Telescope Time/Slooh

They've decided that by marketing to teachers they can get lots of new subscriptions from unsuspecting students? Educational? Yeah, if you want to teach kids about unaccountable marketing ruining products. I really think this would turn kids off to astronomy. They've planted lots of reviews, from people that work for them and don't even try to hide it. My Meade CX90 3" gives better images than their $50,000 telescopes. That requires some pretty poor maintenance. Surprise. Their CEO's only tech experience was writing marketing software for Safeway. There's a lot of straight up false advertising as well. The Chile 3 telescope has been in the active telescope choices nightly for five years and has never been online once. They sell new features years before they're available. Australian telescopes? In the sign-up marketing for three years. No sign of them yet. They turn kids into little SLOOH influencers, encouraging them to put a "!" in every post title- to increase social engagement. Any post is marked "trending"; one like or response and it becomes "hot". Per the post about Jupiter, color is back...along with a washed out blob in the center of the planet. New software released constantly that just takes more resources and bugs, no features. The latest crashes constantly. Many features have never worked right when it comes to booking time. They're subscription Nazis. Logged in as a registered user? Access SLOOH from another computer on the same subnet- you, not a family member- and your session on the cellphone or whatever you were using is killed unceramoniously. So, only for the whole family if every member has their own account. Their "star parties" are anything but. "Keith and Jennifer" have to be the worst. Calling their exciting party, "Let's Be Done by 10"...where?...they constantly hide their last names. Why should I want to listen to astro advice from anonymous internet cowards? What are they hiding? And now you can only participate in them using Discord. The only way I've seen to actually cancel a membership is to register a payment CC that you know will soon expire (before your renewal date). No refunds. Cancel a year subscription a week into it for cause and you still pay for the whole year. You have to cancel long before the renewal date, but they don't tell you how long. They're so dodgy that PayPal won't take them as a client, so you have to give a company that is unable to write usable software your credit details. Lots of hype around things you can read on Wiki, marketed as SLOOH features. The "are we alone fields", simply spew known equations about life in the universe. The venture capitalist darling that started it says he was inspired by the death of his friend Blake Wallens in the WTC on 9/11. So he creates a toxic marketing tool to demonstrate why other cultures hate unrestrained venture capitalism?

Revdex.com: At this time, my complaint, ID [redacted] regarding Telescope Time/Slooh has been resolved (By clicking "OK", your complaint will be closed as Resolved.) Sincerely, [redacted]

Revdex.com:At this time, I have not been contacted by Telescope Time/Slooh regarding complaint ID [redacted] .Sincerely, [redacted]

Revdex.com:
At this time, my complaint, ID [redacted] regarding Telescope Time/Slooh has been resolved.
(By clicking "OK", your complaint will be closed as...

Resolved.)
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:At this time, I have not been contacted by Telescope Time/Slooh regarding complaint ID [redacted].Sincerely,[redacted]

Review: Beginning in July **, 2015, I have been trying to resolve a dispute with this company to no avail. My numerous emails and voicemail messages - despite their promise that they respond within 48 hours - are usually met with silence and never directly address my request for a refund.

To recap: in July of this year, I signed onto Slooh.com to redeem an old gift card we had received with 500 minutes of free observatory time we had never used. The initial sign-in said the company no longer uses the gift cards in this way but that the $74.85 membership fee would be credited when I signed up. At least that was my understanding of it, and if I had it wrong I immediately wrote to them to undo my mistake. I only paid that amount with the confidence that I would be getting it back.

I immediately requested a refund of that full amount as I was not prepared to pay that price for a gift that was given to me and realized maybe I had actually been mislead by the service terms. I only used the service for a few days in the very beginning and then never again since it was not worth that money to me and I just wanted my money back. Despite my continual requests for a refund for some months now, the charge remains on my credit statement, and no one responds to my emails.

I would like this company to please honor my request in the name of good customer service and ethical business practices,

Thank you so much for your consideration,

[redacted]Desired Settlement: $74.85 refunded to me right away.

Review: I have tried to contact this business by phone and email. Whenever I call I am placed in a voicemail system, there has never been a live person to answer the phone. No one has returned my calls or requests via email. I signed up for a 1 month free trial on 9/**/15. I began contacting them on 9/**/15 to cancel and have not received any response from the company. Their website does not appear to have a way to process the cancellation online either.Desired Settlement: I would like my account to be cancelled and confirmation of the cancellation sent to my email. I do not want to be chaged $4.95 after my free one month trial.

Review: Several years ago (roughly 2008) I purchased $600 worth of product of Slooh's time cards which gives users access to their telescopes (they can control them and explore the skies). In 2012 they changed their product and exchanged some of the cards our for me. Since then I have been selling them occasionally. Recently I sold one and had it returned to me by a customer. She tried to use the card and was notified by a message on the website that they no longer accept the cards. They offer the consumer a chance to purchase an additional $75 membership to their site before they can use the credit from the original card they purchased from me.

I contacted Slooh and asked if we could return the product as my customers did not want to purchase something that then requires them to spend even more money on the website before they can use their original purchase. I was informed by Slooh that they felt that they had adequately notified their sellers of the card changes by posting a message on their website. I argued that a note on their website was not sufficient. I would not have any reason to access their website so I never saw the message.

I now have a stack of cards worth roughly $339 (wholesale). I initially asked for a return of the cards and when they refused to do that I offered to take an account for my personal use and have them apply all the minutes form the time cards that I have left. They were unwilling to do even that. They said only one card could be applied to one account.Desired Settlement: I would be happy with either a refund (most ideal) or an account for my family with the total amount of minutes applied to the account for our personal use. I have a total 1,040 minutes in cards I would even be willing to pay the $75 fee to initiate the account if they would give me all my minutes.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by Telescope Time/Slooh regarding complaint ID [redacted].Sincerely,[redacted]

Review: The Slooh company had my membership marked for automatic renewal, unbeknownst to me, and the day of the renewal, 06/**/2014, I contacted them and told them to cancel my membership and send a refund for the charge of $74.85 that incurred automatically as a result of the renewal. They immediately cancelled my account but said I would have to go through my bank, BofA, to get the refund because Slooh was "not good at handling refunds." I contacted my bank and they said only the merchant, Slooh, could. I have been emailing Slooh's customer service since to no avail. I'm simply looking for a refund of $74.85 for a service I did not receive as a result of the cancellation.Desired Settlement: I'm looking for a refund of $74.85 for a service I did not receive as a result of the cancellation.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, my complaint, ID [redacted] regarding Telescope Time/Slooh has been resolved.

(By clicking "OK", your complaint will be closed as Resolved.)

Sincerely,