Avoid "hardware House" Chain Of Stores

[wintermute]

I deal regularly in IT and networks designed for brokerages so I often buy my parts on the fly to replace outages and specific low level component failures. I used to shop at the "hardware house" chain of computer shops that can be found all over pantip, the mall, and fortune IT center. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago they sold me a bad set of motherboards. I sent it back for warranty service within the week and bought replacements at another store. Surprise surprise, it's now been over 3 weeks and they still give me the "not finit" answer and refuse to give me any details on when they will make good on their warranty service.

Looks like i'll be shopping elsewhere and I spend on average around 65,000 baht a month via customer contract. If anyone has a recommendation for a retail or small computer shop that DOES make good on its warranties please let me know.

[Guest Reimar]

May you should think about something before you post such comments.

Hardware House Inter. is one of the biggest Retailer for computer in Thailand. Shops at many big retailers not allowed to exchange products within Warranty. Claims has to be done via the Service Center and the customer has to wait for the replacement and/or repair if he want to use an Retail shop. If the customer goes directly to the Service Center, it's a different "game" and mainly they just exchange the product and the customer can get the new one right away.

Normally the staff in the shops will point you directly to the Service Center. But we're all imperfect humans, incl. you and so may they forget to point you there. 

You also have the choice for to contact the CEO of that Company. His name is Simon Lee and as Singaporean Chinese he speaks very english. 

And you claim that you're in Computer business as well so you should know the procedures here in Thailand. On the other hand you also know how difficult it is for a huge company to handle not the claims only but the staff as well. It's also quite difficult to keep track if there isn't a very clear way how to handle such things as Warranty Claims.

If I were you, I had contacted the management for an explanation to first.

Cheers.

[sbk]

I thought the manufacturer dealt with warranty claims?

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello

Why is it actually that here in Thailand they don't have a "money-back" warranty like almost everywhere else? many times i myself have been confronted with parts that were either defective out-of-the-box (hard drives!) or just not suitable for my needs (a mainboard that would absolutely not support more than one DVD drive!) and upon returning the items THAT SAME DAY i was told "sorry, no refund, no exchange, send to service center and if under warranty will replace for same product only, you come back after four weeks". Or, worse, they make up excuses for not giving warranty at all - like with one Seagate HDD i bought at Panthip, i was sent from place to place to claim the warranty and ended up on the top floor in a shack-like room that was the "Seagate Warranty Center", there they took the HDD which, out of the package, was not detected by the BIOS and hence useless, they checked it with a MAGNIFYING GLASS and finally said "here is a scratch, you have dropped it, sorry no warranty". I walked out of there hearing them making fun of the "stupid Farang" (i speak Thai enough to understand that) and right back to the shop where i bought the thing, and there i told them clearly - i walk out of here with a new hard drive or i call the cops and my (fictional) lawyer who would have the business shut down for improper practises. That did the trick and i GOT the new drive (which worked fine).

In Europe (Germany at least) if within six months (!) the product fails to deliver it's promise you'll get your money back, no questions asked, right at the place where you bought it and THEY deal with manufacturer/wholesaler/whatever. After the six months and within the rest of the warranty period you too have to wait for the service center or whatever to check the product and decide for replacement or repair.

Oh and another "nice" (not!!) thing here is the typical run-around they give you - like when i bought a Nokia that was found to be defective after a couple of days - the shop where i bought it sent me to Nokia for warranty claims and Nokia sent me right back to the shop! In the end it took some very rude words, yelled by me at the manager of that particular Nokia "service" center to get me my phone fixed for which i had spend a month's salary a couple of days earlier.

If it comes to "warranty" Thailand really is a service desert - with very few exceptions (Kingston/Synnex - exchange on the spot even for years-old products under "life time warranty" and the small motorbike shop in Phra Khanong where i have my bike serviced - free exchange and labour for any defects on their works or parts).

With best regards.....

Thanh

[MarkBKK]

... I used to shop at the "hardware house" chain of computer shops ...

The exact opposite of my experience with Hardware House International at Fortune Town over the course of a few years. A couple of times I've had problems (one dead PSU, one memory/mobo miss-match) they promptly checked there was a problem and replaced the goods. Within minutes. Of course, YMMV.

[sniffdog]

I once bought a defective motherboard at Jedi (Ground floor Pantip, next to HWInter) and they replaced it immediately.

[Guest Reimar]

I thought the manufacturer dealt with warranty claims?

As long as the manufacturer has it's own Service Center, they will deal directly with Warranty claims. If not, it's mainly the Master Dealer who will take care of it.

Most of the time it's the Customer who is going the wrong way if problems occours. The company in question, HWInter is a very relaiable company with an straight forward policy. And the same applys for the most other bigger dealers as well. 

A Money Back Warranty didn't exist in Thailand and that is good so. No one will be able to exist in such businiess here if a Warranty like that would be in place because you would have to deal more of the half of your time with Claims like that! Like Thanh worte, buy something which didn't suit the need, give it back. In that way, every one would buy many things even if don't need because you can give it back and get back your money!! And the seller can't sell it again because is used already!! What a business!!!!

And than didn't forget the enviroment, like the existing power system in Thailand. May you can imagine how many faults based on that Power system?! Starting with an non existing grounding follow bey lightning protection and so on. Why a manufacturer or Dealer should warrant for your faulty system?!

The list of things like that could be much longer. As Customer you thing just one way: Your benefit and your Rights! As Dealer and/or Manufacturer you have to think much different!

I'm in that business for many years in Thailand and had on beginning a Computer Shop as well. One point why I was sold the shop, was the  huge amount of Warranty Claims based on envorimental faults. To deal with this kind of claims cost you a huge amount of money and time. And again, why I as Dealer should take care for the enviroment of my customers?!

And I don't believe that the system in Germany is as that as ThanhBKK wrote. But here I could be wrong because it's much more than 20 years ago I was the last time in Germany and Law's are changing within that period of time. 

One other thing many shouldn't  forget in Thailand, many of the Retailers "importing" the products they sell bey themself. Many products I can buy at Pantip or an other IT Mall cheaper than from an legal Master Dealer/Wholesaler! This is only possible if the Retailer is "bypassing" the Manufacturer rules on one hand and the legal way of Import on the other hand.

Cheers.

[endure]

I thought the manufacturer dealt with warranty claims?

As a general (off topic) aside, that depends on where you are. In the UK, legally, warranty claims are between you and the dealer. The reasoning behind this is that it's the dealer you have a contract with, not the manufacturer.

[monty]

I must say I have had no problems with HWHinter myself (Both Sri Racha and Pattaya branch TukCom).

Prompt replacement when broken out of the box (once hard drive and once mainboard).

On a more positive note, there are manufacturer service centers with excellent no hassle care, with as prime example Acer.

They do seem to have a policy of giving as little hassle as possible to the customer, even if it involves immediate replacement of parts, or in my case even a complete laptop, which they could most probably have replaced in less then 24 hours.

I think many TV users can attest to this!

[pampal]

I have had only one problem at Pantip and that was regarding a mp3 player that had it's MBR corrupted to show 2gb instead of the real 1gb capacity it had. The seller refused to do anything, so I gave up and left and had it repaired upstairs for around 200 baht.

[bino]

On a more positive note, there are manufacturer service centers with excellent no hassle care, with as prime example Acer.

They do seem to have a policy of giving as little hassle as possible to the customer, even if it involves immediate replacement of parts, or in my case even a complete laptop, which they could most probably have replaced in less then 24 hours.

I think many TV users can attest to this!

I can for sure- Acer service was good to me.

I had a problematic laptop battery, and took the laptop to the service center at Pantip. Without a second of hesitation they pulled a battery out of a brand new laptop in the window display, and put it in my laptop. The whole visit lasted not more than about 4 minutes with no hassles or questions. I was well pleased by them.

[wintermute]

May you should think about something before you post such comments.

Hardware House Inter. is one of the biggest Retailer for computer in Thailand. Shops at many big retailers not allowed to exchange products within Warranty. Claims has to be done via the Service Center and the customer has to wait for the replacement and/or repair if he want to use an Retail shop. If the customer goes directly to the Service Center, it's a different "game" and mainly they just exchange the product and the customer can get the new one right away.

And you claim that you're in Computer business as well so you should know the procedures here in Thailand. On the other hand you also know how difficult it is for a huge company to handle not the claims only but the staff as well. It's also quite difficult to keep track if there isn't a very clear way how to handle such things as Warranty Claims.

Well, they could be bigger than Wal Mart but the fact remains 3+ weeks plus a pretty dismissive reply to a few general inquiries about the service is inexcusable. Maybe it doesn't fit into their "business model" to honor warranties but that doesn't mean I should have any sympathy. It's business and I work in arbitrage where time to troubleshoot a problem is a factor.

btw, what's with the defensiveness in this thread does Thaivisa receive ad revenue from Hardware House?

[Guest Reimar]

Well, they could be bigger than Wal Mart but the fact remains 3+ weeks plus a pretty dismissive reply to a few general inquiries about the service is inexcusable. Maybe it doesn't fit into their "business model" to honor warranties but that doesn't mean I should have any sympathy. It's business and I work in arbitrage where time to troubleshoot a problem is a factor.

btw, what's with the defensiveness in this thread does Thaivisa receive ad revenue from Hardware House?

Than you should know how to go the right way! If you had done it right, there wasn't anything to complain about. And if you think that the company HWInter didn't honors a warranty, the first step ist to go to the managment to clear the fact. And that's what didn't had done! So the complaint should go to yourself!

I don't know TV receive any revenue from HWInter but I know HWInter very well and the owner is an old Friend of mine. He would never tolerate things like that you mention here but he need to know about it. So, again, it's your own fault not to go the right way.

Everything has min. 2 sides and we just was getting to know your one, May it would be interesting to get to know the opposite site as well?!

Be fair to others as you want they fair to you.

Cheers

[onethailand]

HWH is reliable - and they are also a master dealer for a number of products. And Simon Lee is definitely straight-up.

I suspect the OP returned product that they didn't have any stock for (or perhaps the entire lot was bad) and so they have to wait for the next shipment from the factory. Otherwise they will normally replace on the spot.

[Thanh-BKK]

A Money Back Warranty didn't exist in Thailand and that is good so. No one will be able to exist in such businiess here if a Warranty like that would be in place because you would have to deal more of the half of your time with Claims like that! Like Thanh worte, buy something which didn't suit the need, give it back. In that way, every one would buy many things even if don't need because you can give it back and get back your money!! And the seller can't sell it again because is used already!! What a business!!!!

Now that's <deleted>.

Everyone would buy many things they don't need..... may i ask you why they don't do that where such warranty is in place (as required by the law, such as in Germany where i happen to be from and where i worked in retail)? We had very few such claims, and all of them were either because of a defective product or one that wouldn't do it's intended job (mainly here loudspeakers for cars that wouldn't fit into the place they were meant to be for).

And we can't sell it because it's used? <deleted> again. If it doesn't fit in first place, it's not "used" and can be re-sold without problem. If it's defective of course it's not being sold again but being sent back to the distributor who in turn reimburses OUR money (speaking of "us" as "the shop i worked in").

And that business is the ONLY way to keep a customer happy!

Because if you buy something only to find out it's damaged out of the box or can't be used for what it was intended for, and then you get nothing but a stupid excuse, you are pissed - and rightly so, and of course you won't buy there ever again. And you are similarly pissed if you need the product TODAY (which is the reason you bought it TODAY, no?) and it doesn't work/fit/whatever and they keep you waiting for weeks, costing YOU money for non-productivity. At least, in case of defective product, an on-the-spot swap for a working one should be the norm (as apparently is in many places, see posts here, just that i have not been that lucky yet...) and in case of a non-fitting product (too large/small loudspeakers, mainboard that doesn't work with the available drives etc) at least a swap for a different model that does the job should be granted - of course the customer will need to pay any price difference or, if the "one that does the job" is cheaper, the shop should pay back the difference! After all the shop can sell the original one to the next customer who needs such small/large loudspeakers or a mainboard that accepts only one DVD drive.

I ended up with a mainboard that was completely useless for me and i had to sell it "second hand" (four hours old, 10 minutes used) at about half the price. In the same go i had to sell a graphics card, also brand new and 10 minutes used (on that same board which had AGP slot) because the shop would not take it back or swap it for a PCI-Express model because the mainboard i ended up buying had such slot, at over 1.000 Baht loss. Needless to say that THAT shop won't get any business from me ever again, and i buy LOTS of computer parts at Panthip.

I had my best experiences in regards to "warranty" in fact with a number of second-hand dealers at Panthip - i bought something, it didn't work, i gave it back - no questions asked, i either got another one (once a mainboard, once a HDD, twice a CPU) or money back (again twice for CPU's where no equivalent model was available for a swap) and RAM (bought wrong, 16-chip which wasn't supported by mainboard and no 8-chip available).

Since this "Hardware House" seems to have rather good policies, where exactly in Panthip can i find them? Do they stock the following:

- ASUS mainboards

- AMD CPU's

- KINGSTON memory products

- ENERMAX PSU's

- WESTERN DIGITAL hard drives

- ATI graphic cards (regardless what manufacturer as long as it's ATI chipsets)

- LITE-ON optical drives

- LOGITECH peripherals (mouses, keyboards)

- GENUINE (!!) Microsoft operating systems (XP OEM, Vista OEM and FULL)

Because those are the components a computer "Made By Thanh" is made of.

With best regards.....

Thanh

[Steve2UK]

A Money Back Warranty didn't exist in Thailand and that is good so. No one will be able to exist in such businiess here if a Warranty like that would be in place because you would have to deal more of the half of your time with Claims like that! Like Thanh worte, buy something which didn't suit the need, give it back. In that way, every one would buy many things even if don't need because you can give it back and get back your money!! And the seller can't sell it again because is used already!! What a business!!!!

Now that's <deleted>.

Everyone would buy many things they don't need..... may i ask you why they don't do that where such warranty is in place (as required by the law, such as in Germany where i happen to be from and where i worked in retail)? We had very few such claims, and all of them were either because of a defective product or one that wouldn't do it's intended job (mainly here loudspeakers for cars that wouldn't fit into the place they were meant to be for).

And we can't sell it because it's used? <deleted> again. If it doesn't fit in first place, it's not "used" and can be re-sold without problem. If it's defective of course it's not being sold again but being sent back to the distributor who in turn reimburses OUR money (speaking of "us" as "the shop i worked in").

And that business is the ONLY way to keep a customer happy!

I have to agree (while stopping short of calling it total b*ll**s ), that I also question Reimar's view - as quoted. My experience in the UK has been that there are numerous examples where a seller/provider puts customer service first - not just because they're "nice" people but because it's good business to do so........ repeat business from the customer and potentially recommended business from his/her contacts. A good example of that seems to be the US Newegg online store; from online user forum comments, I see recommendations for their pricing, value and straight-dealing over and over. It generally occurs more readily when there is a design/consultancy element - e.g. when I had a power-horse computer built for me by Scan in the UK a few years back. I got very good input from them which allowed me to modify and improve my draft spec for the machine. If I were still in the UK now, I would be back to them like a shot for upgrades and replacements - never mind that I might save a bit here and there by shopping around the "box-shifters". But, those examples are in a mature market and sad to say - both legally and culturally - the Thai market is best regarded as very immature. My general experience in LOS has shown me over and over that short-termism is all but endemic here - i.e. make the sale (shift the box) today and get the money - today. There is rarely (if ever) any thought given to keeping the customer happy (and thereby trying to keep the customer) - largely because the seller knows not to expect customer loyalty from the vast majority of customers.......... who'll be round the corner somewhere else next time because they'll "save" a few baht. A glance through just a few threads on this sub-forum will demonstrate that many farang are little better than their Thai counterparts in that respect.......... and I don't think this will change until reputation here matters as much as "face" does.

We should all be for "shopping around" (not least because there are some crazy price disparities out there) but I still believe that good advice and service is worth paying for. I am currently getting quotes from two PC-build shops here in Chiang Mai - having given them my draft spec based on a couple of weeks' online research. I have made it very clear that a] I am looking for input from them b] I am talking to more than one shop and c] that I will go for what looks to be the best value configuration for my purposes (high-end gaming and video-editing with a good element of future-proofing) - as opposed to just the cheapest quote. As it happens, one of those shops previously sold me a 500GB WD GP drive that fried within seconds of my installing it - ruining a 120GB system drive in the process. When I took it back for replacement, I got a string of "buts" (could be a power surge, could be a bad connector, could be PSU not enough - the same PSU that powered 4 drives before! - etc etc). Yes, and could also be alien intervention - but how about an entirely likely explanation.......... the drive was faulty? In fairness to them, they have sent the drive to their Bangkok distributor/service place and we are awaiting the verdict. That limited experience demonstrates to me that there is some truth in what Reimar also said - i.e. that the shop rarely has the discretion let alone the will to take responsibility themselves; like so much else in Thailand, the matter is referred up the chain of bureaucracy for a decision.

You might be surprised that I even considered going back to that shop for what's likely to be a 35-40,000 spend on the new machine - and, sure, I think they were surprised to see me again. But, I do believe in giving people a chance to surprise me pleasantly and I have enough trust in my own judgement to be able to tell whether they are going to be good for me if I choose their spec and quote. Of course, I also know (as do they) that I have at least one other supplier to use if I am less than confident in their proposal.

[jasreeve17]

I agree with Wintermute and others.

What is Reimar talking about? I've seen from other threads that he seems to have a problem with the notions of customer service and consumer power. Wintermute is correctly using his consumer power by alerting others to his poor customer services experience.

Thank you Wintermute, I will be extra cautous when buying from this company.

[onethailand]

I believe HWH is a master dealer for Asus and Creative at the very least. I don't know about the rest of the products.

Reimar may be a bit heavy with his words but he is right about HWH, they are reliable.

I should add that I also used to own a shop and have dealt with HWH and never had any problems at all. I will agree that the customer comes first and that his experience should be a guide - but I also know what happens from the other side of the table and if the OP would consider going to get a full explanation maybe he will learn why the boards couldn't be replaced right away.

I bet it's a simple misunderstanding.

[Richard-BKK]

I have both good and bad experiences with HWHinter, but it is surely nothing to avoid buying from them. It is simple in Thailand, if you buy things in Thailand you have to keep your eyes wide open and ask a 1000 questions.

My "bad" experiences with HWHinter where with a ECS mainboard (cheapy) and a 40GB Western Digital HDD, both products had warranty from A&L (which is the distribution mother company of HWHinter). Repairs for this two products did take about 3 weeks.

But thinking back, I bought the ECS mainboard because it was that much cheaper, and the 40GB HDD with A&L warranty was also cheaper then one from Synnex.

My positive experiences are probably to much to write about, but involves speaker sets, computer cases, mainboards, vga cards, etc.... all very accurate and helpful service.

But still nothing beats the service centers of the 4 larger distributors in Thailand, who have direct service centers in Panthip. Like Synnex, D-com, Ingram, Value and a few more where you bring your defective stuff and get a replacement within 30 minutes.

[JSixpack]

I believe HWH is a master dealer for Asus and Creative at the very least. I don't know about the rest of the products.

Reimar may be a bit heavy with his words but he is right about HWH, they are reliable.

+1 on HWH. Nothing but good experiences; I'd prefer to buy there if possible. There's a reason HWH has grown exponentially while other shops have folded.

[monty]

Not wanting to sound too defending (not specifically HWHinter, but all IT hardware shops), but you do have to look at it from their side as well.

It's generally known their profit margins are not that big, and I can fully understand their reluctance to do a money back guarantee or an immediate exchange in case of defects when they are not 100 % sure the item will get replaced by the distributor.

If they happen to make one replacement and the distributor denies the guarantee claim, depending on the price of the item (e.g. expensive VGA card) they will probably have wiped out several days worth of profit!

Hence, they pretty much always will guarantee immediately on PC's they assembled themselves, but not on separate items sold to be installed by the buyer.

As an example, a friend of mine bought a mainboard (his first DIY project), managed to improperly insert the ram sticks and that way the memory controllers got burned, visually not detectable so the shop did replace the mainboard. The shop will definitely have lost the claim with the distributor as improper installation was the cause of the fault!

Same with dead out of the box hard drives, how does the shop have any guarantee that the buyer did not install wrongly and thus killed the drive.

Remember, the customer protection laws for example in Germany protect a dealer from their distributors just as much as the end customer is protected from the dealer.

Thus, in Thailand where the dealer (shop) is not protected against unfair practices from their distributors, they themselves cannot be expected to cover for the customers at their own expense. The profit margins are simply not there to cover for such expenses!

To close my ramblings, it would be quite useless to drop a certain shop with which you had a bad experience, since pretty much each and every other shop will act in the same defensive ways!

[RKASA]

My understanding of the exchange or repair policy is the fact the retailer cannot debit out vat refunds there fore no refunds anywhere that I have ever seen in Thailand.  If it was allowed every business in Thailand would show 75% of sale resulted in refunds on the books.  Saves a load of tax.  In my short business days in the states sales tax could be refunded as well that makes a refund policy workable.  I am sure that a repair of exchange would be subject to many possable reasons for delay.

[JakeBKK]

May you should think about something before you post such comments.

Hardware House Inter. is one of the biggest Retailer for computer in Thailand. Shops at many big retailers not allowed to exchange products within Warranty. Claims has to be done via the Service Center and the customer has to wait for the replacement and/or repair if he want to use an Retail shop. If the customer goes directly to the Service Center, it's a different "game" and mainly they just exchange the product and the customer can get the new one right away.

Normally the staff in the shops will point you directly to the Service Center. But we're all imperfect humans, incl. you and so may they forget to point you there.

You also have the choice for to contact the CEO of that Company. His name is Simon Lee and as Singaporean Chinese he speaks very english.

And you claim that you're in Computer business as well so you should know the procedures here in Thailand. On the other hand you also know how difficult it is for a huge company to handle not the claims only but the staff as well. It's also quite difficult to keep track if there isn't a very clear way how to handle such things as Warranty Claims.

If I were you, I had contacted the management for an explanation to first.

Cheers.

dam_n, you hit the nail on the head! congrats ! i deal for the last couple of years with a very limited amount of suppliers (besides there are even cheaper than HH) and you mostly get 1:1 on the spot!

we supply acer warranty repairs in pattaya directly to the service center in si ratcha and 98 % are back within 7 days *g* i don't understand why some one wait 4 weeks to do the same only because he saves 500 THB on the purchase.

*FG* cheap - than we recommend customers always to TESCO there you get SVOA gear without an OS (BUT TESCO IS HONEST! THEY DON'T WRITE THERE IS OS XXXXXX IN THE BOX)

*satiric mode off*

Nice comment, Reimar.

Greetings

Jake

[percy2]

What is Reimar talking about? I've seen from other threads that he seems to have a problem with the notions of customer service and consumer power. Wintermute is correctly using his consumer power by alerting others to his poor customer services experience.

I agree with this ,but must say I have had nothing but good experiences with HWH.

Cheers

[Guest Reimar]

I agree with Wintermute and others.

What is Reimar talking about? I've seen from other threads that he seems to have a problem with the notions of customer service and consumer power. Wintermute is correctly using his consumer power by alerting others to his poor customer services experience.

Thank you Wintermute, I will be extra cautous when buying from this company.

May you've read something wrong?! Problems I had in the past was with small shops only but I mainly use not Retailer but Wholesaler for several reasons. I also use HWInter as wholesaler. But the main problems I had wasn't because of Hardware but of services from Service Companies. And that is something which lacks in Thailand as most of us know.

But if you like to count how many of the posters having problems with HWInter, you have to see it's just two persons and the main one is: YOU the OP!

But if someone is in this business, who will deal with the Wholesalers and not the Retailers. Except for sure, if you didn't run a legal company and don't want to pay TAX!

And as I wrote somewhere before: All things having minimum 2 sides and the OP is just showing his side! What is with the other sides? May you post your Claim Details here incl. the nmaes from that people you was dealing with and I will just find out and post here what's the truth!

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

A Money Back Warranty didn't exist in Thailand and that is good so. No one will be able to exist in such businiess here if a Warranty like that would be in place because you would have to deal more of the half of your time with Claims like that! Like Thanh worte, buy something which didn't suit the need, give it back. In that way, every one would buy many things even if don't need because you can give it back and get back your money!! And the seller can't sell it again because is used already!! What a business!!!!

Now that's <deleted>.

Everyone would buy many things they don't need..... may i ask you why they don't do that where such warranty is in place (as required by the law, such as in Germany where i happen to be from and where i worked in retail)? We had very few such claims, and all of them were either because of a defective product or one that wouldn't do it's intended job (mainly here loudspeakers for cars that wouldn't fit into the place they were meant to be for).

And we can't sell it because it's used? <deleted> again. If it doesn't fit in first place, it's not "used" and can be re-sold without problem. If it's defective of course it's not being sold again but being sent back to the distributor who in turn reimburses OUR money (speaking of "us" as "the shop i worked in").

And that business is the ONLY way to keep a customer happy!

Because if you buy something only to find out it's damaged out of the box or can't be used for what it was intended for, and then you get nothing but a stupid excuse, you are pissed - and rightly so, and of course you won't buy there ever again. And you are similarly pissed if you need the product TODAY (which is the reason you bought it TODAY, no?) and it doesn't work/fit/whatever and they keep you waiting for weeks, costing YOU money for non-productivity. At least, in case of defective product, an on-the-spot swap for a working one should be the norm (as apparently is in many places, see posts here, just that i have not been that lucky yet...) and in case of a non-fitting product (too large/small loudspeakers, mainboard that doesn't work with the available drives etc) at least a swap for a different model that does the job should be granted - of course the customer will need to pay any price difference or, if the "one that does the job" is cheaper, the shop should pay back the difference! After all the shop can sell the original one to the next customer who needs such small/large loudspeakers or a mainboard that accepts only one DVD drive.

I ended up with a mainboard that was completely useless for me and i had to sell it "second hand" (four hours old, 10 minutes used) at about half the price. In the same go i had to sell a graphics card, also brand new and 10 minutes used (on that same board which had AGP slot) because the shop would not take it back or swap it for a PCI-Express model because the mainboard i ended up buying had such slot, at over 1.000 Baht loss. Needless to say that THAT shop won't get any business from me ever again, and i buy LOTS of computer parts at Panthip.

I had my best experiences in regards to "warranty" in fact with a number of second-hand dealers at Panthip - i bought something, it didn't work, i gave it back - no questions asked, i either got another one (once a mainboard, once a HDD, twice a CPU) or money back (again twice for CPU's where no equivalent model was available for a swap) and RAM (bought wrong, 16-chip which wasn't supported by mainboard and no 8-chip available).

Since this "Hardware House" seems to have rather good policies, where exactly in Panthip can i find them? Do they stock the following:

- ASUS mainboards

- AMD CPU's

- KINGSTON memory products

- ENERMAX PSU's

- WESTERN DIGITAL hard drives

- ATI graphic cards (regardless what manufacturer as long as it's ATI chipsets)

- LITE-ON optical drives

- LOGITECH peripherals (mouses, keyboards)

- GENUINE (!!) Microsoft operating systems (XP OEM, Vista OEM and FULL)

Because those are the components a computer "Made By Thanh" is made of.

With best regards.....

Thanh

Thanh,

if you like to use HWInter as Supplier, you should use the Wholesale Channel.

They use to have all the products you listed and for some they're even the Master Dealer for Thailand.

May I think to much in an asian way but i live here and I have to deal with the local situation here and not Europe. And I think that you can't compare Europe with Asia and if you do, you will be wrong most of the time.

May the situation in Germany is as you wrote, I don't know. Because I wasn't in Germany the last 28 Years and there for sure some changes. But on the other hand I've german friend which living in Germany and they told a bit different than you.

Anyway, I don't mind about and let it be as it is, I still have to deal with local situation here. Period!

Cheers.

[jasreeve17]

I agree with Wintermute and others.

What is Reimar talking about? I've seen from other threads that he seems to have a problem with the notions of customer service and consumer power. Wintermute is correctly using his consumer power by alerting others to his poor customer services experience.

Thank you Wintermute, I will be extra cautous when buying from this company.

May you've read something wrong?! Problems I had in the past was with small shops only but I mainly use not Retailer but Wholesaler for several reasons. I also use HWInter as wholesaler. But the main problems I had wasn't because of Hardware but of services from Service Companies. And that is something which lacks in Thailand as most of us know.

But if you like to count how many of the posters having problems with HWInter, you have to see it's just two persons and the main one is: YOU the OP!

But if someone is in this business, who will deal with the Wholesalers and not the Retailers. Except for sure, if you didn't run a legal company and don't want to pay TAX!

And as I wrote somewhere before: All things having minimum 2 sides and the OP is just showing his side! What is with the other sides? May you post your Claim Details here incl. the nmaes from that people you was dealing with and I will just find out and post here what's the truth!

Cheers.

Reimar,

You have some interesting thoughts and valueable insights, but your manner rather distroys your credability. If you used less CAPITALS, exclaimation marks!!! and insults then your experience would be accepted more readily.

[Guest Reimar]

I agree with Wintermute and others.

What is Reimar talking about? I've seen from other threads that he seems to have a problem with the notions of customer service and consumer power. Wintermute is correctly using his consumer power by alerting others to his poor customer services experience.

Thank you Wintermute, I will be extra cautous when buying from this company.

May you've read something wrong?! Problems I had in the past was with small shops only but I mainly use not Retailer but Wholesaler for several reasons. I also use HWInter as wholesaler. But the main problems I had wasn't because of Hardware but of services from Service Companies. And that is something which lacks in Thailand as most of us know.

But if you like to count how many of the posters having problems with HWInter, you have to see it's just two persons and the main one is: YOU the OP!

But if someone is in this business, who will deal with the Wholesalers and not the Retailers. Except for sure, if you didn't run a legal company and don't want to pay TAX!

And as I wrote somewhere before: All things having minimum 2 sides and the OP is just showing his side! What is with the other sides? May you post your Claim Details here incl. the nmaes from that people you was dealing with and I will just find out and post here what's the truth!

Cheers.

Reimar,

You have some interesting thoughts and valueable insights, but your manner rather distroys your credability. If you used less CAPITALS, exclaimation marks!!! and insults then your experience would be accepted more readily.

I find it a bit, let say funny, that you guys take the right to talk not "straight" away but "around" and complaining if someone is talking just straight away.

And you just take the right to tell that I don't know what I wrote in the past! Thanks for that!

By the way the CAPITALS in my post was done to be asure that everyone understand that I was meaning the Person who was open this treath. And you had second his speech without to know that the infos he was posting are the truth. Even you, special if you want to take something over, should clarify that, what was publish ist the truth and nothing else. And for to be sure about that, you need to listen to both side. If you take the other post here for to measure, you will esy come to the result, that there must be something wrong in the speech of the OP.

By the way, if I would like to critisize someone personal, as you have done in this post, I would do this personal and not public. Whit your comment you came near to some border. If you want to tell me more like that, please do it by PM.

Cheers.

[percy2]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...=caps++shouting

Cheers

[klikster]

Everyone has his way of doing things. But if the business of a friend of mine was being publicly criticized for poor service, I would let the owner know .. rather than attacking the credibility of the complainer. Up to you.