Celestron Dealers

With direct importing from China and local dealer competition you should see prices come down. If they go up (excluding exchange rates etc) then something is wrong. I doubt this will happen. Give it a chance.
BTW when I was buying my CGE11 (which I got from AI) I shopped around. Provided I wasn't getting a complete package (i.e. celestron OTA and celestron mount) I was able to get a Celestron OTA and a G11 mount package from a reputable European dealer with no questions asked. I went with the AI package based on price and convenience.

To be honest Celestron's practices are so despicable in my view that I simply will not give them my money. I don't care if they make the best products. Any company that is so anti-customer simply will not get my money.

Bart.

Students?..........money? :lol:

Just kidding

I urge everyone else to do the same until Celestron stop acting like complete £$%£$%£$%s

Bart.

Bart will you be urging people to boycott Meade and Skywatcher too? They operate in EXACTLY the same way as Celestron, through BC&F and Optical Vision Ltd (respectively).

If Celestron enforece a rule that you can only purchase a product within your counry of residence then thats one issue but why is there such a huge difference in prices from the UK do celestron enforce this? If so there is an issue if not then there is equally an issue? (if you follow)


TON

There is one celestron distributor per country. I.e. they get a monopoly. What possible incentive is there to lower prices when there is zero competition?

Bart.

There is no 'country' in the open market within EU borders except for accession States that have current exemptions. US companies must not be allowed to enforce market boundaries by contract that we have taken down by treaty. An EU treaty beats a contract the same way that straight flush beats a pair of deuces. Such a contract is not worth the paper it's written on here because it is not enforcable and would be illegal to enforce under EU law. It's only effect would be to protect Celestron under US law if they were sued in a US court for withdrawing supplies to a retailer who broke it.

The only recourse I can see is to challenge the effect of these contracts in an EU court, show that illegal market restrictions are being imposed and bar Celestron and its beneficial owners from shipping product into Europe unless they remove the illegal conditions from existing contracts.

The only recourse I can see is to challenge the effect of these contracts in an EU court, show that illegal market restrictions are being imposed and bar Celestron and its beneficial owners from shipping product into Europe unless they remove the illegal conditions from existing contracts.

..and celestron will use as a defence that this is standard practice operated by Meade and most other major manufactures of pretty much everything.

Thats just the way business works, its just as an astronomer you see this in stark relief. If you were into radio you'd probably be on some board saying the same thing about transmitter manufacturers. In fact Celestron are now the ONLY astro manufacturer with a direct distributor in Ireland.

I distinctly note that references to Meade and Skywatcher etc are being very obviously ignored.

Lads,
This is a pointless debate, if you don't like what you see with a shop or a manufacturer then simply buy off someone else, the world's a big place and with the dollar/euro conversion rate at the moment you'd be mad not to take advantage of the second-hand US market.
I buy NO serious astronomical equipment in this country nor in Europe for that matter, nor will I do so in the foreseeable future. .