Vesalia's thoughtful refund

[Failure]

Well I ordered some stuff from Vesalia a while ago, and it finally came in (held up by backordered Kickflash).  On the CD case for Foundation Gold there was taped two coins, and I couldn't figure out what the hell they were on there for.  Then I noticed I had only 2 custom chips instead of the three I ordered.  The invoice had the 3 euro part scratched off, but I sat there fuming that they hadn't given me a refund...

The coins are 1 euro and 2 euro coins.

Once I realized that I actually laughed.  Technically I suppose they have refunded my money, but here in Nowhere, GA what am I gonna do with 3 euro :-)

I'd like to walk into NAPA, buy two quarts of oil and slap those coins on the counter.  I bet the weird look would be worth 3 euro...

[Holley]

lol, I guess they don't do credit card refunds for that little ...

[Cyberus]

I've had 1 Euro change sellotaped to a package underneath the stamp before. I thought it was quite cool, as some people wouldn't have bothered.

As for the Euros, well keep 'em.
Heh, I guess its not so easy for you, being the other side of the atlantic. But I came back from Finland a few years ago with left over Euros, and spent them in France when I was next there. Then I came back from France with some left over Euros, and spent them when I was in Ireland earlier this year. Of course, I came back from Ireland with left over Euros too. I conveniently went to Germany two weeks ago...

I accept Euros and Dollars as cash payments when I sell stuff on ebay, as I know I'll use them sooner or later.
Perhaps you ought to use the 3 Euro as an excude to visit Europe, eh? ;-)

[Diezman]

@Failure

Those 3 Euros are worth almost 4 bucks right now.

--Aaron

[cecilia]

the Euro will easily be much more valuable than the dollar. lucky you!

[Failure]

Yes, lucky me...I will just hold onto this until it's worth one...BILLION dollars!

Last time I was in Europe (Germany, even) they weren't doing this unified currency business, so this is actually the first time I've ever laid my hands on the stuff.  Biggest coin I'm used to is $0.25 so I at first assumed the coins I'd received were a fraction of a euro.

[Doppie1200]

hahaha! Vesalia again.

They sure have a habit of listing things they don't have.
It appears I have their last flicker fixer since I had alot of trouble getting it from them. It was removed from their site before I had even received it.

The refund is laughable at least.

Perhaps you remember the wrong keyboard they send me. They send me keys to convert the keyboard to the one I ordered. One was still wrong so they send me another key. This time the right one. That was one expensive key!

I converted my keyboard but imagine a computer company sending me keys to convert a keyboard. Lucky for them we are all hobbyists so I guess not many will complain.

[Orjan]

I don´t see why everybody dislikes Vesalia because they try to fix things for people? They could have ignored your 3€ refund completely, and you with the keyboard, they could have stonewalled you as well, but they fixed it for you. I never had any problems with Vesalia, my orders always show up on time, and so forth..

[Doppie1200]

Ho, don't get me wrong here. I like what they did not letting me down with the keyboard.

the only problem I'm pointing out is a style problem.

Selling A1200 as new while they are not. Mine was actually damaged. An online-shop with stuff that may or may not be in stock. Refunds in the wrong currency. Poor reply to email (although they do respond with actions).

They won't let you down that's for sure. But their way of doing things gives them an image of being hobbyists. At leasts thats my point of view.

since I'm a hobbyist too I'd still recommend them to any Amiga hobbist. It suits our community doesn't it?

[Orjan]

I can agree that they aren´t top-notch when it comes to e-mail answering, and I can´t argue with your used/not uesd A1200 either, since I have only recieved just the stuff that I have ordered from them without being damaged and stuff... Except for my Cyberstorm MkIII which was DOA, but that wasn´t their fault...

I think they are hobbyists.. I think it´s just a guy and a couple of family members running the whole shabang, but I can be wrong..

[K7HTH]

Orjan wrote:
I don´t see why everybody dislikes Vesalia because they try to fix things for people? They could have ignored your 3€ refund completely, and you with the keyboard, they could have stonewalled you as well, but they fixed it for you. I never had any problems with Vesalia, my orders always show up on time, and so forth..

Well, good for you down there in Sweden getting your products "on time". I am waiting four weeks now for a 1MB expansion card for the A500+ and I am located in Germany. Customer Service is a word Germans still need to learn. It is not as bad as a decade ago because of Walley World. But without WalMart the Deutsch Markt "customer services" would still operate in the dark ages.  

[Dandy]

Doppie1200 wrote:
...
Poor reply to email (although they do respond with actions).

They won't let you down that's for sure. But their way of doing things gives them an image of being hobbyists. At leasts thats my point of view.

Well, I feel I have to give you some info on that:
Earlier this year I had a lengthy phone conversation with Mr. Does from Vesalia.

During that conversation he told me, that currently they can't afford staff and so he and his wife are the only ones that run Vesalia; sometimes their son helps.
Unfortunately his wife got ill and so he now is more or less alone.

He told me this was the main reason why so many e-mails remained unanswered and that it would be better to contact him via phone.

A few weeks ago I read the amiga-news.de forum, that "they" now moved with their shop to their home - so yes, it's more a hobbyists business currently.

And there I read as well they have a lot of (old) Amiga stuff - not listed on their webpages - stored down in their basement.

Doppie1200 wrote:
since I'm a hobbyist too I'd still recommend them to any Amiga hobbist. It suits our community doesn't it?

Of course!

[Orjan]

KD7HTH wrote:

Well, good for you down there in Sweden getting your products "on time".  

Well, actually Sweden lies north of Germany, so technically it would be called "up there".. :-)

Anyway, I always get my orders about 10-12 working days after I place my order and a day or two of those are bank transfer time, so the actual S&H time is a little less..

[Cyberus]

KD7HTH wrote:
Customer Service is a word Germans still need to learn.

You seem obsessed with this. When I was in Germany a couple of weeks ago, my experience of customer service was good.
Perhaps you've just had a bad experience?

If you think Germany's bad, you should try Britain!!

[Failure]

Hmm, just feel I should say I wasn't upset receiving 3 euro in change...just thought it was funny :-)

And FWIW, my emails were always responded to promptly.  I would order from them again.  I saved a lot of money ordering from Vesalia vs Software Hut, although certainly with SoftHut I would have received the items faster -- none of these was anything I was in a hurry for.

Important thing to me is getting responses via email, I do not have long distance service and I think it is stupid to have contact info on the internet and not respond to it.  That is why I order from Vesalia and Software Hut and not from Mr. Hardware with their black hole sales@ address.