Selection:  

As one of the internet’s largest telescope stores, if not the largest, Amazon carries pretty much anything and everything relating to telescopes. Typing telescopes into Amazon’s search engine yields thousands of results. Through Amazon, customers can order just about any make and model of telescope available from popular manufacturers such as Meade and Celestron.

They also carry a wide variety of accessories made just for telescopes. Customers looking for a new eyepiece, Barlow lens, counterweights, mounts, and cases will pleased by the variety and selection offered by Amazon.

Payment Options:  

Amazon accepts most major credit cards including: American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, Eurocard, Visa, and Visa Check cards. You may also pay with your personal bank account, Amazon.com gift cards, and Amazon Store card.

Customer Support:  

While Amazon.com in general has a good customer service department one of the complaints many people have with Amazon is that your order isn’t always fulfilled by Amazon itself. Amazon partners with hundreds of merchants to fill its vast amount of orders. This can be bothersome to customers who place an order with Amazon and are referred to one of the telescope stores that actually fulfilled the order when problems arise. It is for this reason that customer service can vary greatly when shopping with Amazon. Some customer service departments and policies are better than others.

Shipping:  

Shipping times can vary since many of the orders placed through Amazon are shipped from a third party company. Items shipped from Amazon directly are usually shipped very quickly. Customers can track their packages through Amazon as well as find tracking numbers for orders. Amazon’s shipping information page provides links to all the various carriers utilized to ship packages.

Certain items on Amazon.com qualify for free shipping. It is hard to say just what makes one item qualify while another doesn’t. If you place an order for various items and one of them qualifies for free shipping, you will still be charged shipping for those other items. It is best to just count on paying a shipping charge from Amazon.

Amazon also offers its Amazon Prime function. For a fee, members can receive free shipping on more than one million items sold by Amazon. This offer is only good for items that are stocked and sold by Amazon. Orders shipped by third parties don’t qualify.

Amazon has gotten to be such a large company that it sometimes forgets about the small things. While you will most likely find what you are looking for at Amazon, don't expect to be treated like you're their number one customer if you should need some assistance. Be sure to check out how Amazon compares to our top rated telescope stores: OpticsPlanet, Telescopes.com, and Scope City.