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Subject: scam By: annorax Date: 07/02/2003 01:21:36 am PST I have a 10" skywatcher dob which came with a bad focuser. I met Ken of Peekr who told me he was a dealer. I was unhappy with my focuser so I took my scope to his place. He showed me a quality focuser that was in a box with a price on the box of $165. He told me that focuser cost him $125. I was foolish in that I did not get in writing the exact brand and model of that focuser that we agreed to, but it was more quality than the skywatcher brand and had a 1.25 inch adapter that was flush with the top of the drawtube. We came to an agreed upon price for the focuser ( $165 ) and some other minor work that he was going to do on my scope including installing this new focuser. I paid him in full and left my scope for him to work on. The next day he sent me an email in which he claimed that he put the new focuser in, but that 1.25 eyepieces would not come to focus because my old focuser had an adapter which held the eyepieces up an extra inch beyond the top of the drawtube. He said that I needed a focuser with 2.5 inches of travel instead of the 1.5 inches of travel that both my old one and this new one had. Fine, I said, order me a focuser with 2.5 inches of travel. The cost was an extra $20. About a week later I went to pick up my scope. Being naive I paid him the extra $20 before I checked out my scope. When I went to look at my scope, the first thing I noticed was that the 1.25 adapter was the same as my old focuser, it held the eyepiece up an extra inch. Furthermore this focuser only had 1.5 inches of travel and looked very much like my old skywatcher focuser. I asked Ken why the focuser only had 1.5 inches of travel and he told me that the one with 2.5 inches of travel didn't fit and that he had to go back to this one. Next I noticed that my old focuser was missing. I asked Ken where my old focuser was and he told me he had sent it away because the distributor was going to go after the dealer who sold me a scope with a faulty focuser. I was not at all aware that my old focuser was faulty, I just thought it was what you got when you bought a cheap scope, however it appears it was missing the little pads at the bottom which hold the drawtube snug in the tube. Being naive, I didn't know what to make of all this, so I just took my scope and left. Later on I figured out what he had done and called him to confront him. He admitted that I had overpaid him $20. Next I asked him why he sent away my old focuser, since he had no right to take my property. He told me he could get a credit on it ! But, I said, that was my property not his. Then he offered to share the credit with me ! Unbelievable. He admitted that he sent the old focuser to sky instruments in Vancouver. I called sky instruments and was then able to piece together the whole story. I paid Ken $185 ( 165 + 20 overpayment) for a focuser that he showed me when I arrived at his place. He then realized that my old focuser was faulty and that he could get a replacement from sky instruments. He never did order a focuser with 2.5 inches of travel, that was just a story to buy time for the replacement sky watcher focuser to come in. He ordered a replacement sky watcher focuser ( worth about $40 - $60 retail ), and sent them my old focuser hoping to get a credit so that the replacement cost him nothing to get. So not only did I pay $185 for a replacement sky watcher focuser, which was not the one we agreed upon, he tried to steal my old focuser on top of it. I argued with the guy at sky instruments, who didn't seem to understand what my problem was, until they promised to mail my old focuser back to me. I told Ken I was very unhappy with what he had done, and that although I could not do anything about the fact that he gave me a much cheaper focuser that the one we agreed upon, that if he paid me the $20 he owed me the matter would be closed. We belong to the same RASC branch, which was having its monthly meeting that evening, Ken agreed to pay me the $20 that evening at the meeting. Instead he just didn't show up. Since that time I have not bothered to try to contact him. I figure it is worth $20 to me to never have to see his scamming face at the RASC again. Page 1 of 1 | ||||||||
