Altair Astro kaputt??

[calibos]

Hi lads and lassies.

Just wondering has anyone ordered and/or more importantly received any orders from Altair Astro recently. Are they still in business?

I ordered a Stellarvue F80M2 finderscope from them in February. They were out of stock as were Stellarvue themselves. Stellarvue received the constituant parts shipment from China about a month ago, have assembled them and now have them back in stock as of about 3 weeks ago.

In all that time since February I have sent numerous emails to Altair Astro looking for order updates and received a grand total of 1 email reply. I sent several more emails and left a few answerphone messages in the last 3 weeks seeking an order update seeing as the things were supposed to be back in stock.

Haven't heard a thing back.

At this stage Altair can take a running jump but my fear now is, that even if I email to cancel the order so I can order from Stellarvue direct, whats to say Altair will even read the mail or listen to the message and cancel the order like I told them. They don't seem to be reading all the previous emails and messages I left! Will I end up with 2 Stellarvue finders and have to spend months looking for a visa refund, should they send me a finder and debit my card despite instructions not to.

I just can't understand it. In these times of recession you would think that. (A) Companies would bend over backwards to reply quickly and look after customers so as to get a larger share of what little astro business there is at the moment, and ( because things are quiet on the Astro purchase front, they would actually have the time to devote more time to dealing with customers.

Why does the exact opposite seem to be happening. I have been chasing 2 other Astro companies for products, wanting to give them money!! and have had countless emails and phonecalls ignored. Customer service has paradoxically gotten worse since the recession, not better!!

[ringz]

Could it be that companies have laid off staff because of the recession and there's not enough staff to provide sufficient customer service?

--

Martyn

[Roy]

All I can say is that they were at Kelling Heath in April with a trade stand.

Not much help I know.

[johninderby]

I was in contact with Ian at Altair Astro this morning. Apparently he has been experiencing some email problems. The shop is essentially a one man business that is open Fridays and Saturdays and getting in touch with him by landline phone the last couple of weeks has been a bit of a problem as he has been out most days delivering SkyShed Pods.

So Altair Astro is definitely still in business, just very busy.

John

[Dangerous-Dave]

I've had very good service from Ian in the main, but he can sometimes be slow to reply to emails. Good to hear he's still in business as I am psyched for one of those pods!

[calibos]

As luck would have it, I managed to get through to Ian today on his mobile. (Hadn't seen that mobile number. Silly me) Work going on in the showroom including electrical work apparently and the contractors keep knocking out the PABX system or whatever and he's losing a lot of his phone messages.

Anyway, he says he has a shipment in transit from Stellarvue and will send me a confirmation email if my order is part of the shipment.

I wasn't complaining about the length of time waiting for the order as I know these finders have been out of stock at Stellarvue themselves for months. My complaint was the lack of email or Phone message replies. Ian did appologise profusely and explained why he hasn't been able to keep up to date with replies to everyone. I am staisfied with that, so I'll leave the order with Ian and not cancel.