Frustrating Planet continues….

Well I’ve finally received the 2nd part of my order from Telescope Planet. I originally ordered the Solar Filter (now refunded) and a Telescope Oberseration Hood on 12th June. I was told originally that the hood was out of stock and would take a while to come in, which was fine. However, I emailed them for a progress report on 17th July which was ignored, tried again on 20th July and had a response saying “These come in Today YAY. Please give me your address to confirm and I will make sure one gets sent out.” So all sounded promising and I replied confirming my address that same day. However, nothing came through the post after a couple of days so I sent ANOTHER email asking if it had been shipped (this was the 25th July). Their reply was “Will be sent out today. So will probably get it tomorrow. Sorry for the delay”. At last today (27th July) its arrived in the post.

While I did accept that the item was going to be a while in arriving I didn’t expect to have to chase the supplier several times to remind them I was still waiting. Its a shocking way to treat customers if you ask me and I certainly wont be using their services again!

Frustrating Planet…

Well this post is going to be a bit of a rant I’m afraid, so you’ve been warned

I recently ordered a Solar Filter for my telescope from Telescope Planet. All started off quite good as I’d also ordered an observing hood along with it and straight away an email came back from the company advising that the hoods were out of stock, and would be a while coming in so would I like to cancel the order?! I decided I could wait for the hood so asked them to leave the order in place. Shortly after that I had a few humorous emails with the admin chap at Telescope Planet about light pollution etc. Anyway, to cut a long story short(ish)…. So the next day the Solar Filter turned up, which is a pretty fast turn around for delivery so I was impressed of course. Unfortunately the Solar Filter didn’t fit. It fits telescopes up between 130-150mm diameter and my telescope is 150mm aperture, so the external width of the tube is more than 150mm. I emailed Telescope Planet about 4 times explaining my dilemma and received no response. I phoned twice, John (my hubby) phoned twice, still no answer to the question “can I exchange for the next size please?”. Finally after one more email I got a response from the original admin chap. Yes, I could exchange, Hooray!!! So I sent the item back and duly waited a couple of days… Didn’t hear anything from the company so I telephoned, again I was told I needed to speak to the admin guy and they’d get him to call me back. He didn’t. Sent ump tine emails, no response. Finally I had to send a snotty email saying I’d like an exchange item or receive a full refund, but a response at least by the end of the week or I’d take legal advise. Needless to say I got an email straight back! The next size is out of stock – that was all the email said, nothing more, nothing less. So I asked for a refund and that is going through, that’s when they finally added “apologies for any inconvenience”.

My main point is am I the only person who thinks customer service has gone down the drain these days? What a shocking customer service department this company has if you ask me.

Anyway, I feel better now I’ve had a rant, but I’ve yet to see the refund appear on my credit card statement so the saga may still continue, who knows…..

The Apollo Landing…

Went to the OASI meeting last night. Not many people there, wonder if that had something to do with the Liverpool game??? Those that were there were looking at the half moon and Venus, by the time Jupiter was on the scene a large bank of clouds had covered the sky and observing was over for the evening. Some astrophotography was attempted and photo’s of the apollo landing site on the moon was the target. Unfortunately it was believed that this spot was probably on the shaded side of the moon, but some very good images were taken through the Tomline Refractor all the same.

DVD’s of Dr Allan Chapman’s recent lecture titled “That Clubbable Passion; the Amateur Astronomical Society” were available from the club last night, so those members that didnt make the lecture on 4th May 2007 can obtain a DVD by contacting Roy Gooding.