Grovers Optics Reviews 21

I bought ex-demo Opticron imagic IS binoculars from Grovers online. They were immaculate and with full manufacturer's warranties. Grovers' team gave good advice, with clear explanations, about accessories and sent me a video to help me use their recommended Hawke universal smartphone adaptor. Great customer service. Very responsive; honest, helpful advice.

Super awesome - I broke a corrector plate and with 48 hours I had the replacement - Marcus sorted everyting on a Saturday later afternoon - even replies at 10pm to ensure I got what I needed. SUPERB!

Bought a image stabilised Monocular, as soon as it arrived I tested it, and was convinced the stabilisation wasn't working at all.

I returned it and received a full refund. 👍

I recently purchased a Hikmicro thermal from Grovers Optics, they were kind enough to give me a 10% discount which I was obviously very pleased with, however when I tried to register it online with the manufacturer I came across some issues, I emailed Marcus at Grover Optics who responded immediately. Marcus contacted the manufacturer and stayed in contact with me until the issue was resolved.

Very poor customer service. I drove a long way to the store because they had HikMakro Habro Thermal Binoculars in stock. The store was empty with 3 members of staff available to help customers. One told me that the boss had taken them to a shooting fair. No solution except she conferred with her colleagues. The other members of staff offered no solution, were very disinterested and so when I suggested I buy them elsewhere, she told me I could. SO I DID! I got excellent service from a local competitor just a couple of miles away. A £1200 loss because of lazy unmotivated staff.

You replied to me me saying there was IT issue to fix
After I came to your shop so I could print an address lable I emailed rymans with my label and they printed it. At Grovers you made a meal out of it and wanted to charge me for said time while the woman who was behind the counter seemed to not know what she was doing. I bet if I go in again it will still be £2.50 so that's rubbish, even if there is someone who knows what they were doing this time.

Your shop has terrible customer service and does not want to address any issues raised, the customer is always wrong basically.
Also very over priced, will always avoid this shop out of principle even if it involves traveling.
VERY RUDE, UNPROFESSIONAL, AND VERY OVER PRICED.

I bought a Sky Watcher Discovery 150i from Grovers in summer 2021. The few small queries I had following receipt of the kit were taken seriously and rapidly addressed. Since then, I have been delighted with the instrument and well pleased with the overall performance.

Eleven days ago I placed an order for a Celestron RSR Heavy Duty Monopod/Tripod adapter, which I had been unable to find in the US. Seven of those days my order languished in NY customs. That tells you something about how customer oriented Grovers Optics is. I would do business with them again in a NY minute!

Good service from Grovers in purchasing a supplemental telescope tube and various associated accessories. Never easy to know exactly what odds and ends you need but the advice via live messenger was good and avoided confusion so the correct parts were ordered. My only criticism is that the fedex delivery doesn't allow the order to be tracked so there is no accurate estimate of delivery time which means having someone stay in until the item is delivered if it is an expensive piece of kit.

Last Wednesday we ordered a Skywatcher telescope from Grovers.
The billing address was my boyfriends but we made sure that the delivery address on the order form was mine as we are living here for four weeks.
When the order was confirmed it showed my boyfs address for delivery.
We immediately rang and gave the correct information for delivery and were assured that the system had been amended. We emailed to confirm this and Grovers emailed us to confirm. We relaxed.
On Friday evening we had an email from the courier confirming delivery on Monday (yipee) but to the wrong address (not yipee)
We again rang Grovers. The lady said she could not contact the courier until Monday as they were closed but would do so then to get our order sent to the correct address.
On Monday we waited... Nothing happened. We assumed the courier was rerouting our delivery but obviously not.
On Tuesday morning we had an email from Grovers telling us our delivery had been delivered. To the wrong address
We rang my boyfs neighbour He went around and found our expensive parcel sat on the open porch.
We rang Grovers again. They implied this mistake was the fault of the courier. I do not agree Grovers. The courier could only deliver to the address you gave them. Which was not the address we gave you on the order, by 'phone and by email.
We had the option of the parcel being retrieved but decided we did not wish to inconvenience our very helpful neighbour furthur.
When I rang Grovers back to confirm this I was told that Marcus Grover who I had just spoken to was "not in the office today". I gave up. My boyf emailed the company and has had no response.
Result we are living in a dark sky area for four weeks. Our new telescope is at my boyfs neighbours 160 miles away and Grovers have our monies.

I called in to this store on Sunday 3rd April having made a detour based on reviews. I was seeking a Finder Scope for a Bresser telescope. I was attended to by a pleasant young woman who couldn't help with my query but managed to get guidance by telephone. Based on that I bought a Finder Scope for £34.99. However, on returning to my flat in Northumberland I found it would not fit my telescope. I decided to return the item to the store for an alternative or a refund. Today I was again in the area of the shop and intended to visit but before I made a journey I contacted the shop by telephone and spoke to someone who knew more about the subject. He also told me that they operate a strict 21 day return police which meant a refund was not available. This is, in my view, unreasonable and poor customer service. I would therefore caution anyone to be aware that if you buy a product that turns out to be unsuitable you run the risk of being stuck with it. They of course still have a sale so that's ok then!

Thank you for your reply which has missed the point I fear. Your return policy means that if you do not have a suitable alternative I am left with an item not fit for purpose which I cannot return. I will take a picture of the telescope and the mounts supplied as you suggested but if you cannot assist with a viable alternative I repeat, I am stuck with a part not fit for purpose.

After searching the inter web seeking out an upgrade for my astronomical telescope, I came across Grovers in Northallerton.
We took the decision after talking with a staff member on the phone, to travel and visit the shop rather than order on line as the shop’s website looked very good.
Upon arrival I engaged with the staff and the gentleman took time to explain and engage with me regarding the Dobsonian scopes on offer. He explained what was in stock and guided through the scopes on display.
The shop is physically an excellent place to shop with optics, and toys on sale, allowing for more than budding astronomers to spend time in the shop.
I was left to ponder and think/talk through my prospective purchase with my partner and returned to make my purchase.
The staff were all engaging, pleasant and very helpful. It’s always pleasant when you take the time to travel and come away very happy. I would definitely recommend Grovers and will be returning to make further purchases (hopefully not such big purchases) again as my needs grow.

Excellent service from a great team, I found these while desperately searching for a starsense telescope that was out of stock everywhere. They kept me informed at all times and it arrived the day later well packed, think I will have one happy grandson on xmas day, cheers all

Awesome shop awesome team very helpful and friendly fast delivery

I spoke to a very helpful guy at Grovers and explained that I wanted to buy a Skywatcher 130PDS telescope and EQ3 mount with goto.

He confirmed that they were both stock and even offered me a whopping 1% discount!

When I ordered the mount online and paid for it, I received a call the next day to tell me it was not in stock, no idea when it would be and there aren't even any in the country.

8 minutes later I bought the whole kit elsewhere cheaper and it arrived the very next day.

Now waiting for a clear night to use it.

Great service from Grovers. Ordered a Celstron telescope on Thursday and got it on Friday - under 24 hours from order to assembly! Many retailers did not have the telescope in stock. Will definitely use Grovers again. Thanks

I came across this wonderful family run shop whilst looking on line for a telescope for my daughter's birthday. Unfortunately the one I ordered was delayed in Europe but the shop rang me straight away and the extremely knowledgable sales person was able to talk me through the alternatives. I know nothing about telescopes and through a discussion of what we wanted it for he was able to provide several options and guarantee delivery. Thanks to this fantastic customer service I think I actually got a better telescope for our needs. It arrived the next day and my daughter is delighted with it. I’d fully recommended shopping here and so much better to have a conversation than roaming around the internet looking at random reviews! When we’re ready to upgrade I’ll be giving you a call!

We purchased a pair of Hawke binoculars from Grovers, Northallerton in September 2020, whilst visiting the area; from the outset the guy who sold them to us was extremely helpful and knowledgeable about the product and recommended a particular pair which would suit us. Recently, in January this year, we were using them and on returning home, found that the lens cap was missing. We contacted Grovers via email and their response was almost immediate, they advised that if we sent our address to them they would ask Hawke to send a replacement set to us. We received the lens covers yesterday in the post. We cannot thank Grovers enough for the efficient and friendly service, and would highly recommend this company. Thank you :)

Excellent service from Grovers. Great communication and next day delivery. Couldn't wish for more. Thank you.

Some months ago my family clubbed together and bought me a Celestron NexStar 5SE Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on the internet. This type of equipment has a glass disc ( the “corrector plate” ) in the middle of which sits the secondary mirror and which is mounted in annular brackets at the front end of the tube.

After the third occasion I’d used it, I decided to check the cleanliness of the corrector plate when I brought it back indoors. It was only then I noticed that stuck on the inside edge of the corrector plate there appeared to be a small cereal grain husk or similar plant particle which must have unfortunately entered the tube during manufacture and was trapped inside.

I emailed Celestron support, who had replied by initially asking me to remove the corrector plate to extract this particle. I declined to do this as I did not feel confident enough about removing a vital part of a brand new and expensive piece of precision equipment. While awaiting their further response ( which turned out to be as I’d hoped, i.e., that Celestron would rectify the matter under warranty, ) I decided to find out whether Grovers of Northallerton ( as advertised Celestron agents ) would carry out work of this nature on their premises. My reason for wanting to establish this was that if they did and Celestron was happy to do a warranty repair, I would have been quite prepared to drive the 51 miles to Grovers and physically hand the telescope over rather than risk dispatching it by courier.

When I called them and explained the situation, it was more than evident from the salesman’s manner that when he realised the telescope hadn’t been purchased from them, they weren’t going to be interested in looking at it. His was a rather lacklustre response in all. He suggested I get on to Celestron regarding this and by this stage I didn’t really feel like going into what I was planning to do to have it rectified. There was mention made of some chap based in Middlesbrough who might have looked at such an issue, but there was no real indication that the Grovers employee was eager to do anything further to assist.

In the end the telescope was collected and returned to Celestron, who sorted the problem. However I have to say that I won’t be approaching Grovers again. Such a pity, since it’s my intention to advance my hobby by purchasing other telescope equipment and DSLR accessories and they would have been a convenient dealer to do business with.

I think it goes without saying that any future purchases certainly won’t be from them.