PowerCH owes me in excess of 400.- because of two orders they have failed to fullfil. I've asked them for refunds on several occasions but they have failed to respond.

What now? Do I talk to the police? A solicitor? Is there such a thing as Citizens Advice in Switzerland?

I'm sick of them and their broken promises. What can I do to get this sorted out?

registered letter detailing the problem (In German or one of the other swiss national languages), and what solution you require. If you are asking for a refund then include your bank details and the total amount.

Set a time limit for action. Tell them if you do not receive a reply within 14 days you will pursue it with the relevant authorities...

If you paid by credit card then get in touch with your credit card supplier.

I paid by Post Finance transfer through their on-line billing payment.

Surely taking money from someone and not supplying the goods is fraud and is therefore a police matter?

Get a certificate of payment from Swiss Finance.

Take this to the "Debtors Court", and pursue them through the courts. All your expenses will be recovered if you are successful.

http://www.google.ch/#q=office+des+p...w=1229&bih=583

Thank you.. That's very helpful. I'll talk to the Office de Poursuits if I don't get any luck from sending them a registered letter.

In the mean time, I suggest you keep away from them.. The more bad press I can give them the happier I will be.

I had the very same thing with PowerCH. First they told me it would take 2 weeks. Two months went by and nothing.
In my last email I gave them 5 days to refund the money, or else I would report them to my creditcard supplier. Had my money back the next day.

Sounds like they do this quite regularly..

Did you write in English or French.

To balance this negative, I've used PowerCh for quiet a lot of stuff and had completely the opposite experience, and I've directed a number of people to them and never had a complaint back about lack of service.

However, things can go pear shaped, so if you are having problem have you:
- actually talked to them or is correspondence via email?
- had the reason for non-fullfilment explained?
- what time period are we talking about?

To address your points:
- Yes, I've spoken to them several times via phone and followed each call up with an email. The response has been a lot of empty promises of refunds being placed in my account in 4-5 working days.
- They told me each that the item went out of stock about 2 hours prior to my placing an order (despite their website showing the item in stock) The next stock delivery was estimated between 2 and 4 weeks.
- My first non-fulfilled order was placed on 5th May. so almost 2 months ago.

To put this into perspective.. I've spent over CHF 2000.- with PowerCH on photography equipment. When PowerCH have what is in stock, actually in stock, they will send it to you, the item sent is no different to any other item bought from a retailer. But when they don't have the item in stock (even if their website tells you that they do), you will be left waiting and wondering with no communication from them for 2-4 weeks (or more) wondering where the item is.

Unfortunately of the items I've ordered through them, most of the items went out of stock between the time I put the item in my basket (the website showing it in stock) and checking out and handing over my money. No information was given, I was not told of a possible delay in delivery, I just was left to wait with their website stating "Processing". One time I rang them two weeks later and was told "Oh, it's just arrived today" and it was then sent on, and another, I was told "we only have half your order" and they delivered that, but altered the order on their web site so that the order only contained the first item, however they took payment for both. The only trace I have of this is the emails I've received from them and the money paid from my bank, their invoice does NOT match the monies received.

I will not be dealing with them again. I will send them a registered letter today and follow this up via the office des poursuites if this does not get resolved within 14 days.

I suggest you stop recommending these people to anyone.. If they have a similar experience to me, you risk losing a friend. There are plenty of other Swiss suppliers out there that I've had no issues with.

I think generally with most Swiss online companies everything is fine as long as you receive the product but if they don't have it in stock or its defect then your in trouble. I've got a feeling their cashflow is so tight. I think paying the extra couple of percent and using your credit card is money well spent with online shops to have them as backup.

A shop is always at the mercy of the distributors supply chain, if they are O.o.S, it get passed down to the shop, where you placed your order and they get the flak. Holding orders until all items in that order are in is not an uncommon practice, and if they shipped what they had when you asked, and are on back order for the rest....

All I can say then is you have been unlucky, my experiences and that of others has been positive, so I will certainly NOT stop using them just because you have had an issue. Although it may prompt a phone call before I order to ensure stock availability, maybe.

Following your logic though, I'd stop using:
Swisscom when my iPhone was late, even though I'd paid.
HM passport office when my passport was late, even though I'd paid.
Ikea when they had a 2 week back order on doors for a customers wardrobes, even when they had paid.
Renault when my car wasn't ready on time.
And never go to Italy where everything is always late

I'm not sure what sort of friends you have, mine wouldn't take the hump with me if they were unhappy with a shop I suggested.

Clearly you are aggrieved, so a registered letter requesting a refund for any items not delivered, for which you have paid sounds like the best course of action. I'd be interested to hear PowerCH's responses to the situation though... in the interest of fairness

IF someone promises a refund within 3-5 working days, and hasn't returned that money nearly 2 months later, you begin to disbelieve anything they say, and leaves me to assume bad faith. I wonder very much about their accounting procedures if they change their invoices like this, rather than providing a Credit note. (Had they provided me with a credit note I could have offset against a different purchase, they would have retained my custom, but it's too late for that)

I don't really care if you continue to shop with them, that's entirely up to you, you can choose to ignore peoples warnings and bad experiences if you so choose, good luck on that.

I will keep this thread updated. Like I said, I've been chasing them for quite some time.. If it has to come to the threat of legal action for them to do what they said they would do 2 months ago, then it's already gone too far for me to believe that any of this would have come about naturally in the course of time. We are in SWITZERLAND, not ITALY, so my expectation of goods and services is based on the Swiss standards, not Italian ones. If I wanted Italian standards, I'd be living on the other side of the alps.

Try it and see.

It's not fraud, as they fully intend to deliver the goods to you. Systematically having no intention to deliver would be fraud. Refusing to refund the money, and refusing to deliver the goods would be theft.

Thanks.. Theft is still a police matter though.

So go to the police and see what happens.

I've stated above what I'm doing.

I've sent them a registered letter that has reitterated what I've said to them in email and phone calls, namely:

They have 14 days from the date of the letter to refund the money to my bank account. (that is, the money must reach me before 14th July). I've given them details of the transactions involved and my details and even done the maths for them and told them the total amount that must reach me by this date. I then stated that failure to return the money by the date mentioned will result in my employing the services of the office des poursuites. This was all written in French.

We'll see wat happens next.. I think they'll return the money to me because I very much doubt that they will want the Office des Poursuites looking into their affairs, no matter what the outcome.

Hello to all,
specially Mr. JonP, which I will not disclosed complete name because of privacy respect.
My name is Mauricio Gajardo and I am the CEO of powerCH GmbH in Switzerland.
I am an active member of this forum, for way over 1 year.
This thread came to my attention and I would like the other fellow members of this forum to hear the other side of the story.
1.- Mr. JonP have received 3 complete orders from us in a period of 6 months. So its very strange that Mr. JonP claims that we are a fraudulent company when he knows that we respect our legal obligations in this contract; why else will he come back and buy more from us.
2.- Mr. JonP placed the order in question on Jun 04th for an amount of 293.05 chf.
3.- on June 14th Mr JonP was informed by email, after confirmation by phone, that at the time he placed the order, the supplier ran out of this "special order" item, and new delivery date was expected by end of June.
4.- on June 16th Mr. JonP informed us in writing that he wishes to cancel the order after speaking by phone to one of our Customer service which informed him that refunds takes about 10 days to complete (standard time for this rare cases).
5.- on June 17th the order status was change in our system and the refund process began.
6.- on June 23th to 24th powerCH was on holidays same as the rest of the Zurich Kanton.
7.- on June 29th the payment of Mr. JonP was refunded by our account department.

Whoever will like to have copies or proof of this information is welcome to PM me, of course after approval of Mr. JonP to disclosed this information.

When a company like us have hundreds of orders per day, in the last 6 years, is almost impossible to please all our customers or deliver every single item on time, because not all time frames its up to us. Suppliers and transport companies are also involve in this process.
Everyday, each single item that arrive to our warehouse in Dietikon, its ship the SAME day with Post service to our customers.
Unfourtanelly from time to time we have customers that are unhappy with our service and start making this online terror campaign against us and not disclosing the REAL facts to others, for example Mr. JonP claims he has been waiting over 2 months for an order he placed this month. Also he claims we owe him over 400 chf when in fact his order was for 293 chf. He also omit the information we gave him that refunds are done within 10 days (2-3 times per month) for customers that cancel orders for whatever reason, or when WE cancel orders because of end of life items.
Is not mention here either that this order was for a Manfrotto bag model Pro Runner x450 aw. When you search for this bag in price comparison websites like Toppreise.ch, you will see that our price is around 28% cheaper than the rest of the shops and only 3 of 12 shops have this item as available. Which means this is a hard to get item, not very common between buyers and a long delivery time is perfectly understandable.
We are sorry for the inconvenience Mr. JonP have with us at this moment, but we dont appreciate the defamatory campaign he is planning to start against us without true facts and hidden information. In Switzerland we have the right to pursue any legal actions against this cases, lets hope this will not be the case.

I am available for any questions and suggestion.

Thank you for taking the time to read and sorry for my poor english.

and once again, Mr. JonP we are sorry if your order didn't go as plan.

Mr. Mauricio Gajardo
powerCH Team.

I would like to point out that I have received from, and provided services to PowerCh without issue for over 12 months, so am nothing more than a satisfied customer.

Unlike those who seem too quick to jumping to conclusion or throw out legal links, I always like to hear both side of a story. Thanks for that very full account Mauricio, and I'm glad you took the time to respond.

It does seem that there are a few discrepancies between the 2 accounts of the events, and hope a resolution can be found without lining the pockets of a lawyer

always 2 sides to every story, and having owned a retail and online business in the uk I know better then anyone the customer is most definitely not always right