Watercool.de customer service issues

[dejanh]

Well, after receiving my HeatKiller Rev3.0 CU and finding out that I am missing a distributor plate which should have shipped with it and that some of the HEX screws on the bottom are partially stripped I decided to give a shout to Watercool in hope I can get these parts shipped out to me...anyway, to say that it has been an experience so far is an understatement...

Sure they answer their emails after about three days but man...

1. English is very bad.
2. Very slow to respond always (at least 1 day between replies generally, and not because of time difference).
3. They try to weasel out of delivery responsibilities for missing parts in my case saying this (distributor plate) is not delivered as part of LGA1366 package even though their own site clearly states that it is...as do their resellers. They did not even address the problem of the screws being stripped. Eventually they caved in and said ok, they can send it, but get this...I pay for delivery and I have to wire them the money up front.

Apparently, the only payment option that they accept is a direct bank to bank wire transfer and nothing else, no PayPal, no credit card, no bank draft, nothing. Only wire transfer. They want me to pay $45 to do a wire transfer so that I can then also pay them 10 euro for delivery of 6 screws and a part that I should have gotten with my package? What the ?

Completely retarded...good blocks, terrible service.

[hellcamino]

I would send that crap back to wherever I got it from and get a replacement from them or a refund. Who did you buy it from?

[Darth_Penguin]

This is where the reseller you bought the block from should step up and replace your block and damage out the original and send it back to Watercool.

[Boyu]

i think dejanh is buying direct from watercool.

[Scubar]

Send it back get a FULL refund and take your business elsewhere. Very easy really.

[dejanh]

Unfortunately a refund is simply not going to happen. The block was bought from PPC but got to me through a friend of mine over in TO (better option than ordering direct). He's in touch with them now to at least see why the distributor plate is missing though I doubt it will be fruitful. I saved money on one side but looks like I lose out on the other. Shipping this back to Watercool requires them to own up first that there is (a) missing parts, and (b) screws should not be stripped. Otherwise, no dice. I refuse to pay for shipping this back to Watercool or worse yet cover the shipping of it back to me here. It costs 40 euro minimum just to get it across the pond (I think 65 euro for the HK because of the weight) not to mention that the payment again would have to be direct wire transfer.

I have to find a way to ensure the stripped screws do not get completely stripped (any ideas?) and maybe I can cut the distributor plate myself. Darth, what are the exact dimensions of the distributor plate (LxWxH)?

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

why not just buy new screws from a local site? (mcmaster if that works from canada) I am sure they are a standard metric screw and probably very common.

[dejanh]

why not just buy new screws from a local site? (mcmaster if that works from canada) I am sure they are a standard metric screw and probably very common.

I don't think these are very common but I am actually going down to the local hardware shop today to see if they have matching screws

Really, if I can get these replaced the distributor plate is more less...assuming somebody can give me dimension for it I should be able to make one myself.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

well if you dont find the screws measure them up and well see what we can do to either find an online source in canada or get them to you from the us

[dejanh]

well if you dont find the screws measure them up and well see what we can do to either find an online source in canada or get them to you from the us

Alright, I'll let you know what my hardware shop search nets

[NaeKuh]

wow..

contact hank @ PPC.

let him know of the F-UP and if he can get you your missing parts.

Dude... when vendors you around like this, i dont care how much better the block is, Your much better with the higher quality in tech support for the 1-2C difference u get on the performance table.

Lets see how they handle there other customers who get bad blocks that dont fit GPU's now.

BTW its normally not the vendors fault for a board revision on your GPU. If the company offers to do a RMA because of a board revision, thats just the vendor being more consumer friendly.

ie. EK has been doing it lately. and Koolance also does. Big applause to those 2 companies.

[dejanh]

wow..

contact hank @ PPC.

let him know of the F-UP and if he can get you your missing parts.

Dude... when vendors you around like this, i dont care how much better the block is, Your much better with the higher quality in tech support for the 1-2C difference u get on the performance table.

Lets see how they handle there other customers who get bad blocks that dont fit GPU's now.

BTW its normally not the vendors fault for a board revision on your GPU. If the company offers to do a RMA because of a board revision, thats just the vendor being more consumer friendly.

ie. EK has been doing it lately. and Koolance also does. Big applause to those 2 companies.

QFT. We all sometimes forget how much good, established CS means when you buy a product. I do not want to get Hank involved atm, though if I really cannot solve this on my own I will. I just do not feel like it is PPCs responsibility at this point to deal with this. Watercool should take the responsibility.

Anyway, it was brought to my attention that direct wire is free in Germany which is great if I was actually in Germany

Since they sell international they really ought to have a system in place to handle this kind of stuff without requiring direct wire. If it costs $45 to wire from here imagine how much it would be if it was some other country, like Japan, or China, or something. I was giving an example to this other guy if say the block arrived with a damaged o-ring or worse the actual copper was damaged...it would cost me no less than $100 to get the replacement from Watercool which is just not cool (no pun intended).

I emailed them to ask if they would accept a PayPal EMT maybe...

I'm off to the hardware shop now to look at screws.

[scamps]

I never had any problems with bying and support at Watercool and never heard about serious problems of others before. So I guess it is a bad exception from normality in dealing with Watercool directly.

[dejanh]

I never had any problems with bying and support at Watercool and never heard about serious problems of others before. So I guess it is a bad exception from normality in dealing with Watercool directly.

You're in Germany. I would not have any problem either if I was in Germany other than excessively slow response. In fact, if I was there I probably would have phoned them though English is definitely not their strong side. The problem not being in Germany is that wire transfers are not free and the only option that they offer to get a replacement is to pay them and not just that but to wire them the money upfront. That would make the 6 screws and one (originally missing) distribution plate cost 2/3 of how much I paid for the whole block. This is all on top of the fact the block came like this.

By the way, I did not get to the hardware store today. Too busy

I'm exploring another option too, to get somebody to wire them the money for free locally and then to reimburse that person via PayPal or something but have Watercool ship me the stuff.

[Darth_Penguin]

I dont get why you would rather deal with the hassle of finding someone to be your middle man than just talking to PPC's since they sold it. I know you think its Watercools problem and they should make it right but at the same time PPC's sold you/your friend a damaged product. seems pretty cut and dry to me

[rambler358]

With all that hoopla you have to go through, it might just be cheaper (and quicker) buying a new block.

[headala]

The inside/outside of Germany difference in customer service is interesting. I remember a few years ago some folks saw a similar issue with another German watercooling company; if you were inside Germany then they would stop at nothing to help but if you were outside Germany (esp. USA) they didn't give a rat's a$$ about your issues or opinion of their CS. It's too bad, as some of the most beautiful WC'ing stuff I've seen to date came out of Germany!

[zeroibis]

I just tried looking around there site and gave up after a few seconds, they must have used some 5th grade school kid to make that thing. Or some one who sleeps in iframes at night and has never heard of php. With the way that coding is I can only imagine the slippery slope of customer service but then again for what ever reason good websites and watercooling companies do not often seem to go hand in hand strangely.

[dejanh]

I dont get why you would rather deal with the hassle of finding someone to be your middle man than just talking to PPC's since they sold it. I know you think its Watercools problem and they should make it right but at the same time PPC's sold you/your friend a damaged product. seems pretty cut and dry to me

My friend is already talking to PPC. We'll see what they say, if anything. He said he'll let me know when he hears back from them.

The inside/outside of Germany difference in customer service is interesting. I remember a few years ago some folks saw a similar issue with another German watercooling company; if you were inside Germany then they would stop at nothing to help but if you were outside Germany (esp. USA) they didn't give a rat's a$$ about your issues or opinion of their CS. It's too bad, as some of the most beautiful WC'ing stuff I've seen to date came out of Germany!

I think they companies like that have a false perception of who their main customer base is...I'm pretty sure it's not in Germany.

I just tried looking around there site and gave up after a few seconds, they must have used some 5th grade school kid to make that thing. Or some one who sleeps in iframes at night and has never heard of php. With the way that coding is I can only imagine the slippery slope of customer service but then again for what ever reason good websites and watercooling companies do not often seem to go hand in hand strangely.

I wanted to try and see if they have the ability to charge credit cards when you buy through their site so I was following the purchase process and when I hit submit, instead of payment it sent me an order confirmation asking for payment via wire transfer

Good thing I decided to select the "pay in advance" option otherwise I would be in even deeper right now because if I selected the second option they would have shipped the junk product I was using as trial and asked for payment on delivery. Good god!

[jcool]

Small wonder. Watercool is little more than a small rat-shop operated by some of the slowest people I ever knew
It usually takes them ages to ship stuff, and I buy larger quantities regularly and am located in Germany
Still takes me 3-5 tries to get anyone on the phone lol.

[Eddie3dfx]

I'd have performance take care of this because they are a main watercool.de distributor. In terms of replying to emails promptly or speaking English, that is not something that you can really complain about. The issue really is that they won't send you a free plate.
Hank needs and should take care of this. That is really the problem with watercooling. You are essentially at the mercy of the vendors because it's such a small hobby. If there were many companies that produces blocks similar to the hk heatkiller, they would be kissing your as* for service.
Thats one reason I think Gabe and Eddy are standup guys. They come on here.. take blame when needed and always will assist in everything whether it's a small screw, or a rubber o-ring that snapped.
Eddy is in slovenia that has more expensive shipping costs than germany. There is no reason something like that should cost anywhere near $40.

[bluehaze]

That's wierd that it's stripped and missing the distributor plate. That would seem to mean it's been used... I would contact PPC to see what the deal is maybe they sold you a block that was RMA'd to them or something? I know Watercool is kind of useless as far as any kind of support goes. The sheet that came with my HK 295 said to go on thier website for instructions on installing the block so you go on thier website and theres no instructions to be found, there was a message in thier forums saying they had been posted back couple months ago but no link to it. Looked through the site for like an hour (Not easy when everything is in German) and gave up. Good thing installing water blocks is not rocket science :p


Anyway hope everything works out for you man, if it helps, if your using it with your i7 you don't need the distributor plate your supposed to take it out if there is one in there before installing when using it for core i7.

[cx-ray]

Yeah, it's standard practice in the EU to have to pay for shipping back when the vendor makes a mistake. It's happened to me twice now with two German shops.

As for service, often manufacturers in the EU don't deal with customers directly. They prefer or require you to go through the retail outlet you bought your items from. That's one of the reasons I try to buy most of my stuff from EK. Eddy is great and all the info you get is directly from the source. He also answers all his email promptly. With Watercool.de you have to phone them 4-5 times in a week before they even pick up.

[scamps]

... just talking to PPC's since they sold it...

The inside/outside of Germany difference in customer service is interesting ... It's too bad, as some of the most beautiful WC'ing stuff I've seen to date came out of Germany!

... I think they companies like that have a false perception of who their main customer base is...I'm pretty sure it's not in Germany...

What I do not understand: You are absolutely right in complain about missing plate and partially stripped screws. But out of own experience I have to notice: The right person to deal with in this matter is the shop where you bought it, not Watercool directly. Are you able to exclude, that you have got an already used block?

What is more: Watercool like many other producers of liquid stuff decided to sell their stuff with the help of resellers worlwide. They won´t do that if there would be no reason for it, because they will give up a part of their margin for it. Perhaps one of the main reasons are the lack of language skills or enough time for service purposes. I would not understand it as done in bad faith.

If we all want to strengthen the position of the producers and not the position of the resellers (see "AT-GATE" !!!) we should be able to accept this.

[dejanh]

You would not believe how hard it is to find countersunk M3x8 screws around here. Only place I found it so far locally is a hobby shop selling spare parts for RC models. Anyway, they only seem to have self-tapping countersunk M3x8 screws where as HeatKiller uses machined countersunk M3x8 screws. Technically former should work just as well despite being self-tapping considering that the dimensions and specifications are the same, correct? I can always snip off the pointy tip with a dremel if it gets in the way or would the self-tapping screw damage the threads meant for a machined screw...

Locally they are very cheap...I can get 10 black self-tapping countersunk M3x8 screws for $2.50 CAD. As a bonus, the black would be very sleak with my nickle plated block...I am just not 100% sure about self-tapping vs. machined, though for $2.50 I can probably take a gamble and see if they fit anyway. I'll call the place tomorrow morning.