2 weeks ago I bought an Ultimaker 2+ Extended in Denmark and since I spend some months working in France during summer I brought it with me. Being here in France I found a cover for the Ultimaker that I thought whould be practical. It is for sale at makershop.fr, apparently the main reseller of Ultimaker in France.
On the surface Makershop.fr looks like a great place to shop. Expert advice always available on the phone, 24 hour shipping and a “generous” 14 days return policy “no questions asked”. As they write on their site, translated from French, “we go further than the return policy required by law, you can try out any purchase for yourself and if you don’t like it, you simply return it”.
So I ordered spools of different materials to try out, an extra build plate and this hood made from 7 sheets of acrylic held together by 3d printed brackets. The hood was not cheap, 400 euros, but I thought it was a good investment.
The goods arrived and I unpacked the hood, laid out all the parts and started to remove the protective foil from two of the 7 acrylic sheets. Then I realised I made a mistake because the front door was too small. By mistake I ordered the kit for the 2+ and not for the extended. So I quickly put everything back in the box and called makershop.fr to initiate the hazzle-free return. I reached their customer service girl Brigitte (I changed her name) who quickly asked me to send them an email with the request to which she later replied herself that they were able to accept the return only if the product was in the original packaging and had not been unwrapped. And the money would be returned as credits for the shop, adding “Dont hesitate to contact us for further info, have a nice day”.
So I called Brigitte again, explaining that 2 of the acrylic sheets had been relieved of their plastic wrap and trying to solve this potential problem I suggested at first they swopped the unwrapped parts with the parts from the package they would send me as a replacement. She asked me to put my suggestion in an email and a few hours later she answered “I’m sorry that that is not possible, dont hesitate to contact us for further info, have a nice day”.
I called again, not at all happy with her reply. A collegue of hers answered the phone. I asked him if he was informed about my problem. “yes, I heard about it, what do you want now?” I told him I was not happy with having to trash a 400 euros product and wanted to discuss some kind of solution, maybe I could pay for the unwrapped parts and they could send me the right model for my printer?”. He wanted me to discuss with Brigitte and put me on hold. I waited for 5 minutes or more, a long time. Then he came back on the phone: “Brigitte don’t want to talk to you, she already wrote you an email and there is nothing further to add, you cannot return the product”. Struggling with my self control I asked if he would discuss this with his boss and get back to me, suggesting again they could charge me for the unwrapped parts. He asked me to put my suggestion in an email, which I did.
This happened friday and today it’s sunday. This morning I searched the internet only to find out that European consumers are well protected when buying stuff on the internet. You always have 14 days return and during this period you are allowed to unpack and unwrap your purchase and test it. If you then wish to return it you don’t have to explain to the seller, it’s your right, except for foodstuff, hygienic products, digital media and some services. And within the 14 days you must be paid all your money back including the original shipping cost. Obviously I put all this in an email for Brigitte. And however this case turns out makershop.fr is the only looser because there is no way I am going to order from them ever again. And of course I’m sharing my experience.
So while there is no doubt I will in fact get to return my product and get my money back eventually, I have to warn everybody about this shop. French people have the unfortunate reputation of being arrogant which I find only partly deserved, however these guys seem to have reinvented the concept of arrogance, adding the middle-finger-gesture of “have a nice day” as an insult to injury. What worries me more is that these cowboys are the main resellers of Ultimaker in this country and I wonder what kind of damage their non existing customer support will add to the Ultimaker brand.