Explore Scientific eyepieces - get them while you can in the UK

[russ.will]

This is typical UPS 'quality' of delivering a package and nothing to blame ES/Optical Systems for IMO. I read the horror stories on UPS on almost any forum I frequent.

You were right to file a complaint with UPS as this is definitely not the way a company, whose core business is to handle packages, should handle a shipment.

Interesting, because I would swear blind that UPS have consistently been the most reliable carrier I've used, be it for shipping, or in terms of packages received. Okay, I've only sent 300 odd packages sold on Ebay, plus 20 odd on UKABS and here, plus a few on various hi-fi and cycling forums, but I've never, ever had a UPS package go wrong.

DHL, or rather HDNL on the other hand, are, based on my sample population, the biggest shower yet conceived. I sold a wall mounted projection screen, the packaging of which resulted in a 9ft long, 1ft diametre tube weighing 18kg. Apparently, it evaporated between Cambridge and Bedford.

I once stood in HDNLs Cambridge (Bar Hill) depot whilst an employee swore that a multiple package shipment of KEF speakers hadn't been received, although a card had been posted through my door saying they'd attempted delivery. They hadn't, as I had been in all day writing in the study, which over-looks my drive, the road and the entire village green. A bloke, who didn't even knock, scurried up the drive, posted the ticket and scurried off with the enthusiasm redolant of a HDNL employee who has spotted a touch of lifting to be done. I saw him, but I just couldn't catch him; a full bladder dulling my response time with division of priorities.

"Nope" the depot monkey said, "not here".

"Are you sure?" I said, the weight of knowledge, yet to be shared, on my side.

"Absolutely" came the reply.

"Okay" I ventured. "Would you like to check the five foot high boxes, with foot high lettering reading 'KEF' that I saw ten feet away, when you opened the the door?"

"What boxes?" Came the defensive ripost of a man caught out.

Now it should be said that I am, what could be decribed as, 'middle management' in the construction industry. This requires, in equal measure, the ability to bite one's lip when someone senior is getting it wrong, but also the ability to blow up at a subordinate, who's opinion of their place in the food chain has, temporarily, been misplaced. Plus, I'm 16 stone and you wouldn't want to meet me coming the other way up a rugby pitch. I do angry, sans swearing, very well. I've practiced.

I drew on this experience, to confront the infuriating incompetance clearly present. I don't recall the exact words, althought they were all clean. The broad brush strokes were that, I suggested he avail himself of a further trip through the glass door, to attain the correct answer to my original enquiry. An answer incompatible with the one I knew to be correct, would almost certainly result in me showing him where I believed the packages to be and rubbing his sorry face in them, lest he forget the purpose of a thorough search in future. I further offered to back the mighty Ford Kuga up the the roller shutters, within the minute, to receive the packages.

His recollection of the exchange may differ from mine (it's my age) but there were three shambolic HDNL employees to load the boxes when the shutters rolled up.

Do not under estimate the power of loosing your temper and in person. The same tirade would have been easier for a dimwit to brush off over the phone. However, ONLY do so if you are appraised of all the facts and you KNOW you are right. Finally, don't post anything on a public forum in advance of having cooled off and the true source of fault having been established. Whatever OS may or may not be guilty of, ripping their own package open to steal EPs, is unlikely to be it. Prejudicing the facts with timed submissions on a public forum, is unlike to help, ever.

Russell

[DiscoveryOne]

Interesting, because I would swear blind that UPS have consistently been the most reliable carrier I've used, be it for shipping, or in terms of packages received. Okay, I've only sent 300 odd packages sold on Ebay, plus 20 odd on UKABS and here, plus a few on various hi-fi and cycling forums, but I've never, ever had a UPS package go wrong.

My experiences with UPS, DHL and FedEx are less than for instance with local Post (PostNL in the Netherlands and USPS for shipments from/to the US) or shipping companies like GLS, which in my experience handle stuff well.

With both UPS and DHL I had shipments (sent and received) which were damaged: dropped severly damaging the contents and/or seriously ripping/denting the outer packaging.

And I learned from that; if I need to ship out myself, I always double-box including styrofoam peanuts, edge pads or inflatable packaging depeding on what is being shipped (and what I tucked away from previous received packages), to avoid any damage to the goods.

Some sellers double-box, some don't. It starts with the sellers. Buyers appreciate proper packing.

Cheers,

Dion

[FLO]

We have begun discussions with ES. Our aim is to make ES eyepieces available here in the UK at prices that reflect those set in other countries. If we succeed you will be the first to know

We're nearly there

We have been accepted as a UK retailer for Explore Scientific products.

We now need to make sure we can achieve competitive prices (there appears to be significant discounts available at US retailers, and at the ES German website).

I'll keep you posted.

HTH,

Steve

[OneEyedSam]

Sounds like great progress !! Thank for the update

[8kids]

I hope this works out, I've been tempted of late to buy a couple of ES eyepieces from the States, If you can offer them at a reasonable price (what ever that is?) I'd definately buy some.

[Mark in Macc]

Excellent, fingers crossed ES can supply at a decent price so that both FLO and the buyers are happy. I believe there is market here, if pitched at the right price.

[Astro_Baby]

Good luck with that Steve, as you know. Have been a big fan of ES and took a gamble on the 14mm 100' when it launched......sefial number 41

I'll be shopping for a 24mm 68' next so do give us a heads up as I would rather the business went to you guys than a US dealer.

[FLO]

Thank-you for the support

[Doug]

Can anyone rec a reputable US based supplier of ES EPs ?

OPT are very good

I would recommend them I also buy eyepieces from them

Doug

[cs1cjc]

I have bought from Opt and Eyepiecesetc with the only problems being the shipping time. High Point Scientific was slow, claiming to have in stock what they did not. Astronomics would not ship ES eyepieces to the UK.

I am wanting another ES82 which is currently out of stock worldwide so I hoping the timescales match so I can order from FLO!.

[OneEyedSam]

OPT are very good

I would recommend them I also buy eyepieces from them

Doug

Gonna wait now for FLO

[Bart]

I'll be waiting to see what FLO can do for m ynext ES purchase. But I have had nothing but excellent service from Agena Astro and Hands On Optics in the US. Good service and delivery rates. Its kind of different for me here in Ireland because it will either be the US or the UK probably that I import from so its usually an exchange rate/delivery thing. Sometimes the delivery makes a significant difference, especially on smaller items where the delivery from the UK can be a sizeable portion of the total cost

Barry

[Coco]

I sent an email to service@explorescientific.com about the shortage of eyepieces globally, not surprisingly the answer from 'Mark' was plain and simple, they cant keep up with demand as they are so popular, they advised to buy through one of the ES agents and back orders 'should be' fulfilled in Spring

I bought the 14mm ES 100 last year and regret selling it on here this Summer .. I originally paid $210 + $34 shipping, delivery took 4 days.

I'll be collecting the ES 82mm set once they are back in stock, probably from OPT again..

[rory]

i noticed the 24mm 82* could be had in the u.s for under £130 minuus shipping and a sneak under customs radar.

compared to £260 here . the difference is huge isnt it .

im sure first light optics would do its best to be competitive ,but the gulf is massive.

[alan potts]

I think you have to take your hat off to them for being customer focused. I am sure they will try to be as competitive as possible but you can only do so much, I sometimes wonder how the hell the US shopping system works. I bought a Sthil chainsaw here in Bulgaria, bare in mind they are made in Germany, it was three times the price the same model was in America, it is much the same case for England. My point, if FLO is having to pay twice the price as the US how can they compete, it is not a level playing field!

Alan.

[ExploreScientificEurope]

Hello everybody,

I was pointed to this tread, and I think I should share with you some background facts:

1) Explore Scientific GmbH (Europe) was founded in September 2012 to take care about the distribution of Explore Scientific products in Europe and Africa. We took over the distribution from Meade Europe.

2) In october Explore Scientific GmbH bought the assets of a company (Internetional Worx) that had gone bankrupt. Along with the rest of the assets we also purchased the shops of IWorx, like optical systems.com, teleskope.com and so on. The reputation of those shops had suffered during the bankrupcy of Iworx - thus the negative comments on some fori.

3) Apart from the fact that I have a long standing experience in the market (20+years now) we are a young company - with a lot of work going on on the infrastructure of the webshops, new software and so on. We work very hard to integrate everything, but sometimes we have short delays, like the one that was reported above - we are sorry for that. Hopefully we will be ready do have a full "go-live" of all the new and very expensive goodies in september.

4) Our products are available through any dealers that are interested, and directly through our webshop. We are working on improving the availability and visibilty of our products - currently all eyepieces except the 6,7mm and 8.8mm 82° are on stock

Clear skies

Tassilo Bohm

[FLO]

We have been accepted as a UK retailer for Explore Scientific products.

We now need to make sure we can achieve competitive prices (there appears to be significant discounts available at US retailers, and at the ES German website).

... if FLO is having to pay twice the price as the US how can they compete, it is not a level playing field!

Unfortunately we cannot currently obtain ES products at prices that will enable us to compete with those offered in the US.

We 'can' offer retail prices that compare with Explore Scientific's own online store in Germany (if we work on a tiny margin) but ES offer monthly promotions (advertised in French and German astro mags) that could easily leave us with over-priced stock.

We have done more than any other astro retailer to reduce high prices here in the UK but in this instance we cannot help. Sorry

Needless to say if the situation changes you'll be the first to know

Steve

[FLO]

Hi Tassilo Bohm,

I hadn't noticed you had joined SGL. I must have been typing my post while you were writing yours

Steve

[John]

I'm sorry that it has not worked out with ES Steve

You must be as frustrated as we are that the UK market seems to get singled out for higher pricing.

[Coco]

Hi Tassilo Bohm,

I hadn't noticed you had joined SGL. I must have been typing my post while you were writing yours

Steve

Yes it is a shame, sorry to hear it Steve/FLO, this web forum is a great platform for ES and I think they are missing a great opportunity..

[cs1cjc]

I'm sorry that it has not worked out with ES Steve

You must be as frustrated as we are that the UK market seems to get singled out for higher pricing.

+1

[rory]

real shame. uk always seems to get a raw deal .

[Astro_Baby]

Its a real downer Steve, ES are missing a market for sure. SOme of us are brave enough to order in the US but a lot of people wont and dont.

These things are a big deal in the US as I am sure you know.

I just dont understand ES on this one and once again the UK seems to get treated as the poor relative.

[Dunkster]

Sorry to hear that FLO

To be sure, importing from the US + shipping + (assumed) duty + VAT all adds up, and any pricing expectation based purely on currency converted US$ to UK£ is unrealistic. Clearly it sounds like the small-island-market tax is just too much to bear

[russ.will]

Unfortunately we cannot currently obtain ES products at prices that will enable us to compete with those offered in the US.

We 'can' offer retail prices that compare with Explore Scientific's own online store in Germany (if we work on a tiny margin) but ES offer monthly promotions (advertised in French and German astro mags) that could easily leave us with over-priced stock.

We have done more than any other astro retailer to reduce high prices here in the UK but in this instance we cannot help. Sorry

Needless to say if the situation changes you'll be the first to know

Steve

A shame indeed, as I would far rather put money in your pockets, than those of US suppliers.

However, I'm not sure why anybody ever thought it would be possible to get close to US prices.

Russell