Meade and Celestron Customer Service

[rayman]

I just bought a Meade LX 90 10" and am returning it back to Planet Optics. The box came factory sealed but the telescope had 2 tripods bolts broken and 2 large scratches. In addition, the bolts were not long enough to put on the finder scope and there were no directions for putting on the smart finder. The manual directions were not clear and the directions for the smart finder were from an older model. I also bought a series 4000 eyepiece kit that had missing components. I am returning that set. I called Meade 3 times and had to wait 45 minutes each time. One of the experts I talked with had no clue about the finder bolts or the new smart finder. The last time I called, a young man told me that 45 min was not a bad wait. He also told me the parts that I needed were made in China. He said that he would put a rush on the parts. That was over 6 weeks ago.

I am now considering a Celestron CPC 11 but have had such a bad experience with this, I am wondering what Celestron is like to deal with....

[FLO]

When discussing a brand like Celestron, you must consider the reliabilty and efficiency of both the product and its UK importer/distributor - DHinds (Adam). I am happy to blow the trumpet for both. With the new Celestron CPC GPS and SE models, Celestron sales have been steadily increasing at FLO. Over the last 12 months we have seen only one faulty Celestron (an SE with a loose motor). We collected the scope and returned it to DHinds (Celestron's UK service centre) where it was repaired under warranty, with no fuss, and returned to the customer within a week 8)

[david61]

hello i had a problem with a new celestron SE 6 from David hinds celestron in UK

i talk to Adam and David and they sent me a new SE6 scope out the next day and piked the old one up

so i would say celestron is a good service

i sold the SE6 to upgrade and wish i hadn't

thanks Dave

[dogfish]

Over the last 12 months we have seen only one faulty Celestron (an SE with a loose motor). We collected the scope and returned it to DHinds (Celestron's UK service centre) where it was repaired under warranty, with no fuss, and returned to the customer within a week 8)

....and I was that customer and I was/am delighted with the service that I received. When Steve says that it was returned within a week, what he actually meant was within 3 days, and it's been working fine since. TBH all the complaints that I've heard about Meade build quality and service has put me off considering their products, I simply don't hear those complaints made about Celestron.

Cheers, Martin

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

Count me in too. I ended up selling my troublesome Meade and got myself one of those CPCs that Steve has been selling, and I'm well impressed with it so far. Here's hoping I never have to find out what their customer support dept are like.

[Talitha]

...I am wondering what Celestron is like to deal with....

What's Celestron like to deal with? Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but my dealings with them have been the stuff nightmares are made of. (I apologize in advance for the rant, but you did ask. )

Back in June '99 my long-awaited Celestron Ultima 2000 (U2K) arrived with a stray nut bouncing around the inside of the OTA. I called Celestron and was told by the customer service Rep: ".. just take the corrector plate off and remove the nut". (Yeah, right.. and void my warranty? :shock: No thanks.)

I'd bought the scope online through OPT and called them to see what could be done, and they must have lit a bonfire under Celestron because three days later a brand new U2K was delivered to my house, along with a free carrying case as an apology. Celestron also included a pre-paid shipping label for the return of the other scope.

Good old OPT.. now THAT'S what I call customer service! :thumbup:

My further dealings with Celestron were far from being satisfactory, though. After having the scope for about a year, I wore out the Dec clutch (user error) and made arrangements with Celestron for a repair job. After a fairly short amount of time, the U2K was back home with a perfect Dec clutch, but the computerized go-to was absolutely useless.

To make a long story short, the scope made SIX MORE round trips between Wisconsin and California before it worked properly again. It should be mentioned that trip #5 was made because of a loose nut in the OTA which had put a small but unacceptable chip in the mirror (documented with photographs sent to Celestron).

Every repair trip took longer and longer.. literally months for each trip. Not wanting to be scopeless in the meantime, I bought an 8" Meade LX-10. No computer or go-to, just setting circles and a tracking motor.

I've taken the LX-10 apart to replace the glue grease, and it's a great feeling to know I can work on this scope all by myself.

In all fairness though, I've heard a lot of Celestron customers give the company very high marks, although that wasn't my experience.

Btw, where are you located, rayman? I did a search on 'Planet Optics' and 'Optics Planet' came up. Iirc it's in northern Illinois (I'm in northcentral Wisconsin).

[Brass n glass]

I've never bought a Meade or Celestron scope because of the horror stories I've heard down the years. I'd rather deal with small companies like Orion Optics or Televue where you can talk direct to the people who make the stuff - Hugh.

[Stormwatch]

I've never bought a Meade or Celestron scope because of the horror stories I've heard down the years. I'd rather deal with small companies like Orion Optics or Televue where you can talk direct to the people who make the stuff - Hugh.

Televue and Orion are considered small compared to Meade and Celestron? I assumed all four were kind of on a par, maybe with Meade being out in front because, for some reason people assume their stuff is great.

Any Meade stuff I've had has been overpriced, and no better than Celestron which is generally cheaper. At least if you buy Celestron over here in the UK you can talk to Adam Hinds if you have a problem. Meade don't seem to have any UK support at all, and I do speak from experience.

[mike bacanin]

I am led to believe that Telescope House, as the UK Meade main dealer, carry out servicing at their own premises without having to return the item to Meade USA.

Mike

[Brass n glass]

Televue and Orion are considered small compared to Meade and Celestron?

I think Orion, which no longer makes mounts, is a minnow compared with the big American outfits. Because of its massive advertising, I always thought Televue was enormous until I bought one of its telescopes. My 3-year-old 76mm has the serial number 1388, but what I didn't know until I joined the Yahoo Televue owners forum is that all TV scope serials start at 1001 instead of 1. I don't think they make any of their eyepieces any more - Hugh.

[gsjag]

I assumed we (you) were talking Orion Optic (UK) rather than Orion (USA). I (again) assume, that the USA outfit is much bigger.

Gary

[Brass n glass]

Sorry, I meant Orion Optics in England; I think the American one is called Orion Telescope or something - Hugh

[Stormwatch]

This is getting confusing. I thought Orion was one company - it's two?

[Brass n glass]

Definitely: Orion Optics in England makes Newtonians and Maks and is the main UK agent for Vixen of Japan. Orion Telescopes and Binoculars in the US used to sell Vixen stuff but now seems to handle Synta products and call them Orion instead of Skywatcher. As far as I know the two companies have nothing in common except the name. Strange, when there are so many other constellations they could have picked - Hugh.

[daz]

I think the majority of the astro industry views its customers as an annoyance that gets in the way of them preening themselves over the latest gadget, bells and whistles.

I've said this before, but we are somewhat to blame for this state of affairs because we are reluctant to say "No, this is not good enough". If as a bunch of consumers we took a stand against poor workmanship, quality control or general customer services, then they would listen. But we don't, so they don't.

They see it as one or two people complaining - so what? In the bigger picture, its nothing to them. BUT if we had (for example) a period of abstinence of buying from a particular manufacturer (oh, I don't know, say Sept to Dec) then they would sit up and take notice.

There is only one way we can affect the service we get in the future - vote with your Pound/Dollar/Euro

[James]

What Daz has said applies equally well to pretty much any industry or product IMHO...

James

[jonifive]

I've stated a few times on SGL that I won't buy from Meade again. I bought an ETX90 a few years ago, fooled by Meade's apparently good name. It went back to them three times, in fact it spent more time with them than it did with me. The optics are great (I still have the OTA) but the fork mount, software and quality of mechanics on the thing were and still are an absolute joke. Yet Meade still sell this pile of junk to unsuspecting newbies, with the promise of precise goto abilities. It couldn't be further from the truth. I know so many people who have been disillusioned by the ETX series and will never buy another telescope again.

Meade should have been sued under a trade description act a long time ago, but we as astronomers are happy to make do, and void warrenties to have a bit of a fiddle to try and repair/improve something that should never be sold in the first place.

This is just my opinion, but I know I am not alone.

JV

[Cloudwatcher]

You are not alone JV. I had the same trouble with both an EXT70 TA and the LXD mount for the Schmidt-Newt'. Can't complain about the optics but the Goto in both cases was well, rubbish. Kept the S-Newt' which is fine on the HEQ-5 Pro.

CW

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

I myself had an ETX105-PE which worked as advertised and never really gave me any trouble. I read a lot of horror stories but never experienced any problems myself, beyond my own blunders in set-up. I wouldn't buy a Meade go-to again, but only because the Celestron go-to setup routine (SkyAlign) is just so much easier than the Meade system.

I have to admit however that when I sold it, the poor guy who bought it mailed me to say the hand controller had stopped working and he ended up getting a second-hand one to replace it. Optically it was great for its size, but the mechanics and so forth were a bit noisy and I did wonder if that was normal for go-to scopes.

[GordonH]

I too have had some bad experiences with Meade, my first major setup was an LX200 GPS 10" with a DSI pro and a set of series 5000 UWA eyepieces. As I wanted to start out in imaging I got the DSI pro as it seemed goog value for money, however the software that came with it caused my laptop to crash, lock up or I was restricted to a maximum of 15 seconds exposures or the drizzle facility would only work when it felt like it, so I changed over to Starlight Xpress. The optics on the telescope were generally very good but the Autostar suite was very temperamental. One night it told me that Jupiter didn't rise until 6am and lo and behold it gave me exactly the same message for every other planet in the solar system (this was strange as Venus was clearly visible), I thought we were in for potentially the greatest planetary conjunction of all times. You would have thought that eye pieces would be difficult to have a fault but three of the set developed what can only be described as a complete oxidation of the coatings rendering them useless. I only managed to use the LX200 GPS for a number of nights last year when I decided to sell my kit and upgrade to something better and "more reliable" hence NELLIE (see members equipment section). A chap came to buy my LX200 GPS and when I demonstrated it, it wouldn't work properly. Widescreen-centre sorted it out for me via BCF and it turned out that the Azimuth motor had burnt out, after the scope was fixed it was sold. Widescreen-centre have also sorted out my Meade eyepieces as well and they have sent me a large selection of different types and manufacturers to try out with NELLIE (C14, Paramount ME, Tri-pier 2 + extras) I am now very happy with my new system and the service I have received through Widescreen-centre, but I don't think I will ever buy Meade again as every product I have had from them has gone wrong.

regards

Gordon

[centroid]

I guess its very much like a the guy that buys a Ford, gets a bad one, and from there on in, all Fords are bad.

I had five consecutive Ford Mondeos from new, at 3 year intervals, and not one of them ever had to go back for any faults. Neither did any of them ever let me down.

Last year in a impulsive break with tradition, I bought a new Nissan X-Trail Columbia 2.2 Dci. It did have to go back to have the ECU re-programmed, to overcome a hesitation problem, but that was no 'big deal'.

However, when it comes to general build quality, my Mondeos leave the Nissan way behind. The Nissan trim creaks and rattles, and the whole vehicle has a budget plastic feel about it, albeit it was quite expensive to buy.

Whether I buy another Japanese vehicle, or return to Ford, will be decided two years from now.

So, from one bad experience with a Japanese vehicle, should I decry all Japanese vehicles, or come to that all Nissans for that matter. I don't think so.

Back to scopes then:

I had a Celestron 8" SCT for 12 months. It did 'what it said on the tin', the optics were good, and it didn't develop any faults.

I then upgraded to a Meade 10" LX200GPS. This has been faultless in 5 years of regular use. The optics are equally as good as the Celestron, if not identical. The Autostar ll software has behaved perfectly, the PEC is better than 5 arc secs, and the GOTO puts the object on the CCD every time.

I'm now about to upgrade to new and larger scope. My choices were the Celestron 11" SCT, on either a Celestron or EQ6 mount, or the Meade 12" LX200R.

Now it would be unfair to compare the Meade's Ritchey Chretien optics with those of a standard SCT, so I'll dismiss that for the moment, and look at what the two scopes offer me. Optical component quality: equally as good. Primary Mirror Lock: Meade yes, Celestron no. Motorised MicroFocuser: Meade yes, Celestron no.

Now you might say, just how important are these features. Well, some of us will remember driving cars without power steering, but now having driven a car with power steering, would you now buy one without it (ignoring classic cars that is).

Similarly, some of us will also remember driving cars without air conditioning (some of you may still do so), but having experienced having air conditioning in your car, when stuck in traffic on a hot day, would you now go back to buying one without it.

So, what I'm saying here, is that for the past 5 years I've enjoyed using a scope with a Primary Mirror Lock, and a motorised MicroFocuser, and found both features very useful.

Therefore, with there being no advantage with either Celestron or Meade in terms of optical quality or reliability, my decision was clear-cut, it had to be another Meade. The RC optics are of course a nice addition, albeit expensive.

I can't speak for the ETX range, as I've never owned one, but there is a considerable price difference between the ETX and the LX200 range. Maybe, as the LX200's and RC's are Meade's Flagship' products, they are built to a higher standard, I don't know.

Whether the LX200R proves to be as much of pleasure to use, and as reliable as the 10" LX200GPS, remains to be seen.

Dave

[jonifive]

Very well put Dave.

I can understand your logic perfectly, but having read the original question I realise I didn't answer it and preferred to rant about the ETX instead. Once again I say the optics on the little scope are fab, the fork mount and software are poor. If you visit sites like Weasners it is well documented that the ETX fork mount is seriously flawed, indeed people like Dr Clay Sherrod have made a good living out of repairing them! You do not see many LX owners voicing the same opinions.

On the original point of customer service, I can only mention my own experience with Meade.....and that consists of poor communication, confusion, intolerance with their customers, overly long turnaround with repair work, and finally pure lies. For the third and final time my ETX was sent for repair. Two months later after numerous phone calls, it was returned "Repaired". First night out, the ETX developed a mind of its own and promptly died. I bit the bullet and opened her up to find the the Meade Technician had re-attached the worm drive housing to the brittle plastic casing using over sized screws, this had split the protruding lugs that the worm housing screwed into. The only way to repair this was to replace the entire base of the scope. Meade had lied to me when they said it was fixed and working perfectly. There was no way the scope had been tested. At this point I almost gave up on astronomy for good.

It is based on customer service that my dislike of Meade stems.

JV (Who always wanted an LX200 but has voiced his opinion so much that he can never buy one without looking like a plonker!)

[centroid]

Given your example experience Jonathen, I can understand your frustration, and I would have gotten very angry with Meade. Probably writing to the MD, enclosing photos of the 'bodged' workmanship.

I had an issue with my BT Broadband at one time, and got really 'p****d off' talking to talking to people in India, who's knowledge of ADSL (Broadband) was limited to what was written on their 'crib sheet'.

"have you tried this, have you tried that" etc, etc. For goodness sake, I spent 40 years of my life working for BT, the last 5 or 6 directly related to ADSL. I knew where my problem lay, but trying to get past these people and get it sorted was a 'b****y' nightmare.

I then wrote directly to the Chairman, had a personal reply back within 24 hours, and my problem was quickly sorted.

In other words, if you are 'banging your head against a brick wall', don't bother with trying to talk to the 'oily rag', but go straight to the 'engineer'.

I'm not sure when you talk about Meade customer service, whether you are talking about Meade themselves, or the UK importer, BC&F. If the 'bodged' repair was carried out by BC&F, then I would be both surprised and very concerned if that was the quality of engineering expertise within the company.

I've not had to return anything to BC&F/Telescope House, but I have done a reasonable amount of business with them, and never had cause to complain. I've also found them very helpful over the phone.

As I understand it, and I stand to be corrected, I thought that any repairs to Meade equipment, bought in the UK, was carried out by BC&F.

With Celestron, I assume this would be done by their importer, David Hinds.

Bear in mind that both Celestron and Meade scopes, are mass produced products, and as with all mass produced products, quality control can sometimes be a bit lacking.

Many of Meade and Celestron scopes, are Chinese made, and just 'badge engineered'. In fact, I believe that the Chinese Synta organisation now actually own Celestron. The 'flagship' Meades, are still made in the US.

So, I guess 'you pay your money, and you make your choice'.

Dave

[Talitha]

I'm beginning to think it was an Amateur who coined the phrase:

"Let the buyer beware"

[jonifive]

As I understand it, and I stand to be corrected, I thought that any repairs to Meade equipment, bought in the UK, was carried out by BC&F

I don't know if it was BC&F, I doubt it considering the quality of the repair. The people I spoke to by email and telephone were definately American. My local astrosupplier who I don't use anymore insisted it had gone back to Meade, hence the long delays. The calls to the states seem to bear that out. I'll try to find the paperwork!

I can't believe it was BC&F.

JV