All the joy and crap starts once you have the unfortunate luck to buy a dud and now you have to replace, return, or repair it. Thats where a good outlet gets its real differantion from a bad outlet.
For this you have to first read the shops general terms and conditions, if they do not exist or parts are not mentioned see law for default conditions . Understanding the local langue really helps, as the English version of the law and possible the terms and conditions are not leaglly binding.
Here English, non binding verison, of Galaxus/Digitec Terms and Conditions .
Second, it is good to hear stories from others which allready went through the procedure.
Third, the best stories are those where the product was not really deffective but not up to the likening of the customer. This is the differantation between a good and a really superb business.
Here return policy of Galaxus/Digitec.
Now a digitec return story: Had a DOA Seasonic power supply. Brought it back to Wohlen where it was exchanged on spot. But that is more due to Seasonics 36 months bring in guarantee then to Digitec.
Guess you were unlucky.
Maybe the difference in refund was due to exchange rate or US bank charges.
The latest purchase however was a slightly different story. The product had a defect which i noticed after 3 weeks, so digitec forwarded the article to the authorised repair centre. It took them about 4 working days to actually send it/receive an acknowledgement from the repair centre. The repair centre sat on the article for the next two and a half weeks. I was slowly getting wound up about it by this time, so I sent both, the repair centre and digitec, a curt e-mail requesting a status update. With a week a replacement article was waiting for me in my post-box. Luckily i checked my post-box before someone else did
Hence in the after sales department - nothing to complain about, but nothing to rave about either.
I now tried to have a warranty repair done on one of my computers (no added warranty/service packages purchased, unfortunately). Digitec has farmed this out to other (German) company. The process is completely corrupted... the people I talk and email to are both incompetent and boarderline rude. It is now 30 days ... and the computer is still not repaired (minor problem actually..)
Complaining with Digitec about the poor performance is pointless... they run a very lean operation and do not want to be bothered with customer complaints.
Advise: make sure to buy the offered on-site warranty expension with any computer purchase. Otherwise warranty repairs can turn into a nightmare...
Background
Up to this point I've already spent over 1k with them on a TV and lots of other odds and ends that one gets when starting from scratch in a new country.
Buying the thing
So before spending 1,300 on a mid-range gamer PC + screen, I dropped them an email to ask for the keyboard and headphones (c70 CHF) to be thrown in for free. Reasonable request one thinks given the c 2.5k spend? Reply:
Unfortunately, our purchasing conditions don’t allow any further reductions. Please understand that we want to offer to all our customers the most attractive prices, so we make the offer from the beginning as interesting as possible, so that further discounts are limited.
I've decided to buy it all nevertheless and made the order on 1 September, paying by card (with a 30 CHF charge!) because I apparently can't be trusted with a Rechnung nor are any other payment methods (except maybe cash) free of payment charge.
Despite the items being in stock and making a pre-payment, nothing was being sent out. On the 3rd I had to resort to a tweet as digitec take at least 3 days to respond to an email. The package was sent on the 4th and I think I received it on the 5th.
The delivery
So you'd think they would send a 1,300 CHF package by courier, signature required etc. Something sensible like that? No. What I got was one box left outside the building weighing 20 kg (according to die post)!
What if there was rain? What if someone opened it and had a look? They didn't even ring the fkin doorbell!!
So because of the size and weight of the thing, I had to open it up, outside the building and take it up bit by bit.
The PC
Good machine, works out of the box, except... the wifi card is faulty. I am not an IT guy so I did what I could (and what normal person probably wouldn't) and that's to reinstall drivers from CD and try and find some online (using an external modem I had spare)... nothing work. The card picks up the network but has some sort of problem connecting.
The following is an abbridged version of my correspondence with digitec
Call 1
Me: Holding for 30 min
Digitec: Saying throught that someone will pick the phone up, at the end saying they're too busy and I swear to god... hanging up.
Email 1
Me: Hello, I have a new PC, the network card is broken, I tried all sorts of different things, can you please send an extrnal model costing 25 CHF, we'll call it a day.
Digitec (3 business days later): Please send the faulty PC (the whole thing) back to us or bring the PC back to fix it.
Email 2
Me: Hello, that is not happening because I want to use my new PC, rather than you hold it for weeks. Please just send me a new wireless adaptor
Digitec (next day, wow!): We have sent your concern to the products department (oh).
Digitec (1 week later): Please send us your wireless adaptor
Email 3:
Me:Hello, I am not sending you my wireless adapter as that will invalidate the warranty on the PC right? Nice suggestion. Last chance to send me the wireless adapter.
Digitec: We kindly ask you to understand that this is not our decision, but the one of the responsible service center which takes all decisions based on the instructions by the manufacturer. We regret the fact that we could not give you a more positive reply.
So almost 3 weeks later, they could quite happily take my money (including 30 CHF card charge), but not send me a CHF 20 wireless adapter. And by the way people at work have also told me that calling them is pointless, noone ever picks up.
I know that I am not spending a single rappen with them ever again and suggest that you don't fall for their shiny new look either.
Also, one USB 3 slot in the front doesn't work. I didn't wanted to send the machine back so I live with it. But this is pretty annoying ...
Not sure where I will order my next machine though ...
One word about the "on site" insurance. From what I understood, it only means that they come on-site to to a diagnostic, but after that it will follow the same process as a not "on-site" repair.
So, not sure it is really worth it.
Or just buy from Apple.
At least, they don't claim it's not their fault (if and when they acknowledge that there is a problem...cough...cough.. 2011 MBP Nvidia GPU...cough...cough).
Personally, I wouldn't bother phoning them for a 30 CHF item on a 1.3k PC.
That's just a waste of time.
I only buy individual parts from them - and always pick them up in-store.
Let's be diplomatic, your post show that you are entirely rubbish with computers, troubleshooting and fault diagnostic, and yet you are willing to open inside the unit to replace a card yourself?
Sure that they should not let you do that, why are you surprised? What is you ruin something else and then claim warranty?
If you want to debate about your issue, then post clear facts, how you diagnosed that the "wifi card" is faulty, etc...
Without that, your 2 millions character's post will only serve as a scaremonging .
LOL at the thought that a discounter will chuck in anything for free.
And just as an aside, I have no idea why you expect 70chf of freebies to be thrown in just because you are spending X amount on a desktop... you don't get that in any online store I know, even in England.
You go to a box shifter to get the cheapest possible price then moan when they can't / wont jump to it to fix your problem.
If you want customer service, 24 hour pro helpline etc etc they you HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!!
There are many small computer stores dotted around the place, that employ people who know what they are doing and would be able to fix your issues in a heart beat, but guess what, there pc's cost more then digitec.
Only issue I have with digitec is having bought from them I'm now inundated with junk emails from them and related companies.
Your issue is that you don't receive junk mail?
Generally, but not always, good price basis - your lookout here.
Service, as good as you can expect; always friendly and competent. Prefer to go in to collect myself, and pay at the time.
Summary: my first choice to look at, research, and buy; but may find goods cheaper (or more available) elsewhere. Support and strongly recommend.