people have stressed to this man the need for keeping customers in the loop but he doggedly persists in ignoring them, its not like he can have that many to keep updated. I and I expect others have offered to labour for him and even then he just blanks.

I personally would rather build my own rough around the edges obs and get on with actual imaging than wait on a pretty shed at some unspecified time in the future.

I have issued a notice before action letter.

The refusal to communicate is just unacceptable.

Based on SDN’s post I am going to begin deposit recovery via small claims.

I have had to chase Gareth up again, its nearly 2 weeks beyond when He said He would contact me. Ive had enough of this, if my obs isn't installed by end of July Im going to begin deposit recovery.

Great stuff that looks the part. What size is yours 7x7 or 8x8 ?

Excitement levels are building, I bought a very un-portable rig last year prior to a house move and it hasn't seen 1st light yet 

Good news Keith, that is reassuring.

I have heard back from Graham today, he seemed genuinely apologetic and explained that he is older and not IT savvy, he was using Nathans address so I guess he doesn't have his own.

I explained about bulk emailing customers with generic updates and offered to assist if needed.

Keith! that info may have saved a lot of stress and hassle. My set-up will also be tripod mounted so I have passed that info on.

3 hours ago, malc-c said:

I have been in private communications with Keith who finally received communication from Grahame and a  delivery / erecting date was set for Sunday just gone.  I was hoping that Keith would have updated the thread just to put others waiting at ease as suggested, but so far he hasn't.  Gareth  arrived on time with the building, however,  and in Keith's words "there was a problem" in that a 2' square 30" deep plinth had to be formed for the floor to sit over.  Now it's not clear where the breakdown in communications was but it meant that Keith has had to store the observatory whilst he constructs the plinth.  The plan is for Gareth to return in 3 weeks and complete the build.  Now I don't know if this is required with all of their builds, but if it does and other customers haven't been informed then they too could be in the same boat.

Its a shame I don't live anywhere near Graham as I would reach out and offer my time to ring round his customers for him and take the pressure off.  Lets hope things improve.

@KY Cygni If they have just delivered an order placed in August 2020, then I'm guessing they are way behind on construction, and it could be four or five months before your order comes to the top of the pile, unless Grahame has sourced a replacement for Nathan and can catch up on the backlog.

Thank you Malc, yeah I realize that, as others have said the timescale I can live with but the attitude towards communication is a potential deal breaker. I assume the lady on the landline answerphone is the owners wife so it seems like they have the capacity to answer enquiries without disrupting installation activities.

I don't know how others feel but I be happy to receive my obs and construct it myself.

Hi All

I have also had an order in with HOUK since Feb 2021 and am having the same issues getting a response. I was skeptical about using their preferred payment methods but went ahead after checking out many glowing testimonials. 

I don't mind waiting and am sympathetic of their situation but how hard is to send the odd bulk email to customers?

I have emailed requesting an update and have indicated that if they don't respond I will begin proceedings to recover my deposit.

Steve

I got to try my 600d last night and can confim its spot on, and in the post today I received another 600d from cheap astro  someone is very busy and sent me 2, I contacted Juan and will be sending ot back 

cheapastrophptography doesnt inspire confidence as a name but my guess is English isnt his 1st language  

I have just taken delivery of a 2nd hand 600d from Juan, I have not had chance to try it out yet but his service and communications was very good.

looks like it might be clear tomorrow I will report back

very nice images there

I didnt realise these objects would photograph in natural colour

gobsmacked

Beautiful incredible and inspiring