Scopes N Skies

[bern]

Atik certainly kept us waiting on that John

bern

[jcm]

Atik certainly kept us waiting on that John

bern

Yep , but you can't complain about the price.

John

[part timer]

Well, my epic saga with pulsar optical, scopes n skies, astronomy and nature center, goes on.

After calling today to find that one month after buying an instock item it has still not been sent :x I got a bit cheesed off :? .

The result was a promise that the cheshire eyepiece will be couriered to me and recieved tomorow. (obviously I'm on the edge of my seat )

When the camera adapter arrives which I am assured will be next week I have been promised a personal notification by phone. I dont belive it for a minute. If nothing comes tommorow I'm demanding my money back! (only reason I havent already is because I doubt they will actually do it :x :x :x )

LUKE

[daz]

Far more patient than many people, me included!!

[blinky]

Got to say I ordered my new Crawford 8) On Saturday morning from S'S. Recieved an email yesterday with a track N trace number on it. Checked this morning - On delivery van at 6:06am and it arrived in the office at 11am.

Thats good service in my book!

[ncjunk]

I have 2 differing stories to tell.

Number 1. Pulsar/Scopes n skies. Ordered an item and waited but it failed to appear, phoned and was told it would

definately appear...waited and waited...then phoned again and was told actually it was out of stock so asked for a refund and waited..got bored waiting and tried ordering something else that was in stock hoping against hope that because it was in stock it would turn up quickly...and waited...phoned up 1 week later and it was being

ordered from a supplier..so either they can't check stock or they lied on the phone. I am still waiting months and

months later and don't now what to do.

Number 2. Modern Astronomy. Ordered in Feb but the Filter wheel was delayed and this is where my experience changes

Bernard replied to emails and kept me informed. He repacked everything to fit into one box, for shipment to another country, and it arrived today and even sent through an updated driver by email because the one sent through for the camera was incorrect. Absolutely great service and friendly.

I have never been treated so badly as by pulsar and yet from Bernard had some absolutely great customer service. I am just glad the expensive order went to Bernard as I really couldn't afford to lose that kind of money in the lottery that is pulsar.

Just to make you laugh...I ordered from pulsar/scopes after reading a thread similar to this one and getting all hollyier than thou and saying you shouldn't condem a company if you haven't tried them...well I have tried them and I am an idiot for doing so.

ncjunk

[Xunil]

Just to let you all know I have finally received my order.

I'll never order from S&S again, and suggest to anyone reading this thread in the future that you look elsewhere to buy gear. They simply don't walk their talk.

I'd also suggest to the admins that it might be an idea to consider this thread as a sticky, either here or elsewhere in the forum should a more appropriate spot be created. I think it fair to warn future members that they may well lose out when ordering from pulsar optical, scopes n skies or the "nature centre".

[part timer]

Well I received one out of two items this week :shock: . It was broken on arrival :x . I wasn't even upset anymore so i just glued the two pieces together ,seems to work so that will have to do. I am still waiting for the other item which is now due 'later this week'

I will never never never use this firm for anything again!

Luke

Luke

[beamish]

I rang up friday pm, asked if they still had the WO flattener as advertised in As Now, bought , confirmed and delivered this a.m. !! Just to add a little balance, this good service and on a par with my experiences with S'n'S.

Karlo

[part timer]

Got off the phone with them just now. My order is still not in . They now say astro engineering have sent the wrong adapter to them . Apparently they got the inverse thread adapter to the one I want. They expect delivery 'today' and with me 'by the end of the week'.

So it has taken since the 20th of march to deliver the wrong item from the warehouse next to the shop :nono: .

I look forward to receiving my adapter 'this week' :headbang: :headbang:

Luke

[beamish]

blumming Hell !!! :shock: I guess I must be a lucky boy

[part timer]

You are very lucky Beamish!

My experience of at least 15 phone calls is that nobody at the astronomy and nature center knows how to tell the truth. I have literally been told 'the adapter has come in and been sent to you today' at least 6 times.

The following phone call ( when it doesn't arrive) is always the same. 'oh, I don't know whats happened there, I'm really sorry I'll personally send it now'. The third call is always 'We haven't received it yet we expect it next week'.

And if you don't pester them you don't get your goods.

Luke

[thing]

If you really want it from them then I suppose you have no option but to wait. The law as it stands says refund after 30 days of placing order for non delivery unless you agreed otherwise.

[part timer]

As I've said before further up this thread, the main reason I'm waiting is because I think I'll have an even bigger pain in the backside getting my money back!

Anyway, maybee they will suprise me and get here in a week or so. After all what's another week after waiting a month and a half or so!

[part timer]

Well, Staggeringly the camera adapter arrived today :hello1: :hello1: . It fits :hello1: :hello1: . So why am i annoyed?

Beacause I've waited since march for a 'specially made Astro engineering camera adapter' which is infact a KOOD camera filter ring that I could have bought any time from any camera shop for half the price

DOH!!!!! :headbang:

Luke

[Brinders]

I must have been very lucky with Pulsar-Optical. I originally ordered an HEQ5 Pro mount from them on 28 December 2007, changed my mind a couple of days later after discussing the matter (and the additional expense) with my wife and decided to order the EQ6 Pro mount from Pulsar-Optical instead. My wife did this for me over the 'phone on the Monday. They were very obliging and didn't mind recalling the original order and swapping it for the EQ6 Pro which was cheaper through them than any other dealer. On the Thursday (Jan 3 2008) the mount arrived in pristine condition and a day earlier than they had promised.

Contrast that to my OTA ordered from a certain Auntie (must be careful not to upset the sponsor here) which was not in the pristine condition I would have hoped for (I've already told that tale elsewhere on this forum so I won't go on).

I've also dealt with Bern at Modern Astronomy and found him helpful and honest

By the way, I've used FLO since purchasing my C9.25 and had no complaints that time. Doh - did I give the game away?

[FLO]

By the way, I've used FLO since purchasing my C9.25 and had no complaints that time. Doh - did I give the game away?

As you know Russell, your C9.25 was drop-shipped direct to you from the importer, we never saw its condition. If you weren't satisfied with its condition on arrival (and I think you had good reason not to be) you should have contacted us for a collection/replacement, its what I would have done.

[Brinders]

Many apologies Steve, I should not have brought a past issue up again.

[Eclipse]

I ordered a PST from Pulsar, as they were offering a free sunshade (they still are). After three weeks I rang them - oh your card was refused by the bank 10 days ago (bank error as it happened). So why didn´t you email me so I could get it sorted? oh we did - no they didn´t - they are inveterate liars.

Eventually the PST arrives OK, but no sunshade, I ring, we will send it today. After a week I ring again - oh we are out of stock.

These people do not give a damn for their customers, are totally incapable of sending an email, and the truth is a stranger to them.

Who is good? Rother Valley are good, they reply to emails, an item lost in the post was quickly sorted by them.

Altair Astro also reply quickly to emails. They have my order for a Stellarvue 102 ED, acknowledged personally by email from Ian.

[jakey]

It really makes my blood boil at how badly people in this hobby are treated by some astro suppliers. It is almost as though they think we are idiots or niave. I gave up being Mr nice guy with some of our suppliers a while ago. If I don't recieve an order within a reasonable time I only ask once. After that I contact the credit card company and inform them that I have not recieved an item I have paid for.

I have also reported a certain well known supllier to trading standards.(and told the company that I had done this) Within a day of this I recieved a personal phone call from the director of the company and a replacement product the next day.

I also tell as many people as possible of the lack of service and get them to contact the company saying that they were going to make an order but due to what they have heard about the terrible service, they have changed their mind.This can really upskittle the boss.

But basically many suppliers need to relearn one thing, if you don't have customers you don't have a business.

[beamer3.6m]

I wonder how they will cope with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations which are coming into force next week (26/05/08).

This legislation makes very interesting reading and the 31 outlawed practices will most ceretainly affect some traders hard.

[mike bacanin]

Absolutely and totally agree with Jakey's comments.

I have been a professional sales executive for over 20 years, and the measure of a good company/supplier

is not just how good they are at 100% satisfaction first time, but also how they resolve an issue.

Mike

[Xunil]

I wonder how they will cope with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations which are coming into force next week (26/05/08).

This legislation makes very interesting reading and the 31 outlawed practices will most ceretainly affect some traders hard.

I've just had a read, and I'm really pleased. Some of the regulations are simply brilliant, my favorite (although off topic) is the regulation concerning advertising to children. It's about time OOFT did this. More on-topic - the traders who trade unfairly are going to either have to shake thier practices up, or pay fines and risk everything, given the time investigations will take. I'd advise anyone buying astro gear to take a look here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/small_businesses/competing/protection

[Keagle]

For those of you not on UKAI, here's a post from SnS in response to a post about them. You can guess the tone of the post

Hi there agimaging

We thought we’d let this wind through before responding.

We’ve tried to call you – but your mobile (which is the number you provided with your order) seems to be unresponsive.

I’d just like to clarify a couple of points.

From your report I think there may have been a misunderstanding about what we actually offered you.

We offered you a 10% reduction on the 15mm extension tubes (ie £1.99 of £19.99) but you will recall that we also volunteered to supply a new AC493 at the same price as the second-hand one you had ordered. So in all, we offered to supply goods with a discounted value of £39.98 (not including an apology gift) for £29.00 carriage free.

Apology gift: you also forgot to mention that the young lady who attended you on the phone offered you a free gift (pack of dust plugs at £3.99) by way of an apology.

Inadvertently, I’m sure, your post made it sound that you were having difficulty getting a refund. But of course we both know you got your refund on the same day - it just didn’t matter sufficiently to you to post the fact here as a follow-up.

In all, I’d have to admit our performance with this transaction was very poor. But we tried to fix it and made matters worse by an inappropriate “gift” offer. Sorry.

We would still like to fix this situation and try to turn the memory of this into something more favourable for both parties. From our point of view, when we make a mistake, we try to make it clear that we don’t treat failure lightly just because it’s a handful of sales amongst thousands. It matters to us and we are trying to keep our errors to an absolute minimum.

To that end, please feel free to call us on our dedicated Forum telephone number:

(01353) 886115 (a supervisor or manager will answer the call).

We will of course try your mobile number again after the Bank holiday as we still hope, if you are prepared to give us the chance, to be able to make you an offer you can’t refuse.

Why should you give us a second chance? Because it would be fair, given the effect your post has had. It would go someway to show that you are prepared, at least in principle, to acknowledge that your personal experience (however unfavourable) does not provide an accurate and telling report of our larger business activities. Take a look a some of the silly responses that followed your post. If you are a reasonable man it’s hard to believe you are truly happy about them (eg the guy that was “relieved” that you had saved him losing £60! And then the guy who berated Pulsar Optical because they missed his call for an observatory. They have designed, built and sold over 200 domes including the one he actually bought from Telescope House! Do they really deserve to be rubbished in here because they fluffed communicating with this guy?).

Compared to many of our competitors we look large, but in reality we are a small company staffed by just 8 people at the moment.

If there were as many as 100 complaints in here, our standards would still be very high relative to the number of transactions we complete. But it isn’t 50, or even 25 complaints – in fact it’s a handful, and measured against the great many transactions we complete per month it really is a vanishingly small fraction.

Of course, we’d rather it was none.

The idea that our service is less than barely adequate as one reckless poster suggested doesn't even deserve a response.

The economy is shrinking, or so the papers say. Scopes’n’Skies are over 40% up on last year. We started in a bedroom trading on eBay and we now operate (easily) the largest astronomy and hobby optics showroom in the UK (don’t take our word for it, just come and visit). Does any one in here, who is old enough to vote, really think we achieved this by routinely offering the standard of service you personally experienced on this occasion?

With thanks and clear skies to all

Scopes’n’Skies

In regards to the bolded part: This isn't an isolated incident as everyone knows. From what I can see from this thread, the people disgusted at their service far outnumber the number of people who were pleased or found it acceptable.

[Andrew*]

It needs a sizeable portion of people giving positive experiences to counteract the negatives. Also, people who have had negative experiences will actively seek somewhere to voice them, and rarely the other way around. That is how the occasional poor service given by e.g. SnS is exaggerated beyond reality.

Saying that though, it is quite apparent that relative to some suppliers, they seem to turn out more dissatisfied customers.

I have already said it in this thread and I'm going to say it again - I have dealt with SnS on more than two occasions with good results. Their email service does leave something to be desired though.

Andrew