Disappointment in return policy of Astro-Imaging store

theresamarie1

Hi,

I recently purchased an ASI071 color camera, and decided that I probably should have purchased the monochrome. Clearly I didn't do enough research up front, which is my fault. So within 10 days of receiving it, I contacted the order desk and said I'd like to return it an exchange for an different model/kit. The person promptly told me that it's not possible and that there are no returns unless the product is faulty.

Other dealers, which sell this product, offering return policies usually up to 30 days, some less, some have restocking fees, but I've never experienced a no-return policy. Certainly I can understand restocking fees and paying for the trouble, but now I am left selling something virtually new, for a deep discount, on the open market.

I would suggest others thinking of buying a ZWO ASI camera, to buy from a regular astronomy/camera dealer rather than this site. I also could not find a written sales policy, which is also my fault not looking for it up front.

Regards,

Terri

Sam@ZWO

Hi Terri

sorry for this issue

this is a little hard for us to maintain such international return business

you have to pay more than $100 shipping cost to ship it to China

and we have to pay about 10%-20% tariff of the total cost for importing such a camera made by us

I know this is ridiculous but it's true

this is why we don't accept such exchange service because customer have to pay too much for such a mistake but they can easily sell for a better price locally

thanks for your understanding

theresamarie1

Sam, thank you for sharing the why and I can understand, and the only question I have is why do you do this then? You must still make money, with the tariff's and shipping cost for it to make sense versus selling to dealers who in turn sell for essentially the same prices. Other dealers do it as a cost of business and still make money.

What you should consider is to share your sales policies and conditions up front, when you sell from your own site and ask that people review them, like on other retail sites. If there was something that said 'no returns', it might make me think twice about buying here versus some of the other commercial sites that do offer 30d policies.

The reason I purchased right from ZWO is to ensure I don't get old stock and hope to get the very best service. I did purchase the 1600 kit directly from you as well, again expecting the latest camera and improved filter versions, now with the prior knowledge that I'd not be returning it unless there's an issue.

I just didn't read enough on color vs. mono imaging before making my prior choice. It's not intuitive up front that mono is 3x faster to collect data, although needing to make multiple runs for color.

best,

Terri

privateer

Hey Terri,

I bet you'll have no problem selling the camera on Cloudy Nights.

Sam@ZWO

thanks for your suggestion Terri

we will try to provide better service for the customer who needs it ;)

actually, we always recommend customer to order from our dealer if they have the camera in stock

they can provide better local service than us and we don't wish to compete with them as factory

the main purpose of our site is to provide service to these countries there is no dealer

anyway, make the customer happy and satisfied is always our goal

thanks for your advice again

PS camera has the huge advantage in narrow band imaging but no such 3x faster than color camera as you need to do R G B imaging

and you take more time for post-processing, so color camera is not so bad at all