Telescope Reviews: Celestron Customer Service Turnaround??

I guess this is a bad news-good news story. Let me start by saying I've had nothing but He!! with Celestron customer service up to now. The mount was sent back once with boards and hand controller replaced. Then, the newly-replaced hand controller died. Finally, last weekend while slewing during calibration, the mount made a strange noise and ceased to move. Eventually, it moved a little in Dec, but RA was dead. Sent the email to Celestron CS requesting that a replacement be cross-shipped and expedited, got a reply back Monday with the return shipping information and a form-letter apology that they'd look at the mount, etc. So, as my temper flared, I called the CS department. The phone-answerer stated he didn't have the authority to grant what I wanted. I agreed and asked to be transferred to someone who had the authority. After he accidently hung up on me trying to transfer me, I called back, and to my surprise, was immediately transferred to the supervisor. Here's where the magic started. I talked to a fill-in supervisor named Derek who was already familiar with my issue. He agreed that shipping me the new mount was "the right thing to do" and that he'd talk with the normal supervisor the next day. I called back the next day and was informed that they had checked the stock and they'd be shipping me a new mount at the end of next week. This is a 180 from my previous experiences and essentially made the difference between ditching Celestron completely and staying with them.

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Ryan
CGEM 800 Hyperstar 3
Orion ST80
DSI III
SSAG
A lot to learn