Alexander Observatories.(Review)

[astro mick]

Hi.

Following a recent Thread on the Astro-Lounge,that was rightly removed,i would like to write a review of my experiences with Alexander Observatories.I first contacted Nick way back in 2007,i had just moved house and had plenty of jobs to keep me busy.

At the time i believe Nick was just setting up and testing the water to see if a business was viable.Nick would chat for hours,dicussing designs,garden layout etc,ensuring the Obsy would fit into your surroundings.

Anyway i placed an order,to which i sent a substantial deposit.Nick said i was going to be the next on his list,and gave me an approx date.As the date neared,i did,nt hear too much from Nick,so i managed to contact him,and he apologised but he could not meet the date.

At the time Nick also offered a base laying service along with his friend,to which i duly accepted.When they did arrive a few weeks later they did a first class job over the period of a weekend.They over-nighted at my house although usually they look for B&B.

The following Saturday Nick arrived on his own,with the Obsy in sections.He arrived early,so he had travelled through the night.The quality of the Obsy was plain to see,and i was very pleased.All went well,until Nick tried to raise the roof,and found it too heavy on his own.Unfortunately i have a bad back,and had to ask the help of a neighbour(Not Good).

Nick worked extremely hard but it became evident he would not be able to complete some internal fittings.These were minor,he was very apologetic,so i said i would complete myself.

The Obsy is now 4 years old,and the only problem has been the roof.I opted for a lightweight Bitumen material to keep the roof weight down,but over the years it has sagged badly due to insurficient Trusses.(I have made Nick aware of this)

Also on some occasions the roof has jammed,WD40 and Silicon spray have helped,but not cured.

Overall i am very happy with the Building. .

To summerise: I think Nick provides an exerllent product,but i also thing he is becomming a victim of his own success.

At the end of the day he is running a business,and dealing with clients,and he must realise this.To simply ignore customers emails,and phone calls,really is unacceptable,especially when they have paid large sums of money into Nicks business.

This is a shame because Nick is a nice Guy,and provides a needed and well built product.

This was my experience with AA bur not neccessarily every one elses.

Hope this helps.

Mick.

P,S.If you want a very good observatory,i can whole heartly reccomend Nick.But make him aware you want to be kept informed at all times.

[midnight_sky_watcher]

It is with great deal of regret that I find myself in a position where I feel it is my duty to inform people of an experience I have went through for the last 10 months. In August last year I was in the market for a new roll off roof observatory. On scouring the internet I came across Alexander's Observatories. I left an answer machine message on the contact number stated on the website. The next day Nick Evans phoned me. We were on the phone for an hour discussing what I wanted, and I then ordered a 16x10 roll off roof observatory with built in warm room and an electric powered roof and in addition 2 of his piers. The next day I did a bank transfer of £3500 as a deposit for my observatory. Alexander's Observatories then told me they would get to me for my build end of September, beginning of October. That time passed and I then spent the next 4 months trying to contact this company. I left answer machine messages and tried everyday to contact Nick Evans to no avail. He then answered his phone and told me he had had an accident and he was catching up with his backlog and that he would get to me by January 4th. I phoned him again on January the 2nd and he told me he had one job to do, then I was next. That was the last time I heard from Alexander's Observatories. I sent the company a letter by recorded delivery stating that I would be initiating court proceedings to recover my deposit, that letter was never signed for and was subsequently sent back to me by Royal Mail. I would STRONGLY recommend that if anybody else is considering ordering from Alexander's Observatories that they go online to the government run "registry trust" website and for a small fee this site lists all outstanding County Court Judgements (CCJs) against companies in the UK. I have spoken to various people in the past who were waiting a long time over the promised build date and this was long before his accident. I am I contact with a person that lives in Belgium who ordered an Alexander's Observatory a month after me, and he is getting no response from this company. I am instructing him how to go about getting his deposit back with him living in Belgium. I then found out that Ian King Imaging has started an observatory build service, I phoned Ian three weeks ago, and last week I was built a 12x20 foot bespoke electric roll off roof observatory with warm room and in addition they supplied and fitted 2x astro engineering piers. I'm on cloud 9 now.