Careful. The ratings on toppreise aren't always up-to-date.

A while back, I bought some networking gear from the Speicher-Shop. They were also well-rated, but somehow the fact that the owner was going bankrupt and didn't have any money to pay his employees was overlooked.

I chose payment in advance -- the usual conditions in Switzerland are such that it is much more expensive if you don't. When my goods didn't arrive, and e-mail exchanges with the shop asking for either the goods or a refund after a while didn't get answered, I started calling around. I spoke to an employee of the shop who told me the situation. While he was happy to give me the handy number of the owner, he told me that I would only be lied to.

So I made use of the prosecution office (Betreibungsamt) for the first time, other than to get an extract of my own clean record. The referred me to the corresponding office in Rorschach, to whom I wrote a letter. (Annoying thing is, everytime you write those people, they want Fr. 30 from you to do anything.)

About that time, all mention of Speicher-Shop mysteriously disappeared from toppreise.

Apparently my letter made it to the Attorney General of St Gallen, along with complaints from others. They prosecuted and convicted the owner, and sent me a list of several hundered plaintiffs with the amountd they were awarded. My award covered the cost of what I ordered, the Betreibungskosten, and a bit more, but nowhere near enough to cover the lost revenue from the project I could not start on time because the device never arrived.

And of course, the bankrupt owner never paid me anything back. I bet the only costs that got recovered out of that operation are around Fr. 3'500 in court costs.

So one should definitely beware of these online places on toppreise. Perhaps the rating service could be expanded to cover financial soundness of the offerors on a voluntary basis?

-----Original Message----- From: swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch [mailto:swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch] On Behalf Of Steven Glogger Sent: Freitag, 22. Januar 2010 09:59 To: Gregoire Huet Cc: swinog@swinog.ch Subject: Re: [swinog] A fake online shop ?

hi greg

i've ordered 2-3 things in the past ~2 years - never had any issue.

-steven

Gregoire Huet wrote:

Hello Swinog,

Has anybody ever ordered something by the Techmania shop ?

I'm just wondering if it is a *real* shop, despite its quite good notation on Toppreise. Maybe has it turned to some thieves association, not answering emails and not delivering the goods.

I'm looking for a contact there, i would be glad if you give me one.

Thank you

Greg

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full ack on günti. i prefer always credit card or invoice (where possible). CC gives me the possiblity to chargeback - if I don't get aynthing delivered.

-steven

Robert.Guentensperger@swisscom.com wrote:

Hi Charles

I agree that the ratings may not be up-to-date. But it's a a good indicator.

As far as possible I buy on invoice. Or by credit card.

There are too many criminals in the internet. So paying in advance is not an option for me.

Cheers Günti

-----Original Message----- From: swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch [mailto:swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch] On Behalf Of Charles Buckley Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 10:41 AM To: swinog@swinog.ch Subject: Re: [swinog] A fake online shop ?

Careful. The ratings on toppreise aren't always up-to-date.

A while back, I bought some networking gear from the Speicher-Shop. They were also well-rated, but somehow the fact that the owner was going bankrupt and didn't have any money to pay his employees was overlooked.

I chose payment in advance -- the usual conditions in Switzerland are such that it is much more expensive if you don't. When my goods didn't arrive, andd e-mail exchanges with the shop asking for either the goods or a refund after a while didn't get answered, I started calling around. I spoke to an employee of the shop who told me the situation. While he was happy to give me the handy number of the owner, he told me that I would only be lied to.

So I made use of the prosecution office (Betreibungsamt) for the first time, other than to get an extract of my own clean record. The referred me to the corresponding office in Rorschach, to whom I wrote a letter. (Annoying thing is, everytime you write those people, they want Fr. 30 from you to do anything.)

About that time, all mention of Speicher-Shop mysteriously disappeared from toppreise.

Apparently my letter made it to the Attorney General of St Gallen, along with complaints from others. They prosecuted and convicted the owner, and sent me a list of several hundered plaintiffs with the amountd they were awarded. My award covered the cost of what I ordered, the Betreibungskosten, and a bit more, but nowhere near enough to cover the lost revenue from the project I could not start on time because the device never arrived.

And of course, the bankrupt owner never paid me anything back. I bet the only costs that got recovered out of that operation are around Fr. 3'500 in court costs.

So one should definitely beware of these online places on toppreise. Perhaps the rating service could be expanded to cover financial soundness of the offerors on a voluntary basis?

-----Original Message----- From: swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch [mailto:swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch] On Behalf Of Steven Glogger Sent: Freitag, 22. Januar 2010 09:59 To: Gregoire Huet Cc: swinog@swinog.ch Subject: Re: [swinog] A fake online shop ?

hi greg

i've ordered 2-3 things in the past ~2 years - never had any issue.

-steven

Gregoire Huet wrote:

...

Hello Swinog,

Has anybody ever ordered something by the Techmania shop ?

I'm just wondering if it is a *real* shop, despite its quite good notation on Toppreise. Maybe has it turned to some thieves association, not answering emails and not delivering the goods.

I'm looking for a contact there, i would be glad if you give me one.

Thank you

Greg

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Hi all

I had two orders in the past with techmania. Both went perfectly well. Normally I use credit card, but for the two orders I used prepayment (which I only make for orders within Switzerland. Gives me the felling I could drive there in the worst case).

Cheers Philipp

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch [mailto:swinog-bounces@lists.swinog.ch] Im Auftrag von Flavio Tischhauser Gesendet: Freitag, 22. Januar 2010 11:27 An: SWINOG Betreff: Re: [swinog] A fake online shop ?

Hi Gregoire

2010/1/22 Gregoire Huet greg@ip-man.net:

I'm just wondering if it is a *real* shop, despite its quite good notation on Toppreise.

I have made several orders over the past few months and had no problems with them. They are one of those "virtual" shops that do not keep their own inventory and directly ship from the large distributors (Ingram Micro, Techdata etc.) which means the only way to stay competitive is to offer lower prices. This can only be achieved by keeping personnel costs to the absolute minimum, unfortunately this also means that they cannot offer customer service over telephone etc. unless you pay a steep premium ( http://www.techmania.ch/versand.aspx ).

What payment method and service level did you choose?

regards,

Flavio

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