“I ordered a Karcher K5 pressure washer from Passiontec.co.uk because it was cheaper than anywhere in the UK (including delivery) and the reviews I read were generally good. This was a mistake. My first error was in the buying of the item. I tried to do through the Paypal link but every time I got to the end of the process it had changed my address to Germany not the UK. To ensure that I got it to the right address I did an international bank transfer (it had been some time since I had done one and I confess I didn't realise that it would cost me £25 for the privilege which negated my cost saving). Eventually the payment went through and the item was delivered.
This is where the problems began. The machine had obviously been used as it was full of water and had significant damage to the pressure line and the carcass. The company had sent me an email from the customer services department asking if I was happy with the product. Obviously I wasn't and sent and email back with the details and a couple of photographs. Kirsten Fischer(the lady I have the misfortune of dealing with) then decided to reply to my email in German which I did my best to translate using Google Translate and another program. The gist was I should send it back if I wasn't happy at my own expense and denying that there could have been any prior damage or use and inferring that I must have done it myself. Well I know I didn't do it because as it was delayed I ended up having to go offshore before it arrived and asked my wife to open the box and have a look at it when it arrived.
I sent the Kirsten an email asking for clarification and a quote from the Consumer Rights Act explaining that it was incumbent on Passiontec to pay for the item to be collected not the poor sod who had the damaged goods delivered to them to pay for it's return. Once she started to correspond in English again she also mention a possibility to take it to a 'workshop'. I have asked what this actually means repeatedly but all I get back is the same message "You have the possibility to bring the article to a workshop near you or to send the article to us. If you would like to send the article to us, we kindly ask you to frank the goods adequately and to pack them safely." which is a bit of a joke. So that's where I am at the moment trying to get to speak to someone else but basically banging my head off a brick wall and, apart from the underlying inference that I'm not telling the truth, faced with a considerable bill to send a 25kg machine back to Germany. Not great - recommend this company? I don't think so.”
