I do wish it was not so.........

Do you have a query on how to get things done in Andalucia, where to find things, who to call? Find out by posting and hear about others experiences.
detourer
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I do wish it was not so.........

Postby detourer » Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:48 am

Sadly, as is often the case, I again find myself purchasing items outside of Spain………….. :(

Firstly I should make it clear that other than being happy regarding the speed and financial advantage I feel sad that again and again I shop elsewhere.

Running a reasonably successful business here I pay LOADS of tax, employ local staff [legally], pay into the health system [but am forced to go private] etc etc. but continually find that not-so-special items are either not available or are at a silly cost.

Running a number of cars, vans and two trucks we no longer attempt to source service or breakdown items here in Spain. We can’t afford the wait while the wrong items drift back and forth between Malaga-Madrid-AEG or wherever……… not to mention the cost. Other than chassis parts this month we have shipped from the UK two sets of tires. Spanish quote 995 euro EACH tire, UK quote 510 delivered. Break calliper Spain 295 euro, UK 94. At least we employ our own fitter!

Tech and computer items are a constant pain. Last week I sourced an item via Amazon UK but thought no, I will buy local. Paid more and waited…….. Arrived at shop to be handed a box from Amazon UK, so could have done that myself.

Latest was the need for Pro-Stage Lights [see other post and thank you Gerryh for help and contacts]. Found what we needed via a German company and not unreasonable at 2000 euro for what it is. Delivery guaranteed 48 hours. This was after a Spanish supplier quoted DOUBLE and one month delivery for exactly the same item/s........Oh yes.....from the SAME German company :crazy:

I LOVE it here but I do despair at times……… :roll:

But it’s not all bad, Cherries are in at the moment, big, fat, black and CHEAP……..Just bought a box on way back from a fruitless [no pun intended] and heated session with the electricity supplier ……… so going to eat ‘till I am sick!!!! :sick:

.
Go to the grave in an attractive and well preserved body? Rather skid in sideways, women on each arm, champagne and credit card in each hand, body thoroughly used, abused, totally worn out and screaming …."WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE"

olive
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby olive » Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:07 pm

I know what you mean.

We ordered a fridge over six weeks ago. It will be 4 weeks mas or menos. Will that be a problem? No we will see you on the 14th July.(2013).

Was it there? NO, when will it be there? Could be end of the month. Factory is very busy. My a$se. They just haven't tooled up that line to build a batch yet. Why have it in their catalogue if they can't make them. Oh look it is August soon. I wonder if they will be short staffed being holiday time. If it wasn't so far away, I would love to turn up at the factory in person. :lol: :lol:

Hey Ho, small price to pay for living in paradise. Don't really need a fridge anyway.

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gerryh
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby gerryh » Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:33 pm

detourer wrote:.. Found what we needed via a German company ..

.
I assume you mean Thomann :thumbup:
They could teach a lot of companies how to run a business.
Their website available in many languages as is their email and phone support.
They have a no quibble 3 year guarantee on all their products.
I bought a sound mixer desk from them and thought one of the functions was faulty.
Contacted them and they emailed me a prepaid label for courier collection. Tested the desk and found it was working OK but agreed the instructions in the manual, for that particular function, wasn't as clear as it should have been. They asked me did I want a refund or the desk sending back to me, at their expense.
Cheers
Gerry
Gerry Harris

kexon
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby kexon » Wed Jul 31, 2013 3:35 pm

Totally agree detourer!

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scampicat
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby scampicat » Thu Aug 01, 2013 1:43 pm

Tell me about it.

I got heartily sick and tired of poor service in shops, no-one knowing the price of anything in shops, being classed a a criminal if I took a (faulty) item back and told I must have broken it myself, you name it......however as I write this I remember the nice man who used to sharpen our chainsaw for 4 euros and it would be ready when he said...not all bad, but much of it.

And don't even mention the bureaucracy.

I loved our village and the people, but found the day-to-day minutiae of living very wearing.

I'm still being pursued even now by trafico, having to prove we imported our car to the UK, despite me having e-mailed them with the information.

Lovely place for a holiday,people wonderful, would not dream of living there again.

Free at Last
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby Free at Last » Thu Aug 01, 2013 3:31 pm

scampicat wrote:
I got heartily sick and tired of poor service in shops, no-one knowing the price of anything in shops, being classed a a criminal if I took a (faulty) item back and told I must have broken it myself, you name it......however as I write this I remember the nice man who used to sharpen our chainsaw for 4 euros and it would be ready when he said...not all bad, but much of it.

It's a shame you had such a bad experience, ours has been the other way round, many examples of really good treatment by shops and businesses and only a few bad ones. I once took a pair of boots back to a shop in Nerja, having bought them 3 months earlier and put them away until winter. The first time I put them on properly as opposed to just trying them on in the shop I noticed something sharp sticking up from the sole of one of them. I hadn't kept the receipt, but the shop exchanged them immediately and were very apologetic. On another occasion we went to a cristaleria to buy a new glass shelf for our fridge. When we got it home it was too small, and my OH discovered he had written the measurements down wrongly. We returned to the shop to get another and explained it was our fault, they insisted on replacing it with no charge. I have taken back an iron which developed a fault during the guarantee period, replaced with no quibble at all, and the OH an electric razor, again an immediate replacement provided. I needed to replace the glass in my washing machine door when it broke - emailed the spares company whose details were in the instruction manual, promptly received an email back saying yes, certainly we can provide a replacement, attached the fitting instructions, you can either collect it from our Malaga depot (they were in Zaragoza) or have it delivered by courier for €6. No, we don't need your credit card details, just pay the courier cash on delivery. Have just received excellent service (again) from our home insurance company to replace a cracked toilet cistern - I needed to do nothing apart from make the initial phone call to make the claim, they sent a plumber out within 4 hours to check the problem, sourced the exact same product from the Portugese manufacturer (took almost 2 weeks to arrive but they phoned to warn me about that), after it arrived and was fitted the insurance company rang me back to check it had been done and that I was happy with it. Hence I have found little to complain about.

Nimrod
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby Nimrod » Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:14 pm

FAL,
You were far luckier than we were,our experience would make you weep.

Free at Last
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby Free at Last » Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:53 pm

Free at Last wrote:
Nimrod wrote:FAL,
You were far luckier than we were,our experience would make you weep.
I wouldn't say we have led a charmed life here - we had big delays in getting our kitchen fitted, the same kind of problems everyone has with Vodafone (cancelling one of their contracts is like trying to climb out of quicksand) and a home burglary (again dealt with exceptionally well by the insurance company). But on the whole the positives have outweighed the negatives.

Obviously that's not the case for everyone, I know. Which is a great pity.

If experience has taught me anything it is to deal as far as possible with the smaller, locally based businesses as not only is it far easier to go back to them if something does go wrong, but I think without exception their customer service has been far better than the larger better known ones. Sometimes it can cost a few euros more, but usually not much, which can be weighed against the cost of travelling to the larger ones.

anyroads
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby anyroads » Thu Aug 01, 2013 8:07 pm

"detourer wrote:
.. Found what we needed via a German company .."

Ah, but that is why Germany is where it is, and Spain, alas, is where it is...........

anyroads

olive
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby olive » Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:59 pm

Update on the fridge.

I went to see the shop today (Moya in Loja) . What is happening please? Guy fishes out the paperwork. Ordered 11th June. Two "chase it" annotations. It turns out that the shop orders through Tien21 who in turn order from the company. No one has one and of course the shop isn't dealing direct with the manufacturer so can't do anymore. Bottom line is no one is bothered really.

I asked where the company is - Mexico. ( Back home I looked on the web and Hisense is a Chinese company so I can't even have a day out and turn up at the factory for a laugh).

The chap said give it another 15 days or you can always cancel. :sick:

Right now I am back looking on the web as I did in June. I might even consider an ST from Britain apart from guarantee issues. Lets have a look on EBay UK.

telboy
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby telboy » Sun Aug 04, 2013 1:30 pm

olive wrote:Update on the fridge.

I went to see the shop today (Moya in Loja) . What is happening please? Guy fishes out the paperwork. Ordered 11th June. Two "chase it" annotations. It turns out that the shop orders through Tien21 who in turn order from the company. No one has one and of course the shop isn't dealing direct with the manufacturer so can't do anymore. Bottom line is no one is bothered really.

Olive - Why didn't you order a fridge from Media Markt/Carrefour or Opportunidad :?:

I know sometimes you like to buy local because you'd think you'd get a more personalised service. I live near Loja, I know the shop you have dealings with and surprisingly it is quite a large store. We bought a DVD/Digital Decoder recorder from there, to which the sales assistant assured us it would record from a British satellite box plus there would be English instructions as well as Spanish within -
well it didn't and there wasn't. We took it back, they wouldn't give us our money back but gave us a credit note from which we bought a portable vacuum cleaner and floor fan, both these items have since packed in :!:

Things....can only get better :!:

terry

olive
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby olive » Sun Aug 04, 2013 2:24 pm

telboy wrote:
olive wrote:Update on the fridge.

I went to see the shop today (Moya in Loja) . What is happening please? Guy fishes out the paperwork. Ordered 11th June. Two "chase it" annotations. It turns out that the shop orders through Tien21 who in turn order from the company. No one has one and of course the shop isn't dealing direct with the manufacturer so can't do anymore. Bottom line is no one is bothered really.

Olive - Why didn't you order a fridge from Media Markt/Carrefour or Opportunidad :?:

I know sometimes you like to buy local because you'd think you'd get a more personalised service. I live near Loja, I know the shop you have dealings with and surprisingly it is quite a large store. We bought a DVD/Digital Decoder recorder from there, to which the sales assistant assured us it would record from a British satellite box plus there would be English instructions as well as Spanish within -
well it didn't and there wasn't. We took it back, they wouldn't give us our money back but gave us a credit note from which we bought a portable vacuum cleaner and floor fan, both these items have since packed in :!:

Things....can only get better :!:

terry
Would it have been any better? None of them have what we wanted in stock.Plus there might have been a hefty delivery charge. Plus further to go in the unlikely event of a problem.......................

Things can only get better? :roll: I set off with very low expectations and that way you are sometimes surprised.

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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby El Cid » Sun Aug 04, 2013 3:56 pm

Try http://www.electroprecio.com/cocina/fri ... 1_303.html

They deliver next day, prices are good and I know at least 5 people who have bought from them.

As for service all major domestic items are supported by the local manufacturers approved service company so having a local supplier means very little.

100% recommendation.

Sid

olive
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby olive » Sun Aug 04, 2013 4:26 pm

Thanks for that link Sid. I have bookmarked it. It may come in.

Not on this occasion. They don't have anything that fits the bill - even compromising a little!

barry
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby barry » Mon Aug 05, 2013 8:46 am

What has this chinese fridge got that no other fridge comes close by comparison? I might want one.

olive
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby olive » Mon Aug 05, 2013 10:29 am

height, width and no freezer compartment taking up valuable space. Apart from that any in a shop would do.

I would tell you the model number and then there might be a run on them sufficient for someone to engage a gear (any gear) but it is now August so nothing is going to happen.

olive
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Re: I do wish it was not so.........

Postby olive » Mon Aug 12, 2013 5:53 pm

A week on and I called into the shop again. The nominated assistants face sank and he did the Iberian shrug. Do customer facing staff learn that at school or is it part of the on the job training? He got on the phone to Tien21. A total of 15 minutes and 42 seconds at mobile rate he was on hold.

The person at the other end checked for availability of our number two and number three choice. No better than number one and the answer was your fridge will be with you later this week or next week. It will soon be cold enough to just put things outside and not bother with a fridge.


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