Astronomy Ireland charging for events

There is nothing illegal about shipping to the republic!

No, but if your supplier tells you that you can't and that if you do they will stop supplying you then there is nothing you can do.

I'd heard about this problem with Andy, Celestron & A&S a while back but thought that driving up was ok. It's sad to see that A&S have taken these steps to protect their celestron monopoly, but ultimately this is celestrons fault.

A similar thing happened with optcorp a couple of years back. They started shipping celestron gear worldwide and were rapidly told to desist by celestron.

At least Meade let you buy from the UK!

In terms of the European Union it strikes me that that kind of restriction is clearly anti-competitive and totally contrary to the principle of free trade within the Single Market. No distributor should be allowed to restrict portions of the EU market in this way, and from what I've been able to glean from the regulations and legislation it probably is illegal.

Perhaps its time to write to my MEP. I'm getting bored with the general election candidates! They all support reducing light pollution apparently...

True albert. So youre not allowed to drive to the shop and buy anything Celestron!?!?!?! Thats criminal and surely doesnt apply to their restrictions??? Thats like saying you cant go over to America and buy a scope and bring it back which people do do!+

Just one piece of generaly friendly advice from one IFAS astronomer to others. Be very careful about reporting specific allegations about specific individuals on this or any forum or public place. You could end up with your a&& in a legal sling.

I have absolutely no idea about whether Mr Moore reported Andy McCrea or not. The anti-competitive rules Celestron AND Meade employ are laid down by these companies and not their dealers. You can't blame the dealers for something which is imposed on them. I'm sure A&S, Andy, and many other dealers would love to have the opportunity to sell abroad.

fguihen, you intimated in your post "after shipping it was not much cheaper than AI"

So what was your problem in the first place. That is in fact the price promise, as I understand it.

Thats like saying you cant go over to America and buy a scope and bring it back which people do do!+

Actually I've ran into a problem there too. I rang Orion USA a couple of years ago to inquire about getting a Mak from them. I knew they had 'we don't ship to Europe' policy but I thought if I went to the shop and paid in dollars they might ship. They said that since I would be bringing the scope to Europe I could not buy from them, even if I was to ship it myself, and would have to buy from their European dealer. Bizarre! Especially when you consider that they Maks were just repainted skywatcher scopes. In the end I bought the Skywatcher from Andromeda Optics!

And I now do my astro shopping in Scope City in San Francisco when I'm in that part of the world!

Cheers,
~Albert

They said that since I would be bringing the scope to Europe I could not buy from them

Isn't that utter nonsense. So what would have happened if you did go to the shop with a fistful of dollars? What are they gonna say "Sorry I can't sell to you because you have an Irish accent"?

The main problem as I see it is that these companies are American. Therefore I wonder what if anything your MEP could do about it anyway? Maybe they could stop these companies shipping to Europe altogether, but lets face it that is unlikely and probably counterproductive anyway.

Just one piece of generaly friendly advice from one IFAS astronomer to others. Be very careful about reporting specific allegations about specific individuals on this or any forum or public place. You could end up with your a&& in a legal sling.

I have absolutely no idea about whether Mr Moore reported Andy McCrea or not. The anti-competitive rules Celestron AND Meade employ are laid down by these companies and not their dealers. You can't blame the dealers for something which is imposed on them. I'm sure A&S, Andy, and many other dealers would love to have the opportunity to sell abroad.

fguihen, you intimated in your post "after shipping it was not much cheaper than AI"

So what was your problem in the first place. That is in fact the price promise, as I understand it.

so they now take our freedom of speech!!!! il edit all messages from myself in this thread. looks like AI have it all tied up. and yes i did say it was almost the same price after shipping, but was still 50 quid cheaper, and think of it this way, if i lived in the UK and ordered from AI, so delivery was on top of their prices, they would be even more expensive. what i should have said was that where i bought it, price + postage was still a little less than AI without delivery