The owner of a once popular telescopes distribution company is speaking out following a flurry of online complaints since the fall.
According to Babak Sedehi, owner of Burnaby-based Canadian Telescopes, the trouble began in the summer when for about a month-long period, online orders weren’t going through properly. Instead, when anyone bought something off the website, the order would be placed with Canadian Telescopes but the payment would be directed to another group.
Sedehi said he discovered the problem in late September and by October, he confirmed payments made online weren’t being processed. The website had been hacked, he told the NOW.
“After that, … we kind of managed to go back on track and everything was looking good. We tried contacting customers; we tried to reduce the damage as much as possible and it was looking fine, but then suddenly, towards the end of November, our processor contacted us and said they’re cutting us off,” he said.
That meant Canadian Telescopes could no longer process online orders.
The processing company told Sedehi his customers would have to contact their credit card companies directly to get refunded for orders that hadn’t arrived.
“They practically killed our business this way because processors are like insurance companies; when one goes down the others won’t take it,” Sedehi said, adding he and his staff tried to contact customers to tell them how to go about getting their money back.
Unfortunately, by then, the damage was done. Sedehi had to lay off his staff and move the remaining inventory into the production facility for his other business, NexDome personal observatories.
Sedehi said he has done his best to keep customers informed. Right after the hack, he posted a lengthy explanation of the situation on the Canadian Telescopes Facebook page that included ways for customers to get their money back.
According to Sedehi, more than 95 per cent of people who placed orders but didn’t receive their items have been refunded through their credit card companies.
“The other four or five per cent, they don’t get it,” he said.
That’s because not all customers believe Sedehi’s story about the hack.
Search out Canadian Telescopes online and it’s easy to find dozens of posts made by disgruntled customers who’ve tried to get more information from Sedehi, but couldn’t. It doesn’t help that he had to remove the company’s Facebook page or that emails are going unanswered.
“I personally had to answer the few hundred (emails) one-by-one, but then after a while you just can’t do anything,” he said.
Sedehi also can’t refund people through Canadian Telescopes because the company never actually received the payments in the first place.
“Now, if I want to refund them, I have to cut them a cheque, which we don’t have the money for, or directly pay them back through the system, but because we don’t have access to the system, we can’t do that either,” he said.
Because of the problems, Canadian Telescopes no longer exists as an e-commerce business. The once popular source for telescopes, with buyers across the country, has been reduced to an amazon.ca storefront, which Sedehi is using to sell off his remaining inventory.
This was not the future Sedehi, who fell in love with astronomy when he was 14 years old, had planned for Canadian Telescopes.
“As successful as it was, it had a sad ending,” he said.
Canadian Telescopes continues to be available for consultations. Sedehi is now focused on his NexDome personal observatory business, also based in Burnaby.
The Better Business Bureau of B.C. confirmed Canadian Telescopes’ accreditation is under review following multiple complaints. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has no record of allegations of fraud filed against Canadian Telescopes or by Sedehi for the hack.
The NOW contacted the Burnaby RCMP to find out whether anything had been reported to the local police but has not heard back yet.
