Aquatuning (Germany) - terrible service :-(

[Nicholas Peyton]

Aquatuning.co.uk / Aquatuning.de / Aquatuning.com / Aquatuning.us

-The order was late. (Shipping from Germany to the U.K) but not due to shipping but due to late processing despite paying Aquatuning a premium for an option on their site called "processes immediately" (I.E. same day shipping).

They also promised to refund this and forgot.


-They have sent me 8/10 tubing when I ordered 13/19 tubing (how can you mix up the biggest tube size with the - smallest - size?


-The Eheim Compact 1000 Pump only worked for 30 minutes before it begun to leak through the housing (or casing) not the outlet or inlet but the actual housing.
(The instructions say to disconnect from electricity immediately if this happens).


This is the 1st time I have ordered from Aquatuning.co.uk and I am seriously disappointed.

Has anyone else had such bad service from this company?


Nick Peyton

 

[Nicholas Peyton]

Update:

Phoned them this morning (I was polite) but they preferred to deal with the issue over email saying and I quote "we are in the middle of emailing you back already - expect an email in 15 - 20 minutes".

So I hung up politely and waited. And received an unsatisfactory answer.

I had asked if they could send the tubing out on express delivery in time for Christmas, their answer was that they can only send it "economy delivery" and that they couldn't even ship today (despite the fact UPS collections aren't until later that Afternoon from their warehouse). I was in contact with them from 9am.

I then suggested this:
-"Let me order the correct tubing from a U.K company with express delivery for tomorrow; Christmas Eve" and refund this cost to me. This would of been far cheaper for them & saved Christmas for me

Their answer was "no we cannot pay for another company's shipping - this is something we cannot do".

I then sent another email highlighting everything that went wrong with this order and stressing that I should not have to pay for their mistake:


----
1. Late processing. (despite paying premium)

2. Forgot to refund the shipping costs when I telephoned about late processing 2 days ago. (had previously agreed to this)

3. Sending me 8/10 tubing when I ordered 13/19

4. IGNORING a message sent WITH the order (not before or after or separate to the order) but WITH THE ORDER asking to be careful when selecting the parts. (I recently heard about someone else who received the wrong GPU block from them).

5. Unwilling to send correct tubing out on express delivery in time for Christmas.

6. Not even willing to ship the correct tubing today (despite UPS collections from their warehouse aren't until later that afternoon).

7. Faulty pump

8. Not offered to pay return postage for RMA on faulty pump.
---

No reply, and last time I called they hung up the phone twice (despite the fact I was always still polite and respectful).

I strongly suggest never ordering from this company; I certainly will never be dealing with them again. (after I have completed the RMA process on the pump).

Extremely disappointed, very angry and quite upset with their customer policies and lack of "customer focus" or "motivation" on this issue. (despite numerous frustrating emails and telephone calls).


Nick Peyton


Update:
-I ordered the correct tubing (paid for & organised by myself) from overclockers.co.uk; it was shipped only 90 minutes after placing order.

-Still not heard confirmation back from Aquatuning.co.uk about tubing & delivery refund. (which by the way, is less than what I've had to pay for delivery on Christmas Eve)

 

[cdawall]

I have ordered from them a multitude of times without issue.

 

[Nicholas Peyton]

I have ordered from them a multitude of times without issue.

Then you're obviously one of the "lucky ones".

Or you've simply just never had to deal with their "customer service".

On overclockers.net (1080 owners club) there's a guy who got the entire wrong waterblock sent out to him by Aquatuning. (complete different model to his invoice).

That's why I tried to communicate to them to "please be careful" when selecting parts; because its near to Christmas so if anything went wrong there wouldn't be time to fix it :-(

If I never knew about the issue he had with his order I wouldn't of been worried about mine and would never; in a million years thought to write a message like that into my order details...

I can't believe I did, and they still got it wrong.

And fine; I understand we are all human... but to then refuse to fix the mistake and force me to pay the extra premium to fix it in time myself -- that's just plain unfair.

In my company we wouldn't dream of that.


Also last time I ordered a cooling kit from another U.K company (overclockers.co.uk) there were 4 fittings missing from the pack (they sent 4 fittings out on Sunday delivery costing them about £18 -- but they done it without hesitation because I said I needed it for a build I was doing that weekend and it was obviously their fault).

It wouldn't of been "moral" to of made me pay the Sunday delivery cost myself.

Aquatuning seem on another planet from the rest of us!

 

[GreiverBlade]

Then you're obviously one of the "lucky ones".

well with me that makes two ... ordered countless item from them never had any issues.

 

[Nicholas Peyton]

well with me that makes two ... ordered countless item from them never had any issues.

did you ever need to deal with their customer service?

If they make a mistake on 5% of orders; 1% of those might need urgent attention. Its just bad business, not to pay for that mistake themselves. And instead forcing it upon their customer to pay for it.

 

[alucasa]

I don't do online shopping a week before and after Christmas season. Too many delays and accidents during that period.

 

[Nicholas Peyton]

I ordered them the week before (so 8 days before Christmas and 1 day after I got paid)

 

[alucasa]

The whole December is risky. People get cranky and they don't wanna work, all that. Their minds aren't just at work most of times.

Customer service can suffer from that.

 

[cdawall]

Yep ordering during the busiest time of the year is a risk. Always regardless of company.

 

[Aquinus]

I sympathize but...

The whole December is risky. People get cranky and they don't wanna work, all that. Their minds aren't just at work most of times.

Customer service can suffer from that.

Yep ordering during the busiest time of the year is a risk. Always regardless of company.

These. During the busiest time of year, you're going to encounter this more often than any other time of the year.

 

[Nicholas Peyton]

Well I was holding out for that (hoping it was just a once off -- because don't get me wrong that company has a big range.

Bigger than most. (Maybe they have grown too quickly)? And things are suffering as a consequence.

I was utterly astounded (shocked) by their attitude though. Its annoyed me all day.

I hear they're moving into a new building soon too -- so hopefully things will change.

Still a damn shame about my customer service experience though; that's still kind of past contempt. Will take me a lot to get over that.

I don't blame people for their mistakes (I make them myself; we're all human) but when a company blatantly isn't prepared to put it right (especially when it won't cost a lot) its a real shame.

---
The only other matter I want to bring up (before I try and come to peace with myself about this) is their 'express shipping' is awfully expensive.

I got an express delivery from Slovenia (which by the way only has 2 million inhabitants) for £15 (about 17 dollars).

Aquatuning (with Germanys population of 80 million + infrastructure) want 40-60 Euros for express delivery for a 2.5kg parcel.

That definitely needs addressed lol.

--

 

[FireFox]

I have bought many watercooling parts from Aquatuning.de without issues.

Note: i avoid to do online shopping on December.

 

[AsRock]

I have bought many watercooling parts from Aquatuning.de without issues.

Note: i avoid to do online shopping on December.

Thing is when most company's screw up they own up to it and fix it but this sounds like they just said yeah yeah sure ok and thought fuck him.

Screw up's happen but this seems a bit more than that and if i had staff that had that attitude i would want them all fired, plain and simple your not doing your job correctly which seems to be a management issue were a lot of company's hire extra staff to handle the busy times, these may of and hired wrong people for the job.

 

[the54thvoid]

Maybe Germans have other things on their minds right now.

Bad experiences happen unfortunately but we only talk about them, not the good ones. I usually ignore what forum members say about companies unless they seem like a scam.

I certainly wouldn't order from Europe at this time of year, just in case. It doesn't excuse poor service but this is when you're more likely to get it.

 

[Killertide]

Sorry to unburry this post but if I had read it before I purchaced something from them... I would had not.

Made a purchace of a full system and also payed premium, and it's being "under pakaging" for 12 days now... Sent countless mails out to them plus contact forms... Nothing, not even a * off. And it's mid summer, no excusse since it's not a busy commercial time in there line of business.

Is there a way to cancel the order and get my money back? I payed with paypal, will ask for there help aswell.

 

[qubit]

This sounds like a company to avoid as you're up shit creek without a paddle if they screw up. Shame you've had so much hassle with them @Nicholas Peyton and @Killertide. Don't buy from them again whatever you do.

This is the reason why I like Amazon so much. Anything goes wrong they bend over backwards to help you out, even if that problem was caused by me and they weren't obliged to.

 

[Killertide]

My biggest fear at this point is, if they do send my order ( wilst I still draw breath... ), if the mess things up, there's no telling when my system's will be up and running again... Will never EVER work with them again.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

If you paid via PP or debit card. I would definitely speak to your bank and get them to reverse the transaction

 

[cdawall]

I have recently ordered from them and had no issues again. How curious

 

[Killertide]

How long do they ususaly take to deliver your goods?

 

[cdawall]

How long do they ususaly take to deliver your goods?

It had to ship to the us so 2-4 weeks

 

[Killertide]

Well, to wrap up my part of this post I'll add to it one more time.

I got all my bits, correctly and nothing was off but, I had to use PayPal. I contacted PayPal and they told me that in 8 service days I could turn the issue into a complain, and that they would look it up personaly, all I had to do was send aquatuning an email using the paypal site, and I did, 8 days passed, no reply.

I tuned the issue into a compalin and in the very same day ( 47minutes later to be exact ) I got a reply from aquatuning saying that the order wasnt shipped due to lack of a piece in wearhouse that I've ordered. I asked for a similar piece and it was sent that day to the shipping company, 6 days latter, it arrived.

All I gotta say is: Run from aquatuning!!!!
In my case, if it wasnt for PayPal, I would prolly still be waitting for my order to arrive!

Companies have to work right, if they dont, they'll be soon dismissed by people that do work right, if I may, I'll give an example ( if not, please tell me to or edit the post yourself mod, I dont mind ):

- I bought a TV, online, payed with PayPal, in a store called PCcomponents, wich is in Spain. The TV took 36 hours ( was suppose to be 48 ) to arrive but, it arrived broken, wich can, unfortunatly, happen. I visited there site and told them the status of the tv and, just after I posted what was wrong with it ( the screen was showing ribbons of collor only, so obviously broken ), they sent me another one and vouched to take the broken one, free of charge. The very next day, I got my working tv!

It's really that simple, u have a company that does care about you and wants to keep you happy so u can buy from them again, aquatuning apparetly, doesnt.

 

[FireFox]

It's really that simple, u have a company that does care about you and wants to keep you happy so u can buy from them again, aquatuning apparetly, doesnt.

If one customer walk away they don't care, it doesn't make any difference to them.

 

[Killertide]

If one customer walk away they don't care, it doesn't make any difference to them.

So you agree? If I buy for myself I should be treated like dirt? But what if a company like Asus buys it by the hundreds... They should be treatd decently?

I know that democracy doesnt exist but... I'll shut up now.